Marie-Louise-Félicité Angers (9 January 1845 – 6 June 1924), better known by her pen name Laure Conan, was a French Canadian writer and journalist. She is regarded as one of the first French-Canadian female novelists and the writer of the first French Canadian psychological novel.
She was born in La Malbaie, Quebec, and educated by the Ursulines in Quebec City. She returned to La Malbaie and dated Pierre-Alexis Tremblay, but their relationship ended; critics ascribe the end of this relationship as the reason why Conan's writings include themes of isolation. Her first publication was "Un amour vrai" in the Revue de Montréal, a short story. For this publication, she chose the Laure Conan alias, named for Conan III, Duke of Brittany. She published Angéline de Montbrun in segments from 1881 to 1882 and as a complete novel in 1884, considered the first French Canadian psychological novel. She published À l'œuvre et à l'épreuve about the early years of Monteral in 1900, which won the Montyon Prize in 1903. Conan then focused on writing historical biographies, mostly concerning religious figures. She published 195 biographies in various Quebec periodicals. She returned to intimism fictional works and published L'obscure souffrance in 1915. She died in Quebec City, Quebec, from heart failure following surgery to treat ovarian cancer, and was buried next to Tremblay.
Conan's writings explore themes of family, nation, and religion. She often creates allegories to the French-Canadian conflict of identity caused by the British conquest of New France and the deterioration of French-Canadian culture. Her writing often quoted other literature including fiction, the Bible and poems.
Early life and education
Conan was born in La Malbaie, Quebec, on 9 January 1845. Her father was Élie Angers, a blacksmith, and Marie Perron. Her parents had twelve children, but only six survived into adulthood. Her family operated a general store and the post office in La Malbaie. Conan received higher education with the Ursulines of Quebec in Quebec City from 1859 to 1862, where she learned English and German. She received recognition from the convent for her writing skills and was one of five students accepted into a higher class level for writing. Her work was published in the cahier d'honneur of Papillon Littéraire.
Return to La Malbaie
After completing her education in 1862, Conan returned to La Malbaie. She dated Pierre-Alexis Tremblay for a couple of years, but the relationship ended sometime between 1867 and 1870, the year in which Pierre-Alexis married Mary Ellen Connolly. Some researchers ascribe Tremblay's vow of chastity as the reason why the relationship ended. In March 1871, Conan had a vision of receiving absolution after the blood of Jesus was applied to her.
In 1877, Conan went to Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood and met two women to whom she would frequently write letters. In 1879, her brother arranged meetings of writers in La Malbaie, of which Conan would attend.
Publishing career
In 1878, Conan published a short story called "Un amour vrai" in the Revue de Montréal. She chose the pen name Laure Conan after Conan III, Duke of Brittany, whom she read about in Zénaïde Fleuriot's novels. The Revue canadienne (Montreal) published Angéline de Montbrun from June 1881 to August 1882, the first of 38 pieces of writing the periodical would publish between 1881 and 1919. The success of Angéline de Montbrun caused her to want to publish this as a novel and sought out Henri-Raymond Casgrain as her patron. Casgrain promoted Angéline de Montbrun in the Quebec newspaper Le Courrier du Canada, convinced Léger Brosseau to publish the book, wrote the preface to the book, and convinced colleagues to write reviews for the book. Conan refused Casgrain's offer to publish her real name in the preface, stating that she did not want the two names to be associated with each other. This caused a rift between the two and they ceased communication until shortly before Casgrain's death.
Conan went to Europe in 1884 to visit various French writers. Critics of intimism literature were encouraged to reveal the identities of authors writing under pseudonyms, so Conan decided to write other types of fiction and sought out new publishers of her work. In 1886 she published a play called Si les Canadiennes le voulaient!. Her novel, À l'œuvre et à l'épreuve, was published in Quebec in 1891 and in Paris two years later. The novel was cited in Conan being awarded the Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 1898.