One of Canada's major twentieth-century writers, Anne Hébert has followed a markedly original path in her work. The author of two of the masterpieces of modern Canadian writing, the cycle of poems entitled Le Tombeau des rois (first published in...

In Les Chambres de bois, Anne Hébert tells a simple story with few characters, little action, an uncomplicated plot…. Anne Hébert's language is sparse and precise, dépouillé. Time and space are anonymous, and are, in fact, internalized; the real time and space of the novel exist within the characters, within their dreams, within the confined world created by Michel and Lia in their chambres de bois. The tone of this novel, its symbolic language, its deceptive simpli...

Anne Hébert's story, Le Torrent, and its relation to the rest of French-Canadian literature takes on the same significance as does the relation between an ancient House and its coat of arms. It can be argued that the story is a zenith point within the tradition to which it belongs. (p. 9) Le Torrent is most accessible through its superficial meaning, through its theme of conflict. It has been stated above that the story is emblematic; as such, it represents the duality that has always characte...

Kamouraska is especially suited to begin an analysis of twentieth-century gothic fiction in Canada, since in form and content it provides the reader with a double perspective, a Janus-like look both towards past and present types of gothicism. Looking one way we can see it as a continuation of the traditional black romance, with many of the gothic features and motifs of its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century predecessors. Looking another way we see it has characteristics which are undeniably contemporary an...