Louise Maheux-Forcier is among the best-known writers of her generation in Quebec and has been at times among the most controversial. She was born in Montreal in 1929, the daughter of Louis-Alfred Maheux, a banker, and his wife Cécile Giguère Maheux. On completing high school at the Ecole Supérieure Sainte-Croix in 1946, she began advanced studies in music at the Quebec Conservatoire de Musique et d'Art Dramatique, where she remained until 1951. She obtained a teaching certificate at the Académie de Musique du Québec before leaving Canada for Paris in 1952. There, supported by a scholarship from Quebec, she trained under the direction of Yves Nat at the Paris conservatoire and as a pianist, participated in the Concours du Prix d'Europe. On her return to Quebec she studied art history at the University of Montreal, and in 1955 she married Marcel Forcier, an...