Article

Albert Laberge

Published Online December 16, 2007

Last Edited July 24, 2015

Albert Laberge, journalist, author (b at Beauharnois, Qué 18 Feb 1871; d at Montréal 4 Apr 1960). Laberge began school at the Académie Saint-Clément in Beauharnois and later attended Collège Sainte-Marie in Montréal, which he left in 1892. In 1894 he studied law at the École de Leblond de Brumath.

Laberge, Albert

Albert Laberge, journalist, author (b at Beauharnois, Qué 18 Feb 1871; d at Montréal 4 Apr 1960). Laberge began school at the Académie Saint-Clément in Beauharnois and later attended Collège Sainte-Marie in Montréal, which he left in 1892. In 1894 he studied law at the École de Leblond de Brumath. His first poetic tales appeared in Le Samedi (1895). From 1896 to 1932 he worked at La Presse. He helped found the École littéraire de Montréal but did not participate in it until 1909.

La Scouine (1918), a novel of rural customs, established Laberge as a naturalist writer. Besides La Scouine, Laberge published 10 collections of stories, 3 essays and some literary criticism - all at his own expense. His autobiographical novel, Lamento, was unfinished. Laberge tried to describe life as he saw it and placed particular emphasis on the dark side of life. Some of his stories have become classics: "La Femme au chapeau rouge" (1947), "Les Noces d'or" (1950), "La Rouille" (1950), "Le Dernier Souper" (1952) and "Madame Pouliche" (1963).