L'Imprimé au Québec: aspects historiques (18e–20e siècles), and: Aspects de la civilisation canadienne-française by Yvan Lamonde (review)

HUMANITIES 475 catalogage. Louons done I'auteur d'avoir tente, ala fin, une integration des niveaux. Mais celle-ci elit paru plus probante, plus respectueuse du recit, si elle avait epouse Ie deroulement de celui-ci. Car integrer les niveaux ne consiste pas seulement a les superposer; il s'agit plutot, pour reprendre les expressions de Jean Rousset, de degager des raccords, des reseaux de convergences, des lignes de force. Celie integration sera done d'autant plus reussie qu'elle montrera, dans Ie texte meme, des zones de densite qui sont susceptibles de varier entre Ie debut et la fin du recit. Peut-etre cette impression d'inacheve provient-elle de ce que Piette, trop pres des figures, ne peut saluer qu'a distance L'Incubation? L'exegese a ses merites, qui sont en meme temps ses limites. (PIERRE HEBERT) L'lmprime au Quebec: aspects historiques (18c-20esiecles), saus la direction d'Yvan Lamonde. Institut quebecois de recherche sur la culture, coll 'Culture savante: no 2. 368. $18.00 Aspects de ia civilisation canadienne-fran~aise, textes reunis par Pierre Savard. Editions de l'Universite d'Ottawa, coll 'Cahiers du Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-fram.;aise: no 2 2 . xi, 341 L'Imprime au Quebec: aspects historiques (18'-20' si,des) is an important collection both for the originality of its subject matter and for the quality of its articles. Serious bibliographical study did not begin in Quebec until the 1960s and the history of printing, publishing, and libraries is only now being explored, thanks to the efforts of the Groupe de recherche en histoire de I'imprime au Quebec (GRHIQ) and the institut quebecois de recherche sur la culture (IQRC), who jointly sponsored a 1981 workshop on the question. The papers collected in this volume thus present the current state of Quebec research in a completely new field of investigation . Yvan Lamonde, director of the Centre for French-Canadian Studies at McGill University and one of the leading researchers in the new discipline, introduces the volume with a concise summary and bibliography (pp 18-24) of recent studies in three areas: public libraries, private libraries, and the history of printing. Allan Greer summarizes the present state of studies on literacy in Quebec: illiteracy was widespread in Quebec until the middle of the nineteenth century, but since that time literacy has progressed there more rapidly than in England or France. Vivian Labrie questions the naIve assumption that popular culture is oral whereas 'serious' culture is based on printing, and asserts their interrelatedness. The history and sociology of printing and publishing in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Quebec are reviewed in two extensively docu- mented articles by John Hare and Jean-Pierre Wallot, and by Claude Galarneau; the former provide (pp 107-22) a useful preliminary listing of Quebec printers active between 1764 and 1820. Yvan Morin illustrates the value and the limitations of notarial inventories after death as a source of information about private library collections in the period 1800-19. The reconstruction of the personal library of Louis-Joseph Papineau is described by Roger Le Moine, who published the catalogue of the collectionin '982. Marcel Lajeunesse outlines the slow development from '900 to 1960 of the concept of publicly financed libraries in Quebec. The publishing history of several nineteenth-century Quebec 'classics: as recounted by Maurice Lemire, documents the difficulties confronting early Canadian authors in publishing their books: the tribulations of the historian Fran~ois-Xavier Garneau or of the poet Louis Frechette might also have been cited. The effect of a variety of socioeconomic factors on the publishing and marketing of books in twentieth-century Quebec is sketched by Lucie Robert as an invitation to scholars to investigate the nature of the 'institution' of Quebec literature. Vincent Nadeau tells the story of his efforts to reconstitute the complete collection of almost a thousand instalments of the adventures of 'secret agent IXE-13: and Sylvie Provost reports on three surveys of reader taste and reaction in the '970s. The many series of Quebec government publications are summarized by Gilles Gallichan. Finally, Raymond Vezina reminds us of the multitudinous forms of printed illustrations, from caricatures and postcards to...