Adrienne Maillet
Adrienne Maillet was a Canadian writer born in Montreal in 1885, whose literary career began later in life due to family responsibilities. The daughter of an attorney, she initially pursued a teaching career, attending various schools but had to withdraw from her studies. Maillet worked in her brother's dental office before joining the postal service, where she spent twenty years. During this time, she began writing comic sketches for nuns and had seven light comedies performed in Montreal's theaters. After retiring in 1937, she traveled extensively and produced eight novels and a collection of short stories. Her work often tackled social issues, including class prejudice and male chauvinism, although critics have noted that her writing can be melodramatic and overly sentimental. Despite criticism, she garnered a loyal readership, particularly among Roman Catholics, who valued her moral perspectives and depictions of middle-class women's lives in Montreal. Maillet passed away in 1963, leaving behind a diverse literary legacy.
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Subject Terms
Adrienne Maillet
- Born: December 10, 1885
- Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Died: September 22, 1963
- Place of death:
Biography
Marie-Augustine-Adrienne Maillet, born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1885, got a late start as a writer. The daughter of an attorney, Ludger Maillet, and his wife, Sarah Larose Maillet, her literary development was disrupted by family demands.
In her childhood, Maillet attended the Académie Saint- Léon in Montreal. She later was enrolled in the Slade School in Fall River, Massachusetts, and after a short time there, she moved to the Mont Sainte-Marie Convent School in Montreal. Maillet intended to become a teacher and entered Montreal’s École Normale, where she studied for four years. She was forced to withdraw before she completed her studies, however, because of family obligations. In 1910, she left home to work in her brother’s dental office, where she remained until 1917, when she joined the postal service, with which she had a twenty-year career.
During her service with the postal department, Maillet lived in a Franciscan convent in Montreal, where she began writing comic sketches for the teaching nuns to use in their classes. Besides these sketches, she wrote seven light comedies that were performed around Montreal, even making it to the Saint-Suplice and the Monument National theaters there. On rare occasions, Maillet would herself perform in such dramas as Edmond Rostand’s L’Aiglon (pb., pr. 1900).
It was not until she retired from the postal service in 1937 that Maillet began to strike out in new directions. She traveled, taking trips to Egypt, Greece, and Spain. She also started doing some serious writing, producing eight novels and a collection of six short stories before her death in 1963. In addition, she wrote and published biographies of two quite ordinary women, Michelle Rôbal and Rachel Merode, whose sole distinction was their outstanding morality.
Although critics generally have not dealt kindly with Maillet’s work, one cannot overlook some of the social issues with which she was vitally concerned. She denounced class prejudice and bigotry and attacked the male chauvinism which women of her time faced in a male-dominated, paternalistic society. She is at her best when she is in the attack mode. However, much of her work is melodramatic and overly sentimental.
The critics complained that her encomiums glorifying Roman Catholicism robbed her writing of intelligent objectivity. Technically, Maillet’s novels suffer from the facile short cuts she takes in developing them. She depends upon improbable coincidences, chance meetings, and the easy resolution of problems that demand more complex solutions than she offers her readers.
Despite these critical limitations, Maillet had a devoted following of readers among Roman Catholics, who appreciated the moral stands that she took in her writing. In many instances, she portrayed well the home life and the workplaces of Montreal’s middle-class and professional women.