File

This file, composed of 33 letters sent by Jérémie Tremblay to Mariette Bergeron, documents the epistolary relationship between the young student and his future wife, from May to December 1952. The first two missives, sent from Jonquière, are spread out over several months (May 5 and August 6, 1952). Jérémie was completing the classical curriculum in Chicoutimi during this period, so the young couple could see each other on Sunday evenings. The pace of the correspondence picked up in September when the young man had to leave his sweetheart to study dental surgery in Montreal.

In his letters, Jérémie Tremblay recounts the activities and meetings that punctuated his life as a student. He shares his impressions of his classes at the Université de Montréal, describing the solemn atmosphere that grips the auditorium when the professor enters the room and the colourful lunchtime crowd that populates the university canteen. He tells Mariette about his colleagues and friends, some of whom are fellow alumni of the Séminaire de Chicoutimi and, at the end of his first semester, he reveals his doubts about his chosen field, which eventually lead him to switch to pharmacy. The correspondence also relates information about the young man's social life -- characterized by both an omnipresent clergy and the discovery of a certain freedom.

Jérémie in fact takes advantage of Montreal's rich cultural offerings, going out to explore the town. For example, he frequents various movie theatres (Cinéma Alouette, Cinéma Saint-Denis, Théâtre Saint-Henri) and attends the play Au soir du 16 janvier, presented by the "troupe du Nouveau Monde" at the Gesù, and the operas Rigoletto and L'Elisir d'Amore, at Her Majesty's Theatre. The young man enjoys strolling down the city's legendary St. Catherine Street, where one Saturday evening he and a friend found themselves in front of the Forum where the Canadiens were playing an exhibition match against the Royals. "We had never seen Maurice Richard play before, so...," he would write to Mariette. He even ventures into the Bellevue Casino nightclub one evening, where his sense of decency is challenged.

Finally, Jérémie's letters describe the strength of his love for Mariette and his difficult adjustment to living far away from her. Although his letters generally demonstrate great confidence, supported no doubt by the sincerity of his own feelings and his fervent piety, some passages reveal the apprehensions inevitably triggered by long separations. Without reproaching Mariette, and taking a philosophical stance, he tells the young woman how he feels about the idea of her being courted by other suitors during his absence. On several occasions, he himself chooses not to attend dances and parties that could put him in contact with other young women: "[D]ancing with another woman in my arms, while I am far away from you, would make me feel too much like I'm being unfaithful, and I don't want to feel like that.