Garneau, François Xavier

Garneau, François Xavier

(fräNswä` zävyā` gärnō`), 1809–66, French Canadian historian. He was educated at the Quebec seminary. He is remembered for his Histoire du Canada (3 vol., 1845–48; 2d ed., with added material, 1852), a work as captivating in its style as it is distinguished in its scholarship. Garneau is said to have undertaken his history under the sting of a remark made by Lord Durham that the French Canadians were a people "without a history and without a literature." The history covers the period from the exploration and settling of Canada by the French to the union of the two Canadas in 1841. It has appeared in abridged editions and in an English translation. There are several biographies of Garneau in French.