Known primarily as a poet, Isabella Valancy Crawford's short stories represent the best of early English-Canadian prose. In her stories, as in her poetry, her power lies in her use of imagery. In this collection her fictional portrayals of Canadian life give us glimpses into our literary past.
Isabella Valancy Crawford's short stories represent the best of early English-Canadian prose. In her stories as in her poetry, her power lies in her use of imagery. In this collection, her fictional portrayals of Canadian life give us glimpses into our literary past. This collection includes the following works by Valancy Crawford: A Five-O'Clock Tea; How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose; La Tricoteuse; The Halton Boys; Tudor Tr& In the Breast of a Maple; Extradited; The Grasshopper Paper (an article). It also includes an introduction, a chapter about the author, and a selected bibliography.
Considered one of the finest of Canada’s early poets, the raw intellect and emotional appeal of Isabella Valancy Crawford’s poetry drew author Elizabeth McNeill Galvin on a personal journey that traced Isabella’s life which began in Dublin, Ireland, and ended in Toronto, Canada. Isabella emigrated to Canada with her family around the year of 1858. After settling first in Paisley, Ontario, the family later lived in Lakefield and Peterborough. As a young woman, Isabella became fascinated by backwoods life and Indian legends. Following her father’s death, she and her mother moved to Toronto where Isabella took on another pioneering role, that of a "modern working woman," by earning meager wages from light verse and "formula fiction" that appeared in Canadian and American newspapers. Not afraid to approach social criticism often deemed the domain of male poets, her poetic sensitivity quivers with imagery and is admired for its evocative portrayal of life in its entirety. Isabella’s work symbolizes the emerging of Canadian maturity as its population was shifting from life in the wilderness, to the creation of urban centres such as Toronto. "A good sense of the social background of Crawford’s life." - Gordon Johnston, Master of Otonabee College at Trent University and Professor of Canadian Literature.
Pioneering Women is an anthology of short fiction written before 1880 by Canadian women, including Susanna Moodie, Catharine Parr Traill, and Rosanna Mullins Leprohon. From the Maritimes to Upper Canada, from backwoods to the drawing room, this collection demonstrates the variety that exists in stories by women of early British North America. Published in English.
This work is the result of the fifth Symposium in the University of Ottawa Symposia series which focused on the life and work of Isabella Valancy Crawford (1850-1887). Acclaimed scholars of Canadian Literature joined to speak on Crawford's life, read and listen to her poetry, and critically examine some of her major works. Contributors include Dorothy Livesay, Penny Petrone, Margo Dunn, John Ower, Orest Rudzik, Elizabeth Waterston, Fred Cogswell, Kenneth Hughes, S. R. MacGillivray, Catherine Ross, Louis Dudek, Anne Paolucci, and Clara Thomas.
The prize-winning entry in a national competition for distinctively Canadian fiction, Winona was serialized in a Montreal story paper in 1873. The novel focuses on the lives of two foster-sisters raised in the northern Ontario wilderness: Androsia Howard, daughter of a retired military officer, and Winona, the daughter of a Huron chief. As the story begins, both have come under the sway of the mysterious and powerful Andrew Farmer, who has proposed to Androsia while secretly pursuing Winona. With the arrival of Archie Frazer, the son of an old military friend, there is a violent crisis, and the scene shifts southward as Archie takes the foster-sisters via Toronto to his family's estate in the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence River. Farmer follows, and the narrative moves towards a sensational climax. The critical introduction and appendices to this edition place Winona in the contexts of Crawford's career, the contemporary market for serialized fiction, the sensation novel of the 1860s, nineteenth-century representations of women and North American indigenous peoples, and the emergence of Canadian literary nationalism in the era following Confederation.
First-wave feminist, activist, and social reformer, Nellie McClung ranked as one of the most popular Canadian authors and among the liveliest critics of Canada's male-dominated society. Well ahead of her time, McClung was known as a writer who dared to discuss taboo topics, and for her inimitable humour, which rivals that of Stephen Leacock. This selection of her best short fiction includes depictions of difficult rural living conditions in Western Canada as well as "consciousness-raising" stories reflecting the undue restrictions on women and the anti-female laws and attitudes of her day.
New Women is an anthology of short fiction written by Canadian women between 1900 and 1920. The carefully selected stories by writers such as L.M. Montgomery, Nellie McClung, and Marjorie Pickthall provide dramatic and imaginative glimpses of Canadian society and of the women who lived during those momentous years.
Susanna Moodie is, of course, best known for her books Roughing It in the Bush and Life in the Clearings, which are largely comprised of short sketches that she had previously published. What is not widely known, however, is that Moodie had a long and prolific literary career in which short sketches and tales were among her favoured genres. This book offers a selection of these narratives, most of which have been unavailable in print since the 19th century. This collection will give the reader a new understanding of Susanna Moodie's work. Published in French.
The Quebec Anthology: 1830-1990 provides a complete overview of the Quebec short story from its beginnings to the 1990s and offers a unique opportunity for English readers to discover the essence of this fascinating literature. In addition, a detailed biography of each author and an assessment of each story's place in the larger canvas of Quebec literature are included.