Highways of Canadian LiteratureLogan, J. D. (John Daniel)
History
Highways of Canadian Literature
Logan, J. D. (John Daniel)
Canadian literature -- History and criticism
Two women, however, deserve special notice as contributors to the
Incidental Literature of Canada. These were Mrs. Frances Brooke, who was
the wife of a chaplain of the forces at Quebec in the last quarter of
the 18th century; and Mrs. Anna Brownell Jameson. While a resident of
the Province of Quebec, Mrs. Brooke wrote what has been called ‘the
first Canadian novel,’ _The History of Emily Montague_. Published in
1769, it ran into several editions. Mrs. Jameson possessed a rare
pictorial sense of beauty in nature; and while visiting the Canadas she
wrote _Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada_. Published in three
volumes at London in 1838, this work remains to this day the finest
example of ‘color writing’ in the whole range of Canadian Literature.
With the exception of Mrs. Brooke and Mrs. Jameson, the writers of the
Incidental Pioneer Literature of Canada merely took a passing view of
what had interested them and put it into literary form decent enough for
publication. It was the substance of what they wrote, not the style or
literary art in their books, that interested their public in the
Canadas, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The only faculty
these books satisfied or delighted was the faculty of curiosity; and the
only delights they really gave readers were vicarious thrills of
adventure and wonder.
The Incidental Literature of Canada, therefore, must be merely noted as
fact. In nowise, whether it be literature or not, had it any real
influence in developing a Canadian sentiment or in awakening a Canadian
literary spirit. Mrs. Brooke wrote her novel, _The History of Emily
Montague_, strictly in imitation of the first English novelist, Samuel
Richardson. But Canadian fiction, in any real sense, did not begin with
Mrs. Brooke. It began with a native-born Canadian, John Richardson, who
wrote historical romance, notably _Wacousta_, after the manner of,
though not in imitation of, Fenimore Cooper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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