Brooke - whose Letters of Mephibosheth Stepsure first appeared serially between 18 in the Acadian Reporter. He points to Nova Scotia as the true birthplace of Canadian fiction its earliest practitioner being Thomas McCulloch, a Scottish clergyman - he stayed, unlike “temporary resident” Mrs. Professor Staines steps to a less worn part of the path in taking issue with descriptions of Emily Montague as the first Canadian novel, rather it is “the first novel using, at times, a Canadian setting.” Brooke, an Anglican chaplain’s wife, wrote during her five-year stay at the British garrison outside Quebec City. Those students will remember The History of Emily Montague (1796), which Mrs. From this point, the reader is led along a well-trodden path that will be familiar to anyone who has taken Intro to CanLit. 11,500 B.C.) to the arrival of Frances Brooke (1763 A.D.). Author David Staines, Professor of English at the University of Ottawa and former General Editor of the New Canadian Library, describes it slightly differently, as the “first detailed history.” Either way, one wonders what took so long.Ī History of Canadian Fiction begins rather awkwardly with a two-paragraph overview of the country’s past from the arrival of its first inhabitants (c. IT SAYS NOTHING GOOD about this country that this volume is, to paraphrase the publisher’s pitch, the first history to chart the development of Canadian fiction from earliest times to present day. By Brian Busby The author of The Dusty Bookcase finds a new history of Canadian fiction notable for its omissions.
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