''Jalna'' is a 16-book series of novels by the Canadian writer Mazo de la Roche. Jalna is the name of the fictional manor house in which the Whiteoak family lives. The name comes from Jalna, a city in west-central India, where there was a British garrison. In a prequel novel, the house is built by a retired officer of the British army who served in India. Jalna is partly based on Benares, a house in

Mississauga, Canada Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

. Benares was built in the late 1850s for a retired officer of the British army who had served in India, James B. Harris. It once occupied a larger estate, upon which de la Roche lived for a time. "Benares" is an alternate name of

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, a city in India which had a British garrison.

The story

Spanning 1854 to 1954, the Jalna series tells the story of the Whiteoak family who lived on a southern Ontario estate. The novels were not written in sequential order. Each can be read as an independent story. There are similarities and as well as differences in the experiences of the Whiteoak family and de la Roche's. While the lives and successes of the Whiteoaks rise and fall, there remained for them the steadiness of the family manor, known as Jalna. De la Roche's family endured the illness of her mother, the perpetual job searches of her father, and the adoption of her orphaned cousin while being moved 17 times. Her family did work a farm for a few years for a wealthy man who owned the farm for a hobby. Several critics believe that Finch from ''Finch's Fortune'' (

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort to assassinate Emperor Hiro ...

) is a reflection of de la Roche herself. The names of many of the characters were taken from gravestones in a Newmarket, Ontario cemetery.

Production

''Jalna'', first published in 1927, won the

Atlantic Monthly Press Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself "A ...

's first $10,000 Atlantic Prize Novel award. De la Roche went on to write about the Whiteoak family for the next 30 years, establishing a place for herself in popular Canadian literature. The Jalna series has been translated into many languages and was adapted for stage, radio, and television. John Cromwell directed the 1935 film adaptation, ''Jalna,'' released by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

. In 1972, the story was adapted for television and aired on the CBC as ''

The Whiteoaks of Jalna ''The Whiteoaks of Jalna'' was a 1972 Canadian television drama miniseries based on the Jalna novels by Mazo de la Roche. At , it set a record expense at the time for a Canadian television miniseries. The series was exported internationally incl ...

''. By 1961, when de la Roche died, the series had sold more than eleven million copies in 193 English and 92 foreign editions.

The books

Film and television adaptations

* '' Jalna'', 1935, RKO Radio Pictures film * ''The Whiteoak Chronicles: The Building of Jalna'', 1955, BBC television Film * ''

'', 1972, CBC television drama miniseries

References

External links

Jalna Series by Mazo de La Roche
at Faded Page
Benares Historic House
Mississauga, Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:Jalna (novel series) 1927 Canadian novels Canadian historical novels Family saga novels