''The History of Emily Montague'', written by
Frances Brooke
Frances Brooke ( Moore; 12 January 1724 – 23 January 1789) was an English novelist, essayist, playwright and translator. Hers was the first English novel known to have been written in Canada.
Biography
Frances Moore was born in Claypole, L ...
and first published in 1769, is often considered the first Canadian novel.
It is a
sentimental novel
The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th-century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sensi ...
written in the
epistolary
Epistolary means "in the form of a letter or letters", and may refer to:
* Epistolary ( la, epistolarium), a Christian liturgical book containing set readings for church services from the New Testament Epistles
* Epistolary novel
* Epistolary po ...
form.
It also features some elements of a
travelogue, as the main letter-writer responds to requests to describe the colony of Canada in detail.
The plot of the novel is a love story, but along the way Brooke includes many reflections on social norms and the relations between the English, French,
Huron, and
Iroquois cultures in
Quebec.
The main letter-writers in the novel are Emily Montague, Colonel William Fermor, Colonel Ed Rivers (possibly inspired by
Henry Caldwell
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Caldwell ( c. 1735 – 1810) was a Canadian army and militia officer, a successful businessman and a member of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada.
Early life
The youngest son of Sir John Caldwell (d. 1744) 3rd ...
), and Arabella Fermor.
Of these, Emily is the main heroine, but Arabella has typically captured more readers' attention, for being a bold and witty
foil
Foil may refer to:
Materials
* Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine
* Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal
* Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food
* Tin foil, metal foil ma ...
to the demure and shy Emily.
Brooke wrote the novel while she was living at the Jesuit House of Sillery (french: maison des Jésuites-de-Sillery)
in
Sillery, Quebec from 1763 to 1768, shortly after the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec (french: Bataille des Plaines d'Abraham, Première bataille de Québec), was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War (referred to as the French and Indian War to describe ...
.
It is the first novel written in Canada, and the first novel featuring a Canadian setting.
However, Brooke herself was English and only lived in Canada for five years, and the book was published in London;
moreover, because it pre-dates the
Confederation of Canada
Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Dominion of ...
as an independent country in 1867, some have argued that it (and all pre-1867 literature from the region), should be considered colonial literature, not Canadian literature.
The book was first published in 1769 when Brooke returned to England, by
James Dodsley.
It received positive reviews in the most notable journals, and was reprinted in several editions during Brooke's lifetime.
The book was generally overlooked in the nineteenth century, in part because few copies were available.
In 1921, an article by literary scholar Charles Blue, "Canada's First Novelist," made the case that the book was worth serious study, and since then it has been considered an important part of the canon of
Canadian literature
Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both g ...
.
References
External links
*
* Full text o
''The History of Emily Montague'' available at ''A Celebration of Women Writers''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Emily Montague
1769 books
18th-century Canadian literature
Epistolary novels
Sillery, Quebec City