Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny is number 6 in the Armand Gamache mystery series. It is also far and away the best one so far - I still have A Trick of the Light and The Beautiful Mystery to get to, both of which have won much acclaim and awards - A Trick of the Light won the Anthony Award in 2011. Bury Your Dead won the Nero Award, the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and the Canadian Arthur Ellis Award, all in 2010. It deserved every one of them, too. It is an outstanding mystery, weaving it's way between historical Quebec City, modern day Three Pines, Samuel de Champlain, the English and French in Quebec City, and redemption.
Much of the novel occurs in the deepest part of winter in Quebec City, in the deep freeze which descends on the city in February. The Carnivale d'Hiver - Winter Carnival- plays a background role in the setting. The Winter Carnival is one of the biggest festivals in winter in Canada (and the US), drawing in tourists from all over the world to celebrate winter. In the midst of all this revelry, Armand Gamache gets up at 3:30 am, and wanders in the deep heart of the winter night, unable to rest. He has come to Quebec City to heal, staying with his former mentor Emile from the Surete de Quebec, who has long been retired. Gamache cannot forgive himself for a mistake in judgement he made, a judgement that had terrible consequences for some of his team. Much of the story is told in an unfolding chapter switching sequence, with Armand dipping back into painful memories, finding his way to the central image that has so devastated him. It's the way the mind works with something painful, and it is fascinating to watch him make his way back to and through the events. He is trying to find some way to live with the memories. At the same time, this question of judgement has caused him to look back on the case he solved just previous to the events of this novel, in The Murder Stone, where Olivier from the Three Pines was discovered to be guilty of a terrible crime. He sets his second in command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, who is also recovering in his way from the events that torment the Chief, to discover if Olivier is innocent, if Gamache's team overlooked some evidence. This is all because Olivier's partner Gabriel refuses to believe Olivier did it and sends a letter every day to Armand that says only, Why did he move the body? This kind of faith also moves through this book - faith that people have to sustain them, faith in the face of adversity, faith that something can be found that is good and worth protecting.
This is a book about uncovering the evidence to lead to the truth, and about the dead. How the dead are venerated, how they are kept alive in our memories, how they can shape a place and a time, and even a province - Samuel de Champlain was the discoverer and founder of Quebec City, helped by the aboriginal peoples in the area (the Huron mainly) to survive the first winters. While Gamache is recovering, a laughable mad man who is determined to find Champlain's body somewhere under the earth in Quebec City, is murdered. In the unlikeliest of places, in a hidden corner of the English community that still survives in Quebec City. So in order to find out who killed him and not set of hysteria and chaos in the media, Gamache is asked to lend unofficial assistance as he is there and can speak better English than the officers in the Quebec City police force investigating the crime do. Gamache is able to speak to the tiny English community where the murder took place. The English in Quebec city are an endangered minority, and the book delves into some of the reasons why, dating back to the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, when Montcalm lost to Wolfe. Gamache wonders through the book, how did Montcalm feel, when the English did the impossible, the unexpected, and climbed the cliff walls to surround the much larger French army on the Plains? When he sent for reinforcements, but they never came? While a small part of the novel, it is this interest in the history around him that makes this mystery stand out. Gamache ponders Wolfe, Montcalm, and how the battle was won and lost, and how the English came to rule Quebec City and Canada, against the odds. He compares the battle Montcalm lost, with the errors in judgement he made himself. How can he bury the dead if he can't forget what happened? Much of this book is about characters who can't forget what happened, and how they have to learn to let go and bury their dead, or they get stuck and can't move into what is good in life. Powerful thoughts in this mystery.
This setting, in the heart of old Quebec City, where Samuel de Champlain is thought to be buried, where the battle of the Plains of Abraham was fought that decided the course of a country, is unique in major mysteries published. I can't think of another mystery that covers this kind of politics and history and murder, set in Canada. It makes for fascinating reading - plus a bit of homesickness for me, for I spent three years as a teenager living in Quebec City, graduating from high school (secondary school in Quebec) there. It is a beautiful city, and reading this book took me back to Winter Carnivals I had attended long ago, and the old walled city, and the Plains of Abraham, that my school bus drove by every day to and from our high school. I went to one of the three English high schools then in Quebec City.
Bury Your Dead is a very good title for this book. It's like a book of Gamache thinking over what happened to him, and this grief gives a kind of purity to his thoughts. We get a glimpse of how he thinks, and sees the world, and of what a kind, gentle, thoughtful man he is - and yet finds so difficult to forgive himself his failures. There are all kinds of acts of faith in this book, from Renaud, the man digging for Champlain's burial place, to the faith of Reine Marie and Emile in letting Armand have his space and heal at his own pace, to the Literary and Historical Society deep in the heart of the city, the last bastion of English language books and history that still survives, and the faith of the people who keep the library going against all odds. It's also the faith of Gabri in his partner, and the faith that Jean-Guy places in the Chief, that the whole team places in him. And how Armand finds his way to peace so he can rejoin life again. It's a beautiful mystery,
I read this a few weeks ago, and I have not been able to forget it. It is an outstanding mystery. It is one of my books of the year, too, I know that already.
Showing posts with label Canadian history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian history. Show all posts
Friday, 16 November 2012
Thursday, 26 July 2012
non-fiction buying frenzy
Ana made my day today. I have been catching up with all of you lovely bloggers, and I found her post here on upcoming non-fiction books she is excited about. She asked us if there were any upcoming releases we were excited about. I decided that I would change the question to, "what books have you been buying that are unusual for you? " Because, dear Readers, tumbling into this house faster than I can read them, are an enormous amount of biographies and histories. Ok, it won't be an enormous amount for many of you! but for me, it's not usual for me to read or even look at biographies more than once a year. Here is what has come in over the past few months:
All Roads lead to Austen - Amy Elizabeth Smith. She goes to Latin America for a year, taking her Jane Austen novels, and leading book clubs in different countries, to see if Jane Austen transfers into other cultures, and what their versions of Jane Austen (or recommended books) are. It looks very interesting and very fun. I love the idea of talking about and reading Jane Austen in different countries, and to see how she does cross cultures. Plus it's about books and reading books, specifically Jane Austen, and a chance to learn about some of the best writers in Latin America from people who read. It's like being part of book club on the road with her!
The Civil War of 1812 - Alan Taylor. It is the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the war that defined Canada as a land that was not going to be part of the US. This book looks at the war from both sides of the border, and what it meant really - because even back then, families and towns straddled the border, and brothers and cousins fought for one side or the other, depending who they wanted to belong to. This history looks at the war from the lives of the people who fought it, the soldiers, immigrants, settlers and Indians on both sides of the border. It looks fascinating.
God's Mercies - Douglas Hunter. The story of the rivalry between Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson (for whom Hudson's Bay is named, as well as the Bay, one of Canada's largest and oldest household good and fashion store). They both raced to explore and map the northern half of North America, and find the route to the Far East, in the 17th century, and were to two principal explorers from the St Lawrence River up to Hudson's Bay. Samuel Champlain came by the Ottawa River, and his sextant was found in a field further up the Ottawa Valley. A statue to him is on a cliff beside the National Gallery of Art here in Ottawa, across the Rideau Canal from Parliament Hill. Here is a link to a little historical view of these two. One was French (Samuel de Champlain), one was English (Henry Hudson). The Hudson River in New York is named for him. Hudson died ingloriously after his crew mutinied while he tried to find the Northwest Passage, while Champlain had success after success in mapping the land through to Georgian Bay. This book won one of Canada's Non-fiction prizes in 2007, the Nereus Writer's Trust. As a companion to this I still need to pick up Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer.
A Train in Winter - Caroline Moorhead. About the friendship between a group of 230 French women resistance fighters who were rounded up from Gestapo detention camps and sent to Auschwitz. The only train to take women of the resistance to a death camp. This book explores who they were, why they joined the Resistance, how they were captured and their life in the death camps. 49 women came back. Six of them were still alive in 2010, and were able to share their stories for this book.
The Occupied Garden - Kristen den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski. A couple live in Holland when the Nazis march in. Years later they move to Canada, and after their deaths, their granddaughters begin to piece together what happened during the war to their grandparents. They had never spoken of what happened to them in Holland, while alive. A family memoir that is about life in wartime Holland, something that surprisingly there isn't alot of, in English. My stepfather grew up in Holland during the war, so I've heard a few stories from him also, but it's not something people talk about often.
The Years of the Sword: Wellington - Elizabeth Longford. I blame the .99 price tag, and that it has illustrations. Some day I will read this biography of Wellington and the battle of Waterloo.
The Hare with the Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal. A family memoir of a man who explores his family history while uncovering the history of 264 netsukes, Japanese wood carvings that he inherits. Who handled them? Where did they come from, what was their history? Along the way he discovers that his family were once a banking dynasty in Paris and Vienna in the 19th century, yet by the end of WW 2, all that remained of this dynasty were these netsukes. This was an award winner when it came out, winning the Costa Book Award for Biography, among others.
The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy - William Gaunt. 1.99 price, long out of print, about the Pre-Raphaelites' lives - especially their daily lives, with anecdotes more than any long narrative - biographical studies this kind of biography is called. It looks interesting and a good find for my growing Pre-Raphaelite library. They are among my favourite artists.
Graven with Diamonds - Nicola Shulman. The Many Lives of Thomas Wyatt, Courtier, Poet, Assassin, Spy. He is the author of one of my favourite poems, "Whoso List to Hunt, I know Where There is a Hind'. There are not many biographies out on him. This is was just published recently, and won the 2011 Best Non-Fiction of 2011 Writer's Guild Award. I'm fascinated with the Tudor times, and the enormous changes that occurred then, and what life was like at the courts for Wyatt, who was both a courtier and a poet. Poetry was held in much higher esteem than it currently is, and the best poets could be ironic, witty, and sarcastic, under the guise of poetry. He avoided being beheaded even though he was thought to have had an affair with Anne Boleyn. Here is a link to some of his poems online.
John Donne: The Reformed Soul - John Stubbs. Published in 2006, now considered one of the best biographies on Donne. I am fascinated with his life and how it informed his poetry. No one could use words and twist them like he could, making one meaning from just the way the words are placed, from what you think they will be. He struggled with his faith at a time when it was dangerous to have faith, in the Reformation.
Mistress of the Monarchy- Alison Weir - about Katherine Swynford, the mistress of John of Gaunt, later to become his wife. He was the Duke of Lancaster. This was in medieval England, in the 14th century. I want to read about how a woman went from being a mistress to the wife of a Duke, and how she survived court in a time when women were mostly used as property. It looks very interesting. She wss intelligent and considered one of the beauties of medieval England.
Shakespeare's Wife - Germaine Greer. Other than her name, not much is known about Ann Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare. This is the first major biography of Shakespeare's wife, the woman who bore his children and lived far from the London scene. Who was she? How did she feel as Shakespeare gained so much acclaim, and she was never by his side?
Elizabeth's London - Everyday Life in Elizabethan England - Liza Picard. This is part of a series of books Liza Picard has written, about daily life in London through the centuries. This was published in 2003, so fairly new, and covers all the things you wanted to know about Elizabethan England: from House Moving, to Garden Design, to The Bills of Mortality, to The Markets, Cooking and Recipes, Sex Outside Marriage, The lottery, Education, Interiors and Furniture, Clothes and Beauty, Law. These are chapter headings, and there are many more fun ones! Just everything you would want to know about life in Elizabeth England. I have Restoration London and Dr Johnson's London in this series. Victorian London rounds out the titles. So if you are looking for a good history of daily life in London in different centuries, this is an excellent series to start with.
and lastly, bought today, just out in sofcover:
Effie - Suzanne Fagence Cooper. About the live of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite painter. She married John Ruskin first, who on their wedding night turned away from her saying she didn't inspire desire in him. When Millais was hired to paint Ruskin's portrait several years later, Millais and Effie fell in love. She dared to leave Ruskin, and go to live with Millais. This makes it sound boring when it really looks very interesting and intriguing, a love triangle that involves one of England's greatest art critics and one of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. And the woman who caused Victorian England's most scandalous love triangle. Passion, art, and real life - this is irresistible.
Now the challenge is to find time to read them all! 13 books, one per month, I could feel a challenge coming on.
So, how about you? Have you been buying any unusual for you books lately? Is any non-fiction suddenly drawing your interest?
All Roads lead to Austen - Amy Elizabeth Smith. She goes to Latin America for a year, taking her Jane Austen novels, and leading book clubs in different countries, to see if Jane Austen transfers into other cultures, and what their versions of Jane Austen (or recommended books) are. It looks very interesting and very fun. I love the idea of talking about and reading Jane Austen in different countries, and to see how she does cross cultures. Plus it's about books and reading books, specifically Jane Austen, and a chance to learn about some of the best writers in Latin America from people who read. It's like being part of book club on the road with her!
The Civil War of 1812 - Alan Taylor. It is the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the war that defined Canada as a land that was not going to be part of the US. This book looks at the war from both sides of the border, and what it meant really - because even back then, families and towns straddled the border, and brothers and cousins fought for one side or the other, depending who they wanted to belong to. This history looks at the war from the lives of the people who fought it, the soldiers, immigrants, settlers and Indians on both sides of the border. It looks fascinating.
God's Mercies - Douglas Hunter. The story of the rivalry between Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson (for whom Hudson's Bay is named, as well as the Bay, one of Canada's largest and oldest household good and fashion store). They both raced to explore and map the northern half of North America, and find the route to the Far East, in the 17th century, and were to two principal explorers from the St Lawrence River up to Hudson's Bay. Samuel Champlain came by the Ottawa River, and his sextant was found in a field further up the Ottawa Valley. A statue to him is on a cliff beside the National Gallery of Art here in Ottawa, across the Rideau Canal from Parliament Hill. Here is a link to a little historical view of these two. One was French (Samuel de Champlain), one was English (Henry Hudson). The Hudson River in New York is named for him. Hudson died ingloriously after his crew mutinied while he tried to find the Northwest Passage, while Champlain had success after success in mapping the land through to Georgian Bay. This book won one of Canada's Non-fiction prizes in 2007, the Nereus Writer's Trust. As a companion to this I still need to pick up Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer.
A Train in Winter - Caroline Moorhead. About the friendship between a group of 230 French women resistance fighters who were rounded up from Gestapo detention camps and sent to Auschwitz. The only train to take women of the resistance to a death camp. This book explores who they were, why they joined the Resistance, how they were captured and their life in the death camps. 49 women came back. Six of them were still alive in 2010, and were able to share their stories for this book.
The Occupied Garden - Kristen den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski. A couple live in Holland when the Nazis march in. Years later they move to Canada, and after their deaths, their granddaughters begin to piece together what happened during the war to their grandparents. They had never spoken of what happened to them in Holland, while alive. A family memoir that is about life in wartime Holland, something that surprisingly there isn't alot of, in English. My stepfather grew up in Holland during the war, so I've heard a few stories from him also, but it's not something people talk about often.
The Years of the Sword: Wellington - Elizabeth Longford. I blame the .99 price tag, and that it has illustrations. Some day I will read this biography of Wellington and the battle of Waterloo.
The Hare with the Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal. A family memoir of a man who explores his family history while uncovering the history of 264 netsukes, Japanese wood carvings that he inherits. Who handled them? Where did they come from, what was their history? Along the way he discovers that his family were once a banking dynasty in Paris and Vienna in the 19th century, yet by the end of WW 2, all that remained of this dynasty were these netsukes. This was an award winner when it came out, winning the Costa Book Award for Biography, among others.
The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy - William Gaunt. 1.99 price, long out of print, about the Pre-Raphaelites' lives - especially their daily lives, with anecdotes more than any long narrative - biographical studies this kind of biography is called. It looks interesting and a good find for my growing Pre-Raphaelite library. They are among my favourite artists.
Graven with Diamonds - Nicola Shulman. The Many Lives of Thomas Wyatt, Courtier, Poet, Assassin, Spy. He is the author of one of my favourite poems, "Whoso List to Hunt, I know Where There is a Hind'. There are not many biographies out on him. This is was just published recently, and won the 2011 Best Non-Fiction of 2011 Writer's Guild Award. I'm fascinated with the Tudor times, and the enormous changes that occurred then, and what life was like at the courts for Wyatt, who was both a courtier and a poet. Poetry was held in much higher esteem than it currently is, and the best poets could be ironic, witty, and sarcastic, under the guise of poetry. He avoided being beheaded even though he was thought to have had an affair with Anne Boleyn. Here is a link to some of his poems online.
John Donne: The Reformed Soul - John Stubbs. Published in 2006, now considered one of the best biographies on Donne. I am fascinated with his life and how it informed his poetry. No one could use words and twist them like he could, making one meaning from just the way the words are placed, from what you think they will be. He struggled with his faith at a time when it was dangerous to have faith, in the Reformation.
Mistress of the Monarchy- Alison Weir - about Katherine Swynford, the mistress of John of Gaunt, later to become his wife. He was the Duke of Lancaster. This was in medieval England, in the 14th century. I want to read about how a woman went from being a mistress to the wife of a Duke, and how she survived court in a time when women were mostly used as property. It looks very interesting. She wss intelligent and considered one of the beauties of medieval England.
Shakespeare's Wife - Germaine Greer. Other than her name, not much is known about Ann Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare. This is the first major biography of Shakespeare's wife, the woman who bore his children and lived far from the London scene. Who was she? How did she feel as Shakespeare gained so much acclaim, and she was never by his side?
Elizabeth's London - Everyday Life in Elizabethan England - Liza Picard. This is part of a series of books Liza Picard has written, about daily life in London through the centuries. This was published in 2003, so fairly new, and covers all the things you wanted to know about Elizabethan England: from House Moving, to Garden Design, to The Bills of Mortality, to The Markets, Cooking and Recipes, Sex Outside Marriage, The lottery, Education, Interiors and Furniture, Clothes and Beauty, Law. These are chapter headings, and there are many more fun ones! Just everything you would want to know about life in Elizabeth England. I have Restoration London and Dr Johnson's London in this series. Victorian London rounds out the titles. So if you are looking for a good history of daily life in London in different centuries, this is an excellent series to start with.
and lastly, bought today, just out in sofcover:
Effie - Suzanne Fagence Cooper. About the live of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite painter. She married John Ruskin first, who on their wedding night turned away from her saying she didn't inspire desire in him. When Millais was hired to paint Ruskin's portrait several years later, Millais and Effie fell in love. She dared to leave Ruskin, and go to live with Millais. This makes it sound boring when it really looks very interesting and intriguing, a love triangle that involves one of England's greatest art critics and one of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. And the woman who caused Victorian England's most scandalous love triangle. Passion, art, and real life - this is irresistible.
Now the challenge is to find time to read them all! 13 books, one per month, I could feel a challenge coming on.
So, how about you? Have you been buying any unusual for you books lately? Is any non-fiction suddenly drawing your interest?
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Sunday Salon - Christmas Wish List - mostly books..
I am absolutely delighted. Yesterday I met my eldest son at Collected Works, where I was picking up a book I had ordered (Robin McKinley's Rose Daughter,). And my 20 year old said there was a book he was wanting to read. A book!!! Well, the bookstore didn't have it, so I ordered it for him and said, "Merry Christmas, you know what one of your presents is", and it should be in by next week so he'll get it before we go, AND the clerk said he'd read it and loved it! World War Z by Max Brooks. I was so happy I practically floated out of the store, because my son seldom asks for books, and to get him one that he wants!! I also took the opportunity to order The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. So far, Nymeth,
Rhinoa , Carl, Deslily,
Chris,
Dark Orpheus, and Robin, a new to me blogger at A Fondness for Reading, have reviewed The Wood Wife, and all thoroughly enjoyed it. This will be my airplane book, at least it's the book of the moment. I keep changing my mind about what I'm bringing, however I will save that post until closer to leaving.
On this quiet Sunday, as our city prepares for either snow or snow pellets or rain tonight and tomorrow, I am dreaming of books to buy. On my Christmas wish list this year, which will sadly have to wait until late winter because our Christmas present is really going overseas to England in 15 days! FIFTEEN!!! A girl can dream anyway, and my husband brought home the newspaper which, he said to me, I would be happy to know, contained this years' Best Books to Buy for Christmas Gifts! There is one title in particular that I have wanted since I read a review about it last spring: Champlain's Dream, by David Hackett Fischer. You can find it on Amazon here.
I lived in Quebec City for 3 years as a teenager, the city that Champlain founded in 1608. For me, history is made real when I can see the places and imagine the events as I stand on the ground. I loved York for that reason, because wherever I went, there were layers upon layers of events and history and it enchanted me. Here in Canada we don't have as much physical remnants of history as Europe does, as the Aboriginal peoples lived for 30,000 years and left little trace. It's in their stories and traditions only, and the occasional encampment discovered in by accident in an excavation. What we understand as physical 'history' began with the first explorers and settlers. I love imagining how the land first was, how it was when the settlers first came, what Champlain would have seen. I am interested in the early history of Canada, and our relations with the native peoples, and how the land looked - the enormous dark forests, the rivers and lakes filled with fish, the wildlife. When I lived in York for a year in 2000, one of the things I was so surprised to find I missed about Canada was the feeling of the landscape. Anyone who reads Canadian fiction knows that the landscape is always present. The hard rock face of the Canadian Shield, the forests, even some of our Canadian words like moose, I discovered I missed hearing. Anyway, I am interested in how the explorers came to Canada and what they first found, and how they helped to shape our country. I really want this book!
Also on my Christmas wish list this year is: Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. It's NOT a book, but it's on my wishlist, high up! This is a new release, with all 26 Faerie Tales she produced for PBS in the US, finally together in one collection. I have long been looking for the individual versions, which was only way it was available until now, and it wasn't available. So this is a dream come true! (I've already shown my husband the Amazon site and dropped a very large hint.) They are retellings of the fairy tales using well-known (usually) American actors and actresses, with high and very charming production standards, and witty, funny, and somtimes dark retellings. Here is a link if you are interested in knowing more. Here is also an excerpt of the description (just because I love reading this over and over!): "From the Brothers Grimm to Hans Christian Andersen, twenty-six of the most beloved stories of all time are brought to life by A-list actors (in some of their most unique and memorable roles) as well as master directors including Tim Burton and Francis Ford Coppola among them --- You'll in seeing Robin Williams as the Frog Prince,Eric Idle as the Pied Piper, Billy Crystal as one of the Three Little Pigs,Jennifer Beals and Matthew Broderick as Cinderella and her prince, Bernadette Peters and Christopher Reeve as Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming, Susan Sarandon and Klaus Kinski as Beauty and the Beast, Paul Reubens as Pinocchio, James Earl Jones as the Genie inside Aladdin's lamp, and Carrie Fisher as Thumbelina.
Each one of these stories is literally hand crafted by the directors (some of them famous directors like Francis Ford Coppella) and Shelley Duvall to reflect a certain style --- An example being the Sleeping Beauty tale was set in Russia with the sets and costumes designed to look like scenes from classic Russian motifs, the music from the Russian ballet --- Another being the direct rip off of the classic Jean Cocteau film "Beauty and the Beast".
All of these were designed with the intent of entertaining not only children but adults --- Some of the best moments in these are only things that adults will understand --- Christopher Reeve does a fantastic job in his multi-role part in "Sleeping Beauty" as does Malcolm McDowell as the Wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood" --- McDowell infuses the character with a subtle dark sensuality --- His chemistry with his then wife Mary Steenburgen is strong.
Probably the best one of all is the "Three Little Pigs" with Jeff Goldblum (as the Big Bad Wolf), Valerie Perrine (as a ravishing piglette), and Billy Crystal(as one of the three little pigs) --- The writing in this one is completely off the wall as well as it should be --- So enjoy with a loving heart and the mind of an innocent child. *sigh* Pure magic.
Also at the top of my list is Nigella Lawson's new book, Nigella's Christmas.
I had a chance to peek at the book yesterday at Collected Works, and I confess, I do want this book too! Maybe it's a good idea if I stay out of bookstores for the next 15 days, at least until we get to England! Then, it will be another story!!! Yes, a really bad pun, sorry...And that is what is at the top of my list. I haven't really looked this year because we are going to England, and because, I confess, I keep bringing home books anyway! And if we don't go soon, Nigella will come home with me.
What's on your Christmas wish list this year?
PS Middlemarch Update: ON page 171, Chapter 17. And I have a confession to make: Will Ladislaw has just paid a visit to Dorothea in Rome, where she is on her honeymoon with Causabon. Well, to my surprise Eliot was writing Ladislaw as if he was falling in love with her. What? I gasped. Wasn't it Lydgate? So, I did a very rare thing, but I went to the back of the book and read part of the ending. I had it wrong from my memory of the BBC production. Dorothea never gets together with Lydgate - it's Will, her husband's second cousin, that she ends up with!!! To all my Gentle readers who kindly didn't tell me I had it wrong, I apologize! And I still don't know the full ending, so I don't feel too guilty. I hate reading the ending of a book I am enjoying, but I had to know! Now I can relax and watch the real romance unfolding. Already there are terrible cracks in Dorothea's and Causabon's marriage, but that was more due to them innocently not knowing that they had never really talked to eachother - a lovely comment by Eliot on how bad marriages everywhere are made!
Friday, 7 March 2008
The Canadian Settler's Guide - Catherine Parr Traill
Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill were sisters, who emigrated to Canada after their brother Frederick settled in Canada. It was 1832 when Catharine arrived in the Peterborough area of Ontario (northeast of Toronto). The Canadian Settler's Guide is her guide for women emigrating to the backwoods of Canada to settle. It was written in 1852, distilling her 20 years experience of living in the backwoods - deep in the dark forests that made up most of Ontario at the time. The settlers would arrive, and begin the painstaking work of clearing their land and setting up a cabin, a barn, and eventually clear enough to be able to farm. This is the guide that showed the second wave of settlers - especially the huge wave of Irish settlers arriving after the potato famine - in the 1850's and 1860's, as well as most other European countries beginning to emigrate then. The Canadian government was welcoming - encouraging - immigrants, as a way to secure hold on the land and grow into a nation. In 1832, when Catharine and Susannah arrived, Canada wasn't even a nation yet. It was under the control of the British Empire, and had settlements only as far west as London and Toronto. All the rest of western Canada remained to be developed. Canada was divided into Upper Canada (now the modern-day province of Ontario), and Lower Canada (Quebec and the Maritime provinces). Her book is based on her 20 years in the bush of Ontario.
I read this book with great interest, partly because I love history, and partly because during my own genealogical research I have discovered that one of my great-great grandfathers arrived in 1832 from Wales. He went to the Welsh settlement just outside London, which had begun to be settled in 1820 by Colonel Talbot. The Canadian government was anxious to put settlers in the area after the War of 1812 with the Americans. Detroit was well settled, but the peninsula between Toronto and Detroit was not. Another set of my ancestors arrived from Ireland in the 1850's, and settled in London Township. So as I read Catherine's instructions for building a log cabin - a shanty - and how to clear land, I thought of my own ancestors and what they must have gone through. Everything had to be done by hand (of course!), but what the book makes clear is that nothing went to waste -everything was used - because most often the settlers in the backwoods were very poor, and had to rely on their own skills and hard work for everything.
When Catherine wrote the Settler's Guide, it was directed towards women, who she felt had no instructional guide on what to expect when they landed in this new country. So she advises that those women coming from a village or town with a bakery, to learn how to bake bread, because they will have to bake their own if they are living away from a town in Canada. She discusses fermentation for bread, and advises growing hops for the fermenting process as brewer's yeast was always in demand and short in supply. How to grow an orchard, and begin a garden - there are so many useful tips for building a garden that work as well today as well as 150 years ago! She advocates growing as many vegetables as you can, and an orchard for the fruit, because these along with brown bread are the greatest for health! It is a book filled with sound, practical advice, and yet she doesn't forget about beauty - she says some flowers should be grown that will delight the eyes and spirits, and pretty an otherwise ugly yard, and for interior decoration, a rag carpet made up of the scraps of clothing, both kept the feet warm and added to the colour of the various rooms. She makes no bones about the poverty that most settlers are coming from and will experience the first few years as they wrest farming land from the forest; but she is also direct enough to say that only the lazy fail and fall into abject poverty in Canada; a comfortable living and the pride of owning your own home is what awaits those who come with an eagerness to work.
My favourite line is, in the section on fires (which were a great menace for most of the 19th century): "In cases of emergency, it is folly to fold one's hands and sit down to bewail in abject terror: it is better to be up and doing."
She adds little things like : "Canada is the land of cakes. A tea-table is generally furnished with several varieties of cakes and preserves."
If you are ever in Canada and driving in the countryside, most of the older farming houses have a verandah. She explains why: "Nothing contributes so much to comfort and outward appearance of a Canadian house as the erection of the verandah or stoup, as the Dutch settlers call it, round the building. It affords a grateful shade from the summer heat, a shelter from the cold, and is a source of cleanliness to the interior. It gives a pretty, rural look to the poorest log-house, and as it can be put up with little expense, it should never be omitted." Now you know!
Recipes for everything the backwoods settler would need to know are given, from potato bread to brown bread, to maple syrup and maple beer. Eating wildlife is covered, as well as keeping chickens and ducks. How to make cheese, 12 pages of corn - called Indian corn - varying from how to grow corn, to how to husk it, to how to make corn pudding, johnny-cake, hominy, fried corn, stewed corn, Indian pudding, supporne, and finally, corn straw beds and mats.
It is a fascinating compendium of early Canadian life, and is invaluable as a historical document of settler's daily life. She talks about the months of the year and what the settler generally did each month, and the weather to expect: for March, she writes: "The early part of March often resembles February,with this difference, the longer days cause a relaxation of the severe cold during the sunshining hours; the very surface of the snow thaws, patches of bare earth begin to appear towards the middle of the month; the weak but pleasant note of the little song sparrow and the neat snow sparrow in its quaker-like plumage may be heard and seen as they flit to and fro, picking the seeds of the rough green amaranth and tall woolly-stalked mullein which stand faded and dry in the garden patch or on the road side. The equinox is often attended with rough gales and snow storms: these past, the sun begins to melt off the snow, and a feeling of coming spring is experienced in the soft airs, and a look of life in the bark and birds. The rising of the sap is felt in the forest trees; frosty nights and sunny days call forth the activity of the settlers in the woods; sugar making is now at hand, and all is bustle and life in the shanty."
As I write this, we are beginning the second snowstorm for this week. Our sidewalks are not plowed yet from Wednesday's storm, so it is very difficult to walk anywhere. Buses let passengers off into snowbanks, which the city haven't had time to remove yet. We are expecting at least the same amount of snow, most forecasts are showing much more between tonight and early Sunday morning. If we get the 40 - 50 cms they are predicting (close to two feet) I will take pictures and post them here!!! The snow looks beautiful falling tonight - it began before I left work, and by the time I arrived home, the snow was falling in the lovely silence that comes with no wind, just the snow muffling all sounds so it is quiet and peaceful. I love this kind of snowfall. It is warm out (near 0 c), warm enough to not need a hat or mitts coming home. The tree branches and shrubs are covered with white (again!) and a couple of inches have already fallen. It is a beautiful winter night. Yes, Catherine Parr Traill was right - March is indeed like February! At least the early part of it so far......Tomorrow we get the winds and blowing snow. So from snowy Canada, I bid you goodnight, and I hope wherever you are, Gentle reader, you are warm and enjoying the weekend!
I read this book with great interest, partly because I love history, and partly because during my own genealogical research I have discovered that one of my great-great grandfathers arrived in 1832 from Wales. He went to the Welsh settlement just outside London, which had begun to be settled in 1820 by Colonel Talbot. The Canadian government was anxious to put settlers in the area after the War of 1812 with the Americans. Detroit was well settled, but the peninsula between Toronto and Detroit was not. Another set of my ancestors arrived from Ireland in the 1850's, and settled in London Township. So as I read Catherine's instructions for building a log cabin - a shanty - and how to clear land, I thought of my own ancestors and what they must have gone through. Everything had to be done by hand (of course!), but what the book makes clear is that nothing went to waste -everything was used - because most often the settlers in the backwoods were very poor, and had to rely on their own skills and hard work for everything.
When Catherine wrote the Settler's Guide, it was directed towards women, who she felt had no instructional guide on what to expect when they landed in this new country. So she advises that those women coming from a village or town with a bakery, to learn how to bake bread, because they will have to bake their own if they are living away from a town in Canada. She discusses fermentation for bread, and advises growing hops for the fermenting process as brewer's yeast was always in demand and short in supply. How to grow an orchard, and begin a garden - there are so many useful tips for building a garden that work as well today as well as 150 years ago! She advocates growing as many vegetables as you can, and an orchard for the fruit, because these along with brown bread are the greatest for health! It is a book filled with sound, practical advice, and yet she doesn't forget about beauty - she says some flowers should be grown that will delight the eyes and spirits, and pretty an otherwise ugly yard, and for interior decoration, a rag carpet made up of the scraps of clothing, both kept the feet warm and added to the colour of the various rooms. She makes no bones about the poverty that most settlers are coming from and will experience the first few years as they wrest farming land from the forest; but she is also direct enough to say that only the lazy fail and fall into abject poverty in Canada; a comfortable living and the pride of owning your own home is what awaits those who come with an eagerness to work.
My favourite line is, in the section on fires (which were a great menace for most of the 19th century): "In cases of emergency, it is folly to fold one's hands and sit down to bewail in abject terror: it is better to be up and doing."
She adds little things like : "Canada is the land of cakes. A tea-table is generally furnished with several varieties of cakes and preserves."
If you are ever in Canada and driving in the countryside, most of the older farming houses have a verandah. She explains why: "Nothing contributes so much to comfort and outward appearance of a Canadian house as the erection of the verandah or stoup, as the Dutch settlers call it, round the building. It affords a grateful shade from the summer heat, a shelter from the cold, and is a source of cleanliness to the interior. It gives a pretty, rural look to the poorest log-house, and as it can be put up with little expense, it should never be omitted." Now you know!
Recipes for everything the backwoods settler would need to know are given, from potato bread to brown bread, to maple syrup and maple beer. Eating wildlife is covered, as well as keeping chickens and ducks. How to make cheese, 12 pages of corn - called Indian corn - varying from how to grow corn, to how to husk it, to how to make corn pudding, johnny-cake, hominy, fried corn, stewed corn, Indian pudding, supporne, and finally, corn straw beds and mats.
It is a fascinating compendium of early Canadian life, and is invaluable as a historical document of settler's daily life. She talks about the months of the year and what the settler generally did each month, and the weather to expect: for March, she writes: "The early part of March often resembles February,with this difference, the longer days cause a relaxation of the severe cold during the sunshining hours; the very surface of the snow thaws, patches of bare earth begin to appear towards the middle of the month; the weak but pleasant note of the little song sparrow and the neat snow sparrow in its quaker-like plumage may be heard and seen as they flit to and fro, picking the seeds of the rough green amaranth and tall woolly-stalked mullein which stand faded and dry in the garden patch or on the road side. The equinox is often attended with rough gales and snow storms: these past, the sun begins to melt off the snow, and a feeling of coming spring is experienced in the soft airs, and a look of life in the bark and birds. The rising of the sap is felt in the forest trees; frosty nights and sunny days call forth the activity of the settlers in the woods; sugar making is now at hand, and all is bustle and life in the shanty."
As I write this, we are beginning the second snowstorm for this week. Our sidewalks are not plowed yet from Wednesday's storm, so it is very difficult to walk anywhere. Buses let passengers off into snowbanks, which the city haven't had time to remove yet. We are expecting at least the same amount of snow, most forecasts are showing much more between tonight and early Sunday morning. If we get the 40 - 50 cms they are predicting (close to two feet) I will take pictures and post them here!!! The snow looks beautiful falling tonight - it began before I left work, and by the time I arrived home, the snow was falling in the lovely silence that comes with no wind, just the snow muffling all sounds so it is quiet and peaceful. I love this kind of snowfall. It is warm out (near 0 c), warm enough to not need a hat or mitts coming home. The tree branches and shrubs are covered with white (again!) and a couple of inches have already fallen. It is a beautiful winter night. Yes, Catherine Parr Traill was right - March is indeed like February! At least the early part of it so far......Tomorrow we get the winds and blowing snow. So from snowy Canada, I bid you goodnight, and I hope wherever you are, Gentle reader, you are warm and enjoying the weekend!
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