A thorough "Backgrounds" section includes images, a map, contemporary reviews ofRoughing It, and letters written by Moodie to her husband during the winter of 1839, at which time he was serving a military appointment in the Victoria District and she and her children were facing life-threatening illnesses. "Criticism" contains ten essays by leading Canadian scholars and authors, among them Margaret Atwood, Carl Ballstadt, D. M. R. Bentley, Susan Glickman, and Michael Peterman A Chronology of Susanna Moodie's life and a Selected Bibliography are also included.

Susanna Moodie is, of course, best known for her books Roughing It in the Bush and Life in the Clearings, which are largely comprised of short sketches that she had previously published. What is not widely known, however, is that Moodie had a long and prolific literary career in which short sketches and tales were among her favoured genres. This book offers a selection of these narratives, most of which have been unavailable in print since the 19th century. This collection will give the reader a new understanding of Susanna Moodie's work.

First published in 1985, this volume of letters follows Susanna Moodie from her Suffolk girlhood and her experience as an aspiring young writer in London, through her emigration to Upper Canada and five decades of Canadian life. The letters provide a sense of Moodie's literary accomplishments before her emigration, the long, uncertain struggle to develop her career as a writer in the colony, and the brief but intense period of literary activity during which her books were published in Britain and the U.S.

First published in 1852, and in its third edition by 1854, this description of pioneer immigrant life in Canada by Susanna Moodie (1803 85) is unsentimental and frank. In contrast to similar works, which often seem to be advertisements aimed at potential immigrants, Moodie's book emphasises not only the triumphs but also the tribulations as she and her family begin their new lives. Initially criticised in Canada for painting an unflattering picture of the country, it was later recognised as a key work of early Canadian literature, and has influenced writers up to the present day. In Volume 2...

Flora Lyndsay is Susanna Moodie's prequel to Roughing it in the Bush and Life in the Clearings. Though Moodie fictionalizes herself in the context of this novel, Flora Lyndsay remains a close personalized record of her family's experiences in planning their emigration and crossing the Atlantic.

Despite the limited critical attention it receives, Flora Lyndsay reveals Moodie's style, her sense of form, and her distinctive approach to writing female autobiography. This edition, complete with a wide corpus of endnotes, an extensive list of...

'LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS': A SEQUEL TO 'ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH'

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.