Admired by a generation of Canadian authors and critics, Marian Engel was a writer's writer. This compilation offers an incomparable view into Canadian literature from 1965 to Engel's early death in 1985.
Marian Engel emerged as a writer during that period in Canada when nationalism increased and “new feminism” dawned. Although she is recognized as a distinguished woman of letters, she has not been widely studied; consequently we know relatively little about her and her craft. The material collected in Marian Engel’s Notebooks: “Ah, mon cahier, écoute...” is a major step in redressing that neglect. Extracts carefully chosen by Christl Verduyn from Marian Engel’s forty-nine notebooks — notebooks Engel began in the late 1940s and which she maintained until her death in 1985 — track Engel’s creative development, illustrate her commitment to the craft of writing and document her growth as a major Canadian writer. The notebooks also portray Engel’s surprising leaps of logic, her fascination with the bizarre, the eclecticism of her reading and the depth and variety of her thinking. Finally, they present moving documentation of a woman facing cancer and early death. Christl Verduyn’s illuminating introductory discussions to each of the notebooks unobtrusively guide us in the reading of these sometimes difficult writings. Marian Engel’s Notebooks: “Ah, mon cahier, écoute...” leaves readers with a vivid sense of Canadian culture during the 1960s and 1970s. It provides insight into the literary life of one of Canada’s significant woman writers, including her connections with other Canadian writers, and will be of special interest to scholars working in the field of literature.
A student at McGill in the mid-1950s, Marian Engel wrote her M.A. thesis under the direction of Hugh MacLennan. Their work together became the basis of a correspondence, the MacLennan half of which survives and is detailed here. Both personal and professional in nature, MacLennan's letters to Engel provide fascinating insights into his life's pursuit of writing and offer another glimpse of the author of Two Solitudes.
First published in 1970, The Honeyman Festival chronicles one night in the life of Minn Burge, a woman in her mid-thirties who is torn between affection for her family and the need for a life in which impulse and intelligence can once again find play. Pregnant with her fourth child, and unable to take refuge in facile resolutions, Minn interrogates her life with a razor-edge passion in which many readers will find they too are involved. This groundbreaking novel by one of Canada’s most beloved novelists is now available in a beautifully packaged A List edition, featuring an introduction by novelist and short story writer Caroline Adderson.
Harriet Ross, a strong and vital woman who lives on a small Toronto street with her children, spends her time dealing with friends, neighbors, lovers, and children
Admired by a generation of Canadian authors and critics, Marian Engel was a writer's writer. This compilation offers an incomparable view into Canadian literature from 1965 to Engel's early death in 1985.
When Geraldine's brother announces that his sister has changed her name to Odessa Yarker, Geraldine has a difficult time convincing people to use her real name.
Finally, they present moving documentation of a woman facing cancer and early death."--BOOK JACKET. "Christl Verduyn's illuminating introductory discussions to each of the notebooks, unobtrusively guide us in the reading of these some times difficult writings."--BOOK JACKET.
Rains, a former soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, immigrated to Canada at the same period as Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. He brought with him his wards, sisters Frances and Elizabeth. The three settled on St Joseph Island in northern Ontario, where their unusual domestic arrangement caught the attention and imagination of, among others, the nineteenth-century British travel-writer Anna Jameson, the Swiss born naturalist and explorer Louis Agassiz, the American poet William Cullen Bryant, and the Canadian novelist Marian Engel.
A student at McGill in the mid-1950s, Marian Engel wrote her M.A. thesis under the direction of Hugh MacLennan. Their work together became the basis of a correspondence, the MacLennan half of which survives and is detailed here. Both personal and professional in nature, MacLennan's letters to Engel provide fascinating insights into his life's pursuit of writing and offer another glimpse of the author of Two Solitudes.
First published in 1970, The Honeyman Festival chronicles one night in the life of Minn Burge, a woman in her mid-thirties who is torn between affection for her family and the need for a life in which impulse and intelligence can once again find play. Pregnant with her fourth child, and unable to take refuge in facile resolutions, Minn interrogates her life with a razor-edge passion in which many readers will find they too are involved. This groundbreaking novel by one of Canada’s most beloved novelists is now available in a beautifully packaged A List edition, featuring an introduction by novelist and short story writer Caroline Adderson.
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