Susanna Moodie

Roughing It in the Bush

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Pub Date 06 Sep 2016 | Archive Date 01 May 2016

Description

A subject of fascination for writers like Margaret Atwood and Timothy Findley, Susanna Moodie was a Romantic writer from a celebrated literary family whose life changed forever when she and her husband embarked from England for the backwoods of Canada in 1832. Misled by land merchants, the Moodies discovered that settlement in Upper Canada was far from pastoral but rather a wild frontier. Utterly unprepared for pioneer life, they soon found themselves starving in a hostile wilderness. With her husband absent in the army during the 1837 Rebellions, Susanna began publishing her writing to feed and clothe her growing family. The result was the book Roughing It in the Bush—Moodie's aggravated and acerbic testament of pioneer life was praised in England but turned her into a controversial figure. Two centuries later she is now honored as an early feminist and literary pioneer.

Susanna Moodie: Roughing It in the Bush brings the words of this controversial yet fascinating woman to life through the insightful writing of Carol Shields.

A subject of fascination for writers like Margaret Atwood and Timothy Findley, Susanna Moodie was a Romantic writer from a celebrated literary family whose life changed forever when she and her...


A Note From the Publisher

US Release Date: September 2016 (Distributed by Orca Book Publishers)

US Release Date: September 2016 (Distributed by Orca Book Publishers)


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781772600032
PRICE $22.95 (USD)

Average rating from 11 members


Featured Reviews

A throughly enjoyable graphic novel version of Susanna Moodie's Roughing It in the Bush. I loved the infomration after the book got published, and how she felt about it. Makes me want to seek out this book and read it in the vernacular. Excellent slice of Canadian history. Reminds me a little bit of Laura Engles Wilder's The First Four Years

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I loved this! I had never heard of Susanna Moodie before coming across this book in the NetGalley bookshelves for Comics & Graphic Novels - but I'm so glad I found her! This is a fascinating slice of life on a subject I know literally nothing about - the settling of Canada. Susanna grew up fairly well-off in England, but by the time her and her many sisters were of age, their wealth had declined to the point that all the sisters took to writing for a living. After meeting her future husband at a party, they decide their best course of action was to go abroad and settle in Canada. But they were led to believe the land they were moving to was *much* further along in its settlement. This is the story of coming to terms with reality crashing headlong into mistaken expectations.

It is extremely well done. The art really lends itself to revealing the emotions - the loneliness, despair, exhaustion from hard labor - so much is conveyed in one panel. Even though there are many grim moments in the story, you still come away with a sense that this was a woman with a lot of pluck - she put one foot in front of the other and got what needed doing DONE and kept her family alive despite all odds.

I'm feeling particularly grateful for my warm house with food in the pantry after reading this bite of graphic history.

Recommended highly to anyone who enjoys a story of a woman with grit, who is curious about settling the Canadian "bush" in the early 1800s, or who just enjoys history via graphic novel.

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