29 - Frances Brooke: She Who Wrote the First Canadian Novel!

In which we flash back to 1769 for a one-and-done-episode on 'The History of Emily Montague', a book often considered to be the very first Canadian novel - and it was written by a woman! How's that for being radical? We talk about 18th century feminism, the author's politics, what the book tells us about Canada at the time, and of course, whether this can be called a first in Canada!

Images that we compared: https://historiacanadiana.wordpress.com/2021/02/06/episode-29-extra-comparing-portraits-of-women-writers/
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Further Reading:

• Brooke, Frances. The History of Emily Montague, London: J. Dodsley, 1769. https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/brooke/emily/emily.html
• Edwards, Mary Jane. Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague: A Biographical Context," English Studies in Canada 7, no. 2 (Summer 1981): 171-82. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/693761/pdf
• Howells, Robin. "Dialogism in Canada's First Novel: The History of Emily Montague," Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 20 (1993): 437-50. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/crcl/index.php/crcl/article/view/3209
• McMullen, Lorraine. "Double image: Frances Brooke's Women Characters", Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 21:2, 1982, pp. 356-363. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449858208588735
• Robert, James Merrett, "The Politics of Romance in The History of Emily Montague," Canadian Literature, no. 133, 1992, pp. 92-108. https://canlit.ca/full-issue/?issue=133
• New, W. H. "Frances Brooke's Chequered Gardens," Canadian Literature, no. 52, 1972, pp. 24-38. https://canlit.ca/full-issue/?issue=52
• Pacey, Desmond. "The First Canadian Novel," The Dalhousie Review XXVI, pp. 143-150. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/57817/dalrev_vol26_iss2_pp143_150.pdf?sequence=1
• Sellwood, Jane. "Narrative as Coquette in Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague," Canadian Literature, no. 136, 1993, pp. 60-81. https://canlit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CL136-Full-Issue.pdf

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