The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
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qui s'en tirent le mieux, y compris sur le<br />
plan stylistique. Leurs coéquipiers font<br />
pourtant preuve d'assez de courage, d'esprit<br />
d'invention et d'habileté pour bien<br />
mériter la mention honorable et laisser<br />
bien augurer de la suite.<br />
Canadian Experience?<br />
John Richardson<br />
<strong>The</strong> Canadian Brothers or <strong>The</strong> Prophecy Fulfilled,<br />
A Tale <strong>of</strong> the Late American War, Donald<br />
Stephens, ed. Centre for Editing Early Canadian<br />
Texts Series; 9. Oxford $12.95 pa-<br />
Reviewed by Mary Lu MacDonald<br />
<strong>The</strong> Canadian Brothers is the ninth in the<br />
Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts'<br />
series <strong>of</strong> meticulously researched and<br />
edited volumes <strong>of</strong> pre-Confederation literature<br />
in English. No manuscript <strong>of</strong> the novel<br />
has survived, and only one edition<br />
appeared in Richardson's lifetime; as a<br />
result, the choice <strong>of</strong> a copy-text presented<br />
no difficulty. This text was then compared<br />
with the chapters published in advance in<br />
the Literary Garland and with the later<br />
"American" version entitled Matilda<br />
Montgomerie. In addition eight extant<br />
copies <strong>of</strong> the 1840 Montreal publication<br />
were computer-compared, revealing a total<br />
<strong>of</strong> eleven differences between them. <strong>The</strong><br />
scholarly apparatus resulting from this<br />
research is detailed and complete. <strong>The</strong><br />
Explanatory Notes which follow the text are<br />
not intrusive and, in the main, provide useful<br />
supplementary information, although<br />
they sometimes raise more questions than<br />
they answer. Either in the Notes or in the<br />
Introduction more information on the War<br />
<strong>of</strong> 1812 context, beyond that necessary to<br />
explain Richardson's specific references,<br />
would have been helpful.<br />
Since the purpose <strong>of</strong> the CEECT project<br />
is to provide an authoritative text in a form<br />
inexpensive enough to be used in university<br />
classrooms, the Editor's Introduction is<br />
crucial. It will go into the hands <strong>of</strong> students,<br />
carrying with it the aura <strong>of</strong> being the<br />
final word on the subject. John Richardson<br />
presents a particularly difficult problem for<br />
an editor attempting to provide a biographical<br />
summary before entering on a<br />
critical introduction, since the documented<br />
evidence about Richardson's life is<br />
sparse,—we do not even know for sure<br />
where he was born, or what was the cause<br />
<strong>of</strong> his death. <strong>The</strong> result <strong>of</strong> this paucity <strong>of</strong><br />
biographical detail has been that many critics<br />
tend to read autobiographical references<br />
into his fiction, picking and choosing at<br />
will from all the possible scenarios provided<br />
by the novels. As editor, Stephens' point-<strong>of</strong>view<br />
is clearly stated in a Preface which<br />
relates his own emotional connection with<br />
the work, as well as in the first paragraph <strong>of</strong><br />
the Introduction: "It [ <strong>The</strong> Canadian Brothers]<br />
was also, and more importantly, a fictionalized<br />
chronicle <strong>of</strong> actual events, people, and<br />
places from Richardson's childhood and<br />
adolescence that both revealed the psychology<br />
<strong>of</strong> the author and helped create seminal<br />
mythologies about his country." Stephens is<br />
therefore firmly in the school <strong>of</strong> those who<br />
see autobiography in Richardson's fiction.<br />
With Richardson, who was capable, in selfjustification<br />
and self-dramatization, <strong>of</strong> fictionalizing<br />
parts <strong>of</strong> his own autobiographical<br />
works, this can be a dangerous attitude for<br />
the editor <strong>of</strong> a text intended to be definitive.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lack <strong>of</strong> biographical documentation<br />
also allows controversy to arise, as in<br />
the case <strong>of</strong> Richardson's supposedly Indian<br />
maternal grandmother. <strong>The</strong> existence <strong>of</strong><br />
this person is taken as fact by most critics,<br />
although Douglas Daymond and Leslie<br />
Monkman in their Introduction to the<br />
Canadian Poetry Press edition <strong>of</strong> Tecumseh<br />
point out that there is no real evidence to<br />
support this claim, which was certainly not<br />
made in Richardson's lifetime, and that<br />
much <strong>of</strong> the supposed "evidence" is contradictory.<br />
Stephens accepts the story <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Indian grandmother without question and