Reviews for The Canadas

The average rating for The Canadas based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-11-19 00:00:00 Lisa Hansen Although and of course, in many ways, Catharine Parr Traill and her sister Susanna Moodie's experiences immigrating as British upper class women (and wives) to 19th century Canada (or more to the point to what in 1867 would become Canada and in this here case the province of Ontario) were very much similar and as such also consisted of many hardships and unpleasant surprises (much physically backbreaking work, harsh winter weather conditions, encounters with dangerous wild animals such as bears and wolves which had in fact not been known to exist in Western Europe for centuries), I also and personally have always enjoyed Catharine Parr Traill's epistolary memoirs of her and her husband's immigrant experiences in Canada, I have always appreciated her The Backwoods of of Canada (with its general emphasis on the positives of immigration and its celebration of Canada's woods and natural splendours) very much more than her sister Susanna Moodie's generally always complaining, being unhappy, whining and miserable about everything Roughing it in the Bush. And no, The Backwoods of Canada is also not to be seen and read as some kind of glorified depiction of 19th century Canada, of the so-called New World, as paradisiacal and without dangers, threats and difficulties to be encountered by settlers, by pioneers either. For in The Backwoods of Canada, Catharine Parr Traill also and very much realistically does write in her letters about the many hardships faced (as well as pointing out that European recruiting agents had often at best stretched the truth rather a bit about what settling in Canada would mean and thereby certainly often not really preparing potential settlers for how difficult homesteading in Canada could be and that the life of a settler would also therefore and of course be be very much different for especially upper class individuals used to servants and a genteel physical labour free lifestyle). But unlike her sister Susanna's often petulant and yes "spoiled little rich girl" like complaints and singing the blues (and which is pretty well a frustrating constant in Roughing it in the Woods), The Backwoods of Canada demonstrates in my opinion quite clearly and obviously that Catharine Parr Traill first and foremost was and remained determined to both make and to describe her immigrant experiences in Canada in as pleasant a manner as possible and indeed to also approach and consider Canadian nature, Canadian plants, Canadian weather etc. not as something monstrous to be only feared and despised but as something to be both celebrated and appreciated (and with me most definitely and categorically enjoying both Catharine Parr Traill's company as a person and as a writer considerably more than her sister Susanna Moodie's, whose Roughing it in the Bush really does tend to often make me grit my teeth with all its negativity and arrogantly haughty "everything is so horrible in Canada" attitude and which hardly ever and thankfully is the case in and with The Backwoods of Canada).

Review # 2 was written on 2016-10-29 00:00:00 David Jones Catherine Parr Strickland was an experienced writer who first work was published in 1818; her writing helped to support herself and her family financially after her father's death. She married half-pay Lieutenant Thomas Traill and emigrated to Upper Canada in 1832 to homestead in the bush. Her sister Susanna, married to Traill's friend, also emigrated to Upper Canada in 1832 to homestead. They both wrote books about their experiences. The Backwoods of Canada is in epistolary form, and was written from letters and journals which she edited to form a guide to homesteading in Upper Canada. Her attitude throughout is a keen interest in her changing surroundings. She was particularly interested in nature, and this may have helped her bear better with the tribulations of homesteading. I suspect that a can-do attitude helped to sustain her and her family. Her book describes life in the bush through the seasons, relations between the British and American settlers and First Nations, and her observations of local plants and animals. From reading her book and her sister's book, I believe that I would have much preferred Catherine over Susanna as an acquaintance or as an associate in any endeavor.