Roughing It in the Bush (Norton Critical Editions)

In 1832, Susanna Moodie immigrated to Canada from Britain with her husband and daughter in search of comfort and independence in the unsettled Canadian backwoods.

She went on to chronicle her experiences in this personal, accurate, and often humorous account.  This Norton Critical Edition of Roughing It in the Bush provides everything that a student needs to analyze and enjoy Moodie’s tale.

A thorough “Backgrounds” section includes images, a map, contemporary reviews of Roughing It, and letters written by Moodie to her husband during the winter of 1839, at which time he was serving a military appointment in the Victoria District and she and her children were facing life-threatening illnesses.

“Criticism” contains ten essays by leading Canadian scholars and authors, among them Margaret Atwood, Carl Ballstadt, D. M. R. Bentley, Susan Glickman, and Michael Peterman.

A Chronology of Susanna Moodie’s life and a Selected Bibliography are also included.

Michael Peterman is Professor of English at Trent University. He is the author of Roberson Davies, Susanna Moodie: A Life, and “This Great Epoch of Our Lives”: Susanna Moodie’s “Roughing It in the Bush”. He is the editor of The Backwoods of Canada by Catharine Parr Traill, and is co-editor of Susanna Moodie: Letters of a Lifetime with Carl Ballstadt and Elizabeth Hopkins and Letters of Love and Duty: The Correspondence of John and Susanna Moodie with Carl Ballstadt and Elizabeth Hopkins. He is a past editor of the Journal of Canadian Studies.