The Imperialist

by Sara Jeannette Duncan

Overview

In Elgin, Ontario, a burgeoning community in young Canada, Lorne Murchison must balance his political aspirations and his support for the imperialist ideal with his romantic aspirations. Meanwhile, his sister, Advena, falls in love with a young minister, who is already engaged to another woman.

An examination of Canadian values in the late nineteenth century, The Imperialist serves as a comedy of manners and an important depiction of life in small-town Ontario. The novel has since become Sara Jeanette Duncan’s best-known work.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781443441896
Publisher:	HarperCollins Canada
Publication date:	11/25/2014
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	276
File size:	507 KB

About the Author

Sara Jeannette Duncan was a Canadian author and journalist best known for The Imperialist, considered to be one of the first modern Canadian novels. Educated as a teacher, Duncan shifted to journalism, acting as a travelling writer for Canadian newspapers in addition to writing columns for The Globe and later for the Washington Post. Following her marriage to an Anglo-Indian civil servant, Duncan turned to fiction, and went on to publish more than twenty novels. Duncan died in 1922, shortly after settling in Surrey, England, with her husband.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Sara Jeannette Duncan: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text

The Imperialist

Appendix A: Personal and Domestic Contexts

1. Sara Jeannette Duncan, “[North American Indians].” The Globe (29 July 1885)
2. Sara Jeannette Duncan, “[The Old-Time Heroine].” The Week (28 October 1886)
3. A Selection of Duncan’s Letters concerning The Imperialist
4. From Sara Jeannette Duncan, “[Growing Golden-rod in Simla].” The Crow’s Nest (1901)
5. Recipes from The Canadian Home Cook Book (1887)
6. Twenty-fourth of May Celebration. The Brantford Expositor (22 May 1884)

Appendix B: Imperialism and the Tariff Question

1. “A Pertinent Question.” Diogenes (19 June 1869)
2. “The Effect of the National Policy” (c. 1891)
3. Sara Jeannette Duncan, “Imperial Sentiment in Canada.” Indian Daily News (7 October 1896)
4. From Goldwin Smith, “Commercial Union.” Canada and the Canadian Question (1891)
5. From Joseph Chamberlain, “Trade and The Empire.” Imperial Union and Tariff Reform: Speeches Delivered from May 15th to Nov. 4 1903 (1903)
6. “Hon. Geo. E. Foster Answers Sir Wilfrid Laurier” (1904)

Appendix C: Selected Reviews

1. Unsigned. “Canada and Imperial Policy.” New York Times (5 March 1904)
2. Unsigned. Times Literary Supplement (22 April 1904)
3. Unsigned. The Spectator (23 April 1904)
4. Mary K. Ford, “The Novel of the Month: Mrs. Cotes’ The Imperialist.” Current Literature (April 1904)
5. J[ean] G[raham], Saturday Night (4 June 1904)
6. Unsigned. Daily News [Toronto] (4 June 1904)
7. E. Hoyt, The Lamp (July 1904)
8. Unsigned. Canadian Magazine (July 1904)
9. Unsigned. The Globe [Toronto] (13 August 1904)

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Despite its literary excellence, The Imperialist can be a challenging book. The thoughtful notation and well-chosen appendices of this edition do much to overcome the distance created by the passage of a century that saw dramatic changes in ideas and social expectations. Misao Dean enables us to appreciate Sara Jeannette Duncan as a sophisticated woman who adhered to some values of her day and contested others, and to admire her courage in writing a realistic novel about highly-charged political issues whose legacy affects us today.” — Carole Gerson, Simon Fraser University

From the Publisher