Roughing It in the Bush

The year is 1832. A young English bride steps off a ship into the rough colonial wilds of Upper Canada, her corsets and expectations firmly intact. What follows is one of the earliest and most vivid accounts of pioneer life in British North America, told with a wit so sharp it cuts through a century and a half of sentimental nostalgia. Susanna Moodie left England with her husband, armed with the false promises of land-agents who painted Canada as a gentle paradise of easy fortunes. She found endless labor, isolation, disease, and a landscape that cared nothing for her genteel sensibilities. Yet this is not a tale of misery. Moodie's genius lies in her irrepressible humor, her sharp eye for absurdity, and her refusal to collapse into self-pity. She mocks the pretensions of fellow emigrants, chronicles the comical disasters of homesteading, and finds unexpected grace notes in the wilderness. Her book became a sensation because it told the truth no one wanted to hear. More than a historical document, it's a survivor's memoir, a comic masterpiece, and a window into the colonial Canadian experience that remains startlingly fresh.