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In 1832, Susanna Moodie, her husband, and her daughter immigrated to Canada from England in search of financial independence. In Roughing It iu the Bush, Moodie recounts the seven and a half years the family spent pioneering in the unsettled Canadian backwoods. The text reprinted in this Norton Critical Edition is the second English edition, of July 1852, chosen because it corrects errors in the first edition and adds selected material by Moodie that was not included in the first edition.

"Backgrounds" includes early and later portraits of Moodie, photographs of the Moodies' houses in England and Canada, one of Moodie's letters from the backwoods, and a map of Upper Canada. Also included in this section is an advertisement for the first edition, Charles Frederick Briggs's preface to the first American edition (1852), Susanna Moodie's introduction to the first Canadian edition (1871), John Moodie's "Canadian Sketches" from the second English edition, three separately published sketches by Susanna Moodie, and five letters from Susanna to John during his military appointment in the winter of 1839. "A Slight Sketch of the Early Life of Mrs. Moodie," by Catharine Parr Traill--Susanna Moodie's sister--and five contemporary reviews are also reprinted.

"Criticism" collects twelve essays by leading Canadian writers, scholars, and literary critics: Margaret Atwood, Carl Ballstadt, David Stouck, John Thurston, D. M. R. Bentley, Bina Freiwald, Susan Glickman, Michael A. Peterman, Carole Gerson, Misao Dean, and Helen M. Buss,

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Introduction

The Text of Roughing It in the Bush

 Choice of Text and Editing Strategy

Backgrounds

 Illustrations

 Map

 Advertisement for the First Edition

 C. F. B.·Preface to Roughing It in the Bush

 Susanna Moodie·Introduction to the 1871 Edition

 John Moodie·Canadian Sketches

 Susanna Moodie·Old Woodruff and His Three Wives

 Susanna Moodie·Jeanie Burns

 Susanna Moodie·Lost Children

 Susanna Moodie's Letters to Her Husband, 1839

 Catharine Parr Traill·A Slight Sketch of the Early Life of Mrs. Moodie

 [Frederick Hardmann]·Forest Life in Canada West

 [Anonymous]·The Backwoods of Canada

 [Charles Lyndsay]·Misrepresentation

 [Anonymous]·Review from The Provincial: or, Halifax Monthly Magazine

 [Anonymous]·Review from The Canadian Monthly and National Review

Criticism

 Margaret Atwood·Afterword to The Journals of Susanna Moodie

 Carl Ballstadt·Susanna Moodie and the English Sketch

 David Stouck·"Secrets of the Prison-House": Mrs. Moodie and the

Canadian Imagination

 John Thurston·Rewriting Roughing It

 D. M. R. Bentley·Breaking the "Cake of Custom":

The Atlantic Crossing as a Rubicon for Female Emigrants to Canada?

 Bina Freiwald·"The tongue of woman": The Language of the

Self in Moodie's Roughing it in the Bush

 Susan Glickman·The Waxing and Waning of Susanna Moodie's "Enthusiasm"

 Michael A. Peterman·Roughing It in Michigan and Upper Canada:

Caroline Kirldand and Susanna Moodie

 Carole Gerson·Nobler Savages: Representations of Native Women

in the Writings of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill

 Michael A. Peterman·Reconstructing the Palladium of British

America: How the Rebellion of 1837 and Charles Fothergill Helped

to Establish Susanna Moodie as a Writer in Canada

 Misao Dean·The Broken Mirror of Domestic Ideology: Femininity

as Textual Practice in Susanna Moodie's Autobiographical Works

 Helen M. Buss·Two Exemplary Early Texts: Moodie's Roughing It

and Jameson's Studies and Rambles

Susanna Strickland Moodie: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography