James Reaney

The Box Social & Other Stories gathers together nine of James Reaney's short fictions written in the 40s and early 50s and never previously collected in book form. The collection takes its title from a short piece the author originally published in the University College Undergrad and which provoked a firestorm of eight hundred angry letters from subscribers when it was republished nationally in the New Liberty in the late 40s. It also thwarted the young author's designs on the editorship of the Undergrad because of his clear moral unsuitability for such an august position. (This is doubtful, because the Undergrad eventually came to be edited, thirty years later, by PQL publisher Tim Inkster.) `The Box Social' is remarkable, not only that it introduced the theme of date rape to Canadian literature some thirty years before the phrase was coined, but also that it is told from Sylvia's point of view, and yet again that it ends with one of the quietest lines of literary vitriol imaginable ... ` ``I hated you so much, '' she said softly.' If Alice Munro has put the sexually awakening female under glass in Lives of Girls and Women, then The Box Social could just as easily have been titled Lives of Boys and Men. In `The Bully', the brutality of what passes for etiquette in secondary school is contrasted with the simpler life of the farm personified in Noreen who drops grain in the shape of letters to feed her chickens -- `so that when the hens ate the grain they were forced to spell out Noreen's initials or to form a cross and circle. There were just enough hens to make this rather an interesting game. Sometimes, I know, Noreen spelled out whole sentences in this way, a letter or two each night, and I often wondered to whom she was writing up in the sky.' `The Bully' was included in The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories edited by Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver. The young Margaret Atwood first encountered `The Bully' as an undergraduate. She read the story, oddly enough, in an anthology edited by Robert Weaver, and the experience was apparently seminal to her own development as a writer of fiction ...

The Box Social and Other Stories

Alice Through the Looking-Glass was originally commissioned by Stratford Festival Foundation under the artistic directorship of David William. The play opened July 10, 1994 at the Avon Theatre. This edition also contains illustrations by Sir John Tenniel as they appeared in the original (1872) Macmillan edition of Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there. When Alice passes through into the Looking Glass World, she suddenly finds herself in a bizarre and chaotic chess game that leads her on an unforgettable adventure. She encounters a dizzying array of extraordinary characters that include talking flowers, Kings and Queens, Tweedledee and Tweedledum and Humpty Dumpty himself. This brand new stage adaptation by one of Canada's most beloved authors and playwrights was a feature production of the 1994 Stratford Festival season. In addition to the text of the play, James Reaney provides the reader with background information and notes as well as useful suggestions for those wishing to stage their own production of Lewis Carroll's classic tale.

Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass

The title of A Suit of Nettles was inspired by a German fairy tale. Seven suits of nettles are woven by the sister of seven brothers who have been changed into swans. When the time comes for the seven swans to put on their suits of nettles and regain human form, the arm of one suit is not finished. Consequently one brother always has one swan’s wing instead of an arm. The poem, like Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar, is a sequence of pastoral eclogues, one for each month of the year, but here the dialogues are not between bucolic swans, they are between Ontario geese! Although the goose-eye view is bound to be somewhat restricting there is much carefully observed detail about farm houses, spring in a small pond, summer in a pasture and the small town Ontario Fall Fair. There are some ambitious satirical wallops at the English critical school headed by F. R. Leavis, at philosophy, progressive education and Canadian history. Here is a poet who believes in merry invective. Lively, fanciful, humorous, this poem is also remarkable for its metrical ingenuity and skilful contrasts of harsh, brassy passages with mellifluous lyric. Parts of it were read on the CBC radio programme Anthology in the mid-1950s and the April Eclogue first appeared in The Tamarack Review.

A Suit of Nettles

Jack Chambers

Poems

The Dance of Death at London, Ontario

`It is a pleasure to find that James Reaney's first book for children, first published by Macmillan of Canada in 1965, has just been re-issued in a handsome paperback edition, complete with the original illustrations by Leo Rampen. The Boy with an R in His Hand tells the story of two orphan brothers who arrive in York from the Red River Settlement in 1826 and quickly become involved with the complex politics of Upper Canada. Joel, the elder brother, aligns himself with the Family Compact and his overbearing, stuffy uncle, while Alex, more imaginative and courageous, becomes an apprentice to William Lyon Mackenzie at the Colonial Advocate. There he (and the reader) learn in some detail about Mackenzie's press and the art of type-setting. Alex, rather improbably, ``had it set up right, and from that moment on his progress in the skill of type-setting was... like a house on fire.'' `This is a satisfying, fast-moving story, full of incident and detail about colonial life. It climaxes with the wrecking of Mackenzie's printshop and press by a band of young Tories acting with the implicit approval of the government, at the end of which Alex finds a single capital R, his souvenir of life as a printer's apprentice. Recommended for ages nine and up, as a piece of Canadiana which enlivens history for the young reader.' -- Marilyn Rueter, The Devil's Artisan.

The Boy with an R in His Hand

The title of A Suit of Nettles was inspired by a German fairy tale. Seven suits of nettles are woven by the sister of seven brothers who have been changed into swans. When the time comes for the seven swans to put on their suits of nettles and regain human form, the arm of one suit is not finished. Consequently one brother always has one swan's wing instead of an arm. The poem, like Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, is a sequence of pastoral eclogues, one for each month of the year, but here the dialogues are not between bucolic swans, they are between Ontario geese! Although the goose-eye view is bound to be somewhat restricting there is much carefully observed detail about farm houses, spring in a small pond, summer in a pasture and the small town Ontario Fall Fair. There are some ambitious satirical wallops at the English critical school headed by F. R. Leavis, at philosophy, progressive education and Canadian history. Here is a poet who believes in merry invective. Lively, fanciful, humorous, this poem is also remarkable for its metrical ingenuity and skilful contrasts of harsh, brassy passages with mellifluous lyric. Parts of it were read on the CBC radio programme Anthology in the mid-1950s and the April Eclogue first appeared in The Tamarack Review.

Germaine Warkentin

Robin Skelton

Hugh Garner

Scott Symons

Voyageur Classics is a series of special versions of Canadian classics, with added material and new introductions. In this bundle we find five classic works of twentieth century fiction, drama and poetry, a period when Canada’s literary identity was shaped. Originally published in 1962, The Silence on the Shore is considered by many critics to be renowned Hugh Garner’s best, most ambitious novel. Originally published in 1967, Combat Journal for Place d’Armes was initially met with shock and anger by most reviewers but has become a literary touchstone. The Donnellys tells the tale of a secret society and a massacre that shocked the Canadian public, a story overlooked by the artistic community until Reaney’s 1975 play elevated the events to the level of legend. In This Poem I Am presents the best of poet Robin Skelton’s adventurous poetry. And Exploration Literature is a groundbreaking collection of early writing inspired by the opening of a continent, an entry point into the beginnings of a literate response to the awe and wonder inspired by an unfolding geography. Includes Canadian Exploration Literature Combat Journal for Place d’Armes The Donnellys In This Poem I Am The Silence on the Shore

The Silence on the Shore / Combat Journal for Place d'Armes / The Donnellys / In This Poem I Am / Canadian Exploration Literature

The Voyageur Modern Canadian Literature 5-Book Bundle

Wacousta! is a tale of adventure, intrigue, mystery, and love set in 1763 at the British forts of Detroit and Michilimackinac. The story was first told by Major John Richardson in a novel written in 1832. Within two years it had become an internationally famous romance, whose appeal has lasted down to the present day. This nineteenth-century story thrilled audiences with accounts of sieges, family feuds, romantic love and, most of all, revenge. Now James Reaney has taken this thrilling romance and reworked it into a contemporary play, filled with colour, adventure, comedy and the exaggerated passions of melodrama.

Wacousta!

James Reaney is one of Canada's favourite poets and playwrights; at the intersection of his dramatic and poetic talents is Scripts, a collection of musical writings. There are nine complete works here, including the chamber opera Night-blooming Cereus, the poetry/music collage (and Governor General's Award winner) Twelve Letters to a Small Town, the Canada Dot, Canada Dashtrilogy and operas Shivaree, Taptoo!and Serinette. Many of these pieces have been published individually, but none are in print, and they have never been amassed.

James Reaney

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