The Imperialist

Elisabeth Anne MacDonald-Murray is an assistant professor of English at
the University of Western Ontario.

Sara Jeanette Duncan’s 1903 novel of politics and society in
small-town, turn-of-the-century Ontario is a classic of early Canadian
literature. The Imperialist has been described by Carol Shields as
prophetic, while Carole Gerson has praised Duncan’s writing for its
“marriage of form and content almost unique in Canadian fiction until
the modern era.” Duncan, a native of Brantford who went on to a career
in journalism before embarking on a world tour and finally settling in
India, created in The Imperialist a multi-layered narrative that
examines the process of nation building within the expanding circles of
a family, a community, and a country. Written with a narrative tone of
pervasive gentle irony, the text reveals Duncan’s profound interest in
the inner workings of society and her fascination with the interaction
of the individual and the community, particularly when the explosive
dynamic of politics is involved. Her work as a Parliamentary reporter in
Ottawa provided her with a keen analytical grasp of Canadian politics
and a shrewd awareness of the strange mixture of idealism and
self-interest that characterizes political debate.

In this critical edition of The Imperialist, Thomas Tausky has expanded
and updated his earlier edition, published in 1988, and appended a
series of articles and extracts that represent some of the best in
recent scholarship on Duncan and this novel. The text is taken from the
first British and Canadian editions of the novel, and Tausky has
included a textual appendix, which records variants between the original
British serialization and the eventual published edition, and extensive
explanatory notes that provide important political, historical, and
social background. Of particular interest to Duncan scholars are her
letters to a number of correspondents concerning the development and
composition of the novel. Also included are early reviews of The
Imperialist, which Tausky later discusses in his essay “The Audiences
of The Imperialist.” His selection of literary articles, both new and
reprinted, covers a wide range of contemporary scholarship in the field,
from narrative theory to post-colonial to Marxist.

This meticulously edited book provides an excellent and much-needed
resource for students and scholars alike.