Name Frances Brooke Role Novelist | Other names Frances Moore Lappe | |
Occupation English-Canadian writer Books The History of Emily Montague, The excursion, The History of Lady Julia Man, Manners: A Novel, The History of Emily Montagu |
The History of Emily Montague 1769 by Frances Brooke 1724-1789
Frances Brooke (née Moore; 12 January 1724 – 23 January 1789) was an English novelist, essayist, playwright and translator.
Contents
- The History of Emily Montague 1769 by Frances Brooke 1724 1789
- Biography
- Death
- Works
- Studies of Brookes Works
- Legacy
- References
Biography
Frances Moore was born in Claypole, Lincolnshire, the daughter of a clergyman. By the late 1740s, she had moved to London, where she embarked on her career as a poet and playwright. Under the pseudonym of Mary Singleton, Spinster, she also edited thirty-seven issues of her own weekly periodical, Old Maid (1755–56).
In 1756 she married Rev. Dr. John Brooke, rector at Colney, Norfolk. The following year he left for Canada as a military chaplain while his wife remained in England. In 1763 she wrote her first novel, The History of Lady Julia Mandeville. In the same year Brooke sailed to Quebec, Canada to join her husband, who was then chaplain to the British garrison there. In autumn 1768 she returned to London, where she continued her career.
Brooke was well-known in London's literary and theatrical communities. In 1769 she published The History of Emily Montague, the first novel written in Canada. This brief stint in North America has caused some critics to label her "the first novelist in North America." Evidence of Brooke's wisdom and experience of life and its vicissitudes is apparent in her writing. One exemplary observation reflects that "It is a painful consideration, my dear, that the happiness or misery of our lives are generally determined before we are proper judges of either."
Also in 1769, Frances Brooke's novel The History of Emily Montague was used in the earliest Oxford English Dictionary citation for the hyperbolic or figurative sense of "literally"; the sentence from the novel used was, "He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies." This citation was also used in the OED's 2011 revision.
Death
Brooke died in Sleaford, England, aged 65.
Works
Studies of Brooke's Works
Note: most entries below are from the Selected bibliography: Frances Moore Brooke by Jessica Smith and Paula Backscheider, which additionally offers references to editions of Frances Brooke's works as well as full-length critical monographs and biographical studies of the author.
Legacy
Brooke is widely regarded by literary historians and critics as being the first Canadian novelist after writing her 1769 work The History of Emily Montague. Her literary critical reception is based mostly on this publication, and has been popular among scholars after its recovery, with more than a dozen scholarly articles written on its subject matter as of 2004, as well as seeing modern paperback reprints including a definitive scholarly edition. Critics of Brooke have studied themes present in Emily Montague, such as applying free-trade imperialism to eighteenth century Canada, proto-feminism, and displacing the French Catholic threat in British Columbian colonies.
While the purpose and material of Emily Montague is often the subject of debate between critics, it's reception as a work onto itself is largely neutral to negative. Contemporarily, critics such as Dermot Mccarthy write that "Brooke's inability to imagine her ambivalence... is understandable given her time and background... However, her failure should not be endorsed." Desmond Pacey, in his book Essays in Canadian Criticism, writes that "[Emily Montague]'s artistic shortcomings are obvious: the plot is thin, conventional, repetitive, and poorly integrated with the informative sections of the book; the style is generally stilted and monotonous; the characters, with one or two exceptions, are traditional in conception and deficient in life; the whole performance is heavily didactic and sentimental." Juliet McMaster cites Emily Montague as a source of inspiration and parody for Jane Austen's story Love and Freindship, but states that overall, "Emily Montague is no mean literary achievement." Even in its own time, the novel was divisive in its value. The Monthly Review, in its September 1769 issue, wrote "[the novel's] frost pieces... decorate a short story which has nothing extraordinary in it.” It is also of important not that while Brooke is contemporarily popularized as a Candian novelist, Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia's entry on Brookes states "Brooke's work was based on English models and had no perceptible effect on Canadian literature."
Other works by Brooke, such as her 1777 novel The Excursion have received some scholarly receptions for their pastoral traditions as well as their political satire against the English theatre industry of the eighteenth century, while some of her works such as her 1981 play The Siege of Sinopoe have close to no reception. Brooke's personal life is the subject of a number of scholarly journals, mostly relating to her relationships with actors David Garrick and Mary Ann Yates. Brooke herself has been the subject of her own monograph, and in recent years has gained popularity as the "destroyer of English (not literally)" due to an online article published by the University of Pennsylvania, which regards Brooke as being used in the earliest Oxford English Dictionary citation of the hyperbolic use of the word "literally" to mean "figuratively".
In 1985, the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature approved 337 names to be assigned to features on the surface of Venus, and honored Brooke by naming a crater after her.