"Not For Money, But Where Money Is" : Marriage, Choice and Constraint in Frances Brooke's 'The History of Emily Montague'

Abstract

"The History of Emily Montague" has been considered by critics ‘the first Canadian novel’, since it anticipates some of the main concerns of Canadian literature: the French-English conflicts, the contact with the wilderness and the tensions between nature and society. The novel could also be considered as a fruit of the 18th-century British literature, since it is written in epistolary form, makes references to classic literature and the French philosophes Rousseau and Voltaire, presents character-types and treats themes hold dear by the English culture of the time like the conflict between city and countryside, courtship and marriage.