Marian and the Major : Marian Engel's Elizabeth and the golden city

Rains, a former soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, immigrated to Canada at the same period as Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. He brought with him his wards, sisters Frances and Elizabeth. The three settled on St Joseph Island in northern Ontario, where their unusual domestic arrangement caught the attention and imagination of, among others, the nineteenth-century British travel-writer Anna Jameson, the Swiss born naturalist and explorer Louis Agassiz, the American poet William Cullen Bryant, and the Canadian novelist Marian Engel. Contains The Unfinished Work Elizabeth And The Golden City And Biographical And Critical Chapters On Marian Engel And Her Subject Matter. Introduction -- The Major And Marian. Major William Kingdom Rains ; Lake Simcoe, Upper Canada ; St. Joseph Island ; Sister Stories ; Illustrations -- Marian Engel, Elizabeth And The Golden City. Introduction -- Montreal. Elizabeth And The Golden City ; The Major And His Diary, I ; The Major At Mcgill ; The Major And His Diary, Ii ; Middle-age Memories Of Montreal ; Elizabeth On Her Education ; Leaving Montreal -- Toronto. Toronto ; Elizabeth In Her ; Elizabeth At 50, Remembering Her ; Elizabeth, Publisher And Writer ; The Major's Funeral ; Elizabeth Finds Her Father ; Elizabeth In The Hospital -- Trompe L'Œil. Agassiz And Bryant Visit The Major ; Elizabeth And The Golden City : A Lexicon. Edited By Christl Verduyn. Includes Index. Includes Bibliographical References: P. [301]-303. In Marian and the Major Christl Verduyn brings together the story of Major William Kingdom Rains and the compelling fictionalized version of his life, "Elizabeth and the Golden City," created by novelist Marian Engel. Making this unfinished classic available, Marian and the Major also brings together the story of Major William Kingdom Rains and the compelling fictionalized version that Marian Engel made of his life.