Since the beginnings of white settlement in Newfoundland, writers have set down greatly varying impressions of its landscape and distinctive culture. Descriptions of the land's abundance and beauty collide with reports of its unrelieved barrenness. The image of a 'barbarous, perfidious, and cruel' people is countered by testimony to their shrewdness, resourcefulness, and good humour. The Rock Observed is a study of how Newfoundland has been perceived over the centuries by the islanders themselves and by outsiders. It ...
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Since the beginnings of white settlement in Newfoundland, writers have set down greatly varying impressions of its landscape and distinctive culture. Descriptions of the land's abundance and beauty collide with reports of its unrelieved barrenness. The image of a 'barbarous, perfidious, and cruel' people is countered by testimony to their shrewdness, resourcefulness, and good humour. The Rock Observed is a study of how Newfoundland has been perceived over the centuries by the islanders themselves and by outsiders. It offers an integrated survey of Newfoundland literature, culture, and history. It illustrates the forces that have made Newfoundland a special place and Newfoundlanders a special people, 'a breed apart.' Against a background of political, economic, and cultural history, Patrick O'Flaherty submits the conflicting literary impressions of his island to a searching critical analysis. He finds the writings of explorers, missionaries, settlers, adventurers, novelists, and poets to be limited, or enlivened, by their own characters and preconceptions. There emerges a sympathetic but unsentimental picture of Newfoundland and its people, informed throughout by O'Flaherty's keen awareness, based on an outport upbringing, of what Newfoundland has been and is.
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Seller's Description:
As New in As New jacket. Large 8vo. x (xix), 222 (2) pp, preface, b&w illustrations, maps, 1. 'It Passeth England': Literature of Discovery and Early Settlement, 1497-1670; 2. Fisthers of Men: Three Missionaries in Eighteenth-Century Newfoundland, 1764-98; 3. Walking New Ground: Books by two Newfoundland Pioneers, 1793-1895; 4. The Triumph of Sentiment: History and Commentary, 1793-1895; 5. The Lure of the North: Fiction and Travel Literature, 1850-1906; 6. Emigrant Muse: E.J. Pratt and Newfoundland, 1882-1907; 7. Bridging Two Worlds: Margared Dunley's Fiction, 1936-42; 8. Visions and Revisions: Some Writers in the new Foundland; 9. The Case of George Tuff: A Concluding Note; notes, credits for illustrations, index. First Edition, 1979. "Against a background of political, economic and cultural history the author submits the conflicting literary impressions of his island to a searching critical analysis. He finds the writings of explorers, missionaries, settlers, adventurers, novelists, and poets to be limited, or enlivened, by their own characters and preconceptions." from the jacket flap. Not Price Clipped. Pristine, no wear. Clean, tight and strong binding with no underlining, highlighting or marginalia. Illustrated tan cloth with brown lettering to spine.