Ernest Buckler's The Mountain and the Valley (1952) is a fine example of the pastoral impulse, and its meaning is greatly illuminated when viewed within the framework of the pastoral tradition. When the novel is considered in these terms, one is able to perceive the profound manner in which Buckler transforms his geographically-, chronologically- and morally-defined pastoral world into a spiritual landscape itself symbolic of the mind of his semi-autobiographical protagonist, David Canaan….

Like some special form of latter-day enclosed garden, Entremont [the novel's geographical setting] (as the name suggests) is bounded by North and South Mountains and for David Canaan, by a river to the north "cut wide by the Fundy tides" … and a stream to the south. These natural barriers, which are constantly referred to in the novel, offer David a choice between the world of the Valley and the world beyond, and, as the novel develops...