SOURCE: "Beyond the Pale: Gender, 'Savagery,' and the Colonial Project in Richardson's Wacousta," in Essays on Canadian Writing, No. 54, Winter, 1994, pp. 46-59.

In the essay below, Jones discusses themes of assimilation, imperialism, gender, and savagery in Wacousta.

She has perchance wrestled with her engagement, as the aboriginals of a land newly discovered by a crew of adventurous colonists do battle with the garments imposed on them by our considerate civilization;—ultimately to rejoice with excessive dignity in the wearing of a battered cocked-hat and trowsers not extending to the shanks: but she did not break her engagement, sir; and we will anticipate that, moderating a young woman's native wildness, she may, after the manner of my comparison, take a similar pride in her fortune in good season.

—George Meredith

In Reaches of Empire: The English Novel From Edgeworth to Dickens, Suvendrini Perera uses the passage that appears...