SOURCE: Fowler, Marian. “Susanna Moodie.” In The Embroidered Tent; Five Gentlewomen in Early Canada: Elizabeth Simcoe, Catharine Parr Traill, Susanna Moodie, Anna Jameson, Lady Dufferin, pp. 93-131. Toronto: House of Anansi Press Limited, 1982.

In the following essay, Fowler presents Roughing It in the Bush as a blend of fact and fiction that borrows heavily from the conventions of the sentimental novel.

It is hard to imagine two sisters less alike than Catharine Parr Traill and Susanna Moodie. They were different in looks, in temperament, and in response to the New World. They were Snow White and Rose Red; they were Martha and Mary. They were Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, the Sense and Sensibility sisters of Jane Austen's novel. Susanna was a year younger than Catharine, born in 1803. She was tall and dark, thin and intense, with eyes deep-set and shadowed. She was not her father's favourite, but rather...