In class we read an excerpt in From Ink Lake by Ethel Wilson entitled “Swamp Angel”, and I found the entry very amusing. Since the basis of the novel could not be determined by the entry, I decided to do a bit of research regarding Wilson and her novel.
Ethel Wilson was born in 1888 in South Africa. She moved to England after her mother passed away, and then to Vancouver to live with her grandmother after the death of her father in 1898. She became an elementary school teacher before she began writing stories; her first published novel was called Hetty Dorval.
Wilson is known as “…one of the first Canadian writers to capture truly the rugged and unsurpassed beauty of the BC landscape.” She depicted particular places that she cherished like the English Bay area. She won a multitude of honors because of her contributions to Canadian literature. The Canada Council Medal, the Lorne Pierce Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, and the Order of Canada Medal. There is even an award named the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; this is given annually to the best piece of fiction written in British Columbia.
Today, Ethel Wilson is considered one of the most prominent Canadian feminist writers; the social responsibility of men and women is a theme woven throughout her works. This theme is evident in Swamp Angel, published in 1954, which is deemed one of her finest pieces of literature.
Swamp Angel centers around a woman named Maggie Lloyd, who, as we concluded in class, is struggling with a demoralizing marriage with a domineering husband (Edward Vardoe) and the search for her own identity. The excerpt we read is at the beginning of the novel. Maggie leaves her home in Vancouver for the interior of BC, where she finds work at a fishing lodge. Unfortunately, the lodge-keeper’s wife becomes sickly jealous of Maggie, so she must not only repair her own broken spirit, but help heal others’ as well. Maggie’s friend, Nell Severance is her aide throughout the novel, although the women only meet once in person (they communicate through letters).
The title “Swamp Angel” refers to Nell’s pearl-handled revolver; the gun becomes Maggie’s after Nell’s death and is a symbolic talisman in the novel because it evokes fear and represents power. The novel brings about complexities and relationship issues and, by its end, Maggie learns of independence, but also realizes that everyone must rely on each other in order to live successfully and happily.
The few pages of Swamp Angel that we did discuss is just a small portion of the story, and I think it would be a beneficial novel to read because Wilson is a prominent Canadian novelist and the themes in her work reflect her own life and experiences.
Citations:
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/wilson.htm
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4750
http://www.abcbookworld.com/?state=view_author&author_id=3051