‘The Talented Intruder’: Wyndham Lewis in Canada, 1939–1945 by Catharine M. Mastin (review)

236 LEITERS IN CANADA 1992 favourite remains Maude.) The two bibliographies of criticism in the appendixes cover the works summarized in chapter 7, and Englishlanguage criticism on the novel from 1979 to 1991. The reader is referred to English-language bibliographies of Tolstoy before 1979; I would add that Amy Mandelker has recently published an excellent book on Anna Karenina entitled Framing JAnna Karenina': Tolstoy, the Woman Question, and the Victorian Novel (1994). Turner has produced a well-written, well-organized aid for the Englishspeaking reader of Anna Karenina. It, especially in its sixth and longest chapter, provides indispensable and previously unavailable information about the novel. (DONNA ORWIN) Catharine M. Mastin et al. 'The Talented Intruder': Wyndham Lewis in Canada, 1939-1945 Art Gallery of Windsor 1992. 200. $25.00 The purpose of this book is primarily that of an exhibition catalogue - a format most familiar to gallery-goers, art historians, and museum curators. It was designed to accompany an exhibition of the same name which was organized by the Art Gallery of Windsor and subsequently circulated to the Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick, and to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, in 1993. As such, the book contains 181 illustrations, a catalogue listing of works included in the exhibition, a chronology, and a useful exhibition history of Lewis's work within a Canadian context, in addition to four scholarly essays exploring the multifaceted nature of Lewis's creative activity during his self-imposed 'exile' in Canada during the Second World War. As in the case of many ambitious publications of this nature, 'The Talented Intruder' goes beyond simply documenting the exhibition that brought together Lewis's drawings and paintings from a certain period. The introductory essay by Catharine Mastin and Robert Stacey painstakingly records his lifelong connections with Canada and examines each of his creative activities in light of the others, looking for consistency of thought across the disciplines of literature and the visual arts. The book makes an important contribution to Lewis studies, for it assesses his achievements in Canada and measures his influence on Canadian art and artists. The years he spent in Canada have been previously assessed largely in terms of his literary activity. Lewis himself reinforced the widely held belief that his years spent in Canada - 'a very small and backward country' - were devoid of any creativity, if we take the 1954 novel Self-Condemned, based on his experiences in Canada, as evidence. The authors claim, and indeed demonstrate, that his North American period, from the fall of 1939 to the summer of 1945, was 'a time of self- HUMANITIES 237 assessment and reflection on the future as well as on the past.' Robert Stacey contends that Lewis's 'Tudor period' (spent in depressing surroundings in Toronto's Tudor Hotel with his wife Anne) turned out to be 'an interlude of concentrated creativity and artistic if not personal fulfilment' - and if, as Walter Michel, editor of the Lewis letters, points out, periods of isolation were necessary for Lewis to recharge his creative batteries, then isolation was something that Toronto could indeed offer in those days. Perhaps, as a national characteristic, Canadians are eager to know what others think of us, and here is another useful purpose served by the Windsor catalogue. It evaluates the response of an arrogant imperialist (it was Lewis who referred to himself as 'the talented intruder') to a nation that was once a colony of Great Britain and was, in many respects, still culturally dependent upon it. At the same time, the catalogue chronicles the response to him of that nation, particularly of its cultural elite. It is interesting to note Lewis's support of the Group of Seven and particularly A.Y. Jackson. We learn that the main object of his article 'Nature's Place in Canadian Culture' was to do personal service to his friend Jackson. Catharine Mastin, curator of historical Canadian art at the Art Gallery of Windsor, contributes the most useful essay in this regard. 'The Talented Intruder' fully documents Lewis's contact with Canada and evaluates the importance of his Canadian sojourn. His move to North America in 1939 was motivated by a desire to...