The Infinite Bonds of Family: Domesticity in Canada, 1850–1940 by Cynthia R. Comacchio (review)

442 letters in canada 1999 the much-quoted passage: `It was like a voice from some new paradise of art calling us to be up and doing.' Ross S. Kilpatrick's scholarly edition of Orion, and Other Poems makes Roberts's book available again for the first time since it appeared in 1880. It is an inexpensive paperback of good quality. The scholarship and editing are impeccable. Hence it will be useful to lay readers and scholars alike. Kilpatrick is a classical scholar, and one of the most valuable aspects of the book is his expert explanation of the influence upon the work of Roberts's own classical learning. The introduction is a substantial essay in two parts. The first part surveys the book's reception from the first reviews to the more recent studies by Desmond Pacey, Roy Daniells, and L. R. Early. The second is justly critical of the view up to now ascendant in which Roberts's and the other Confederation poets' works are routinely discounted. Explicitly to challenge this view, Kilpatrick posits these `imperative' questions, research into which may begin with the publication of this edition: How do the collection and its constituent poems measure up against contemporary work in Canada and abroad? What were the young Roberts' literary models and influences, and personal experiences, and what did he create from them? What were his principles of organization in selecting, assembling and shaping those early poems into a book? How did Orion, and Other Poems and its success affect Roberts' own development as a poet and writer, and that of contemporary and subsequent Canadian poets? For several years now, D. M. R. Bentley's Canadian Poetry Press, a small scholarly press associated with the literary journal Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, and Reviews, has been publishing scholarly editions of early Canadian long poems originally published between 1789 and 1900, works of the Confederation poets, and critical studies of Canadian poetry. Kilpatrick's edition of Orion, and Other Poems is part of a series devoted to the production of editions and critical studies of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Canadian poetry (Post-Confederation Poetry: Texts and Contexts) initiated in 1996. Orion, and Other Poems is a welcome addition to the series and an important contribution to the cultural work being done today in Canadian literature. (R.A. KIZUK) Cynthia R. Comacchio. The Infinite Bonds of Family: Domesticity in Canada, 1850B1940 University of Toronto Press. 182. $45.00, $12.95 When reading Cynthia Comacchio's The Infinite Bonds of Family, one might easily forget the particular time period that the book covers. For even humanities 443 while this concise survey of domesticity in Canada aptly addresses historical change over time, it also points to the cyclical ways in which families have responded to economic transformations, to war, and to social upheavals at various points in history. More specifically, Comacchio demonstrates that the late twentieth-century distress about the family `in crisis' was an equal concern more than a century ago when Canada emerged as a new nation. Many of the questions related to the history of the family then deal with what particular issues induced this perception of crisis and what outside solutions and internal adjustments were offered to regain a sense of security. Comacchio organizes her study into three parts, or `punctuation points,' that jolted and unsettled family life during this time period: the Industrial Revolution, the First World War, and the Depression. In light of the stresses and opportunities wrought by these events, families struggled to find `equilibrium,' and societal structures, in turn, were generated to respond to new family models. Fundamental to her approach is the recognition that even while familial bonds are `infinite,' ideas about domestic life and also the lived reality of individual families is consistently varied and ever-changing. The author points to four major factors that precipitated change. A significant influence beginning in the mid-nineteenth century was the shift in economic production from the domestic sphere to the factory setting, which essentially eliminated labour B that deemed valuable by society B as a function of the family and removed it to outside institutions. The declining role of the family unit...