The art of Frederick Philip Grove: Settlers of the Marsh as an example

The art of Frederick Philip Grove: Settlers of the Marsh as an example W. J. KEITH Ever since its first publication in 1925. Settlers of the Marsh has attracted varied and often contradictory critical response's. It has been hailed as an example of prairierealism and distinguished from Grove's other prairie-novels; it has been condemned for alleged obscenity and praised for its frankness and integrity; it has been commended for its dour starkness and criticized for its "happy ending." Unfortunately, it has rarely been the subject of any rigorous literary criticism. Commentators have recorded their reactions and stated their positions but have generally neglected to demonstrate its artistic qualities. There has been little attempt to probe beneath the surface of the narrative , no exacting scrutiny of the novel's texture . The same might be said, indeed, of all Grove's work. There exists, I suspect, an uneasy feeling that his fiction would not respond satisfactorily to such treatment. But the time has surely come when this kind of experiment needs to be made. Grove's reputation will not, I think, suffer in consequence; on the contrary, it should be strengthened. I have chosen Settlers of the Marsh for initial examination because I believe that here Grove employs his artistic virtuosity, not indeed with complete success, but with a deliberation and a sense of conscious purpose that we do not encounter again in his work until The Master of the Mill, which the uncharacteristic subject-matter renders a unique case. It is in the story of Niels Lindstedt that Grove's habitual artistry can be most readily isolated, examined and discussed . The inevitable classification of Settlers of the Marsh as a prairi"e-novel has been the cause of some natural, but no less unfortu26 nate, limiting critical judgments. The realistic presentation of pioneering-life in the Canadian mid-west is obviously an important ingredient in the total effect, but it would be a mistake to assume that the novel is confined to this level of interest. If we ask ourselves what the novel is about, we soon realize that it is not confined to a single topic. Though a number of other subjects could doubtless be added, the following list may be useful in isolating what seem to me the most significant themes: the relation between an individual and his environment (the creation of "roots," etc.); the natural versus the artificial; town versus country; the distinction between innocence and naivete; an exploration of the nature of duty; the human response to what Grove describes - not altogether happily - in a chapter-title of Our Daily Bread as "the leaven of sex." If this breakdown of themes is accepted, two conclusions surely follow: first, that the novel concerns itself with issues that transcend the boundaries of purely regional fiction; second, that the attempt to combine these themes into a single work - an attempt which I hope to show is impressive but not entirely successful - can only be accomplished by means of a conscious and controlled artistry. Again, a literary approach to Settlers of the Marsh can easily be inhibited by unjustified assumptions concerning the nature of the chronicle-form. The temporal and realistically descriptive aspects of the book are thus emphasized to the neglect of less obvious but ultimately, I believe, more crucial artistic effects. Commentators have tended to concentrate on general discussions of the main characters - at what, I am bound to say, seems to me a superficial level - and to touch on other matters, such as dialogue, style, credibility (e.g., is Clara Vogel a likely character to be found in a pioneering-community ?), presentation of the natural environment , etc., as if these were isolatable elements and not inter-connecting parts of a complex literary design. I hope in the followRevue d'etudes canadiennes ing pages to explore this design, to emphasize the creative contribution of Grove not merely as observer and describer but as novelist, and to argue that the resultant effect involves a depth and subtlety whicn may have been sensed by individual readers but has never been critically analyzed and demonstrated. Before proceeding, however, it is necessary to anticipate two possible objections. The first concerns...