Synopses & Reviews
Walking out on a demoralizing second marriage, Maggie Lloyd leaves Vancouver to work at a fishing lodge in the interior of British Columbia. But the serenity of Maggies new surroundings is soon disturbed by the irrational jealousy of the lodge-keepers wife. Restoring her own broken spirit, Maggie must also become a healer to others. In this, she is supported by her eccentric friend, Nell Severance, whose pearl-handled revolver - the Swamp Angel - becomes Maggies ambiguous talisman and the novels symbolic core.
Ethel Wilsons best-loved novel, Swamp Angel first appeared in 1954. It remains an astute and powerful study of one womans integrity and of the redemptive power of compassion.
Synopsis
McClelland & Stewart's elegant New Canadian Library series acknowledges and celebrates Canada's glorious literary achievements. Original Afterwords and bibliographies by leading writers complete each book.
-- Over 300 years of excellence in Canadian writing
-- Over one million sold since 1990
About the Author
Ethel Wilson was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1888. She was taken to England at the age of two after her mother died. Seven years later her father died, and in 1898 she came to Vancouver to live with her maternal grandmother. She received her teachers certificate from the Vancouver Normal School in 1907 and taught in many local elementary schools until her marriage in 1921.
In the 1930s Wilson published a few short stories and began a series of family reminiscences which were later transformed into The Innocent Traveller. Her first published novel, Hetty Dorval, appeared in 1947, and her fiction career ended fourteen years later with the publication of her story collection, Mrs. Golightly and Other Stories. Through her compassionate and often ironic narration, Wilson explores in her fiction the moral lives of her characters.
For her contribution to Canadian literature, Wilson was awarded the Canada Council Medal in 1961 and the Lorne Pierce Medal of the Royal Society of Canada in 1964. Her husband died in 1966, and she spent her later years in seclusion and ill-health.
Ethel Wilson died in Vancouver in 1980.