Flora Lyndsay is Susanna Moodie’s prequel to Roughing it in the Bush and Life in the Clearings. Though Moodie fictionalizes herself in the context of this novel, Flora Lyndsay remains a close personalized record of her family’s experiences in planning their emigration and crossing the Atlantic.

Despite the limited critical attention it receives, Flora Lyndsay reveals Moodie’s style, her sense of form, and her distinctive approach to writing female autobiography. This edition, complete with a wide corpus of endnotes, an extensive list of emendations, and a critical introduction, helps address this oversight and gives a closer look at the iconic phenomenon that is Susanna Moodie.

Susanna Moodie (1803-1885) was the youngest of the scribbling Strickland sisters. After marrying John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie in 1831, she immigrated to the backwoods of Upper Canada where she raised a large family and wrote old-world novels and autobiographical accounts of her settlement. She is a landmark of early Canadian literature who has influenced great authors such as Margaret Atwood and Carol Shields.

Susanna Moodie's profile page

Michael Peterman is Professor Emeritus at Trent University. In addition to many articles and reviews, he has written or edited fourteen books, including biographies of Susanna Moodie (Susanna Moodie: A Life) and her sister Catharine Parr Traill (Sisters in Two Worlds). He has won Trent’s Distinguished Research Award and has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Michael A. Peterman's profile page