Of Words and Understanding in Grove's Settlers of the Marsh

Abstract

Michel de Montaigne, ironic assayer of perception and judgment, once observed that what may seem hot to one individual or group is not unlikely to seem cold to another. There is much in the criticism of the first of Frederick Philip Grove's published prairie novels, Settlers of the Marsh (1925), to suggest that the sceptic's ancient wisdom has worn well with time and much use. On the one hand, there is commentary such as Desmond Pacey's in the Literary History of Canada. (1965): while admitting to 'some improbabilities' in the relations of the three main characters in that fiction, he finds in favour of Grove's 'acute and profound' analysis of the 'motives' of the protagonist Niels Lindstedt and praises the 'brilliant fidelity' with which the author describes the northern Manitoba bush country and the homesteader's life there. In 1969, Ronald Sutherland also finds great virtue in the 'psychological depth' of the novel, judging Settlers of the Marsh Grove's 'finest achievement.' More recently, a reader's guide restates the value of 'the psychological realism of Grove's characterizations and the naturalistic description of the farms laid precariously upon the northern Manitoba landscape.'