Roughing It In The Bush; Or Life In Canada. Moodie, Susanna.

London: Richard Bentley, 1854. 3rd Edition with additions. 2 volumes bound together. Thick 8vo. xx + 293pp + 336pp + 2pp (advertisements). Original green blind stamped cloth, with cabin in forest scene in gilt on front cover. Lemon endpapers. Fresh and clean inside. Remarkably fine almost unblemished copy. Canada became the great land-mark for "the rich in hope and poor in purse." General interest was kept alive by publications which enthusiastically described all the good points to be derived from a settlement in the Backwoods of Canada, while carefully concealing the toil and hardship. Moodie describes the difficulties of clearing the land, coping with winter, communications, and finding help. She ends up calling the backwoods "the prison house" and dwells on sickness, death, danger, and near-disaster. [Paraphrased from the Introduction and Dictionary of Canadian Biography].