 First edition | |
| Author | Hugh Hood |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Moira Clark |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Series | The New Age series |
| Publisher | Oberon Press |
Publication date | 1977 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 226 pages |
| Preceded by | The Swing in the Garden |
| Followed by | Reservoir Ravine |
A New Athens, first published in 1977, is a novel by Canadian author Hugh Hood and the second in his 12-novel cycle, The New Age. It was preceded by The Swing in the Garden . [1]
The book is set in southeastern Ontario, Canada between 1952 and 1965 in the fictional city of Stoverville, based on Brockville. Much of the story takes place in the form of reminiscences of the late 1950s and 1960s. [2]
Narrator Matt Goderich, now approaching middle age, has become an art historian. As the novel opens, he is wandering along the back roads of eastern Ontario, contemplating the flora, the history of trains in the region, and decades past. He relates his time as a young student, beginning in 1948, where he is a rare Catholic at the overwhelmingly Protestant Victoria University in the University of Toronto. After a fleeting first romance he meets his future wife Edie, who disappoints her family by converting to Catholicism to marry him. The young couple spends time in her hometown of Stoverville (a fictionalized version of Brockville), where her parents have a boathouse on the Saint Lawrence River. Her father is a well-known politician, and her mother is a brilliant but undiscovered painter. The 'new Athens' of the title is a reference to the town of Athens, Ontario.
Writing in the Vancouver Sun , Alan Dawe positively reviewed it, saying that he "can contemplate with pleasure to the prospect of reading this novel again and again." [1] David Helwig of the Toronto Star wrote that it is "humane, often charming, sometimes witty, lovingly detailed and full of a real generosity of spirit" but was "slacker in texture than its predecessor." [2]
Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included with Leeds and Grenville for census purposes only.
James Scott Peterson is a retired Canadian politician. He was a Liberal member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1980 to 1984 and again from 1988 to 2007 who represented the northern Toronto riding of Willowdale. He served in the cabinet of Jean Chrétien as Secretary of State and the cabinet of Paul Martin as Minister of International Trade.
Payolas was a Canadian rock band that was most prominent in the 1980s.
Elaine Ziemba is a former Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, and served as a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.
Evelyn Adelaide Gigantes is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She served as a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on three occasions between 1975 and 1995 and was a prominent cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.
David Helwig was a Canadian editor, essayist, memoirist, novelist, poet, short story writer and translator.
Thomas Archibald Marshall was a Canadian poet, critic and novelist.
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The Thousand Islands Parkway (often written as 1000 Islands Parkway) is a scenic parkway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It extends easterly from an interchange with Highway 401 in Gananoque for approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) to rejoin Highway 401 near the community of Butternut Bay, west of Brockville. The parkway follows the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, and was formerly designated Highway 2S (S for Scenic) until 1970. It passes through the communities of Gray's Beach, Halsteads Bay, Ivy Lea, Darlingside, Rockport, Narrows, La Rue Mills and Mallorytown Landing, as well as providing access to the three inland properties of the Thousand Islands National Park. Highway 137, which meets the parkway near its midpoint, provides access to the Interstate 81 in New York via the Thousand Islands Bridge.
Jocelyn Charles Bjorn Lovell was a Canadian and World cycling champion. He won dozens of Canadian national titles for track and road cycling in the 1970s and early 1980s, as well as gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games. He competed at three Olympic Games. His victories, at international competitions, renewed global interest in Canadian cycling.
Mr. Patman is a 1980 Canadian film directed by John Guillermin and starring James Coburn.
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The Swing in the Garden, first published in 1975 by Oberon, is a novel by Canadian author Hugh Hood and the first in his ambitious 12-novel cycle, The New Age. It is followed by A New Athens.
Postmedia Network Canada Corp. is a foreign-owned Canadian-based media conglomerate consisting of the publishing properties of the former Canwest, with primary operations in English-language newspaper publishing, news gathering and Internet operations. It is best known for being the owner of the National Post and the Financial Post. The company is headquartered at Postmedia Place on Bloor Street in Toronto.
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"Rinse the Blood Off My Toga" is a comedy sketch by the Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster. First broadcast on The Wayne and Shuster Hour on CBC Radio in 1954, it was reenacted for their British television debut in 1957 and their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. The sketch recasts the Shakespearean historical tragedy as a detective story with gangster overtones. Set in the Roman Senate right after the assassination of Julius Caesar, the script has Brutus (Shuster) engaging the services of private eye Flavius Maximus (Wayne) to identify Caesar's assassin. Several lines from the sketch became popular catchphrases, including Flavius's order of a "martinus" in a Roman bar, and the repeated lament of Caesar's widow Calpurnia in a thick Bronx accent, "I told him, 'Julie, don't go!' " It is considered Wayne and Shuster's most famous sketch.
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