Barometer Rising

Last updated
Barometer Rising
BarometerRising.jpg
First edition (US)
Author Hugh MacLennan
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical, romance
Publisher Duell, Sloan & Pearce
Publication date
1941
Pages336
ISBN 978-0771034893

Barometer Rising is a romantic-realist novel by Canadian author Hugh MacLennan. The work explores life in Halifax, Nova Scotia during World War I, and its interruption by the Halifax explosion. The narrative predominantly follows and pivots upon the romantic life of Penny Wain.

Contents

The book had been difficult to publish as MacLennan had previously written regarding international themes, while Barometer Rising contained a decidedly nationalist overtone. Once published, the novel was wildly successful, and permitted MacLennan to leave his full-time job at Lower Canada College. [1]

The novel, with afterword by Alistair MacLeod, ranks among the books which compose the New Canadian Library.

Background

Dorothy Duncan, Hugh MacLennan's wife, convinced him that the failure of his first two novels arose from not truly knowing the setting, as one had been set in Europe and the other in the United States. She encouraged him to write about Canada, the country he knew best. [2] She told him that "Nobody's going to understand Canada until she evolves a literature of her own, and you're the fellow to start bringing Canadian novels up to date." [2] Barometer Rising became Hugh MacLennan's first published novel. He drew upon his own experiences of the Halifax Explosion, having survived it as ten-year-old boy, [1] but also on Homer's Odyssey for narrative direction. [1]

Prior to MacLennan's novel, there had been no real tradition of Canadian literature; he sought to define Canada for Canadians through a national novel. [3]

Plot summary

The novel takes place during the week of the Halifax Explosion - 2 December 1917 to 10 December 1917.

Penelope Wain believes that her cousin, Neil Macrae, has been killed while serving overseas under her father, Colonel Geoffrey Wain. The family is under the impression that Neil had died in the disgrace of desertion. Neil, however, had not died, but has returned to Halifax to clear his name of its tarnish. Neil seeks Alec MacKenzie, the only other survivor of their unit who can confirm that Colonel Wain had given an contradictory order, which was impossible to fulfill. When the order ended in disaster, Colonel Wain attempted to blame Neil in hopes of retaining his position in the military. Yet, prior to the court martial, Neil was believed to have died in artillery strike. Colonel Wain was forced to return to Canada as a transportation officer.

In Halifax, the war has given Penny the opportunity to become a successful naval architect at the Halifax Shipyard. She develops a friendship with Angus Murray, a doctor wounded from the war. Angus eventually proposes marriage to Penny; she defers the proposal. While her father, Colonel Wain, disapproves of Angus, he warms up to him after learning that Neil is alive and in Halifax. Neil and Penny had also been lovers and Angus realizes that Colonel Wain is desperate to ensure that Neil is not court martialed and given an opportunity to clarify the occurrences overseas. The colonel had been offered a new position in the war, and the trial will ruin his promotion.

Penny and Neil are briefly reunited, but Penny finds herself unable to reveal that she has given birth to their daughter, Jean, after their affair in Montreal. Jean had been adopted and cared for by her aunt and uncle. Angus intrudes upon the reunion to warn Neil of the colonel's intentions. Neil leaves to find Alec, who is willing to testifying in Neil's defence, despite the colonel providing Alec with a job at the shipyard. The men are later joined by Angus, who also agrees to testify in favour of Neil.

On the following morning, the Halifax Explosion occurs. The blast kills several characters, including Penny's aunt and uncle.

Neil and Murray manage to rescue Alec and his wife from their house, although Alec had sustained grievous injury. Once the two men locate Penny, who had been wounded in the eye, Angus sets up a makeshift hospital at the Wains' house. Meanwhile, Neil enters the city to procure supplies and assist with rescue efforts, no longer concerned who will recognize him. Neil, however, is shocked when he finds Colonel Wain's dead body in the wreckage of the explosion. Although Alec dies from his injuries, he and Murray acquire an affidavit with a testimony to clear Neil's name. When Penny had recovered sufficiently from her injury and her surgery, she goes with Neil to retrieve Jean.

Influence

In Hugo MacPherson's 1958 preface, he describes Barometer Rising as "a major weather sign in the history of Canadian writing", which spurred the most productive period in Canadian writing.

Potential movie

Crawley Films Limited of Ottawa bought the film rights to Barometer Rising by February 1962 with the intent of making a main-feature movie. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halifax Explosion</span> 1917 maritime disaster in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

On the morning of 6 December 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the waters of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Mont-Blanc, laden with high explosives, caught fire and exploded, devastating the Richmond district of Halifax. At least 1,782 people were killed, largely in Halifax and Dartmouth, by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time. It released the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT (12 TJ).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh MacLennan</span> Canadian writer (1907–1990)

John Hugh MacLennan was a Canadian writer and professor of English at McGill University. He won five Governor General's Awards and a Royal Bank Award.

Road to Avonlea is a Canadian television series first broadcast in Canada between January 7, 1990, and March 31, 1996, as part of the CBC Family Hour anthology series, and in the United States starting on March 5, 1990. It was created by Kevin Sullivan and produced by Sullivan Films in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Disney Channel, with additional funding from Telefilm Canada. It follows the adventures of Sara Stanley, a young girl sent to live with her relatives in early 20th-century eastern Canada. It was loosely adapted from novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery, with many characters and episodes inspired by her stories.

Music is a part of the warp and weft of the fabric of Nova Scotia's cultural life. This deep and lasting love of music is expressed through the performance and enjoyment of all types and genres of music. While popular music from many genres has experienced almost two decades of explosive growth and success in Nova Scotia, the province remains best known for its folk and traditional based music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violet Jacob</span> Scottish writer, 1863–1946

Violet Jacob was a Scottish writer known especially for her historical novel Flemington and for her poetry, mainly in Scots. She was described by a fellow Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid as "the most considerable of contemporary vernacular poets".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Mackintosh</span> Scottish Jacobite

Anne Mackintosh (1723–1784) was a Scottish Jacobite of the Clan Farquharson, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands and also the wife of Angus Mackintosh, chief of the Clan Mackintosh. She was the only female military leader during the Jacobite rising of 1745 and the first female to hold the rank of colonel in Scotland.

<i>The Watch That Ends the Night</i> 1958 novel by Hugh MacLennon

The Watch That Ends the Night is a novel by Canadian author and academic Hugh MacLennan. The title refers to a line in Psalm 90. It was first published in 1958 by Macmillan of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Munro (writer)</span> Scottish journalist and author (1863–1930)

Neil Munro was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic. He was basically a serious writer, but is now mainly known for his humorous short stories, originally written under the pen name Hugh Foulis. The best known of these stories are about the fictional Clyde puffer the Vital Spark and her captain Para Handy, but they also include stories about the waiter and kirk beadle Erchie MacPherson and the travelling drapery salesman Jimmy Swan. They were originally published in the Glasgow Evening News, but collections were published as books. A key figure in Scottish literary circles, Munro was a friend of the writers J. M. Barrie, John Buchan, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham and Joseph Conrad, and the artists Edward A. Hornel, George Houston, Pittendrigh MacGillivray and Robert Macaulay Stevenson. He was an early promoter of the works of both Conrad and Rudyard Kipling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish</span> Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish is a Latin Rite diocese in Nova Scotia, Canada. Its current diocesan ordinary is Wayne Joseph Kirkpatrick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather O'Neill</span> Canadian writer (b. 1973)

Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.

Sharpe's Siege is a British television drama, the tenth of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The adaptation is based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.

<i>Each Mans Son</i>

Each Man's Son is the fourth novel by Canadian writer Hugh MacLennan. First published in 1951 by Macmillan of Canada, it takes place in a coal mining town on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia just before the First World War.

A Romance of the Halifax Disaster (1918) is a rare novella by Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel Frank McKelvey Bell based on the Halifax Explosion of 1917. Bell, after the explosion, had assisted in the medical rescue. His experiences during this time allowed him to write about the physical trauma suffered by Haligonians. Rather than focusing on medical professionals, though, Bell positions his narrative as a romance between a young volunteer and an injured soldier. In the disaster's aftermath, Bell was the chair of the medical relief committee.

SS <i>Mont-Blanc</i> French cargo ship

SSMont-Blanc was a cargo steamship that was built in Middlesbrough, England in 1899 for a French shipping company. On Thursday morning, December 6, 1917, she entered Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada laden with a full cargo of highly volatile explosives. As she made her way through the Narrows towards Bedford Basin, she was involved in a collision with Imo, a Norwegian ship. A fire aboard the French ship ignited her cargo of wet and dry 2,300 tons of picric acid, 500 tons of TNT, and 10 tons of guncotton. The resultant Halifax Explosion killed approximately 2,000 people and injured about 9,000.

SS <i>Imo</i> Norwegian steamship

SS Imo was a merchant steamship that was built in 1889 to carry livestock and passengers, and converted in 1912 into a whaling factory ship. She was built as Runic, renamed Tampican in 1895, Imo in 1912 and Guvernøren in 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mackay of Aberach</span>

The Mackays of Aberach also known as the Clan Aberach are a Scottish family and a branch of the ancient Clan Mackay of the Scottish Highlands. They were the senior cadet branch of the Clan Mackay and were seated at Achness, in Strathnaver, which is in modern-day Sutherland. In Scottish Gaelic they are known as the Sleaght-ean Aberigh.

<i>Tuna Clipper</i> 1949 film by William Beaudine

Tuna Clipper is a 1949 American drama film directed by William Beaudine and starring Roddy McDowall, Elena Verdugo and Roland Winters. It was one of a series of films McDowall made for Monogram.

The Halifax Explosion, a disaster that occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on 6 December 1917, when a French cargo ship laden with high explosives collided with Norwegian vessel, has frequently been the subject of works of popular culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Street Station (Halifax, Nova Scotia)</span>

The North Street Station was the railway terminal for Halifax, Nova Scotia from 1877 to 1920. It was built by the Intercolonial Railway in the North End of Halifax and was the second largest railway station in Canada when it opened in 1878. Damaged, but repaired after the Halifax Explosion, it served until the current Halifax terminal location opened as part of the Ocean Terminals project in the city's South End in 1919.

References

  1. 1 2 3 MARSHALL, SUSANNE. "Barometer Rising".
  2. 1 2 Cameron (1981), 133.
  3. Peepre-Bordessa, Mari (1990), 52.
  4. "Tralfaz: The World of Oz is a Very Funny Place". 4 July 2020.