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The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Ray Smith (Paperback, 1999)

After fictional excursions abroad to Germany, France, Scotland, Italy, Africa, and Australia, and back to the 1920s, the nineteenth century, and the Middle Ages, Ray Smith has come home to English Montreal in the 1990s. The Man Who Loved Jane Austen is a penetrating story of a Montreal with only the lingering effervescence of its past; a Montreal of loss, or regret, of sadness; a Montreal where nationalism corrodes every event, every relationship, every soul; a Montreal of lies and betrayal. Smith's work combines astonishing inventiveness with a warm and gregarious humanity. His first book, Cape Breton is the Thought Control Centre of Canada (1969, reissued by The Porcupine's Quill in 1989), burst upon a largely uncomprehending world in an explosion of post-modernist experimentation and whimsy. The vel, Lord Nelson Tavern (1974) is an odyssey of love and friendship; it conceals its equally invative structures behind a surface reality of poignant characters and memorable incidents. Smith again extended his range with Century (1986), a vel which explores the horrors and beauties of the modern world. His most recent book, A Night at the Opera (The Porcupine's Quill, 1992), is an exploration of the preposterous German city of Waltherrott, a delightful cavalcade of fools and knaves, grouches and maniacs, frumps and tarts, heroes and clowns.

Place of Publication
Ontario
Author Biography
Ray Smith was born in Mabou, Nova Scotia, a beautiful village on the west coast of Cape Breton. Mabou is famous for its fiddlers, step dancers, and singers, especially the Rankin Family. Ray lived in several Nova Scotia towns, but most of his boyhood was spent in Halifax, where he attended Dalhousie University. He left for Toronto as a young man, and eventually moved to Montreal, where he has lived ever since. He taught English literature at Dawson College for many years. His first book, a collection of experimental short stories entitled Cape Breton is the Thought Control Centre of Canada (1969), was one of the very first works of fiction to be published by the House of Anansi. Widely acknowledged as a milestone of early Canadian postmodernism, this collection was reissued by the Porcupine's Quill in the late eighties. His other works include the novels Lord Nelson Tavern, Century, A Night at the Opera (which won the QSPELL Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction), and, most recently, The Man Who Loved Jane Austen and The Man Who Hated Emily Bronte.
Date of Publication
15/03/1999
Country of Publication
Canada

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