tten pages of Canadian history. Of later Canadian novelists
mention may be made of Sara Jeannette Duncan (Mrs Everard Cotes, b.
1862), Ralph Connor (Charles W. Gordon, b. 1866), Agnes C. Laut (b.
1872), W.A. Fraser (b. 1859) and Ernest Thompson Seton (b. 1860). Thomas
Chandler Haliburton (q.v.) stands in a class by himself. In many
respects his is the most striking figure in Canadian literature. He is
best known as a humorist, and as a humorist he ranks with the creators
of "My Uncle Toby" and "Pickwick." But there is more than humour in
Haliburton's books. He lacked, in fact, but one thing to make him a
great novelist: he had no conception of how to construct a plot. But he
knew human nature, and knew it intimately in all its phases; he could
construct a character and endow it with life; his people talk naturally
and to the point; and many of his descriptive passages are admirable.
Those who read Haliburton's books only for the sake of the humour will
miss much of their value. His inimitable _Clockmaker_ (1837), as well as
the later books, _The Old Judge_ (1849), _The Attache_ (1843), _Wise
Saws and Modern Instances_ (1853) and _Nature and Human Nature_ (1855),
are mirrors of colonial life and character.

For general treatment of English-Canadian literature, reference may be
made to Sir John Bourinot's _Intellectual Development of the Canadian
People_ (1881); G. Mercer Adam's _Outline History of Canadian
Literature_ (1887); "Native Thought and Literature," in J.E. Collins's
_Life of Sir John A. Macdonald_ (1883); "Canadian Literature," by J.M.
Oxley, in the _Encyclopaedia Americana_, vol. ix. (1904); A.
MacMurchy's _Handbook of Canadian Literature_ (1906); and articles by
J. Castell Hopkins, John Reade, A.B. de Mille and Thomas O'Hagan, in
vol. v. of _Canada: an Encyclopaedia of the Country_ (1898-1900);
also to Henry J. Morgan's _Bibliotheca Canadensis_ (1867) and
_Canadian Men and Women of the Time_ (1898); W.D. Lighthall, _Songs of
the Great Dominion_; Theodore Rand's _Treasury of Canadian Verse_
(1900); C.C. James's _Bibliography of Canadian Verse_ (1898); L.E.
Horning's and L.J. Burpee's _Bibliography of Canadian Fiction_ (1904);
S.E. Dawson's _Prose Writers of Canada_ (1901); "Canadian Poetry," by
J.A. Cooper, in _The National_, 29, p. 364; "Recent Canadian Fiction,"
by L.J. Burpee, in _The Forum_, August 1899. For individual authors,
see Haliburton's _A Centenary Chaplet_ (1897