Man Should Rejoice, by Hugh MacLennan: A Critical Edition

Man Should Rejoice is one of two hitherto unpublished novels by acclaimed novelist Hugh MacLennan. Completed in 1937 and left unpublished due to economic conditions during the Great Depression, it lay in the McGill archives until now.

This critical edition of Man Should Rejoice, which is also the first-ever publication of the work, is comprised of a critical introduction, a bibliography of published and unpublished sources, a fully-edited text based on a typescript of the novel, a list of textual emendations, and explanatory notes.

The introduction draws upon extensive research undertaken in three Canadian archival collections located in Montreal and Calgary. It provides relevant historical, cultural, and biographical context for the novel.

From hundreds of archival documents, Colin Hill reconstructs a textual history of the novel’s production that acknowledges the crucial contribution of Dorothy Duncan, who heavily revised the text and assisted MacLennan behind the scenes. Hill also explores the critical reception of MacLennan’s fiction from the 1930s to the present.

Published in English.

Colin Hill est professeur agrégé, Department of English, University of Toronto. Ses recherches portent sur la fiction moderniste canadienne et il s’intéresse plus particulièrement aux archives, à l’esthétique, à l’histoire littéraire et aux pratiques éditoriales modernistes. Il travaille actuellement à un ouvrage sur le modernisme et les villes canadiennes et est également le rédacteur en chef de la revue University of Toronto Quarterly.