Baldoon - Softcover

Reaney, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0889840164 ISBN 13: 9780889840164

Publisher: Porcupine's Quill Inc.,Canada, 1976

Synopsis

Baldoon is a two-act play written by Governor-General's award winning author James Reaney in collaboration with Windsor area poet and journalist C.H. Gervais. This is the original edition of this title, which was honoured with an Award of Merit in the 1977 Design Canada / Look of Books competition.

Baldoon is one of only two Porcupine's Quill publications from the 1970s that are still available in the original edition, at the original price.

About this title

Review:

The basic ingredient, as in Reaney's trilogy about the Donnellys, is local history. In Baldoon, near Wallaceburg, Ontario, a nineteenth-century farm family suffered a long series of supernatural visitations, ranging from the usual poltergeist tricks to fires and visions. Various efforts at exorcism failed. Finally, driven nearly to despair, the farmer obtained the services of a doctor and his psychic daughter from Long Point on Lake Erie and, following instructions, shot the wing of the stray goose in his flock with a silver bullet, thus causing the witch who was the source of the trouble to break her arm and be both identified and rendered powerless. It's a good yarn, and Reaney, a vigorous opponent of soulless modernity, likes to believe it is true. Canadian Book Review Annual

Synopsis:

Readers will recognize this as a typical Reaney play. In the 1830s, at Baldoon settlement near Wallaceburg, Ontario, a house was haunted by various phenomena: the sound of marching, bullets and stones which passed through walls without leaving holes, pots and pans that flew about the kitchen. This bit of history is the basis for Reaney's tale of John McTavish who forsook his love, Jane Pharlan, for a rich widow. But old Mrs Pharlan prostituted Jance to him, resulting in a baby girl. Jane died; the child was taken from Mrs Pharlan who was excommunicated as a witch; and, unknown to anyone but McTavish, the child has grown up in his home as an adopted orphan. When his house becomes haunted and the local religious authorities cannot help, McTavish, with the threat of excommunication now over his head, visits Dr Troyer - a Dutch witchfinder. He forces McTavish to see that unless the truth is revealed, he and his family will have no peace. To complicate matters, the solution is tied up with a rivalry between two conflicting religious attitudes: dour repressive Presbyterians, of whom McTavish and Mrs Pharlan are part, and the joyous love of God characteristic of the Tunkards, whom Troyer represents. Finally, Troyer wins out; Mrs Pharlan is exposed as a witch; McTavish confesses his past.

About this edition

• Publisher: Porcupine's Quill Inc.,Canada
• Publication date: 1976
• ISBN 10: 0889840164
• ISBN 13: 9780889840164
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 120