Narrative
The Clockmaker
T. C. Haliburton · 1836
Opening lines
I was always well mounted; I am fond of a horse, and always piqued myself on having the fastest trotter in the Province.
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
A gentleman travelling on horseback through Nova Scotia, proud of his trotter, meets on the road to Fort Lawrence Sam Slick, a clock pedlar from Slickville, Connecticut, and makes him his travelling companion. From stop to stop, the Yankee sells for forty dollars clocks that cost him six and a half, through flattery and a knowledge of human nature, and draws from each encounter a lesson about the people of the province, about their laziness and their habit of blaming it on the bank, the Assembly or the lawyers.
Context
The sketches first appeared in 1835 and 1836 in the Novascotian of Halifax, the newspaper of Joseph Howe, future leader of the province's reformers, under the title Recollections of Nova Scotia; some twenty instalments had appeared when Howe drew a volume from them dated 1836, supplemented with twelve new pieces. Bentley reissued it in London in 1837, without the author's consent; a second series followed in 1838, a third in 1840. The only hostile review published in Nova Scotia judged this Yankee speech unknown to Nova Scotians, while London and Philadelphia made it a success.
Who it is for
Thirty-three short texts, with no continuous plot. All the savour lies in an American speech reproduced in writing, which requires reading English: there is no French translation.
Prizes and reception
Before Dickens came to prominence, its author was considered the master of comic fiction in English, and his vogue equalled Dickens's in Europe and America.
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