THE ROCK OBSERVED: STUDIES IN THE LITERATURE OF NEWFOUNDLAND. by O'Flaherty, Patrick - 1979

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979. 222 pp, 9 1/4" H. B&w photographs, reproductions, maps. "(A) study of how Newfoundland has been pereceived over the centuries by the islanders themselves and by outsiders. (This book) offers an integrated survey of Newfoundland literature, culture, and history. It illustrates the forces that have made Newfoundland a special place and Newfoundlanders a special people, 'a breed apart'. Against a background of political, economic, and cultural history, Patrick O'Flaherty submits the conflicting literary impressions of his island to a searching critical analysis. He finds the writings of explorers, missionaries, settlers, adventurers, novelists, and poets to be limited, or enlivened, by their own characters and preconceptions. There emerges a sympathetic but unsentimental picture of Newfoundland and its people, informed throughout by O'Flaherty's keen awarenes, based on an outport upbringing, of what Newfoundland has been and is." Faint erased pencil marks and two small light ink stains on front free endpaper. Dust jacket has very light browning on rear panel and on flaps.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.