Pastoral (23 page)
Authors: Andre Alexis
had suggested that the one way Lowther did not want his money used was for the
construction of a greenhouse, but Christopher Pennant was not convinced Heath
was right. After all, as Heath had said, Lowther trusted Christopher's judgment. If Christopher Pennant wanted a greenhouse, why should there not be
a greenhouse in Barrow? Priests were always going on about charity, but why not
give something deeper: a place where anyone could go to witness the thrilling
variety of Nature's gifts? Anyway, he would think about it. There was no need to quickly spend the
money he'd been left.
preceded him in this country. They had been among the first Europeans to
explore Canada. They had come with a mission: to lead the natives to
Christianity and salvation. In their single-mindedness, they had done as much
harm as good, poor men. They would have done better to learn from those who
knew the land. Instead, they had prepared the way for a civilization that had,
over the years, turned away from earth, land and ground. He did not identify
with the Jesuits but neither did he identify with any specific tribe. Rather,
he envied the ones â whoever they might have been â who'd come through this part of the world when it was virginal.
It was beautiful: a hint of winter in the air, the lights of the town coming on
as its inhabitants, each in his or her own time, became aware of the coming
darkness.
is, in part, an homage to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the
Pastoral
 Symphony. The novel's chapters follow the logic of the symphony whose five movements are entitled:
Pastoral
 Symphony is also inextricably associated â in my mind â with Lambton County, where I grew up. This novel is, thus, a paean to the place
where I first learned what Nature was to mean for my Canadian self.
Childhood
, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Trillium Book Award, and was
shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His previous books include
Asylum
,
Beauty and Sadness
and
Ingrid and the Wolf
.
This
EPUB
edition produced at the Coach House on bpNichol Lane.
The print version of this book was typeset in Albertan and Gotham.Albertan was designed by the late Jim Rimmer of New Westminster, B.C, in 1982.
He drew and cut the type in metal at the 16pt size in roman only; it was
intended for use only at his Pie Tree Press. He drew the italic in 1985,
designing it with a narrow fit and a very slight incline, and created a digital
version. The family was completed in 2005 when Rimmer redrew the bold weight
and called it Albertan Black. The letterforms of this type family have an
old-style character, with Rimmer's own calligraphic hand in evidence, especially in the italic.
Printed at the old Coach House on bpNichol Lane in Toronto, Ontario, on Zephyr Antique Laid paper, which was manufactured, acid-free, in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, from second-growth forests. This book was printed with vegetable-based ink on a 1965 Heidelberg
KORD
offset litho press. Its pages were folded on a Baumfolder, gathered by hand, bound on a Sulby Auto-Minabinda and trimmed on a Polar single-knife cutter.
Edited and designed by Alana Wilcox
Cover design by Ingrid Paulson and Alana Wilcox
Cover painting
A Lady Sheep
, by Lindee Climo, courtesy of the artist and the Mira Godard Gallery. From the
collection of the Dufferin County Museum and Archives, as photographed by Pete
Paterson.
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