"No place where women are of such importance": Female Friendship, Empire, and Utopia in The History ofEmily Montague Jodi L. Wyett Frances Brooke's second novel, TheHhtory ofEmily Montague (1769), set largely in colonial Canadajust after the end ofthe SevenYears War, marks a moment in literary historywhen a sentimental novel met a travel narrative. The text transgresses many boundaries—generic, geographic, and gendered—in its wide geographical scope, its uneasy negotiation of the colonial economy, and its potentially transgressive Utopian possibilities for women within die bounds of conventional, English spaces. Emily Montaguehighlights many ofthe issues raised by British imperial and economic expansion in the latter eighteenth century, particularly the formation of English female subjectivity, imagined as socially and economically inseparable from male subjectivity. The patriarchal system ofvalues inevitably defines woman in relation to man. Yet Emily Montague explores ways in which women relate to each other, ways that disrupt patriarchally inscribed notions. The novel favours the "free spirit ofwoman" over passivity and reveals a prioritization offemale friendship through die characterization oftwo exemplaryEnglish women.1 This friendship is complicated by the setting ofthe novel widiin a colonial space, and at die end, Brooke replaces the 1 Frances Brooke, The History ofEmily Montague (1769; reprint, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1995), p. 182. References are to this edition. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 16, Number !,October 2003 34 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION messy colonial economy with an idealized English space in which women may read and diink, sustained by bonds with each odier and unimpeded by the politics ofcontemporary Britain or by interference from their benevolent husbands. Critical response to Emily Montague over the past twenty-five years, largely either feminist or postcolonialist, has often provoked heated debate between the two camps. Feminist critics, who often ignore the colonial elements ofthe novel, celebrate Brooke's proto-feminist aims, focusing on marital issues such as freedom from parental control of courtship and equality between partners within marriage. Such critics, who place Emily Montague within the tradition of the sentimental novel, stress how Brooke revises conventional form to further her feminist goals, particularly in her two heroines: the sentimental Emily Montague and the spirited coquette, Arabella Fermor.2 On the other hand, scholars who consider the novel a record of colonial Canada—or a travel narrative—have largely denounced its imperialist assumptions, arguing that Brooke had little interest in exploring the lives ofCanadians; radier she advocated die assimilation ofindigenous Americans and French-Canadians to English cultural norms, especially language and religion.3 Less common are considerations ofthe novel 2 Both Katharine Rogers and Ann Edward Boutelle offer feminist readings ofEmily Montague, arguing similarly that the novel is more practical than many earlier novels, especially diose of Samuel Richardson. Rogers believes it provides a more realistic representation ofwomen's experiences. "Sensibility and Feminism: The Novels ofFrances Brooke," Genre 1 1 (Summer 1978), 159-71. Boutelle maintains that the novel is a feminist statement ofdie new marriage ideal based on freedom ofchoice without parental influence and equality among partners. "Frances Brooke's Emily Montague (1769): Canada and Women's Rights," Women's Studies 12 (1986), 7-16. Barbara Benedict argues that die character ofArabella Fermor possesses the power ofdie marginalized woman who, as spectator/commentator, questions die limitations ofbodi sentimental and social values, particularly die oversimplified opposition of"art" (society) and "nature" (sentiment). "The Margins ofSentiment: Nature, Letter, and Law in Frances Brooke's Epistolary Novels," ARIEL-A ReviewofInternationalEnglisli Literature23:$ (1992), 7-25. Jane Sellwood also viewsArabella's letters as activelyvoicingfemale (and feminist) experiences and concerns even after marriage. "? LittleAcid isAbsolutelyNecessary': Narrative as Coquette in Frances Brooke's TlieHistoryofEmUyMontague? Canadian Literature136 (Spring 1993), 60-79. Ann Messenger, His andHers:Essays in Restoration andEigliteenlh-Century Literature (Lexington: University Press ofKentucky, 1986), pp. 148-71; and Lorraine McMullen, An OddAttempt in a Woman: VieLiteraryLifeofFrancesBrooke(Vancouver UniversityofBritish Columbia Press, 1983), like many of die feminist critics cited here, also concentrate on Brooke's lively heroine, Arabella, as die voice of her feminist claims. 3 Robert Merrett calls the novel a failure, arguing diat die book is a simplistic bourgeois attack on aristocratic power, in particular class endogamy promoted by the Marriage Act, and that Brooke is an "enthusiastic" imperialist. "The Politics of...
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