Chaudière Falls: A Novel of Dramatized History

$35.00

On March 7, 1800, Philemon Wright, a farmer from Woburn, Massachusetts, arrives on the north shore of the Ottawa River in Hull Township. On September 1, 1860, on the south side of the river, Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Albert Edward, lays the cornerstone for Canada’s Parliament Buildings on Barrack Hill in Ottawa.

While the novel dramatizes the real events that unfold between those two dates—Wright’s determination to establish a community of farmers, the political scheming that results in Ottawa becoming Canada’s capital—it’s also the story of immigrants struggling for survival in a new world. Among them, Jedediah Jansen, who is ten years old when his family arrives with Wright’s party. Jed marries, enters the volatile timber business, is overwhelmed by both, and his life spirals out of control.

The settlers’ attempts to establish a peaceful community are further exacerbated when the government in York (Toronto) refuses to confer legal status on Bytown (Ottawa). And because its inhabitants resent Colonel By’s civil authority, the lawless settlement is rampant with self-serving politics, religious bigotry, and barbaric violence.

Other titles by David Mulholland:
DUEL
McNab

ISBN: 978-1-77257-113-4 (PB)

Additional information

Weight 1.02 kg
Dimensions 22.86 × 15.24 × 4.06 cm

5 reviews for Chaudière Falls: A Novel of Dramatized History

  1. Tiffany Yemen

    “Combining meticulous, historical research and fictionalized characterization, Chaudière Falls brings to life a significant pioneering period in the Ottawa Valley. It captures the events and daily lives of an era underappreciated in Canadian literature. The author is to be commended for cleverly assembling an engaging novel from very demanding research, and for succeeding in giving readers delightful insights into a past we still share today.” ~ Robert W

  2. Tiffany Yemen

    Chaudière Falls: A Novel of Dramatized History, written by Ontario native David Mulholland, is both an orthodox and atypical addition to the genre of historically-based fiction. It is Mulholland’s third novel, seven years in the making. Recounting the birth of our nation’s capital, it follows the lives of various settlers and immigrants as they begin to organize their community along the banks of the Ottawa River.

    It is epic in scope, not something that is particularly common to the telling of Canadian history. At over 650 pages, Chaudière Falls covers roughly sixty years of history, as Ottawa grows from a small farm town to the city that would soon become Canada’s capital. It’s filled with tensions between farmers, government and native Aboriginal groups. There’s violence and war, as Colonel By brings disharmony to the settled township of Hull. Of course, there are both fighters and lovers: Chaudière Falls features the romantic drama typical to epic tales, giving heart and emotion to what would otherwise read as a history book. Characterization, however, is a secondary concern to Mulholland. His detailed accounts of Ottawa’s history are what matter here. His townspeople and government officials serve as conduits to the far more important events that are taking place.

    “Detailed” is certainly the right word when it comes to describing Chaudière Falls. The last pages of the novel list the dozens of sources Mulholland consulted in the writing of his novel. He makes it clear in his note to the reader that Chaudière Falls is a work of dramatized history, not historical fiction. Whereas authors of the latter try to “hide their research,” and focus on the humanity behind the events, Mulholland chooses to place his research in the foreground, integrating every fact he can into his novel.

    Yet, the epigraph that caps off this lengthy literary affair plays contrary to Chaudière Falls’ factually-driven accounts. Mulholland quotes Nietzsche’s famous words, “There are no facts; only interpretations,” challenging his own telling of Ottawa’s pre-capital days. History can only be seen through a glass darkly, and Mulholland’s experiences with writing Chaudière Falls prove to be no different. “My research turned up several contradictions in the ‘historical record,’” he writes. “If I could find at least two reliable sources to confirm ‘a fact,’ I used it. If not, I went with whatever made the most sense.” The validity of history is a recurring theme in Mulholland’s work, also playing a significant role in his novel Duel.

    Ultimately, Chaudière Falls is a labour of love, a thoughtfully crafted history of a story not often told. While history is easy to mythologize, the novel’s sober approach shows the author’s remarkable eye for detail. For the history fiends who like fact to work in tandem with fiction, Chaudiere Falls is a can’t miss.

    Feature writer, Ottawa Life Magazine: Joel Redekop

  3. Tiffany Yemen

    In a day of tiny attention spans and fake news, Chaudière Falls reminds us of the value of meticulously researched history. The 655-page narrative brims with period details that support David Mulholland’s historical-fiction epic.

    In Falls, he throws back the curtain on roughly six key decades during which a backwoods settlement hacks, brawls, and negotiates its way toward becoming a new nation. It’s the early 1800s at the confluence of three great rivers: the Ottawa, Rideau, and Gatineau. Here, on the lip of the great cataract venerated by the Algonquins, pioneer Philemon Wright carves out the first farm from the towering bush, and launches the timber trade that fires the fledgling colony.

    Famous figures abound as Upper and Lower Canada eye each other suspiciously across the tumultuous abyss. There are the builders: Billings, McKay, and Sparks. The timber barons: Gilmour, Bronson, and Eddy. Commanding Royal Engineer Lieutenant-Colonel John By rises above the rankling as he administers the growing town that bears his name and, against all odds, pushes his monumental canal through the dense, towering wilderness.

    While British nabobs and tree-stump contrivers jostle for Queen Victoria’s influence over the naming of a new capital, through his fictional character, backwoodsman Jed Jansen, Mulholland poignantly relates the pioneer’s personal struggle to survive.

    Historians have written much about milestones like the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the War of 1812, and the building of the transcontinental railway. The six decades compellingly depicted in Chaudière Falls may not include a precise, dramatic milestone, but it was those years that significantly shaped our looming confederation. Credit to Mulholland for recognizing the impact of a lost era, and for so adroitly putting it to pen.

    Mark Van Dusen is a writer living in Russell, Ontario, Canada.

  4. Tiffany Yemen

    Ottawa author David Mulholland’s latest novel, Chaudière Falls, is a gem of a book for
    readers who glory in dramatized history. He seamlessly meshes a romantic novel with a
    meticulously researched history of what was formerly known as Bytown, Wrightsville,
    Aylmer, New Edinburgh, and Billings Bridge.

    The author fleshes out such historical figures as Philemon Wright, the American pioneer
    who founded Hull Township, Lieutenant-Colonel John By, the Commanding Royal
    Engineer in charge of building Ottawa’s Rideau Canal, Bytown’s primary land owner
    Nicholas Sparks, intrepid stonemason Thomas McKay, and Braddish Billings.

    The reader learns about the hardships and perils of the Irish navvies whose labour built
    the canal, the lumbermen who hurled down mighty pine trees and built the rafts that
    transported them to market, the violence in Bytown by the Shiners, which surpassed the
    reputation of America’s wild west, and the intense rivalry between the burgeoning towns
    of York/Toronto, Kingston, Bytown/Ottawa, Montréal, and Ville de Québec to become
    Canada’s National Capital.

    All in one enthralling story!
    Charles Fairhall
    Aylmer, Québec

  5. Tiffany Yemen

    I just finished reading Chaudière Falls. It's certainly a long novel, but I thoroughly
    enjoyed it from start to finish, and I highly recommend it. It would have helped to have
    had a 19th century map of what is now our National Capital Region to locate some of
    the story. The chapters depicting the turbulent personal life of your main fictional
    character and how he deals with the shenanigans of the timber trade are a welcome
    contrast to all the political scheming. Well done! I look forward to reading your next
    novel. 
    Ace Powell

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