Nova Scotian Great Reading

The Clockmaker: The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville (Forgotten Books) Review

Series of short stories written originally for The Nova Scotian in the early 1830s. The narrator while riding through Nova Scotia meets an itinerant clock seller - Samual Slick of Slickville, Connecticut. The stories concern the views and opinions of Slick about - well, almost anything. And, for the most part, they are funny. A great deal of the book is a satire or parody of the moralizing story popular at the time: although occasionally, the stories themselves do fall into the moralizing trap themselves. If nothing else, great history as told by a contemporary neighbour of a young United States. The period is equidistant between the revolutionary war and the civil war. In one story, Sam Slick expounds on the great freedoms of the American people: all men created equal. The narrator points out that it is the British Empire (and hence Nova Scotia) where slavery is abolished. Maybe, says the narrator, the American constitution meant all white people are created equal. The humour is often of this type where paradoxes and false syllogisms are revealed.





The Clockmaker: The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville (Forgotten Books) Overview


"Sam Slick was a character created by Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a Canadian judge and author. With his wry wit and Yankee voice, Sam Slick of Slicksville put forward his views on "human nature" in a regular column in the Novascotian, beginning in 1835. The twenty-one sketches were published in a collection titled The Clockmaker, or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slicksville, First Series in 1836, supplemented by an additional 12 unpublished or new sketches. The book was Canada's first international bestseller and was hugely popular, not only in Nova Scotia but also in Britain and the United States.

Slick's wise-cracking commentary on the colonial life of Nova Scotia and relations with the U.S. and Britain struck a note with readers, leading to a second series in 1838 and a third in 1840. The satirical sketches, mocking both Canadians and Americans, made Haliburton one of the most popular writers of comic fiction in English of that era. The Clockmaker (which was also translated into German) established Haliburton as one of the founders of North American humour." (Quote from wikipedia.org)

About the Author

"Thomas Chandler Haliburton (December 17, 1796 - August 27, 1865) was one of the first major Canadian authors.

Haliburton was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia to an upper class family. He attended University of King's College in Windsor and became a lawyer, opening a practice in Annapolis Royal. While in England, he met Louisa Neville, whom he married in 1816 and brought back to Nova Scotia. Louisa died in 1840.

Haliburton became noted local business man and a judge, but his great fame came from his writing. He wrote a diverse number of books on history, politics, and farm improvement. He rose to world wide fame with his Clockmaker serial that first appeared in the Novascotian and was later published in book form