Gilbert Parker

The Translation of a Savage Gilbert Parker

Gilbert Parker was a Canadian writer and politician who taught at both Trinity College and the Ontario School for the Deaf and Dumb. After travels through Australia, the Pacific, the South Sea Islands, Europe, Egypt, and Asia, he settled in London, England, where he later became involved in politics and was elected to Parliament.

In London, he wrote a number of romantic novels, largely concerned with French Canadian history and culture. He said "That I understood Canada could not be established by the fact that I had spent my boyhood there, but only by the fact that some inner vision permitted me to see it as it really was."

The Translation of a Savage is a story of cultural differences and mixed marriage. Parker draws upon his knowledge of the Indian tribes of western Canada, telling the tale of an Englishman of family and wealth who marries an Indian girl of Hudson's Bay out of anger at his family. In an attempt to humiliate his relatives, he sends her back to England but remains in Canada, leading to the translation of the title, and the failure of his revenge. A film version was released in 1934 as Behold My Wife.