Literary Landmarks: Exploring the Real Settings of Famous Canadian Novels
Literature has a unique power to transform ordinary places into landscapes of imagination. Yet behind many of Canada's most beloved fictional settings lie real locations that inspired authors and continue to draw literary pilgrims today. From the windswept shores of Prince Edward Island to the cosmopolitan streets of Montreal and the remote wilderness of the Yukon, Canadian novelists have woven actual geographies into their narratives, creating a rich tapestry where fiction and reality intertwine.
This literary journey across Canada explores the real settings behind some of the nation's most iconic novels, offering both a geographical and literary map of the country through the eyes of its storytellers. Whether faithfully depicted or imaginatively transformed, these locations provide insights into how physical places shape fictional worlds and how, in turn, literature reshapes our perception of the landscapes we inhabit.
Atlantic Canada: Shores of Imagination
The Atlantic provinces have provided fertile ground for some of Canada's most enduring literary works, with their distinctive landscapes and cultures featuring prominently in novels that have achieved both national and international recognition.
Prince Edward Island: Anne's Beloved Green Gables
Perhaps no Canadian literary landmark is more famous than Green Gables, the setting for Lucy Maud Montgomery's beloved "Anne of Green Gables" (1908). Located in Cavendish on Prince Edward Island's north shore, the actual Green Gables Heritage Place was the home of Montgomery's cousins and served as direct inspiration for the fictional home where Anne Shirley found belonging.
Montgomery drew extensively from the island's landscapes, transforming them into the enchanted settings of Anne's adventures. The "Lake of Shining Waters" was inspired by a pond now known as Montgomery's Lake of Shining Waters, while the "Haunted Wood" and "Lover's Lane" were real paths that Montgomery walked regularly. Today, visitors can explore these locations within Prince Edward Island National Park, following in both Anne's and Montgomery's footsteps.
"The Lake of Shining Waters was blue—blue—blue; not the changeful blue of spring, nor the pale azure of summer, but a clear, steadfast, serene blue, as if the water were past all moods and tenses of emotion and had settled down to a tranquility unbroken by fickle thoughts."
— L.M. Montgomery, "Anne of Green Gables"
Montgomery's precise, loving descriptions of PEI's red sandstone cliffs, flowering orchards, and maritime vistas have drawn generations of readers to the island, where the annual tourism industry owes much to literary pilgrims seeking Anne's world. The author's childhood home in nearby New London and her gravesite in Cavendish have also become significant sites for literary tourists.
Newfoundland: The Rugged Landscapes of Michael Crummey and Annie Proulx
Newfoundland's distinctive geography, isolated outport communities, and unique cultural identity have inspired numerous significant works of Canadian fiction. Michael Crummey's "The Wreckage" (2005) and "Sweetland" (2014) evoke specific Newfoundland locations with meticulous detail.
"Sweetland" is set on a fictional island based on elements of several real outport communities that faced resettlement, particularly those on the Burin Peninsula. Readers can visit communities like Francois and McCallum, which remain accessible only by boat, to experience the isolated setting that inspired Crummey's powerful meditation on place and belonging.
American author Annie Proulx's "The Shipping News" (1993), which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, is largely set in the fictional town of Killick-Claw. Proulx based this setting primarily on New Foundland's Great Northern Peninsula, with the town drawing elements from communities like St. Anthony and Port au Choix. The novel's vivid descriptions of Newfoundland's harsh climate, dramatic coastlines, and distinctive local culture were informed by Proulx's extensive research and time spent on the island.
Nova Scotia: The South Shore in Alistair MacLeod's Fiction
The late Alistair MacLeod set much of his fiction, including his only novel "No Great Mischief" (1999) and his short story collections, in the Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia. MacLeod's work is deeply rooted in the actual geography and cultural history of this area, particularly the communities around Inverness County on the western side of Cape Breton Island.
Locations like the fishing village of Margaree Harbour and the coal mining town of Inverness feature in his stories, though often with fictional names. The clifftop roads, coal mines, and dangerous seas that figure prominently in MacLeod's work can all be experienced by visitors to Cape Breton today. His family home in Dunvegan, where he wrote during summer months at a table facing the Gulf of St. Lawrence, exemplifies the direct connection between the physical landscape and his literary creations.
Quebec: Urban Literary Landscapes
Quebec's distinctive cultural and linguistic character has produced a rich literary tradition, with Montreal in particular serving as a vibrant setting for numerous iconic novels in both English and French.
Montreal: Richler's St. Urbain Street
Mordecai Richler's Montreal-set novels, particularly "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" (1959) and "Barney's Version" (1997), have created one of Canadian literature's most vividly realized urban landscapes. Richler drew extensively from his own childhood in the predominantly Jewish working-class neighborhood around St. Urbain Street in Montreal's Mile End district.
Today, literary tourists can walk Richler's old neighborhood, where landmarks from his fiction still stand. The Fletcher's Field (now Jeanne-Mance Park) where Duddy sells stamps, and Wilensky's Light Lunch (still operating on Fairmount Avenue), which appears in several of Richler's works, offer tangible connections to his fictional world. In 2011, a gazebo in Mount Royal Park was named after Richler, commemorating his literary portrayal of the city.
Montreal: MacLennan's Two Solitudes
Hugh MacLennan's "Two Solitudes" (1945), which explores the tensions between English and French Canada, is set primarily in Montreal and rural Quebec. The novel's title has become a common expression for English-French relations in Canada. MacLennan's Montreal settings include specific neighborhoods like Westmount, representing anglophone wealth, and working-class French-Canadian areas along the St. Lawrence.
Readers can explore these contrasting areas of Montreal today, though urban development has changed much of the cityscape since MacLennan's time. The rural Quebec settings in the novel, particularly the fictional village of Saint-Marc-des-Érables, draw from various communities along the St. Lawrence River east of Montreal, such as Sorel and Berthierville.
Quebec City: Anne Hébert's Historical Fiction
Anne Hébert's "Kamouraska" (1970) takes readers to 19th-century Quebec City and the lower St. Lawrence region. Based on a real historical murder case, the novel depicts locations that can still be visited, including the ancient streets of Quebec City's old town and the riverside village of Kamouraska, about 165 kilometers northeast of Quebec City.
The manor house in Kamouraska where the historical murder that inspired the novel took place still stands, though as a private residence. The St. Louis Cemetery in Quebec City, where scenes in the novel unfold, and the historic architecture of the Old City provide tangible connections to Hébert's powerful historical fiction.
Ontario: Urban and Rural Contrasts
As Canada's most populous province, Ontario has provided settings for a wide range of fictional works, from urban Toronto narratives to explorations of small-town and rural life.
Toronto: The Multiple Cities of Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood
Michael Ondaatje's "In the Skin of a Lion" (1987) uses Toronto's early 20th-century development as both setting and subject, focusing on the immigrant workers who built the city. The novel features actual landmarks that can be visited today, including the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant (described in exquisite detail in the book) and the Bloor Street Viaduct, whose construction forms a central narrative element.
Margaret Atwood has depicted Toronto in multiple works, including "The Robber Bride" (1993) and "Cat's Eye" (1988). The latter offers a particularly detailed portrait of post-war Toronto neighborhoods and ravines. Readers can explore areas like the Don Valley and neighborhoods that inspired the novel's settings, though many have changed significantly since the time periods Atwood depicts.
Atwood's dystopian classic "The Handmaid's Tale" (1985) reimagines parts of Toronto and Cambridge (standing in for the fictional Harvard University area) as the Republic of Gilead. Readers recognize locations like the University of Toronto campus and Toronto's ravine system in her distorted future landscape.
Southwestern Ontario: Alice Munro Country
Nobel laureate Alice Munro has set much of her short fiction in the small towns and rural areas of Southwestern Ontario where she grew up. While Munro often uses fictional town names like Hanratty, Jubilee, and Walley, they are based on real communities in Huron County, particularly her hometown of Wingham and nearby Clinton, where she later lived.
The landscapes Munro describes—the flat farmland, the Maitland and Blyth rivers, the shores of Lake Huron—can all be experienced by visitors to the region. The former Wingham public library (now the North Huron Museum) where young Munro discovered her love of reading appears in fictionalized form in stories like "Family Furnishings." Literary tourists can take self-guided tours of "Munro Country," using the author's detailed descriptions to identify the real-world counterparts of her fictional settings.
Northern Ontario: The Landscapes of Joseph Boyden
Joseph Boyden's novels, including "Three Day Road" (2005) and "Through Black Spruce" (2008), are set primarily in Northern Ontario, particularly the James Bay region and communities like Moose Factory and Moosonee. These remote communities, accessible mainly by train or plane, provide the backdrop for Boyden's exploration of Indigenous experiences across generations.
The Moose Factory Island with its historic Hudson's Bay Company buildings, the surrounding boreal forest, and the meeting of the Moose River and James Bay create the distinctive northern landscape that Boyden depicts. Despite controversy surrounding Boyden's claims to Indigenous heritage, his detailed portrayal of these northern settings draws from the actual geography and communities of the region.
The Prairies: Expansive Literary Visions
The vast landscapes of the prairie provinces—Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta—have inspired distinctive literary traditions that often engage with the psychological and social impacts of living in such expansive environments.
Manitoba: The Manawaka of Margaret Laurence
Margaret Laurence's Manawaka cycle of novels, including "The Stone Angel" (1964) and "The Diviners" (1974), is set in the fictional town of Manawaka, which was based primarily on Laurence's hometown of Neepawa, Manitoba, about 170 kilometers northwest of Winnipeg.
Literary tourists can visit Neepawa to see locations that inspired Laurence's fiction, including the hillside cemetery with its stone angel monument that inspired her most famous novel. The Margaret Laurence Home, now a museum, offers insight into the author's life and work. The surrounding prairie landscape, with its extreme seasonal changes and vast horizons that figure prominently in Laurence's work, remains largely as she described it.
Saskatchewan: The Swift Current Region in Guy Vanderhaeghe's Fiction
Guy Vanderhaeghe's acclaimed Western trilogy—"The Englishman's Boy" (1996), "The Last Crossing" (2002), and "A Good Man" (2011)—depicts the historical frontier of southern Saskatchewan and northern Montana. The Cypress Hills region near Swift Current, which features prominently in these novels, can be visited today, with its distinctive landscape of hills rising from the surrounding plains.
Fort Walsh National Historic Site in the Cypress Hills preserves aspects of the frontier history that Vanderhaeghe fictionalizes. The international border region between Saskatchewan and Montana, with its unique geography and history of conflict, offers visitors a chance to experience the landscapes that shape Vanderhaeghe's powerful historical fiction.
Alberta: W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind
W.O. Mitchell's classic coming-of-age novel "Who Has Seen the Wind" (1947) is set in a small town on the Saskatchewan-Alberta prairie during the Great Depression. While Mitchell never named the town, it is largely based on Weyburn, Saskatchewan, where he spent part of his childhood.
The novel's most enduring feature is its portrayal of the prairie landscape itself—the vast sky, the patterns of wind through grass, the extreme weather. Mitchell's descriptions of the relationship between humans and this environment can be appreciated by visitors to the southern prairies of either province, where much of the landscape remains similar to what he described over 70 years ago.
British Columbia: Between Mountains and Sea
British Columbia's dramatic landscapes—from coastal rainforests to inland mountains and valleys—have provided distinctive settings for numerous significant works of Canadian fiction.
Vancouver: The Multiple Cities of Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland's "City of Glass" (2000, updated in 2009) offers an idiosyncratic non-fiction portrait of his hometown of Vancouver, while novels like "Girlfriend in a Coma" (1998) use the city's North Shore as a backdrop. Coupland frequently sets his fiction in Vancouver's distinctive neighborhoods and suburbs, often examining the psychological effects of the city's isolated geography and cultural position.
Visitors can explore locations like the forested slopes of the North Shore mountains and neighborhoods like West Vancouver that feature in Coupland's work. The author's visual art installations around Vancouver, including the "Digital Orca" at the Jack Poole Plaza, offer another dimension to experiencing his interpretation of the city.
Vancouver Island: Jack Hodgins' Fictional Territory
Jack Hodgins has created a rich fictional territory based on central Vancouver Island, particularly in novels like "The Invention of the World" (1977) and "The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne" (1979). While Hodgins uses fictional place names like Portuguese Creek and Hedley Junction, they are clearly based on communities like Campbell River and the surrounding logging and fishing towns.
The distinctive landscape of Vancouver Island—its coastal communities, logging roads, rain-soaked forests, and mountain backdrops—is vividly present in Hodgins' work. Visitors to the central island can recognize the geography that shapes his characters' lives, from the changing coastal economies to the complex relationship between settler and Indigenous communities in the region.
Salt Spring Island: The Setting for Jane Rule's Fiction
The late Jane Rule set several works, including "The Young in One Another's Arms" (1977), on Salt Spring Island (sometimes lightly disguised), where she lived for many years. Rule's fiction explores the island's once-countercultural community and its distinctive geography of forest, shore, and small settlements.
Today, visitors to Salt Spring can experience the physical settings that informed Rule's work, though the island's character has changed somewhat since the period she depicts, becoming more developed and less isolated. The combination of natural beauty and alternative community that attracted Rule and her contemporaries continues to define the island's character.
The North: Literary Frontiers
Canada's northern territories—the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut—have inspired powerful literary works that engage with the extreme landscapes and complex histories of the region.
Yukon: Following the Trail of Robert Service and Jack London
While best known for his poetry, Robert Service's vivid depictions of Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush era have shaped literary perceptions of the Yukon. Service's cabin in Dawson City is preserved as a historic site, and visitors can experience many of the landscapes he described, from the flowing Yukon River to the surrounding wilderness.
Similarly, American author Jack London's brief time in the Yukon informed his internationally famous works like "The Call of the Wild" (1903) and "White Fang" (1906). A replica of London's cabin stands near Dawson City, and the historic gold rush town itself preserves much of the frontier atmosphere that both Service and London captured in their writing.
Northwest Territories: Elizabeth Hay's Late Nights on Air
Elizabeth Hay's Giller Prize-winning novel "Late Nights on Air" (2007) is set in Yellowknife in the 1970s, with characters who work at the local radio station. The novel captures the distinctive atmosphere of the northern city during a pivotal time of political change regarding Indigenous land claims.
Visitors to contemporary Yellowknife can still recognize aspects of the city Hay describes, from the distinctive houseboats on Great Slave Lake to the surrounding landscape of the Canadian Shield. The novel also features an expedition that retraces the ill-fated Hornby expedition through the Barrens—a journey into some of Canada's most remote wilderness that adventurous travelers can still undertake with proper guidance.
Nunavut: The Arctic Setting of The Snow Walker
Farley Mowat's collection of stories "The Snow Walker" (1975), adapted into a film in 2003, is set largely in what is now Nunavut. While not strictly fiction (Mowat's work often blends fact and fiction), these stories vividly depict the Arctic landscape and Inuit communities of the central Arctic.
The remote communities and landscapes Mowat describes can be visited today, though at considerable expense and effort. Places like Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake offer visitors a chance to experience the distinctive geography of the region, while gaining insight into contemporary Inuit culture that has evolved from the traditional ways depicted in Mowat's writing.
Literary Tourism: Experiencing Canadian Fiction Through Place
The connection between Canadian literature and actual geography has created a growing interest in literary tourism—travel experiences that allow readers to physically engage with the settings of beloved books. Several provinces have developed literary trails and tours that guide visitors to locations associated with famous works and authors.
Prince Edward Island has perhaps the most developed literary tourism infrastructure, with multiple sites related to L.M. Montgomery's work. The Green Gables Heritage Place receives over 200,000 visitors annually, while the L.M. Montgomery Literary Tour guides visitors to multiple island locations connected to the author and her fiction.
Similar initiatives exist across the country, from Margaret Laurence's Neepawa to Stephen Leacock's Orillia (fictionalized as "Mariposa" in "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town"), and Alistair MacLeod's Cape Breton. These sites offer readers a deeper connection to the literature through physical engagement with the landscapes that inspired it.
The Transformative Power of Literary Place
The relationship between Canadian fiction and the actual places that inspire it is reciprocal and transformative. Authors transform real locations through imagination, memory, and narrative craft, while their fictional versions subsequently influence how these places are perceived, experienced, and even developed.
Green Gables is perhaps the most striking example of this phenomenon—a real house that inspired a fictional one, which in turn transformed the actual location into an international tourist destination that now primarily exists to represent its fictional counterpart. Similar transformations, though usually less dramatic, have occurred at many sites associated with beloved Canadian novels.
For readers and travelers alike, exploring the real settings behind Canadian fiction offers a unique form of engagement with both literature and landscape. Walking the streets where fictional characters walked, seeing the vistas that authors transformed into settings, and experiencing the physical environments that shaped literary imagination creates a powerful connection between text and place, enriching our understanding of both.
As Canadian literature continues to evolve, incorporating new voices and perspectives, the map of Canadian literary landmarks expands as well, inviting readers to discover the complex relationships between the country's diverse geographies and the stories they inspire.
