Book excerpt: Categorized as the first attempt by a Canadian-born author at historical fiction, Wacousta, by John Richardson, is a Gothic story about Pontiac's War. The author described the 1763 uprising which was led by Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa Indians, at Fort Detroit. In the author's evocative depiction, Pontiac's campaign against Fort Detroit is planned by the mystifying Wacousta, a Byronic anti-hero whose desire for revenge against the fortress commander results in madness. Its themes include prophecy and opposites, such as manliness vs. effeminacy, wilderness/wildness vs. civilization, sensibility vs. compassion, and the natural vs. the supernatural. This suspenseful novel creates a world of illusion and panic in which justification is vague and the boundary between hierarchy and anarchy undefined. Despite its stressed sentimentalism, the novel has been treated as a seminal work in the development of a Canadian literary sensibility. The work is also often claimed as the first Canadian novel.