Jalna

About Jalna

Jalna is the first book in a series of 16 novels written between 1927 and 1960 by the Canadian writer Mazo de la Roche. It has been adapted for both stage and screen, including Jalna , the 1935 film from director John Cromwell; The Whiteoaks of Jalna , a 13-part mini-series produced in 1972 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; and Jalna , a 1994 French-Canadian adaptation in 8 parts. A sprawling family saga that spans the century from 1854-1954, it tells the story of the Whiteoaks family of southern Ontario. Jalna is the name of their fictional manor house on the shore of Lake Ontario, named after a British garrison in the Indian city of Benares (Varanasi). It is modelled after a house in Mississauga, Canada, built in the 1850s for a retired officer of the British army, in which de la Roche lived as a child. Billed as Canada’s answer to The Forsyth Saga , the series recounts the conflicts and romantic entanglements of the wealthy and eccentric Whiteoaks. Beginning with the establishment of Jalna in 1863, the narrative revolves around sharp-tongued Grandma Adeline Whiteoak, the 99-year-old matriarch who dominates the family, and Renny, the eldest grandson, striving to bring order the family’s internecine battles and chronic financial instability. Considered a classic in Canadian literature, de la Roche continued to tell the family’s story through her finale in 1960, Morning at Jalna .

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