08/29/2026
'Possession' by Mazo de la Roche
Mazo de la Roche (1879–1961) is best known as the author of the sixteen-novel Jalna saga, one of the most commercially successful Canadian literary series of the 20th century. Long before that fame, though, she spent several formative years living in the Sovereign House in Bronte.
The de la Roche family's stay in Bronte ran from about 1910/11 to 1915, in a period she later described by contrasting genteel Oakville with what she called "sedate, respectable, and very different from the rowdy, good-humoured poverty of Bronte." Next door to Sovereign House lived the Cudmore family — a large, boisterous farming household. By the family's own later account, the Cudmore children were the "tow-headed" youngsters who lived next door and would poke their heads through the fence while de la Roche sat writing stories to sell to magazines.
De la Roche didn't just live in Bronte — she mined it. Many of her novels and short stories drew directly on Bronte and its residents, as well as the surrounding countryside. Her novel Possession (1923) is the clearest example: it contains numerous characters and events pulled from her real encounters in Bronte.
In Possession, de la Roche fictionalized the real geography, renaming Oakville as Brancepeth and Bronte as Mistwell, but the settings and people were unmistakable to locals. The real-life Cudmore family became the fictional Chards. This is presumably the source of the "H.P. Chard" character — the patriarch or head of the fictionalized family drawn from the real Cudmores next door.
Other neighbors were folded in too: the wealthy character "Jerrold" was based on Major Osler, a gentleman farmer who lived in the same area.
Decades later, Bill Cudmore reflected on the portrayal with a mix of pride and skepticism — enjoying the novel's descriptive writing but wary of any romanticizing of what had actually been a hardscrabble upbringing. He felt the novelist got a lot right, especially about the poverty of the place — suggesting de la Roche's depiction of the Chards leaned into the family's rough, working-class circumstances rather than glossing over them, and that this fidelity to real hardship was part of what made the "colourful" Bronte-versus-Oakville contrast she drew feel authentic to the people who'd actually lived it.
MAZO BOOK CLUB INTEREST
The Bronte Historical Society is exploring the idea of starting a book club devoted to the works of Mazo de la Roche.
Nothing is set in stone, and we won't be starting right away — but we'd love to know if there's interest before we move forward with planning. If you'd enjoy digging into her novels (starting perhaps with Possession, given its local ties) alongside fellow Bronte history lovers, let us know!
Drop us a line or a comment if you'd be interested in joining once we get things underway.
Email: [email protected]
