Whiteoaks

Whiteoaks (aka Whiteoaks of Jalna) is the second 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. After introducing the history of Jalna, the first novel described the tumult of the post-war years, and revolved around sharp-tongued Grandma Adeline Whiteoak, the 99-year-old matriarch who dominates the family, and Renny, the eldest grandson, striving to bring order to the family’s internecine battles and chronic financial woes. In Whiteoaks, Adeline dies shortly after her hundredth birthday, leaving the entire family squabbling over her hoarded fortune.

Considered a classic in Canadian literature, de la Roche continued to tell the family’s story through her finale in 1960, Morning at Jalna. The 16 novels do not form a sequence, and each can be read as an independent story. Attesting to its success, the first book won the inaugural Atlantic Monthly’s $10,000 Book Award when the author was 48. In addition, de la Roche was a prolific author of children’s stories, plays, short-stories, and romantic fiction until her death

- Summary by ASharma