The author who novelizes the sexual union of a bear and a human: Who is Marian Engel?

Born in Canada in 1933, Canadian writer Engel studied Language Studies at McMaster University and then completed her master's degree in Canadian Literature at McGill University. Although she started her career as a writer with the stories she wrote in the 60s, the novel Bear brought her real fame. In her works, she often examined the relationship of man with nature and gave life to complex characters in her inner world. Engel passed away in 1985 at the age of fifty-one.

Details of life story

Marian Engel (1933-1985) Canadian writer of novels, short stories, and children's books. After receiving her bachelor's degree in Literature from McMaster University, she completed her master's degree in Canadian Literature at McGill University. In her thirty-year writing career, she has produced works in many different genres, including novels, short stories, and essays. A passionate activist for national and international writers' rights, Engel became the first president of the Canadian Writers Guild, founded in 1973. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1982. After her death in 1985, the Canadian Writers' Development Foundation began awarding the Marian Engel Award annually to a mid-career female writer.

Marian Ruth Engel (May 24, 1933 – February 16, 1985) was a Canadian novelist and a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada. Her most famous and controversial novel was Bear (1976), a tale of erotic love between an archivist and a bear.

Engel, whose writings focused on women's daily experiences and their search for happiness and self-realization, saw her works as an exploration of "the way people who were raised to seek perfection cope with an imperfect world." Marian Engel's profound literary contributions continue to resonate with readers today.

Engel's most important work, The Bear (1976), received international acclaim for its exploration of sexuality and human-animal relations but was also seen as the most controversial book written in Canada. The novel, about a woman's complicated relationship with a bear, won the Governor General's Literary Award and established Engel as a bold and distinctive voice in Canadian literature.

A story that pushes the boundaries of love and self-discovery in the lonely and wild nature of Northern Canada... Lou, a shy and self-contained woman, is an inventory manager working at the Institute of History. When she is summoned to a remote island to take stock of the home and estate of the late Colonel Jocelyn Cary, she sees it as an opportunity to get away from her days spent sifting through maps and manuscripts in her dusty basement office. However, she doesn't know that the mysterious and majestic bear she will encounter there will change the course of her life forever. Lou realizes that her dormant desires and longings are awakened as she establishes a deep bond with this animal in the lap of nature. Fascinated by both the vast nature and the wildness, Lou embarks on a journey of self-discovery where she challenges social norms; and how the boundaries drawn in her mind about being human became blurred on this journey; She discovers how her unconventional relationship with the untamed brings her fears and desires to light.

Engel's narrative, full of connotations and references, reveals the complex ebb and flow between love and freedom, while also challenging prejudices about sincerity and commitment. Get ready to meet the Bear, who questions the limits that humans impose on themselves, reveals the transformative power of embracing the most primitive desires, brings together the wildness of the human spirit with the untamed beauty of nature, and dares to enter uncharted lands.