Customer Reviews

The Clumsiest People in Europe: Or, Mrs. Mortimer's Bad-Tempered Guide to the Victorian World

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's hard to know how to begin a review about a book that at once seems so outrageously comical but at its core is so earnestly serious. In that we have, "The Clumsiest People in Europe", a compilation of writings by the erstwhile Englishwoman, Favell Lee Mortimer. This book is a dandy!

Introduced and edited by Todd Pruzan, (who seems to have many of the same reactions that I did in reading Mrs. Mortimer) "The Clumsiest People in Europe" is a title that represents the tip of the iceberg to Mrs. Mortimer's harsh assessments of the peoples of the civilized, and in proper Victorian vogue, the UNcivilized peoples of the world. As Pruzan remarks, Mrs. Mortimer ventured out of England only twice in her life, so her reviews of the world are made even the more, well, let's say, curious. Nary a country escapes her scrutinies and admonishments. In that regard, Mrs. Mortimer is an equal opportunity employer. Spaniards are "cruel, sullen and revengeful". The country is full of robbers and wolves. After being barely benignly cruel, Mrs. Mortimer says of the Swedes, "you are ready to think the Swedes are a wise and good people. Not so. There is no country in Europe where so many people are put in prison." And so it goes. As she goes farther east and south, Mrs. Mortimer opens up with more vengeance. Suffice it to say she despises drink, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, blacks, Asians, the poor, idleness, tobacco and gambling. Mrs. Mortimer was born just the wrong side of prozac.

Beyond the humor applied to today, one has to take a different look at Mrs. Mortimer's offerings. What was her motive in putting together these accounts? I have a sense that there was a serious purpose of educating those she felt needed to be educated. Her readers must have been mostly British, of course, and as much as she disdains most things, she has pretty harsh words for England (though she manages to make sure that England is THE superior country to all, throughout her chapters).

The most intriguing aspects of Mrs. Mortimer's writings are her comments about slavery. Though slavery had been abolished only twenty years before she took up the quill, there is no doubt that she wanted to instruct her readers that slavery was a horrible institution. Although the United States comes across pretty well in her estimation, she spends a good amount of time sniffing about how America still practices it. She also declares that in Canada, (or "British America", then) "there are no slaves. There never can be any in countries that belong to Britain".

My final thoughts are of a woman who, ensconced in a country nearing the height of its power, wished not only to tell people about the dangers of every evil, but in a subtler way, how they should live their lives. It's a remarkable equivalent to those in the United States today, who are updated versions of Mrs. Mortimer.

The short historical introductions by Todd Pruzan are effective and welcome. I urge you to buy a copy of "The Clumsiest People in Europe" and enjoy the many facets of Mrs. Mortimer's writings. She was, indeed, a woman of her times.

Mrs. Mortimer is hilarious. Until you realize (as I did, when reading the passage on my ancestors "the hindoostanees") that there's a teeny tiny grain of truth behind many of her caricatured profiles. Excellent introduction that sets up proper historical context and gives Mrs. Mortimer the "Behind the Music" treatment.

Since Mrs. Mortimer did not take the time to travel outside of England much in her life she must have gotten 99% of her information from other sources. She takes facts gleaned from these other sources and then gives value judgments based on her experiences as an English woman at a time when Great Britain was the epicenter of the civilized, industrialized world. I can't help wondering what she would have said about places like Brazil, Japan, or Hindostan had she actually visited them herself. Mrs. Mortimer does not approve of Catholicism (or any other non-Protestant religion), idleness, strong drink, slavery, gambling, or uncleanliness. She is eager to point out where wickedness (at least her idea of it) exists and is fond of describing the tragedies that befall children and babies in other countries. She has an interesting narrative style in which she asks a question and then answers it, or guesses what is in the reader's mind and then responds accordingly. Mrs. Mortimer describes Easter in Russia:

"And how does the day end? In feasting and drunkeness. Sometimes all the people in a village are drunk at Easter. The streets of St. Petersburgh are filled with staggering, reeling drunkards." Mrs. Mortimer compares Turks and Persians: "The Turks are grave and the Persians lively. The Turks are silent and the Persians talkative. The Turks are rude, the Persians polite. Now I am sure you like the Persians better than the Turks. But wait a little - the Turks are very proud; the Persians very deceitful."

Mrs. Mortimer does not spare her native land from criticism. In fact as I was reading I noticed that in many instances England does not compare favorably to some aspect of the "other" country being described. You have to give her some credit for trying to be fair.

This book is a fun, quick read and it has something to offend absolutely everyone!

At a time when America is at war and issues related to globalization and xenophobia are inexorably linked, this timely book reminds that the more things change, the more they stay the same. While the book focuses on a collection of long-forgotten books written over a hundred years ago for British for children, it is 21st Century adults and students who can get the most from this volume. In a country where less than 20% of citizens have a passport, the U.S. is filled, particularly on the right, with many writers no different than Ms. Mortimer. What does that say about her? What does that say about us? This book inspired me to think about these questions. And the mark of a good book today is one that makes you think. I'd encourage college professors and high school teachers to use this book in their classes since it touches upon and informs so many issues facing the country. A terrific read. Hopefully, Mr Pruzan will find more of Ms. Mortimer's books for another volume!

I quite enjoyed this little Victorian traveloge. I picked it up expecting it to be more humorous, and although I found the writer's style quite dour and pedantic, I became more interested in understanding her perspective than laughing at her views. I imagine that there were many folks in her day who felt exactly the same as she did about any country that was not England. The editor makes a pretty terrific comment in the preface to this edition, however, in that the stereotypes that this book espoused back in the days of Queen Victoria or not all that different from the unfortunate and xenophobic views that so many people in today's world ...there is definitely a lesson to be learned here.

I highly recommend this book, though I find it hard to explain (or even understand) why I find it so funny. It may be just Mrs. Mortimer's punchy style. A typical sentence is "Denmark is flat, but not nearly so flat as Holland, nor as damp, nor as ugly."

I'm also inspired by her certainty and confidence. Having left England only twice (and that counts a trip to Edinburgh), she has very strong feelings about other nations and she is happy to share these with you. In Spain, for example,"...beware of the robbers; they are fierce and often kill people... The people are idle, love dancing, and dressing, and playing on the guitar, better than working or reading." Or "No people in Europe are as clumsy and awkward with their hands as the Portuguese."

She frequently begins sentences, "You will not like..." followed by a nation and a list of reasons (filth, snakes, biting insects, miserable dwellings, superstitious Catholics, dirty people).

A startling note is that Mrs. Mortimer's books were written for children, and very young children at that. Like her appalling "Peep of the Day" (aimed at 4 year olds), her expostion of other cultures is full of terrifying things that can happen to youngsters. A mild example from the description of Sweden: "You would tremble to go down into the chief iron mine, for there is a ladder down into the deep pit that is slippery from ice. If your foot were to slip, you would be dashed to pieces."

Don't miss the introduction or the charming map on the cover! Good job, Mr. Pruzan, and thanks for rescuing this work from obscurity.

Now that we live in the 21st century, 150 years since Favell Mortimer (nee Bevan) wrote her descriptions of the rest of the world, I guess it is safe to give this book five stars. On the other hand, if I thought that the contents of the book were going to be taken as, um, gospel by the readers, I would give it only one star. The five stars are basically for Todd Pruzan, not for Favell Mortimer.

Just who are the clumsiest people in Europe? According to Mortimer, the Portuguese! Didn't you all know that? I sure didn't. And what's the most beautiful city in the world? Well, it's Edinburgh. That green hill with the castle on top surely gives it an advantage over, say, Copenhagen!

And what is the wickedest city in the world? It certainly gives a different meaning to the line "I left my heart in San Francisco."

Which people are the drunkest? Oh, never mind.

You can find out so much about all sorts of, um, strange and faraway people. Such as Icelanders, Greenlanders, Sicilians, Ostyaks, Tartars, Affghans (I'm using Ms. Mortimer's spellings here), and so on.

Yes, it is an amazing book. Still, it has its share of facts to go along with the nonsense, all stated by Ms. Mortimer with an air of supreme confidence in spite of her actual failure to have visited any but a couple of the places she describes. In addition, it has a constant viciousness that leaves an unpleasant aftertaste, especially when one takes into account the fact that this material was originally designed to be consumed by young schoolchildren. I think we would all do well to realize that it really is wrong to come up with such works and feed them to impressionable children.

When I lived in England, over fifty years ago, I did have a look at a number of books about the rest of the world, including some children's books. Some of the books had been written as recently as 1950, but others were from several decades earlier, and the things they said about the United States were often pretty funny. I can see how this book fits in with some of what I saw in England back then, and I can also see how it can help give misleading impressions about foreign nations to plenty of youngsters. Even though we do grow up and learn more accurate information about places, some of the overall attitudes we may have about other nations can be greatly distorted by the things we're told when we're very young.

Should we be careful not to produce works of our own that have the same sorts of problems as those which Ms. Mortimer wrote? Absolutely. And I hope that in the year 2150, the works of, say, Ed Said will be read with the same roars of laughter that now accompany the readings of Ms. Mortimer's contributions.

Todd Pruzan's introduction and commentary on Mrs. Mortimer's weird take on the peoples of the world left me wanting more -- although sixty pages on Madagascar might have been too much to swallow. I particularly liked his summary of each nation's or region's state of culture and accomplishments before letting Mrs. M have her say.

Since yours will keep getting stolen by guests. Acerbic, exacting, whimsically inaccurate, poignant, strange, and hilarious, the world of Mrs. Mortimer is one you'll want to visit, although ultimately you may not want to live there. A perfect gift for both those who travel and those happily content never to do so.

This woman surely must have been mad to have written some of these things. I can only say that it has to be read to be believed. It's completely hilarious.