Customer Reviews

Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-Century America (Penguin Classics)

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These original essay length letters composed by an intelligent and imaginative immigrant offer us a fascinating glimpse into life in early America. The letters chronicle his travels across the thirteen colonies in the years leading up to the revolution. With pathos and humour he gives us an intimate look at family life in the whaling ports of Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard. We visit with John Bertram, the celebrated botanist on his Pennsylvania farm. We are escorted through the middle colonies to Charelston for a first hand look at the opulent lifestyle of the planters. Our guide points out the absurdities he confronts while chronicling the beauty and diversity of the natural landscape. This book provides a wonderful and historic experience.

this book is filled with personal correspondence between a pennsylvania farmer and england in the first years of America. A wonderful journey thru time . Filled with details of life and the area and the wonders of america . Written in the words and style of a lost time . From the way he writes about his wifes daily chores to the hardship tragedy and beauty of his new home you can not but feel you are truly getting letters from a friend . fabulous read

What can I say? My first glimpse of this fascinating mirror into ordinary colonial American life was while I was bartending at a fancy schmancy restaurant on the upper east side of New York City. A customer working on her disertation for her master's in education was reading it while sipping chardonnay and waiting for her husband to join her.

As I passed back and forth, I could not help catching intriguing glimpses of the cover. How, in my quest for knowledge of early American agrarian, culture had I missed this gem? How would the observations of a Franch man compare to those of the incomparable William Cobbett?

Her husband was late; she had a second - and a third - glass. Her concentration became a bit wobbly and the book, to my great delight, was finally laid upon the bar, the well worn pages held open with the aid of a handy bread stick, flakes of toasted parmesan cheese adding a bit of superfluous punctuation.

I can read upside down (most bartenders can; do not forget this for your future privacy). I had got through several pages on dealing with the manners and customs of Nantucket before her spouse, unfortunatly, arrived. I had been too busy to write down the title at the time (yes, I can read upside down very quickly and in short, accurate bursts). But, thanks to the infinite ways of searching on Amazon, I was soon able to discover the whole title.

For those who, like myself, peer through the mirror of history and see ourselves; perhaps our little garden, or spring seedlings, tenderly nurtured, this book is better than any reality show pitting modern man against antiquated inconveniences. It relays the security and the continuity of a job well known and well done.

Buy this book. Read this book. You will never again view a plastic wrapped loaf of bread in the same light.

Interesting book. I don't have time to re-read it over and over and try to analyze what I think are its hidden meanings, imagery, etc. I think a lot of it might be fantasy and fiction, but it has some clever imagery, allusions, and hidden commentary. Basically, Eastern Pennsylavania, Nantucket, and other northern puritan (work hard and smart) places are completely, unbelievably, virtuous, while the back-woods, and plush places (fertile South, etc.) are not industrious or so virtuous. Europe and Britain are bad while America is the most virtuous place imaginable, and will take over the world as a more expanded, populated, and prosperous power. It made me reflect how hard it is to predict prosperous societies (who would ever expect that Nantucket would be so successful)--and I kept thinking about Japan. And who could have predicted the ruin from the Revolutionary War (last chapter) after reading the earlier chapters?