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.
