Letters written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Mary Wollstonecraft
Candide, Voltaire
Letters written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
While reading this book I wondered how it was received (if at all) by Swedes and Norwegians… despite Mary Wollstonecraft’s poetic depictions of the Scandinavian landscape, she does not paint its inhabitants with a complimentary brush… Here are but three examples of many (all within the first 15 pages of the book) that might be quoted to show this:
p. 7. “I did not immediately recollect that men who remain so near the brute creation, as only to exert themselves to find the food necessary to fructify the faint glimmerings of mind which entitles them to rank as lords of the creation.
p.11 “…my host told me bluntly that I was a woman of observation for I asked him men’s questions.”
p. 14 - “The politics of the place being on a smaller scale, suits better with the size of their faculties; for, generally speaking, the sphere of observation determines the extent of the mind.”
However, Wollstonecraft does behave well towards those she meets and “exercises her understanding” (p.70) as one probably should when abroad. The fact that she’s not always tactful in her descriptions makes for interesting and entertaining reading. Her whole being is exposed in this book and her feminist, economic and political commentaries are not hard to ascertain.
This is an autobiographical travelogue, though. It’s presumed that she wrote in this genre to lessen the impact of the rebellious ideas that she “slips in”. Stating some of what she intimates in Letters from Denmark point blank in a straight-up autobiography might have made her even more reviled by her contemporaries than she was to become (although it’s hard to imagine that that could be possible).
For instance, she is critical of people whose single-minded pursuit is the acquisition of money: “The captains acquire a little superficial knowledge by travelling, which their indefatigable attention to the making of money prevents their digesting…" On this note, she was certainly an idealist, considering that she remained enamoured of Imlay despite his avarice and his neglect of her. Here, her polar personality slip into the Romantic, where Passion overpowers Reason.
Wollstonecraft seems to soak up her surroundings, making poetry out of landscapes that touch her soul…p. 16 “Eternity is in these moments: worldly cares melt into the airy stuff that dreams are made of; and reveries, mild and enchanting as the first hopes of love, or the recollection of lost enjoyment, carry the hapless wight into futurity…”
p. 34 - “I contemplated, fearless of idle questions, a night such as I had never before seen or felt to charm the senses, and calm the heart. The very air was balmy, as it freshened into morn, producing the most voluptuous sensations. A vague pleasurable sentiment absorbed me, as I opened my bosom to the embraces of nature; and my soul rose to its author, with the chirping of the solitary birds, which began to feel, rather than see, advancing day.”
Her contemplation of nature and the ravaging effects of greed bring forth ideas that tend to flow from one to another. In this sense she is seeing beyond the horizon but understanding that wherever it begins, the sky must end. p.68 - “Imagination went still farther, and pictured the state of man when the earth could no longer support him. …do not smile: I really became distressed for these fellow creatures, yet unborn." Nature is indeed the “nurse of sentiment” for Wollstonecraft. Very much like (well, it’s kind of a stretch, but bear with me!) a yodeler in the Alps hears the echoes of his yodels, Wollstonecraft metaphorically sends out her being into nature which acts as a kind of filter when her senses pick up and process the environmental stimuli. Her perception of nature is augmented by her projecting her own soul onto it.
Wollstonecraft’s curiosity of nature seems to match the meanderings of her mind. She is full of interesting ideas. For example, she notes that the Norwegians have a knack for languages which “prevents the cultivation of their own, and, consequently, limits literary pursuits.” An interesting conjecture. She might have been admiring of what was happening in America at that time, where American English was forming. It was the common people (rather than the aristocracy) that were shaping and defining their language, and this is the very language that Noah Webster (yeah, that Webster) was codifying. He claimed at the time that Americans were speaking the most pure English known. Compared to Europe, where speakers of the “same language” might have had great difficulty understanding each other, America was getting it done right. Melting pot from the start.
Wollstonecraft was, however, not so admiring of other goings-on in America - possibly from Imlay’s accounts of his travels there - and she was especially critical of the unbridled commerce that was rapidly expanding there. (p. 86/87): “England and America owe their liberty to commerce, which created a new species of power to undermine the feudal system. But let them beware of the consequence; the tyranny of wealth is still more galling and debasing than that of rank.” If only she could see us now! Surely she supported ideas of the Rational Enlightenment upon which America was founded but I wonder what she would have to say about the state of affairs as they are today. The superstition of religion or the devouring reality of Capitalism - which one would you choose?
Also, I found the reasoning behind her belief that man originated in cold climates remarkable… p. 29 - “[man was] led to adore a sun so seldom seen… Man must therefore have been placed in the north, to tempt him to run after the sun, in order that the different parts of the earth might be peopled.”
p. 61 “What a long time it requires to know ourselves; and yet every one has more of this knowledge than he is willing to own.” Contemplation brings one to question further and to conclude that more contemplation is needed...
CANDIDE
This book is far more brutal than what I remember the opera being. After reading it, I was not surprised to learn that it wasn't until the 1960s that the book was uncensored in French high schools (although I was very surprised to learn that France, at one point, had censors!)
My first impressions of Candide were that it is a critique of greed and globalization… It reminded me of a Kurt Vonnegut book where time and space collapse on themselves. Very much like Slaughterhouse Five, though, Candide is critical of very real issues and actions. Both books are “ridiculous” in a sense but are social commentary to very real events; “so it goes”; “best of all possible worlds”… It's ludicrousness also reminded me of PP ... learning and growing along the way.
Here are among my favourite lines:
p. 4* - “Note that noses were made to bear spectacles, and hence we have spectacles…”
p. 9 -“…It was an Avar village that the Bulgars had burnt down in accordance with the principles of international law.”
p. 15 - Reversal of Rousseau - “Men must have a corrupting effect on nature.”
p. 16* - “..Pangloss prevented him, demonstrating that the harbour of Lisbon had been purposely created for the Anabaptist to drown in.”
p. 37 - “Heaven will thank you for showing such charity, and you will be saved.”
p. 43 - “Los Padres own everything while the people own nothing. It is a masterpiece of reason and justice. If you ask me, there is nothing as divine as Los Padres, who are waging war on the Kings of Spain and Portugal here in the Americas, while in Europe they are these kings’ confessors. And they kill the Spaniards here, while in Madrid they send them to Heaven. It’s enchanting!”
p. 88 - “…in this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.”
p. 116 - “Pangloss declared that he had always suffered horribly, but having asserted that everything was going wonderfully, he would continue to assert it, even though he did not believe it in the least.”
p. 118 - “Work keeps three great evils at bay: boredom, vice and want.”
p. 119 On this page, The Message: Shut up, stop reasoning and get to work.
Hmm…great advice. I have to go! Bye bye!
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