Thanks again to Team Esolen for choosing to do these Twain readings! Truly, I had forgotten what a GREAT writer he was. Because of these reminders, though, I chose the next volume in the Twain collection on my shelf, and have just finished his piece, heretofore-unknown-to-me, In Defense of Harriet Shelley. Did I learn in college that Shelley left his wife because she was unfaithful, and then took up with Mary Godwin? Take up with the sixteen-year-old Godwin he certainty did, but there is no evidence at all that Harriet failed in her marriage vows. And Twain is absolutely savage in clarifying all of this. Next in the volume is an essay on Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses. It’s magnificent. And, if not for you, I might never have pulled this book off the shelf.
Oh, Twain was right, I believe. Shelley not only used any excuse to be unfaithful, he dared to justify it and celebrate it in a long poem -- Epipsychidion. I believe that at that time he was unfaithful to Mary Shelley in turn.
Thanks again to Team Esolen for choosing to do these Twain readings! Truly, I had forgotten what a GREAT writer he was. Because of these reminders, though, I chose the next volume in the Twain collection on my shelf, and have just finished his piece, heretofore-unknown-to-me, In Defense of Harriet Shelley. Did I learn in college that Shelley left his wife because she was unfaithful, and then took up with Mary Godwin? Take up with the sixteen-year-old Godwin he certainty did, but there is no evidence at all that Harriet failed in her marriage vows. And Twain is absolutely savage in clarifying all of this. Next in the volume is an essay on Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses. It’s magnificent. And, if not for you, I might never have pulled this book off the shelf.
Glory to God!
Oh, Twain was right, I believe. Shelley not only used any excuse to be unfaithful, he dared to justify it and celebrate it in a long poem -- Epipsychidion. I believe that at that time he was unfaithful to Mary Shelley in turn.
Oh the fun of this! I love the way Twain, and Tony, narrate the conversion scene with Huck’s pap and the new judge. Mercy!