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

The average rating for Clumsiest People in Europe: Or, Mrs. Mortimer's Bad-Tempered Guide to the Victorian World based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-02-08 00:00:00 Mikey Hartslert Mrs. Favell Lee Bevan Mortimer was a bitterly unhappy, possibly suicidal Victorian matron who never traveled anywhere--not even to Wales, although the Welsh border was nine miles from her front door. It is not certain whether by the end of her life she was insane or merely very eccentric. (Such a shame about the drowned parrot.) Naturally, she was a prolific author of history and geography textbooks for young people. Todd Pruzan was poking around a used-book sale when he found one of Mrs. Mortimer's texts, which is full of sweeping generalizations, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and (interestingly) abolitionist rantings. Fascinated, he researched her life and condensed her writings for a 21st-century audience. Here's a sample: "The Prussians are not fond of eating, like the Austrians." About the French: "Not very clean." Iceland: "It is a pity the churches are not kept cleaner and neater." "The Sicilians are fierce, violent, and cruel." About North and South America: "America is never spoken of in the Bible." "The Pyramids are great piles of stones." On the Bechuanas of Africa: "They always laugh when they hear of customs not their own; for they think that they do everything in the best way, and all other ways are foolish." (This is rather like Mrs. Mortimer herself.) "The most beautiful city in the world" is . . . Edinburgh. Hmmm. About German women: "They are not fond of reading useful books. When they read, it is novels about people who never lived. It would be better to read nothing than such books." When Mrs. Mortimer isn't insulting pretty much everyone on the planet, she is telling her young and impressionable audience horrifying tales of avalanches, earthquakes, and children being maimed as punishment for stealing. Mortimer's most famous book may have been Reading Without Tears, which Winston Churchill said did not live up to its title. Mortimer's books had wide audiences for decades, which makes me realize how far we have come with textbooks--and, thank goodness, the Internet, which contains no mistakes.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-04-10 00:00:00 Suresh Duraisamy It's kind of fascinating to read this. Poor Mrs. Mortimer is so incredibly earnest in her complete and total lack of respect for any culture that isn't identical to her own. Is this a glimpse into the mind of the average, middle class, Victorian era Englishwoman? Her works apparently sold quite well, so maybe so. After fifty pages or so, it did start to drag. I get it, she hated every country, especially the ones she'd never seen. And it's the same thing over and over. If you believe her, nearly every person on Earth was shockingly filthy. Pruzan's additions add almost no value. His collection of facts about each country are just trivia, and don't really relate that much to Mrs. Mortimer's writing. I started skipping them fairly early on in the book, and I don't think I missed anything. That said, I think he did a pretty good job of editing down the original work. I can't imagine how tedious this might have gotten if it hadn't been cut down. I love history, which is probably why I enjoyed this as much as I did. It could be quite funny at times, always unintentionally so. Mrs. Mortimer meant well, probably, but she's was very much a product of her time.