This is by no means a book review blog. I had one of those before university got in the way. This is simply a post talking about a book. Considering my 'summer of fun' involves a lot of reading (I have a lot to catch up on), I felt this blog post was worthy.
I bought Mr. Emerson's Wife as a joke. With a blurb that contains 'Lidian is gradually drawn to the erotic energy and intellect of close family friend Henry David Thoreau', how was I not going to buy this book? (I'm also wondering how far his neck beard can be considered "erotic".)
It's ostensibly a love triangle. Lidian Jackson is in an unhappy marriage and Thoreau provides an escape. Also, Margaret Fuller is painted as the 'other woman' & Louisa May Alcott as a teenager, with a crush on Emerson, is absolutely adorable! I encountered a problem however - I began to see these characters as fictional and had to keep reminding myself that no, these were real people. While I am fully aware this is a work of 'historical fiction' in which the author wishes to 'fill in the gaps', it was nice to see Emerson's wife thrust into the limelight, being relieved from the secondary role she gets in his numerous biographies. On the negative side, Emerson was painted so negatively & I love Emerson so that made me kind of angry. Once again, I reiterate the fact that I know this was fiction.
Now, imagine the shock of my life when the book involves "sex" scenes with Emerson, and then later with Thoreau. I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO READ THEIR ESSAYS AGAIN. I shared my disbelief with mum only for her to tell me that he did actually have four children and how did I think babies were made. Twenty is too late for the birds & bees talk but I consider it had. Thanks mum, thanks.
I wish to buy every historical textbook on Lidian Emerson now, along with a collection of her letters, but with less than a month until America, I don't have the luxury. Something for fourth year perhaps?
To finish, a few quotes used in the book that I really liked, all by Thoreau, the transcript of the essay I have read online and am now going to read in it's entirety.
Love is the profoundest of secrets.
In love and friendship the imagination is as much exercised as the heart.
Love must be as much a light as a flame.
That's the thing with the transcendentalists, or the writers that surrounded them. You get given them to read in the first Norton Anthology, and with a great sigh, you do so. It's long, arduous, and inappropriate to make a first year undergraduate to make a first year undergraduate read long essays when they would much rather spend their evenings socialising. However, wrappd up in this love of trees and the environment in general, are single quotes that make the world stop due to their extreme beauty. Quotes that make you put down the book for a second and contemplate in your mind the greatness of what is in front of you.
That's a reason why I would like to become a writer. So I too, could create a moment that makes the world stop.
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