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Lädt ... Peculiar People: The Story of My Lifevon Augustus Hare
Lädt ...
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These days hardly anyone remembers Augustus John Curthbert Hare (1834-1903). But in his prime, the late Victorian age, his name was on the lips of anyone who mattered. He was a travel writer, a storyteller and a memoirist of the first order, and his work is a fascinating record of a lost way of life amongst the strangest upper classes of English society. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)941.081History and Geography Europe British Isles Historical periods of British Isles 1837- Period of Victoria and House of Windsor Victoria 1837-1901Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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This edition of Hare's biography is the edited version - Gutenberg has the three volumes of the original The Story of My Life here. Where you'll also find copies of Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth (two volumes) and Walks in Rome. So you can hop over to those if you feel the need for an immediate read.
I should also add that this version contains Hare's drawings - if you get one of the ebook versions check and see if there's one with illustrations. And the preface of this book is really worth it for setting the scene and Hare's accomplishments. According to it, The Story of My Life in the original form was six volumes long - the first three came out in 1896 and the next three in 1900. No idea which three are in the Gutenberg version. Also helpful is the family trees which take up two pages, because there are two families involved and who's who becomes a bit cryptic at times.
I'll probably quote a bit much from his childhood, which is only one part of the book, but it's because his childhood is so awful that you can't help focusing on it. It's worth remembering that psychological abuse isn't stuck in one time period, nor physical abuse. But then the Victorians didn't view children or childhood the way we do now. Hare also notes that servants were liable to have their ears boxed just as children were "and would as little have thought of resenting it" and that "people were not so tender in those days as they are now." (p. 28) Very different times.
His godmother writes Hare's parents and offers to raise him - the Hares had five children. Their reply:
Whenever he uses the word mother he always means his godmother Maria. When he refers to his biological family he makes sure that we know who is "real" and who is not.
Much is made of Hare's childhood disobedience and his fussing over lessons - his knuckles are hit with a ruler, and when he's very naughty his uncle uses a riding whip on him. And what exactly are these lessons? (Make sure to note Hare's age.):
Granted education was much more advanced in those days (it wasn't odd to be started reading at a young age, and on adult material), but still, it's actually hard to get any five year old to sit still and continuously intake knowledge on any subject.
The hardest part to read is those where Hare is disciplined because of something his godmother (and uncle) believes she sees in him, or interprets as selfishness and greed. It's one thing to see this in his scuffling with a cousin whom he hates when that cousin takes his toys or hits him first. It's another to see selfishness in wanting to play with nearby neighbor children, and then denying that so the child will learn by not getting anything he wants/wishes for. There's something sadistic in all this, and it's all because the adults are interpreting something as "the way Christians behave" in a really illogical, unfathomable way. We know this because Hare explains an incident, and then includes his godmother Maria's journal entries on the subject, so we can be fairly sure that this isn't all a product of Hare's interpretation.
Example:
The concept of having a young child undergo (adult-imposed) self denial is really difficult to read about. In much of this it seems that it is his Uncle Julius and family (the Maurices) that are especially encouraging of Maria raising Hare in this manner. And the heavy duty religiosity probably has a lot to do with the fact that Uncle Julius is a minister.
I should add here that Uncle Julius and (his wife) Aunt Esther didn't have any children of their own. Hare being adopted probably had a lot to do with their treatment of him as well.
...That's enough of the unhappy childhood - short version, let's just say that Aunt Esther is completely awful and villainous. Besides seeing that Hare is locked up in various freezing rooms in winter, there's the incident where she takes his pet and has it killed. That's something I can't forgive, especially as Hare tells the story. (It's not a lengthy telling, but still the kind of thing that sticks with you.)
Hare continues to makes excuses for his mother Maria's behavior in all this, though he does note that her love for him doesn't make her any less unkind. She "gets better" later in Hare's life - there's no suspense there because Hare assures us early on that they eventually have a much more friendly and openly loving relationship.
Once Hare is old enough and finishes school his life becomes much more happy, especially once he discovers writing as a vocation and comes to enjoy it. Then the book is all traveling and vising various homes and sketches of various, often eccentric people and their stories. Here and there he tosses in a few lines about a famous author, poet or artist he crosses paths with.
One thing that made me absolutely love Hare - besides his gathering and re-telling various ghost stories - are the weird details that are in most of his stories. When traveling he spent a lot of his time staying at the homes of various friends and relatives:
Here's a longer description, from his brother who was fighting for Garibaldi in Italy:
...Lines to remember:
If those sentence don't reel you in then perhaps Mr. Hare is not to your taste. Meanwhile I'm hoping to remember to tell someone that I must "evade the use of vegetables" at dinner some day. ( )