Domestic Manners of the Americans, by Frances Trollope (TPB, 1993, $2.50)
Frances Trollope hated America. She hated Americans. She was an English "lady" of the best breeding, and we Americans did not treat her with the respect she deserved!
Actually, I kind of feel sorry for her. When she and her husband had spent themselves into bankruptcy, their friend, Fanny Wright, offered to take them to America to live and to recoup their financial losses. When Fanny's Utopian community, dedicated to free thinking and free love, turned out not to Frances' liking, she borrowed money to travel to Cincinnati. Cincinnati may have been an example of progress in the frontier, but not to Frances. Still, with the help of her "always willing-to-provide-funds" friend, she was able to put on some really strange exhibits, which were a financial failure. (What a surprise!) As always, still broke, she traveled first to Washington, D.C.,and then to both Virginia and New York. Eastern America suited her better. Here her spirits rose, if not her finances. Sorting through her writings about her trip, she realized she had at last discovered her true calling. A year later, having published this book, she had finally obtained the fame and the fortune she considered her due.
But why did people care? Now, most people have accepted the principles of civil liberty and equality, but in 1832 the jury was still out. Non-Americans were just plain curious about how things were turning out. Even though today we have accepted these principles, we are still shocked when people in the Middle East and in Moscow take the reins of their own destinies. (Well, at least I was.) Look for this book on the new non-fiction table, avail. 12/28. (Later:AH)
