resending to eliminate silly duplication in my
first sentence!
-Steve Hoffman
> Charles Dickens' Life and Adventures of Martin
> Chuzzlewhit opens with a humorous paragraph
> which drily satirizes our obsessions with family
> lineages .... noting that the Chuzzlewhits
> deserve great respects for, after all, they
> trace their lineage to Adam and Eve.
>
> I am nearly 100% sure I once read Twain making a
> similar remark .... it was in the context of
> giving some truthful information about his
> parents ancestors, the Clemens and/or the
> Lamptons, and he threw in a boost along these
> lines (e.g that his great-great-grandfather was
> a direct descendant of Adam, or something along
> those lines).
>
> So now it's bugging me that I can't recall the
> reference, and when I attempt to do
> quick-and-dirty Google search, I just get lines
> from Twain's Diary of Adam and Eve.
>
> If any Forum members recall the passage, let me
> know.
>
> Sincerely,
> Steve Hoffman, Takoma Park MD
>
> p.s. For those who are curious, here's Dickens'
> paragraph (prolix but still delightful -- I
> think our man Twain would've have stopped after
> the first sentence.
>
> As no lady or gentleman,
> with any claims to polite
> breeding, can possibly
> sympathize with the
> Chuzzlewit Family without
> being firstassured of the
> extreme antiquity of the
> race, it is a great
> satisfaction to know that it
> undoubtedly descended in a
> direct line from Adam and
> Eve; and was, in the very
> earliest times, closely
> connected with the
> agricultural interest. If it
> should ever be urged by
> grudging and malicious
> persons, that a Chuzzlewit,
> in any period of the family
> history, displayed an
> overweening amount of family
> pride, surely the weakness
> will be considered not only
> pardonable but laudable,
> when the immense superiority
> of the house to the rest of
> mankind, in respect of this
> its ancient origin, is taken
> into account.
>
>
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