I figure "white" just goes along with "highly respectable" in the conventional rhetorical litany of attributes accorded a woman one is proud to have in one's company, at that declarative time  But...who WAS that white woman?

Ben



On Nov 30, 2011, at 6:02 PM, Harold Bush <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> folks, deep into the Christmas tales of Dickens this week and next; thought
> I'd treat myself to another look and see how the students like (or dislike)
> them.
> Here's just a few rambling questions, in case any of you are in a holiday
> mood and feel like chatting:
> 
> I wonder how MT thought of Dickens as a novelist?  I don't have a copy of
> Alan's book handy (sure wish the new edition of MT'sL would appear, are you
> listening Prof. Gribben?).
> 
> I wonder what he might have thought of those old Christmas tales -- and
> also, when or if MT ever really wrote much about Christmas, or used it much
> as a setting?
> 
> I also was interested in this little review MT wrote of his visit to hear
> CD read, in NYC, 1868:
> 
> "He read David Copperfield. He is a bad reader, in one sense -- because he
> does not enunciate his words sharply and distinctly -- he does not cut the
> syllables cleanly, and therefore many and many of them fell dead before
> they reached our part of the house. [I say "our" because I am proud to
> observe that there was a beautiful young lady with me -- a highly
> respectable young white woman.]"
> 
> (from a nice website:  charlesdickenspage.com/twain_on_dickens.html;  is
> this published in a recent edition somewhere?  not really sure about that .
> . . .)
> 
> For most of the 60s, evidently, CD read those Christmas tales in public
> readings.  But the thing that really caught my eye:  why did he call her a
> "white" woman?  I don't really get the reason for emphasizing that -- as if
> he would be with an African American?  or am I just missing something with
> that?
> 
> Anyway;  if anyone has something to say about MT and Christmas, or CD, I'm
> interested!
> 
> 
> thanks, --Hal B.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
> Professor of English
> Saint Louis University
> St. Louis, MO  63108
> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>