TWAIN-L Archives

Mark Twain Forum

TWAIN-L@YORKU.CA

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show HTML Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Steve Hoffman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Date:
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 13:28:29 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (69 lines)
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.
>
>

ATOM RSS1 RSS2