Hermsprong: Or, Man as He Is Not

By Robert Bage

Book Overview

Robert Bage's Hermsprongsatirizes English society of the 1790s targeting, in particular, corrupt clergymen, grasping lawyers and wicked aristocrats. The protagonist, a European raised among Native Americans, visits Europe and is dismayed by what he encounters. While such satire might seem conventional enough, Hermsprongis distinguished from other political novels of the period by its comedy, and it is a measure of Bage's success that he won the admiration of writers as different in political outlook as Mary Wollstonecraft and Sir Walter Scott. Indeed, Hermsprongis built around debate, and celebrates the pleasures of the lively exchange of ideas. This Broadview edition contains extensive primary source appendices including material by William Godwin, Benjamin Franklin, Pierre de Charlevoix, and Voltaire.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1551112795
• ISBN13: 9781551112794
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Broadview Press Inc
• Length: 387 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

The original Pride and Prejudice

Writing about a generation before Jane Austen, Blage, now known primarily for nothing at all, was an extremely popular and well-thought-of 18th-century writer (he was admiringly written about by Sir Walter Scott--damning praise there, nowadays, but grow up). This is Blage's masterpiece: his last, great, satirical work skewering the mores of British snobbishness (in the person of Lord Grondale)through the caricature of an American "barbarian." The phrase "pride and prejudice" is used throughout in the manner applied by Austen (yes, this is a bucolic, country novel of manners--focusing more on character than plot; oh, with everyone married happily ever after by the end). A treat.