This Brief Tragedy Loth

by John Evangelist Walsh

1991 Grove Weidenfeld Ist ed., 2nd printing. Provocative bio of the tragedies of Emily Dickinson's last four years, including her brother Austin's affair with Mabel Todd, who later claimed to have... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080211119X
• ISBN13: 9780802111197
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

AN INTERESTING READ

Contrary to the feministic ranting of a previous reviewer,this volume concentrates on one aspect of the Todd-Dickinson affair..While Walsh does indeed "speculate",he does so using the historical data available..Contrary to what some may think,historical speculation using available historical sources is what most documentary historical narratives are all about...One can hardly "know" exactly what motivated any long-ago historical personage to do whatever he/she may have done,except for the historical sources left behind..Often times these documents,letters,journals,and suchlike are opininated rather than strictly accurate,and just as often they are driven by emotion rather than the sort of cold strictly factual documentation that an expert would rather have..Does this make such speculation,based upon available evidence any less valid?No,it does not... Feminist ranting about male authors taking female historical subjects to task for thier sexual inclinations,while alledgedly ignoring the same behaviour in males aside,it has to be remembered that history cannot always be viewed through a purely politically correct "modern"lens...Like it or not,female sexual behaviour WAS a topic of much discussion when the Todd-Dickinson affair transpired,and it then was the female's conduct and not the male's which recieved the most scrutiny..To attempt to view any historical event without taking into account the then-prevailing attitudes and social mores is an exercise in deliberate foolishness and is doomed to failure and justifiable ridicule.. As for the"other"accomplishments of Mabel Todd,such as her musical abilities,these are hardly relevant to the issue addressed in the Walsh book...Ms.Todd may have been an absolute genius at other things,but the issue here is her affair with Mr.Dickinson,and what ramifications may have come from it...Ms.Todd's other abilities,such as they were,are of marginal importance to the issue thus addressed. It is too bad that some readers find it absolutes necessary to try and justify every long-ago event through the strainer of 21st century political correctness..Things were NOT politically correct until only recently,and,therefore,trying to graft a bogus modern,politically correct "meaning"onto an event that transpired in past times that were entirely absent the current,noxious form of political correctness does all historical research a disservice.. This book is fine reading,if a bit speculative which,in the end,is as it should be..Moreover,it refrains from attempting to present a long ago event within the narrow,confining,often entirely bogus confines of todays politically correct thought-police limitations ,which alone should recommend it to any reader.