Some of my earliest memories are of listening to my mother reading to my brothers and me. It was often from the Bible or the Book of Mormon. She would ask us what we wanted to hear, and it was usually a story such as Joseph in Egypt. She skipped the part where Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. The Book of Mormon has stories of confrontations between the good Nephites and bad Lamanites. If she read any “religious” parts of these books, I have forgotten it. I have subsequently decided I can’t accept the claim that the Book of Mormon is a record of Jews who were led by God to America. I continue to read the Bible, but don’t accept it as the “word of God”. I have the 12 volume Interpreters Bible that includes an exegesis and commentary. I maintain that no one who is not a student of ancient mideast cultures can understand the Bible without such a resource.
Mom read fiction too. When I was in the 4th grade, she read Twain’s “Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. I cheated a bit and wrote a book report based on her reading of it. The teacher had not heard of the book and kept insisting that Arthur lived long before there were Connecticut Yankees.
I think I read almost all of Twain’s books before I was out of high school. Of Course “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn” were favorites. When I read criticism of Twain for using the term “nigger”, I remember that that was true to the language of the day, and anyway, Nigger Jim was one of the best characters in the book. “Life on the Mississippi” tells the fascinating story of river boat piloting on the Mississippi. Young Twain thought of it as a romantic job, but he soon learned it was very hard to “learn” the river before there were marker buoys and dredged channels. “Innocents Abroad” is about travel in Europe. He makes fun of everything. For instance the tendency of Germans to make one word out of a phrase such as “the wife of the general”. In the Holy Land he said he was shown enough pieces of the cross of Jesus to build a 5 room house. But the French get the most ridicule.
By the 1900’s Twain turned to serious matters. Some of his loved ones had died and he missed them sorely. Maybe he was a little bitter. He joined a rebel militia when the Civil War began, but after a few weeks of marching through the woods it broke up. He wrote of that episode in a humorous vein. But by the time the Spanish American War began, he was strongly anti war. He wrote the war prayer:
“Our Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with their patriot dead...”.
His version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic goes: Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword He is searching out the hoardings where the strangers wealth is stored; He has loosed his faithful lightnings and with woe and death has scored; His lust is marching on.
Twain was incensed when we fought the Philipinos and killed 200,000 of them after we had “liberated” them from the evil Spanish. He wrote of the mass killing by General Leonard Wood’s men at an extinct volcano crater. Remnants of the insurgent Philipinos had gathered with their families, thinking it would give them protection. Our soldiers gathered at the rim of the crater and shot them all, men, women and children. Later, the army said they couldn’t tell the men from the women. Twain suggested that the native women’s bare chests should have been a clue.
All the above, plus his irreverent stories of Adam and Eve, probably set me on the path of skepticism and rejection of commonly held beliefs. I thank him for his insights.
Mom was expecting the birth of my Sister, Margaret, in 1940. We had no phone so I was needed at home to get the word to my grandmother when the birth was near. Mom entertained me by reading “Ivanhoe”. It’s a great adventure story of chivalry in the time of King Richard. An early adventure is the tournament at Ashby. It came to be known as the Gentle Passage of Arms at Ashby, because only one knight was killed. The story contrasts the noble Saxons with the evil Normans. Isaac of York and his daughter Rebecca play a big role in this book. Isaac is a wealthy Jew and Rebecca is beautiful and both these factors interest the evil Normans. They are captured but escape through the efforts of Robin Hood and king Richard who is incognito. I delight in the interlude where King Richard spends the evening with Friar Tuck. Eventually right prevails and Ivanhoe marries Rowena. I reread Ivanhoe every 10 years or so.
A few years later, I read “Ben Hur”. It starts slowly with the three Magi traveling to Bethlehem, but the pace quickens when the story turns to Ben Hur and his family. His is a Jewish family living under Roman law. A slate slips from the Hur home and a Roman was killed. Ben Hur was sentenced to be a galley slave and his mother and sister go to prison where they contract leprosy. Ben Hur’s galley is sunk in battle and he saves a wealthy Roman. Ben Hur is freed and adopted. There is a chariot race where Ben Hur defeats a Roman. Lots more excitement. Then the scene switches to the prison. A new jailer asks about a sealed off cell and finds Ben Hurs family. They are released but must live as lepers. Ben Hur finds them as they all meet Jesus. The ladies are healed.
I could never get through “War and Peace”, but enjoyed “Anna Kerinana”. I also enjoyed Tolstoys short stories and his response to his excommunication by the Greek Orthodox church.
Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables is a great book, though almost 1000 pages long. Jean Valjean steals bread to feed his family and is sentenced to the galleys. He escapes and becomes rich. Inspector Javert pursues him relentlessly. It tells of the 1848 revolution in France and the escape through the sewers. I don’t think Hugo was justified in delaying the story about 50 pages while he tells about the history of the sewer from Roman times. Of course you can skip that. It has made great movies and now the stage musical.