Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain

Title: The Diaries of Adam and Eve

Work includes: Adam's Diary, Eve's Diary, and 4 other short stories

"Translated" by: Mark Twain (American, 1835-1910)
Originally published: 1906
Page count: 103
Dates read: 2/18/19-2/19/19
2019 book goal progress: 7 out of 41
Back to the Classics category: Classic From the Americas or Caribbean. (Classic set there, or author from there.)
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.


Description on back of book:
Long before the arrival of the serpent, conflict enters the Garden of Eden as Adam and Eve discover in each other a source of continual irritation. Through the light of their diaries, we learn of their halting progression from grudging adversaries to eventual partners.

First line:
"Who am I? What am I? Where am I?"

Favorite quotes:
Eve: "It is best to prove things by actual experiment. Then you know: whereas if you depend on guessing and supposing and conjecturing, you will never get educated. some things you can't find out, but you will never know you can't by guessing and supposing. No, you have to be patient and go on experimenting until you find out that you can't find out. And it is delightful to have it that way; it makes the world so interesting. If there wasn't anything to find out, it would be dull."

Adam: "When the mighty brontosaurus came striding into camp, she regarded it as an acquisition. I considered it a calamity. That is a good sample of the lack of harmony that prevails in our views of things... She believed it could be tamed by kind treatment and would be a good pet; I said a pet twenty-one feet high and eighty-four feet long would be no proper thing to have about the place, because even with the best intentions and without meaning any harm, it could sit down on the house and mash it, for anyone could see by the look of its eye that is was absentminded."

Review:

Eve is very social and tries to befriend Adam. She is optimistic, smart, and curious. Eve sees things through a lens of beauty and how much enjoyment something can give. Adam, in contrast, just wants to be left alone. He finds Eve annoying and tries to emigrate away from her several times. He is pessimistic, lazy, and slow minded. Adam sees everything through a lens of practicality and how useful something is. It isn't until after the fall (they eat the forbidden fruit) that Adam finally warms up to Eve. They work on writing a dictionary together, Eve accidentally discovers fire, and Adam works on a multiplication table (which includes 6x9=27).

Adam always happens to be away whenever Eve gives birth. Though the word 'born' is used, Eve never describes actually giving birth or even being pregnant. She takes to Cain (their first child) right away and is very motherly. Adam, on the other hand, thinks he's a new type of fish and puts him in water. To which, Eve quickly takes the baby out when he doesn't start swimming. When the child starts crawling, Adam thinks him to be a type of Kangaroo; when he starts walking, Adam thinks it to be a type of hairless bear; and when the child starts talking, Adam thinks it to be a strange parrot. It isn't until the child is about 5 or 6 that Adam finally believes him to be a person too.

The realization of death in the end is heartbreaking, but the final diary entry is sweet (and interesting and unexpected). This is an extremely short and very witty book - definitely worth the read. Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Mark Twain have the last words:

One of the things that piqued the interest of Adam and Eve is how the cow gets its milk. After they watched a cow day and night, they knew cows don't drink it from elsewhere. Eve "knew at once the explanation: The milk was not taken in by the mouth, it was condensed from the atmosphere through the cow's hair... By a series of experiments we had long ago arrived at the conclusion that atmospheric air consisted of water in invisible suspension; also that the components of water were hydrogen and oxygen, in the proportion of two parts of the former to one of the latter and expressible by the symbol of H2O. My discovery revealed the fact that there was still another ingredient: milk. We enlarged the symbol to H2OM."

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Title: Agnes Grey
Author: Anne Bronte (English, 1820-1849)
Originally published: 1847
Page count: 153
Dates read: 2/10/19-2/15/19
2019 book goal progress: 5 out of 41
Back to the Classics category: 19th Century Classic
Read my other Bronte Sister book reviews.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.


Description on back of book:
Ages Grey is a trenchant expose of the frequently isolated, intellectually stagnant and emotionally starved conditions under which many governesses worked in the mid-nineteenth century.

First sentence:
"All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shriveled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

Favorite quotes:
"I can conceive few situations more harassing than that wherein, however you may long for success, however you may labor to fulfill your duty, your efforts are baffled and set at naught by those beneath you, and unjustly censured and judged by those above."

"If you cannot feel positive affection for those who do not care for you, you can at least try to do to them as you would they should do unto you: you can endeavor to pity their failings and excuse their offenses, and to do all the good you can to those about you."

"It is foolish to wish for beauty. Sensible people never either desire it for themselves, or care about it in others. If the mind be well cultivated, and the heart well disposed, no one ever cares for the exterior. So said the teachers of our childhood; and so say we to the children of the present day. All very judicious and proper, no doubt; but are such assertations supported by actual experience?"

Review:

This is a simple, straightforward, and predictable book - despite this, I would not consider it at all bland. On the contrary, I found it very enjoyable and relaxing. I consider myself as having a similar disposition as Agnes Grey and I was a nanny for 5 years - so I greatly related to the main character. Agnes' mom is inspirational and I have a high respect for her. As soon as Mr. Weston was mentioned, I fell in love with him too.

One of the themes is that it's not often the fault of the governess that the kids are unruly, but because of the parents - which I agree with. Another theme is that one should be smart with finances and plan for the future. It is a short, wholesome story that has a wonderful happy ending.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Anne Bronte have the last words:

"The best way to enjoy yourself is to do what is right and hate nobody. The end of Religion is not to teach us how to die, but how to live; and the earlier you become wise and good, the more of happiness you secure."