I found this hardcover at a local Savers thrift shop. It's a collection of three works by eccentric 19th-century author Mrs. Favell Lee Mortimer.

Later: It wasn't until I read the introduction by Todd Pruzan that I realized just how awful Mrs. Mortimer's comments were. Yes, she was a child of her time, but her casually-cruel and disparaging remarks about peoples from around the world - few of whose countries she'd ever visited herself - are harsh and unpleasant. Pruzan admits to all this, though he adds that the relentlessly simplified insults began to seem almost pathetic after a while. [Sadly, at least some of these entries involve beliefs and prejudices that are still very much in evidence, which, for me, makes it hard to read.]

The book's in three sections:

"The Clumsiest People in Europe" (from Mortimer's The Countries of Europe Described, 1849) did include some amusing bits, such as "[The English] are not very pleasant in company because they do not like strangers," which... I guess? And "I shall not say much about Belgium, because it is so like the countries on each side," though given the way she rants, Belgium might consider itself lucky.

"The Drunkest Labourers in Asia" (from Far Off: Asia and Australia Described, 1852) gets darker, from riffs on religious differences (Mortimer is Protestant and finds any other religion, including Catholicism, a negative point for its respective location) to her frequent remarks about the personal hygiene of nationalities she doesn't like.

"The Wickedest City in the World" (from Far Off, Part II: Africa and America Described, 1854): I was looking forward to this one to see what Mortimer thought of the US; not much, as it happens. It was interesting to see her views of the various nations and territories as they existed: "British America" is here, rather than Canada, California gets its own shout-out, and Greenland, the West Indies, and Mexico round out North America. She does like the fact that the US cities of New York, Boston, and New Orleans have much cleaner air than London, finds Boston duller than New York, and New Orleans "the gayest city in America, and also the most ungodly," which probably amused the New Orleans folk no end (if, indeed, they ever heard of Mrs. Mortimer).

I will give Mortimer props for being staunchly abolitionist; many of her comments about the US deal with the slavery issue, which of course will be erupting into Civil War a few years after the publication of her book. But she generally seems to be oblivious to the possibility of valid cultural differences of any kind, and her views get quite wearying after a while.

I left this book on the book-swap shelf in the Tyngsboro post office lobby; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

** Released for the 2023 Oh, the Places We Can Go challenge. **