Hermsprong, or Man As He Is Not by Robert Bage (1796) is about London in the years following the French Revolution from an English perspective.
English novelist Robert Bage (1728-1801) began writing as a profession when he was 53 years old, and then wrote six novels in 15 years. Hermsprong, or Man As He Is Not is his last, and said to be his best, novel.
I found a second-hand softcopy of the novel in San Francisco Book Company, a bookstore established in 1997 in Paris.
The narrator is Gregory Glen, writing about Charles Hermsprong in the historical and politcal wake of the French Revolution.
In the community was the church rector Doctor Blick. The aristocrat Lord Grondale was ‘a tolerable complication of diseases’ who married a ‘lovely woman’ and had three daughters – one of whom was Caroline who lived with her aunt, Mrs Merrick. Mrs Merrick’s cousin was the opulent and respected married banker Mr. Sumelin. The younger of their two daughters, Charlotte Sumelin, was good friends with Maria Fluart, an out-spoken proto-feminist.
Mr. Sumelin introduced everyone to Hermsprong, an American-born gentleman with ‘a very ugly name’ newly-arrived from France where he lived for six years, whose goal in life was ‘to make mankind wiser and better.’ Hermsprong has strong views of British society and its citizens.
Although Robert Bage’s books were well-received, he was relatively unknown. He was an ardent supporter of women’s rights, evidenced by his characterization of intelligent, strong women. Mrs. Stone, ‘an officer’s widow, and a person of great merit,’ makes a ‘spirited reply’ to the quarrelsome Lord Grondale. And young Maria Fluart comes to Charlotte’s defence when Lord Grondale belittles her, as she defiantly says to him that his criticism of Charlotte is ‘the complete triumph of pride and prejudice over poor common sense, that has ever fallen under my notice.’ English novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817) owned a signed copy of this book and was so influenced by it when she published Pride and Prejudice anonymously in 1813.
Hermsprong surprises everyone with his support for the many women in the book, the reveal of who he really is, and his visible show of sensitivity and emotion: ‘Tears sprang to the eyes of Hermsprong as he spoke of his father.’
This is a clever and comedic book written over 200 years ago, full of satire and awesome women like Maria Fluart, supported by the words and deeds of Mr. Hermsprong.
MARTINA NICOLLS
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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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