Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah

"This is how we carried out of Africa the poor broken body of Bwana Duadi, the Doctor, David Livingstone, so that he could be borne across the sear and buried in his own land."~ from Out of Darkness, Shining Light (Being a Faithful Account of the Final Years and Earthly Days of Doctor David Livingstone and His Last Journey form the interior to the Coast of Africa, as Narrated by His African Companions, in Three Volumes) by Petina Gappah

Truth is often stranger than fiction, for who would imagine that the body of Doctor David Livingstone would be carried 1000 miles across Africa, under threat of dangers including kidnapping into slavery, so he could be shipped back to England and rest in his native land? It seems the stuff of legend. But it happened in 1873. Petina Gappah spent ten years researching this journey, then imagining the forgotten people whose dedication to the Doctor spurred their journey.

I had hoped for a great adventure story and found a journey that vividly recreates late 19th c Africa with its clash of cultures, religions, and power. It is filled with unforgettable characters, culminates in an explosive late revelation, and brings to light the impact of colonization.

The Doctor's missionary zeal abated while his anti-slavery zeal and respect for the Africans grew. He became obsessed with discovering the source of the Nile, believing its discovery would bring him the status and power to advance his ideals. When Stanley found the missing Livingstone he was already ill but would not return to civilization. The mixed group he had gathered, Africans, Muslims, manumitted slaves, and mission-trained Christian blacks, were left with the responsibility for his remains. They buried his heart and organs, dried his body, and proceeded to walk 279 days to Zanzibar.

Gappah tells the story in two voices. The appealing Halima was documented as Livingstone's cook, bought from slavery and freed by him. Halina's mother was a concubine in the house of a servant of the Sultan. Halima was a bondswoman passed from man to man. She dreams of the house Livingstone promised her. Then there is Jacob Wainwright, bought from slavery and sent to the mission school, a devote Christian who quotes The Pilgrim's Progress. Jacob's tale is stilted in language and filled with religious concerns, he is dislikeable and arrogant. He struggles with his passions and questions of faith. And yet, this faithful, educated, ambitious man's hopes are dashed because of his color and ethnicity.

The journey is rife with conflict and even death as the men vie for power and control and importance--and women. They face enemies and famine. They see hopeless villages devoid of their youth by the slavers. And everywhere, dry bones tied to trees, kidnapped Africans left by the slavers to die. Instead of welcome and assistance, the Europeans confiscate essentials.

"...this was no longer just the last journey of the Doctor, but our journey too. I was no longer just about the Doctor, about the wrongs and rights of bearing him home, or burying him here or buying him there, but about all that we had endured. It was about our fallen comrades." ~from Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah

How did this one man, this Doctor Livingstone, manage to inspire such loyalty? He was beloved because of his acceptance and respect for those he met, his understanding of human nature, his commitment to ending slavery--liberal Christian values out-of-sync with his time.

"But out of that great and troubling darkness came shining light. Our sacrifice burnished the glory of his life." ~from Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah

I was given access to a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Out of Darkness, Shining Light
by Petina Gappah
Scribner
Publication: September 10, 2019
$27 hardcover
ISBN13: 9781982110338

Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life

Recent books and films have overturned the popular image of Queen Victoria as a dour recluse widow of ponderous dimensions to include the lively, stubborn girl-queen who loved dancing and wine and the young wife who enjoyed sex.

Lucy Worsley wanted to expand Victoria's story beyond the "dancing princess to potato" to include the woman who preserved the monarchy and ruled an empire. Worsley draws from Victoria's diaries and journals, probing behind the polished exterior presented for posterity. Her Victoria is a fully human, complicated, person, someone we can admire and dislike at the same time.

The book concentrates on twenty-four days in Victoria's life through which readers come to understand her family background and relationships, her love for Albert (who both supported and limited her as queen), the places she loved, her political alliances and battles, the few people who became more than servants and valued as trusted friends, and her grief, loneliness, and physical incapacities in old age.

Worsley writes in the preface, "I hope that seeing her [Victoria] up close, examining her face-to-face, as she lived hour-to-hour through twenty-four days of her life, might help you to imagine meeting her yourself, so that you can form your own opinion on the contradictions at the heart of British history's most recognizable woman."

the young Queen Victoria in an idealized portrait by Winterhalter, 1843

The physical woman Victoria is given attention. At her prime, Victoria was 5 feet and 1 1/4 inch tall, with tiny feet, large blue prominent eyes, and a "fine bust." Her lower lip hung open, but she also had a wide-open smile when delighted. Her weight yo-yoed with health, illness, pregnancy, dieting, and the incapacitation that in old age left her unable to walk. And she loved to walk on a brisk, cold day. 

Queen Victoria, 1899

Victoria ruled throughout most of the 19th c when monarchies across Europe were ended by revolutions. She came to the throne with everything against her, especially being a young and inexperienced girl. 

She was constantly being watched for signs of madness, both genetic and related to the "female problems" which were believed to trigger hysteria and madness. 

It was imperative that she marry and it was arranged she marry her German cousin Albert. She fell in love with his beauty and goodness. To compensate for his parental scandalous infidelities he was committed to being a loving father and husband. But Albert was a German and he had to win the British people's trust and love. His German coldness and exacting values could be hard to live with. He did not approve of Victoria's love of dancing and drinking.

With Victoria perpetually pregnant (nine times!), Albert applied himself to fulfill her duties. Victoria came to rely on his guidance; his early death was devastating to her as queen as well as wife. 

In spite of her liaisons with unsuitable friends, the gilly John Brown and the Muslim Abdul, Victoria became the public image of the proper Victorian wife and widow, an "ordinary good woman."

I found the book to be vastly interesting and enjoyable. It expanded my understanding of Victoria. It amazed me how much of Victoria's life Worsley covered in those twenty-four days! 

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Worsley's previous book was Jane Austen at Home, which I reviewed here.

Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life
by Lucy Worsley
St. Martin's Press
Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 9781250201423
PRICE: $32.50 (USD)

I had previously read Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird; read my review here. And also Victoria and Abdul, read my review here.

The Surprising Life Behind Whistler's Mother

Whistler's Mother by by Daniel E. Sutherland and Georgia Toutziari relates the life of Anna McNeil Whistler (1804-1881), immortalized by her son James McNeil Whistler in his 1871 portrait Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1--commonly referred to as Whistler's Mother.

Detailed information gleaned from Anna's diaries and letters, as well as previous biographies, show that she lived a more interesting life than her Victorian apparel and demure pose in the painting would indicate. She was a well-traveled woman with a wide, international social network.

She held Confederate-leaning sensibilities along with Christian pietism while exemplifying Christian values; she socialized with Russian peasants and her son's Pre-Raphaelite friends and distributed church pamphlets. 

A pious Episcopalian, Anna was born in the American South among slave owners but was raised in the North. Sixteen-year-old Anna was quite taken with her brother's handsome friend from West Point, George Washington Whistler, but he married another. After the early death of his wife, George and Anna met again. They married and Anna helped raise his children from his first marriage as well as their own children. George became America's leading engineer--who gave the locomotive it's whistle! His work meant frequent moves, including to Britain and St. Petersburg.

Anna endeavored to embody Christian virtues of reverence, charity, and patience in her daily life. She warned her children against the vanities of the world. And yet, she accepted slavery as a "benevolent" institution. Her own family was kind toward their slaves, and one member had several slave 'wives' and families that were well provided for.

Even after the death of her husband, Anna was always on the move, visiting family across America and the Continent. Her sons Willie and 'Jemmie' (John McNeil Whistler) were a 'handful.' Willie finally settled on a career in medicine and Jemmie in art.

Anna made friends everywhere whether participating in charitable activities or dining with Bohemian artists. Through Jemmie she met Mazzini, Garibaldi, the Rossettis, and Swinburne. Thankfully, she was ignorant of some things, such as Jemmie's long-term association with a mistress.

The place of the painting in art history and its reception over time is presented. Whistler's work was too modern for his time. He endeavored to move away from the Victorian preference for art that told a story, a moral, or to convey emotion.

"Art should be independent of all clap-trap--should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like,"he later told a journalist..."Take the picture of my mother...Arrangement in Grey and Black. Now that is what it is." 

The painting we know as Whistler's Mother became famous in America in the early 20th c. In the 1930s it toured the country, drawing two million viewers. President Roosevelt endorsed the use of the painting in a stamp to commemorate Mother's Day.

The painting became one of the most iconic and popularly known in America. Cole Porter and other songwriters referenced the painting in popular music. It was exploited in cartoons, satire, and became a symbol in movies and literature.

It is amazing how much Anna packed into her lifetime.

I received a free e-book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Whistler's Mother: Portrait of an Extraordinary Life
Daniel E. Sutherland and Georgia Toutziari
Yale University Press
Publication: March 27, 2018
254 pages, 60 color + b/w illus.
Hardcover: $25
ISBN: 9780300229684