Charles Dickens on The Shakers (1842)

When Charles Dickens traveled to the United States in 1842, he visited the Shaker community of New Lebanon, New York. This quote is from his American Notes for General Circulation, the travelogue he wrote about his trip. It is fair to say that Dickens detested the Shakers and everything he knew about their way of life. He found much to disparage about America and Americans, but this passage takes the prize for pure, unmitigated animosity.

“They are said to be good drivers of bargains, but to be honest and just in their transactions, and even in horse-dealing to resist those thievish tendencies which would seem, for some undiscovered reason, to be almost inseparable from that branch of traffic. In all matters they hold their own course quietly, live in their gloomy, silent commonwealth, and show little desire to interfere with other people.

“This is well enough, but nevertheless I cannot, I confess, incline towards the Shakers; view them with much favour, or extend towards them any very lenient construction. I so abhor, and from my soul detest that bad spirit, no matter by what class or sect it may be entertained, which would strip life of its healthful graces, rob youth of its innocent pleasures, pluck from maturity and age their pleasant ornaments, and make existence but a narrow path towards the grave: that odious spirit which, if it could have had full scope and sway upon the earth, must have blasted and made barren the imaginations of the greatest men, and left them, in their power of raising up enduring images before their fellow-creatures yet unborn, no better than the beasts: that, in these very broad- brimmed hats and very sombre coats - in stiff-necked, solemn- visaged piety, in short, no matter what its garb, whether it have cropped hair as in a Shaker village, or long nails as in a Hindoo temple - I recognise the worst among the enemies of Heaven and Earth, who turn the water at the marriage feasts of this poor world, not into wine, but gall. And if there must be people vowed to crush the harmless fancies and the love of innocent delights and gaieties, which are a part of human nature: as much a part of it as any other love or hope that is our common portion: let them, for me, stand openly revealed among the ribald and licentious; the very idiots know that THEY are not on the Immortal road, and will despise them, and avoid them readily.

“Leaving the Shaker village with a hearty dislike of the old Shakers, and a hearty pity for the young ones: tempered by the strong probability of their running away as they grow older and wiser, which they not uncommonly do: we returned to Lebanon, and so to Hudson, by the way we had come upon the previous day.”

Comments

[Alex in Leeds]

Hahaha, he sounds like such a Georgian-era gent there! It's easy to forget sometimes he wasn't a Victorian but then he criticises those not living it up every night and it becomes obvious. :)

[Fay]

Alex, had I lived in those times I too would have probably regarded the Shakers as a kooky cult. Their celibacy did contribute rather seriously to the group dying out, since conversion of new members was the only means of expanding or surviving.

Funny to think of Dickens as Georgian. That is an interesting slant. To me he is definitive of Victorian sentimentality, both British and American. Little Nell! I can enjoy Dickens, the fiction writer, when he is not in such a sustained bad mood.

[whisperinggums]

I love a lot of Dickens' non fiction writing ... his perspectives on the world are so strongly held and well-put. I suppose there's something to be said for not interfering with other people but as he says, what a dull life ... love the "narrow path to the grave" comment! And, yes, to me he is Victorian?

[Fay]

Sue, I have not read much of his nonfiction and know his social commentary mostly through his fiction. His campaigns against child labor and for copyright protection are familiar to general readers of Victorian history, but I know about those only second-hand. American Notes is well-written on the level of sentence or paragraph. Its overall design however is sloppy and the content lacking.