The Man of Feeling Henry Mackenzie 9781450527453 Books
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Henry Mackenzie's 1771 novel, "The Man of Feeling," addresses a number of mid-to-late eighteenth-century discourses sentiment, sensibility, sympathy, and moral philosophy. A fragmentary work, "The Man of Feeling" is ostensibly a biography of Mr. Harley, written in tribute by his friend Charles, and put together by an anonymous editor. Harley is a man of the lesser gentry, propertied, but not wealthy. Harley's greatest concerns revolve around his heightened ability to sympathize with and bring comfort to people in distress. The multi-layered framework of the narrative places its readers at an interesting distance and requires us to judge the various narratives, and the protagonist, for ourselves. The novel begins with an introduction in which the manuscript of "The Man of Feeling" is discovered on a hunting expedition. The finder has little regard for the work, leaving the reader to wonder if they should sympathize with Harley, or regard him lightly. An "editor" of the work then presents 19 non-continuous chapters, together with a handful of fragments accompanied by his own interjections. The result is a hodge-podge of scenarios in which Harley encounters people in pitiful circumstances. His attempts to assist the insane, the indigent, prostitutes, decrepit soldiers, prisoners, fortune tellers, and his conjectures on the practice of slavery give us more a sense of character studies and views of human interaction than any kind of real plot. Through these scenarios in "The Man of Feeling," Mackenzie examines social, political, and economic issues, as well as a range of gender relations.
The Man of Feeling Henry Mackenzie 9781450527453 Books
Published in 1771, Henry Mackenzie's novel is the tale of a tender-hearted young man who encounters various scenes of suffering that stir his deeply sympathetic feelings (and efforts to help when possible). "Sympathy" was a key concept in contemporary Scottish moral philosophy, and the novel translates into an imagined realm and weighs the idea and actual experience of sympathy. The world turns out to be "selfish, interested, and unthinking," so the implicit and explicit denunciations of abuses like British imperialist enterprises in India and the West Indies, debtors' prisons, the sexual exploitation of women, the destruction of organic rural communities for the landlords convenience or selfish whims, and mistreatment of the insane are moving, though not conceived in any way that could lead directly to reform. Mackenzie thus provides the emotional motive power for reform but not the mechanism for achieving it, instead leaving the ball in the reader's court, if he chooses to take action. The steady and intense note of sympathy with suffering becomes a bit predictable and over-the-top (the word "tears" appears on virtually every page), but Mackenzie's heart is always in the right place and the book is quite short, so it does not overstay its welcome. The form of the novel is ingeniously complex. It poses as a manuscript account of the protagonist, rescued from destruction by another tender heart (who barters a work of German philosophy for it!). The previous possessor used pages of the manuscript as wadding for his gun, so there are many gaps in the story, which begins with chapter 11 and often breaks off before a story is finished. As a result, the focus is solidly on the main character and his reactions to stories and events rather than on a plot, which it is suggested would divert an ordinary novel reader's attention from what is most important--feeling. There is a suggestion of nostalgia over these ruins a harsh and uncaring world has brought about, and it is up to the reader to gather the fragments, preserve them, and improve his own disposition and attitude as a result of reading them. This edition is a bare reprint of a 19th-century edition. I would recommend Maureen Harkin's excellent edition for Broadview, which provides a very insightful and helpful introduction, very helpful footnotes, and a selection of relevant writings by Mackenzie and his contemporaries, all at a very reasonable price.Product details
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The Man of Feeling Henry Mackenzie 9781450527453 Books Reviews
I read an older edition of this Oxford World's Classic. Notable for a lengthy foreward that gives you all you need to know about the literature of sensibility that was to come to the fore in 19th century literature- the editors posit that the Man of Feeling is very much part of the enlightenment era debate over whether man was basically good or bad. Like many other books of this era, Man of Feeling has a self awareness that strikes the modern reader as "post modern" as anything written in the 20th century. The format of Man of Feeling- elliptical, with large portions "missing" and a narrator who is presenting a work that was found by a third party years after the death of the protagonist- reveals a sophistication that likely accounts in some part for the designation of this books as a "world classic.
A "book", not a novel, "no more a history than it is a sermon" about sentiment, feeling, as different from and often opposed to reason and principle. It is rather chaotically structured (fictionally because fragments of a damaged manuscript) in a style of his own but like Sterne's; written for (at first his own while at law school) entertainment rather than for instruction. The hero, Harley, of the lower gentry, reluctantly makes a journey to London to obtain some property. On the way and there and back, he meets various people who have experienced difficulty or pretend to have. Harley tries to be helpful, usually by giving (or being tricked out of) money, sometimes offering advice. There is some anti-colonial/slavery rhetoric. The journey as business was in vain but the meetings are the edifying substance. In the end he does not get the girl. The purpose of the book is to explore feelings, especially those that draw tears (tears are mentioned on most pages). Mackenzie too does not become a great author but focuses on his law career (successful) and writes a few things later warning against the excesses of sentimentality.
Harkin provides materials that allow me to presume to judge the book an important work in history of literature - a kind of cairn atop a ridge that defines the watershed between what went before and what came after. I have found the literature of moral feeling and sentiment something surprisingly fine and valuable; but I am also enlightened and edified by Mackenzie's antidotal and monitory essays.
What I judge most valuable in Harkin's edition is the selection of accompanying materials. Of course, I do not know what she left out, but what she put in I find so valuable in shaping my own opinions about not only The Man of Feeling, but also the theoretical placement and explanation. I was impressed that her "Introduction" selected a range of issues and made solid comments -- howeversobeit that the style of her writing I found almost unreadably torturous. I must also acknowledge her intellectual honesty demonstrated in the inclusion of Scott's fascinating and very much complementary counterpart, even although her theoretical (post-colonial, post-modern?) inclinations may be so far from his.
Not my favorite read, I got it for class, it was cheap and available.
A found novel tells the story of a conscientious man travelling the world and helping people in need then returning home
This book was mentioned as an influence of Robert Burns whom I studied in an online course. It is a lesson in empathy. Several parts were moving, but I was never as moved so much as it's characters.
One sob story follows another--really. I could not count how many times a man or two ended in tears over various injustices and sadnesses
Published in 1771, Henry Mackenzie's novel is the tale of a tender-hearted young man who encounters various scenes of suffering that stir his deeply sympathetic feelings (and efforts to help when possible). "Sympathy" was a key concept in contemporary Scottish moral philosophy, and the novel translates into an imagined realm and weighs the idea and actual experience of sympathy. The world turns out to be "selfish, interested, and unthinking," so the implicit and explicit denunciations of abuses like British imperialist enterprises in India and the West Indies, debtors' prisons, the sexual exploitation of women, the destruction of organic rural communities for the landlords convenience or selfish whims, and mistreatment of the insane are moving, though not conceived in any way that could lead directly to reform. Mackenzie thus provides the emotional motive power for reform but not the mechanism for achieving it, instead leaving the ball in the reader's court, if he chooses to take action. The steady and intense note of sympathy with suffering becomes a bit predictable and over-the-top (the word "tears" appears on virtually every page), but Mackenzie's heart is always in the right place and the book is quite short, so it does not overstay its welcome. The form of the novel is ingeniously complex. It poses as a manuscript account of the protagonist, rescued from destruction by another tender heart (who barters a work of German philosophy for it!). The previous possessor used pages of the manuscript as wadding for his gun, so there are many gaps in the story, which begins with chapter 11 and often breaks off before a story is finished. As a result, the focus is solidly on the main character and his reactions to stories and events rather than on a plot, which it is suggested would divert an ordinary novel reader's attention from what is most important--feeling. There is a suggestion of nostalgia over these ruins a harsh and uncaring world has brought about, and it is up to the reader to gather the fragments, preserve them, and improve his own disposition and attitude as a result of reading them. This edition is a bare reprint of a 19th-century edition. I would recommend Maureen Harkin's excellent edition for Broadview, which provides a very insightful and helpful introduction, very helpful footnotes, and a selection of relevant writings by Mackenzie and his contemporaries, all at a very reasonable price.
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