What a lovely little book. Twain explores what it could have been like for two very different people to discover the odd world around them and he does it with much humour. Watching both Adam and Eve play their sterotypical roles to perfection is redemed by Twain’s humour; Adam wanting to do nothing but build things and Eve wanting to do nothing but talk (much to Adam’s dismay) is both funny and lovable. Eve wants to discover everything; she names all the animal and mothers them all, she delights in every new thing she discovers.
Entry from Adam’s diary: “Perhaps I ought to remember that she is very young, a mere girl, and make allowances. She is all interest, eagerness, vivacity. The world to her is a charm, a wonder, a mystery, a joy. She can’t speak for delight when she finds a new flower; she must pet it and caress it and smell it and talk to it and pour out endearing names upon it. And she is colour mad: brown rocks, yellow sand, gray moss, green foliage, blue sky – the pearl of the dawn, the purple shadows on the mountains, the golden islands floating in crimson seas at sunset, the palid moon moon sailing through the shredded cloud-rack, the star-jewels glittering in the wastes of space.”
How wonderful to be able to look at the world through those fresh eyes and see so much beauty in it. That part was as beautiful as it was amusing to see Adam’s confusion to why she is so in awe of everything.
When Adam comes home from a few days trip away he finds Eve with something can he is convinced is a fish until he put it in the water to see and it sank. He then decides that it must be both kangaroo and bear before finally settling on the fact that it may be one of them. As well as Cain and Abel, the couple go on to have 7 more children (two of them named Gladys and Edwina!). Their long life togehter inc ludes their first experience of death and not understanding it, and their unconditional partnership until Eve finally goes to her grave.
Definitely recommended.
Recent Comments