In honor of the DC snowstorm – it is still coming down! – this passage from On Love, Book 2, Chapter 50, Love in the United States:
In the Winter, which as in Russia is the festive season of the country, young people of both sexes drive about night and day over the snow in sleighs, gaily traveling distances of fifteen or twenty miles without anyone to look after them; and nothing untoward ever occurs.
Unchaperoned and “nothing untoward” happens … does Stendhal here anticipate the courtship culture brought about by the automobile a century later? (It is important to keep in mind both how little Stendhal actually knew about the United States, apart from thinking it even more a Nation of Shopkeepers than England, and how willing he was to imagine anything he didn’t actually know. Still, at least for those of us who are Stendhal’s Happy Few, no less fun for all that.)
Mikee says:
In the 1980′s I was dating the young lady who later became my wife. We often told her parents we were going down to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Georgia (near her home) to walk among the exhibits and the old trains. While it is an interesting museum, we always went instead to the Kennesaw Civil War battlefield to be alone together among the wildflowers and trees. We were asked about the locomotive called “The General” by her dad once, and actually had to go to the museum to find out about it. I heartily recommend both the museum and the battlefield, especially for young couples, but don’t go too far off the trails in the springtime. You have been warned.
In retrospect, “nothing untoward” ever occurred on our outings, although we startled some birds a few times. I’m sure Stendhal would approve.
February 6, 2010, 1:19 pmPeteP says:
DC NEEDS a good snow-job. They haven’t had ( provided ) enough snow jobs recently.
After all, we NEED jobs, right ? There’s a JOBS bill that Hairy Reid is going to drop on us on Monday, screaming that it has to be passed by Friday, right ?
February 6, 2010, 1:39 pmSueSimp says:
I wish I had a sleigh. It would be a better way of traveling right now than anything I’ve got.
Also I suspect all those people cross country skiing through the streets of D.C. right now don’t really have anywhere to go, they just wanted an excuse for showing off and mocking all of us non-skiers who are left trudging through the snow as they zip on by.
February 6, 2010, 1:55 pmPersonFromPorlock says:
No heaters in sleighs; how could anything untoward happen?
February 6, 2010, 2:24 pmSwan Trumpet says:
Marie-Henri Beyle aka Stendahl – the Gaul in love with Italy – knew less about love than he knew about Russia, England, or the USA. His acrimony towards the English stemmed from his hatred of Christianity.
February 6, 2010, 4:05 pmArthurKirkland says:
I would have guessed that you had the “Focus On The Family Special Edition” version, professor, but how to explain the use of “gaily” . . .
February 6, 2010, 4:38 pmChrisIowa says:
When I was in high school (in the late ’60s), a neighbor from the end of the block who was approaching 90 at the time told me that when he was courting they had horse drawn surreys. They could let the reins go, pull the curtains and the horse would just go on and no-one would know what was going on inside.
It’s my guess now that most people had a general idea.
February 6, 2010, 5:05 pmJohn Armstrong says:
But did they have a fringe on top?
February 6, 2010, 5:41 pmPeteP says:
It was the bumper sticker that gave them away –
‘If this surrey’s rockin’, don’t come knockin’.
February 6, 2010, 5:56 pmSwan Trumpet says:
Here in NYC, we still have them. Couples pay the driver for the long route through Central Park, snuggle under a warm blanket, and it’s a bumpy ride.
February 6, 2010, 6:11 pmAnonsters says:
Well, suckers are born every minute. ;)
February 6, 2010, 8:38 pmLarryA says:
Eskimos have babies. Fur is your friend.
February 7, 2010, 1:09 amPersonFromPorlock says:
Yes, but do they have ‘em in September or April?
February 7, 2010, 5:46 pm