The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin

I enjoyed reading Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr (click here to read my other entries about this book).

Cyr writes that the Portuguese Letters have inspired writers and lovers for hundreds of years and I wonder if Emma Darwin was also inspired by them when she wrote her debut novel The Mathematics of Love.

The Mathematics of Love is the story of both a veteran of the Napoleonic wars (and the Battle of Waterloo) named Stephen Fairhurst (told with letters and memoirs) and of a teenager, Anna Jocelyn Ware, who moves into the soldier’s former home in the mid-1970s (told in first-person narrative).

If you haven't read The Mathematics of Love, you may not understand why reading Letters of a Portuguese Nun made me think of this novel and it's such a complex story that I can't explain it without giving away the plot.

It starts off a bit slow but it's really quite clever. Darwin brilliantly writes with two distinct voices and creates an eloquent, intelligent, and beautiful historical novel.

I liked how Darwin was able to write her great-great-great grandfather Robert Darwin (who married Susannah Wedgwood, brother of Thomas Wedgwood, the pioneer of photography) into the novel; makes perfect sense since she uses photography as a metaphoric device to tell these parallel stories.

If you're reading it for a book club, you may want to read these discussion questions from the publisher (also published on the author's website here):

1. Sexual morality is a key theme in The Mathematics of Love. Discuss morality in the context of the relationships between Anna/Theo, Eva/Theo, Anna/Eva, Stephen/Catalina and Stephen/Lucy.
2. How does war change the characters in The Mathematics of Love ?
3. "I was the plain, pale nothing, pressed into a thin strip between their lives. And it wasn't enough for me. I knew that now." (p. 394) How does Anna change during the course of the novel?
4. Discuss the role of art, photography and voyeurism within The Mathematics of Love.
5. How do memories affect the characters within this novel? What made Stephen able to move on from painful memories and Belle unable to do so?
6. How do the two 'lost boys' work within the story?
7. "I've never been bothered about relations and things." (p. 404) Discuss the role of family within The Mathematics of Love.
8. What did you think of the ending? Would you have liked it to end differently?
9. What other books would you compare this to? What books would you recommend to other readers who have enjoyed this book?
10. How would this novel have been different if Darwin had chosen to focus entirely on one time period, rather than move the narrative between 1819 and 1976?

Click here to read the first chapter of The Mathematics of Love or click here to read Susann Cokal's review titled "Housemates" published March 4, 2007 in the New York Times.

Letters of a Portuguese Nun

I very much enjoyed Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr (click here to read my other entries about this book).

I just finished reading this book and the infamous Portuguese Letters letters are lyrical, devastatingly passionate, and bitter as a woman scorned.

While many scholars argue that these letters were a work of fiction written by Joseph Gabriel de Lavergne, Comte de Guilleragues, Cyr persuasively writes that these letters were in fact real love letters written by heart-sick Franciscan nun Mariana Alcoforado to her ex-lover Noel Bouton the Marquis de Chamilly then known as the Count of Saint-Leger.

The account is compelling because of the fascinating narrative she composed of Mariana's and Chamilly's lives though here evidence seems to be largely circumstantial (the evidence in favor of Guilleragues seems to also be pretty weak).

I'd like to learn more about this debate and I'll be sure to report back!

Letters of a Portuguese Nun is an easy read and having learned that the letters have inspired writers and artists for hundreds of years -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets From the Portuguese" ("How do I love thee? Let me count the ways") among other works by Samuel Johnson, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, and others -- I am glad to have read this book.

Letters of a Portuguese Nun

I have enjoyed reading Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr (click here to read my other entries about this book).

I found Cyr's investigation of this real life mystery intriguing and heart-breaking.

The slim book titled Portuguese Letters and published in 1669 Paris were five letters addressed to an unnamed French Officer, Noel Bouton the Marquis de Chamilly then known as the Count of Saint-Leger, who had been stationed in Portugal from 1665-1667 (during Portugal's twenty-eight year war for independence from Spain) where he met, seduced and then left a beautiful twenty-six-year-old Franciscan nun named Mariana Alcoforado.

Many scholars argue that these letters were a work of fiction written by Joseph Gabriel de Lavergne, Comte de Guilleragues.

In the prologue, Cyr cites Occam's razor (a principle that the simplest answer is most likely true) as a reason why Mariana Alcoforado herself wrote these love letters. In subsequent chapters, Cyr writes the history of Mariana Alcoforado using a wide variety of sources. In many cases, Cyr's descriptions of Mariana are largely imagined based on sources of nuns from that period in similar circumstances.

Still, her argument is persuasive if only because of the detailed narrative she has put together of the lives of the two lovers.

I haven't read the actual letters yet but will do so today.

The Forbes Book of Great Business Letters: Best of the Best

I finished reading The Forbes Book of Great Business Letters: Memos, Missives, Pitches, Proposals and E-Mails (edited by Erik Bruun) last week and I want to share some of my favorite letters from this book with you.

There were many fantastic letters (especially some of the ones that are copyrighted) so I've chosen some that I believe to be in the public domain. Some of the letters in The Forbes Book of Great Business Letters were several pages long but the ones I've listed here were all one page letters.

This letter offers wonderful advice on how to be a good businessman (and a good doctor).

Dr. Benjamin Rush to William Claypoole (Advice)

July 29, 1782

The following short directions to Dr. Claypoole were given as the parting advice of his friend and master. If properly attended to, they will ensure him business and happiness in North Carolina.

1. Take care of the poor. By becoming faithful over a few, you will become a ruler over many. When you are called to visit a poor patient, imagine you hear a voice sounding in your ears, "Take care of him, and I will repay thee."
2. Go regularly to some place of worship. A physician cannot be a bigot. Worship with Mohamitans rather than stay at home on Sundays.
3. Never resent an affront offered to you by a sick man.
4. Avoid intimacies with your patients if possible, and visit them only in sickness.
5. Never sue a patient, but after a year's service get a bond from him if possible.
6. Receive as much pay as possible in goods or the produce of the country. Men have not half the attachment to these things that they have to money.
7. Acquire a habit of visiting your patients regularly at one certain hour.
8. Never dispute a bill. Always make reductions rather than quarrel with an old and profitable patient.
9. Don't insert trifling advice or services in a bill. You can incorporate them with important matters such as a pleurisy or the reduction of a bone.
10. Never make light (to a patient) of any case.
11. Never appear in a hurry in a sickroom, nor talk of indifferent matters till you have examined and prescribed for your patient.

Yours sincerely,
Benjamin Rush

This satirical letter from a Texan farmer to his congressman pokes fun of the irrationality of federal farm subsidies.

J. B. Lee, Jr., to Congressman Ed Foreman (Business and Government)

March 20, 1963
The Honorable Ed Foreman
House of Representatives
Congressional District # 16
Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Sir,

My friend over in Terebone Parisk received a check for $1,000 check from the government this year for not raising hogs. So I am going into the not-raising hogs business next year.

What I want to know is, in your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to raise hogs on and the best kind of hogs not to raise? I would prefer not to raise Razorbacks, but if that is not a good breed not to raise, I will just as gladly not raise any Berkshires or Durocs.

The hardest work in this business is going to be in keeping an inventory of how many hogs I haven't raised.

My friend is very joyful about the future of the business. He has been raising hogs for more than 20 years and the best he ever made on them was $400, until this year when he got $1,000 for not raising hogs.

If I get $1,000 for not raising 50 hogs, then will I get $2,000 for not raising 100 hogs? I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 hogs which means I will have $80,000 coming from the government.

Now, another thing; these hogs I will not raise will not eat 100,000 bushels of corn. I understand that you also pay farmers for not raising corn. So will you pay me anything for not raising 100,000 bushels of corn not to feed the hogs I am not raising?

I want to get started as soon as possible as this seems to be a good time of year for not raising hogs.

One more thing, can I raise 10 or 12 hogs on the side while I am in the not-raising-hogs-business just enough to get a few sides of bacon to eat?

Very truly yours,

J. B. Lee, Jr.

Potential Hog Raiser

This one from Clyde Barrow to Henry Ford is amusing. It was written six weeks before being gunned down with Bonnie Parker.

Clyde Barrow to Henry Ford (Compliments and Complaints)

Tulsa Okla
10th April [1934]
Mr. Henry Ford
Detroit Mich.

Dear Sir:--

While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got ever[y] other car skinned, and even if my business hasn't been strickly legal it don't hurt enything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8.

Yours truly,

Clyde Champion Barrow

This letter from Andrew Carnegie just after he sold Carnegie Steel to J. P. Morgan for $480 million marks the beginning of Carnegie's second career as a philanthropist.

Andrew Carnegie to Henry Phipps Jr. (Deals)

5 West 51st Street
Sunday eve.

My dear H.P.

Mr. Stetson has just called to tell me it is closed, all fixed -- big times on Stock Exchange tomorrow.

Well, this is a step in my life -- a great change, but after a time, when I get down to new conditions, I shall become I believe a wiser and more useful man, and besides live a dignified old age as long as life is granted, something few reach.

Yours,
A. C.

Sinclair Lewis (first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930) received a letter from one woman offering to work as his secretary ("Dear Mr. Lewis," she wrote, "I'll do everything for you -- and when I say everything I mean everything") and Lewis's wife Dorothy Thompson replied on behalf of her husband.

Dorothy Thompson to an Admirer of Her Husband (Employment)

My dear Miss--:

My husband already has a stenographer who handles his work for him. And, as for "everything" I take care of that myself -- and when I say everything I mean everything.

Dorothy Thompson
(Mrs. Sinclair Lewis to you.)

The Kentucky Distillers’ Co offer to sell its list of customers to the Keeley Institute, the widely known alcoholics’ sanatorium is another one that makes me laugh:

Kentucky Distillers to Alcoholic's Sanitorium (Marketing)

Kansas City, Mo.
Dec. 3, 1913.
Keeley Institute
Dwight, Illinois

Gentlemen: Our customers are your prospective patients. We can put on your desk a mailing of over 50,000 individual consumers of liquor. The list is the result of thousands of dollars of advertising.

Each individual on the list is a regular user of liquor. The list of names is new, live and active. We know this because we have circularized it regularly. We furnish this list in quantities at the prices listed below. Remittance to accompany each order.

40,000 to 50,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $400
20,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $300
10,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $200

We will not furnish this list in lots less than 10,000. Discontinuance of business January 1, is the occasion for selling our mailing list.

Yours truly,
Kentucky Distillers' Co
W. Franklin, President

Hope you enjoy these as much as I have!

Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr

I just got back from the library (returned Authentic Happiness and The Happiness Hypothesis) and of course I couldn't leave without picking up yet another book:

Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr

I read the title and I had to borrow it.

Here's what this real life story is about. In 1669, a Paris bookseller published a dainty volume called Portuguese Letters. The five letters were addressed to an unnamed French Officer who had been stationed in Portugal, where, between battles, he met, seduced and then left a beautiful twenty-six-year-old nun called Mariana.

It was small enough to fit in the palm of a hand or in a shirt pocket, but its passionate story inspired poets, painters, and academics for hundreds of years.

The inside flap cover says:

The letters spoke of love in a manner direct and unapologetic, unequivocally sensual and sexual, sending shivers through the sophisticated stratums of polite society. When they were made public in the salons of Paris, people assumed they were the fictional creation of a French aristocrat. The consensus was that no woman could write words of such stunning truth and beauty. The volume became a best seller while the officer [to whom the letters were written] maintained a chivalrous silence until his death.

The author first heard about these letters in the form of a play at Montreal’s Théâtre de Quat’ Sous and this book is the result of her three year investigation into the mystery surround these letters.

Cyr concludes that the nun, Mariana Alcoforado, existed and that the passionate letters were all her own work.

Click here to read an excerpt on the NPR website.

Sounds very intriguing to me! I'm looking forward to reading it...though I've got 11 other books that I'm planning on reading before I get to it.