"The Spaniards are not only idle, they are very cruel."
No matter who your ancestors were, and where they had the misfortune of living, Victorian children's book writer Mrs. Favell Lee Mortimer had something nasty to say about them. Their faults, according to Mrs. Mortimer, might have amounted to just about anything. The Irish "are very kind and good-natured when pleased, but if affronted, are filled with rage." In Italy, "the people are ignorant and wicked." In Sweden, "Nothing useful is well done... The carpenters and the blacksmiths are very clumsy in their work."
"It would be well if the Germans were more neat and clean, especially the poor people."
Remarkably, all of these assertions come from a woman who only twice set foot outside of her native England. But lack of personal experience never kept Mrs. Mortimer from dispensing her horrifying wisdom about the evils of just about every nation on earth. Whether describing Europe ("The Greeks do not bear their troubles well; when they are unhappy, they scream like babies"), Asia ("The religion of Taou teaches men to act like madmen"), Africa ("The worst quality in any character is hypocrisy, and this is to be found in the Egyptian"), or America ("New Orleans is a dangerous place to live in, both for the body and the soul"), Mrs. Mortimer's views are consistently appalling.
"The Turks are so grave that they look wise. But how can lazy people really be wise?"
One hundred fifty years later, three of her forgotten classics have been compiled into The Clumsiest People in Europe, reviving the comically misinformed and startling prejudices of this unique Victorian eccentric.
—from the dust jacket
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