Synthesized answer
Based solely on the provided passages, the English edition explicitly omits the comparison between "John Bull and his brother Jonathan" in Letter XXI [1]. The passage states this discussion of "cultural traits in England and the United States" is "completely omitted" and appears as "deleted text" [1]. No reason for this editorial choice is given in the passages.
The passages do not explain why the English edition removed this comparison, so any reasons would be speculation. However, the omitted content was a comparison of cultural traits between England ("John Bull") and the United States ("brother Jonathan") [1]. The loss of this comparison would remove a direct analysis of how each nation perceived the other's character, which is a central theme in the book. For example, elsewhere in the text, the author uses England as a "standard of judgment" for America [4] and records an Englishman's critique that Americans lack an "heroic way" [2][3]. Removing the explicit comparison would obscure these nuanced self-perceptions and the author's method of contrasting the "mother" country with the "daughter" [4].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
← The Homes of the New World ( 1853 ) by Fredrika Bremer , translated by Mary Howitt → Published simultaneously in Swedish as Hemmen i den nya verlden . The summaries for letters below are Wikisource interpretations of the table of contents for the French edition of the book which in turn are translations from summaries in the Swedish edition. Beginning with the second volume (Letter XVIII and later), translations of the Swedish summaries may also be found in the German edition of the book . In the English edition, often people's last names are referred to by a single initial. When more…
f an Englishman: “I will not say that the Americans do not do many great things, but they are not done in an heroic way. And it has sometimes appeared to me that that which this people need most to make them really great is, a high-minded dissatisfaction with themselves.” But is this to be found among Englishmen or Frenchmen? Is it possessed by any nation excepting in its noblest representatives? And such are not wanting here, as I know by frequent experience. The illumination of the public buildings in the evening at Saratoga was tasteful. The supper and the arrangements of the ball showed…
shed to look quietly at the ball, and was very glad, when some new and agreeable acquaintance put an end to the lecture. And it has often happened to me thus; just as I have had one instance of American assumption, the very next moment I meet with another instance of American sense and forbearance. An elderly gentlemen at Saratoga, who appeared to be in ill health, but whose countenance was very agreeable, asked me with a diffident expression whether I really thought that the people of America were happier than those of Europe? After so many self-conceited questions about America, it was a…
y journey! For it was requisite to see a little of England, and especially of London, before I saw America and New York. I did not wish to be too much overcome by New York, therefore I would know something of the mother before I made acquaintance with the daughter, in order to have a point and rule of comparison, that I might correctly understand the type. I knew that Sweden and Stockholm were of another race, unlike the English country, and towns, people, manners, mode of building, and so on. But England had in the place given population, laws, and tone of mind to the people of the new…
w England States to have attained its acme, and if we might not see in these a type of the perfected American community? ” “By no means,” replied he; “there are at this time a number of Germanisms and other European ideas, nay, even ideas from Asia, which are now for the first time finding their way into the life of mind, and which will there produce new developments!” Emerson evidently considers America intended to present under a higher metamorphosis those ideas which during the course of ages have been prefigured in other parts of the world. As regarded the late political concessions which…
More questions about this book
- Imagine you are explaining to a classmate why a scholar studying "The Homes of the New World" cannot simply rely on one translated edition. How do the various omissions (like the John Bull discussion) and structural changes (like combined letters) alter the reader's experience and potentially obscure Fredrika Bremer's original observations or intentions?
- Fredrika Bremer chose to highlight "the demoralising effect of the institution of slavery on the white population" in her appendix, rather than the experiences of the enslaved people themselves, partly because Harriet Beecher Stowe had already covered that ground. Explain, as if to someone unfamiliar with the history, why focusing on the *impact on white society* was a significant, perhaps even strategic, argument against slavery at the time.
- Bremer's decision to forgo her personal narratives on slavery because of Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" suggests a powerful influence. How did Stowe's work, according to Bremer's reasoning, effectively "render unnecessary" other authors' detailed accounts, and what does this imply about the broader cultural function of a highly successful narrative in shaping public understanding of a social issue?
- This text details numerous transformations a book undergoes through translation, editing, and international publication (e.g., summaries, omissions, structural changes). How does this process challenge the idea of a fixed "original text" or a singular "authorial intention," and what does it reveal about the dynamic relationship between an author, their work, and its global audience?