The Peabody Sisters was one heck of a long church sermon! That’s how it felt to me, Unitarian Universalist that I am. Imagine sitting in church nonstop for a week… you non UU people will probably not understand it but the UUs will.
And then, once you UUs have imagined that – imagine not that you’re listening to a really great minister like Reverand Barbara (who is no longer with our congregation, unfortunately) or even Reverand Jack (also no longer with our congregation) but instead some really dry and might I say boring interim minister. That is what The Peabody Sisters felt like, to me.
Of course I did learn that the mighty Elizabeth Peabody is almost solely responsible for Unitarianism and Transcendentalism and all that is right with education. And if folks had only listened to her, folks like Hawthorne and Emerson and Channing and Mann and most especially Bronson Alcott, they would have done far better in their lives. To read this book, Elizabeth Peabody was the founder of it all – at least all that took place in the 1800’s.
That is the only thing that made the book worth sitting for – how often do we hear that a woman was responsible for all the great things (and yes some not so great things too). It got to be a little much, and I kept expecting Elizabeth to have invented the lighbulb and walked on the moon, but I still smiled everytime Elizabeth was the force behind the man or her ideas were used by some man to achieve great things. Oh and Mary and Sophia (the other women that make up the “sisters” weren’t so bad either. Not as great as Elizabeth of course but what can you expect). Woman Power! Go Girl! Hear Me Roar!
OK on to something that I am sure will sound nothing like a church sermon, boring or otherwise. Gosh I miss Reverand Barbara!
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