The Nightmare of a Victorian Bestseller: Martin Tupper's 'Proverbial Philosophy'

by Brian Thompson

A friend of both the Marxes and the Gladstones, a lovable but preposterous figure, with a quiverful of children and advice to anyone who would listen, Martin Tupper was in many ways the quintessential Victorian. In 1842 he wrote the first of a series entitled "Proverbial Philosophy", a moral self-improvement manual, full of hearty evangelism - somewhere between "The Road Less Travelled" and "The Little Book of Calm" - which became a multi-million bestseller. Few people today have heard of Tupper but in his own time his name was a household word. Know Tupper, know something interesting, richly comic and telling about Victorian taste and sensibility.

Genres: History, Biography

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

He read English at Cambridge. Since 1973 he has written for a living as a radio and television playwright and a documentary film maker. He is also the author of several acclaimed biographies: A Monkey Amongst Crocodiles, Imperial Vanities and The Nightmare of a Victorian Bestseller.

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Tupper is long forgotten by the reading public but in his heyday he was as famous as Charles Dickens, particularly when he visited America and was hugely feted wherever he went. His one work of renown, Proverbial Philosophy, went into more than 50 editions, the last being published in America as late as the Korean War (1950s), and sold over 80,000 copies a year for many years. His two novels, The Crock of Gold and Stephan Langton, are now totally forgotten but his books of maxims and reflections on life are very occasionally referred to. In later life his daughters used to say to him, 'Papa, you're in Punch, you're in Fun' to which he replied, 'Well, I don't care.' And so he shouldn't have!

[Ralph · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of Mr Martin Tupper before this book. It was interesting to read not just about him and his works but how he and Proverbial Philosophy<\i> fit within Victorian society.

While it took me longer to read then a book of this small size should, it was worth the time spent.

[Emilymcmc · Rating 4 out of 5]

At a bookstore in Harvard Square, I bought this because Tupper is distantly related to me somehow, but I kept reading because it's such a sad book! When Elizabeth Gilbert gave her talk about maybe having only one good book in her, I thought of this guy, who really did only have one good book, and spent the rest of his life trying to live it down.

[Stig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Tupper was a very successful Victorian author and totally forgotten today. Karl Marx despised him, so he must have done something right, but oh! what turgid prose, what pomposity! A great biography, although Thompson does tend to ridicule his subject quite a bit. Then again, it is so very tempting!

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book breathes a little life into a long forgotten prominent but flawed Victorian. I came away cringing at Tupper's terrible verse but still delighting in his self belief and generally affable demeanour.

[Russell James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine two-hour read (thus suitably published by Short Books) riffing on the very successful career of the Proverbial Philosopher Martin Tupper. Better than I've just made it sound!

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the quotes on the cover, I expected it to be witty and interesting. It's not !

Halfway in, I was getting bored of ploughing through it. Even at 120 pages long, I couldn't be bothered to finish it.