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The House of Percy: Honor, Melancholy, and Imagination in a Southern Family
The novels of Walker Percy-- The Moviegoer , Lancelot , The Second Coming , and The Thanatos Syndrome to name a few--have left a permanent mark on twentieth-century Southern fiction; yet the history of the Percy family in America matches anything, perhaps, that he could have created. Two
centuries of wealth, literary accomplishment, political leadership, depression, and sometimes suicide established a fascinating legacy that lies behind Walker Percy's acclaimed prose and profound insight into the human condition.
In The House of Percy , Bertram Wyatt-Brown masterfully interprets the life of this gifted family, drawing out the twin themes of an inherited inclination to despondency and an abiding sense of honor. The Percy family roots in Mississippi and Louisiana go back to "Don Carlos" Percy, an
eighteenth-century soldier of fortune who amassed a large estate but fell victim to mental disorder and suicide. Wyatt-Brown traces the Percys through the slaveholding heyday of antebellum Natchez, the ravages of the Civil War (which produced the heroic Colonel William Alexander Percy, the "Gray
Eagle"), and a return to prominence in the Mississippi Delta after Reconstruction. In addition, the author recovers the tragic lives and literary achievements of several Percy-related women, including Sarah Dorsey, a popular post-Civil War novelist who horrified her relatives by befriending
Jefferson Davis--a married man--and bequeathing to him her plantation home, Beauvoir, along with her entire fortune. Wyatt-Brown then chronicles the life of Senator LeRoy Percy, whose climactic re-election loss in 1911 to a racist demagogue deply stung the family pride, but inspired his bold
defiance to the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. The author goes on to tell the poignant story of poet and war hero Will Percy, the Senator's son. The weight of this family narrative found expression in Will Percy's memoirs, Lanterns on the Levee --and in the works of Walker Percy, who was reared in his
cousin Will's Greenville home after the suicidal death of Walker's father and his mother's drowning.
As the biography of a powerful dynasty, steeped in Sou8thern traditions and claims to kinship with English nobility, The House of Percy shows the interrelationship of legend, depression, and grand achievement. Written by a leading scholar of the South, it weaves together intensive resarch and
thoughtful insights into a riveting, unforgettable story.
centuries of wealth, literary accomplishment, political leadership, depression, and sometimes suicide established a fascinating legacy that lies behind Walker Percy's acclaimed prose and profound insight into the human condition.
In The House of Percy , Bertram Wyatt-Brown masterfully interprets the life of this gifted family, drawing out the twin themes of an inherited inclination to despondency and an abiding sense of honor. The Percy family roots in Mississippi and Louisiana go back to "Don Carlos" Percy, an
eighteenth-century soldier of fortune who amassed a large estate but fell victim to mental disorder and suicide. Wyatt-Brown traces the Percys through the slaveholding heyday of antebellum Natchez, the ravages of the Civil War (which produced the heroic Colonel William Alexander Percy, the "Gray
Eagle"), and a return to prominence in the Mississippi Delta after Reconstruction. In addition, the author recovers the tragic lives and literary achievements of several Percy-related women, including Sarah Dorsey, a popular post-Civil War novelist who horrified her relatives by befriending
Jefferson Davis--a married man--and bequeathing to him her plantation home, Beauvoir, along with her entire fortune. Wyatt-Brown then chronicles the life of Senator LeRoy Percy, whose climactic re-election loss in 1911 to a racist demagogue deply stung the family pride, but inspired his bold
defiance to the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. The author goes on to tell the poignant story of poet and war hero Will Percy, the Senator's son. The weight of this family narrative found expression in Will Percy's memoirs, Lanterns on the Levee --and in the works of Walker Percy, who was reared in his
cousin Will's Greenville home after the suicidal death of Walker's father and his mother's drowning.
As the biography of a powerful dynasty, steeped in Sou8thern traditions and claims to kinship with English nobility, The House of Percy shows the interrelationship of legend, depression, and grand achievement. Written by a leading scholar of the South, it weaves together intensive resarch and
thoughtful insights into a riveting, unforgettable story.
504 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 28, 2011
If I wasn't a fan of the novelist Walker Percy, I may never have read this book, but anyone interested in American history, especially in the South, may find this book fascinating even if they know nothing of WP.
The patriarch, Charles Percy, who probably came from southern Ireland (some family members believe he was descended from the famous Northumberland Percys and there are some indications it may be true, though no definitive proof), settled in the Natchez area in 1773. From this man, who, after achieving much, suffered from some kind of mental illness, who called himself Don Carlos with pretensions of grandeur seemingly (though some of the pretensions arose later from his descendants' myth-making) and who committed suicide, family traits are first uncovered: the genetic depression that afflicted many down through the years (writing was used as a coping technique by some, mostly women) and a strong sense of noblesse-oblige (arising from the passing down of familial stories of honor and Stoicism).
I was surprised at how much the Percy family was involved in the history and politics of the American South. I knew about Walker Percy's older cousin (also a writer) "Uncle Will," who was a leading figure after the famous 1927 Flood and who knew all sorts of influential people, even on the East Coast, and Will's father, who was instrumental in ousting the Klan in their part of Mississippi in the 1920s, but I didn't know about the earlier Sarah, who owned Beauvoir Plantation, which she ended up bequeathing to Jefferson Davis, and not to her own family. (Walker Percy's youngest brother served on the same PT boat as John Kennedy.)
Like many 'aristocratic' Southern families, the names given to their children were once surnames of previous family members, so it was interesting to read of the early 19th-century close family friend John Walker whose name became a family name.
For me the most interesting discussions were on how Walker Percy used his family stories and legends in his fiction (disguised to a certain extent, of course) in ironic, self-deprecating and even scathing ways to help rid himself of his own demons. (His father committed suicide and WP called himself an ex-suicide.) But even if you haven't read any WP novels, you may still enjoy this complex history of an American family.
The patriarch, Charles Percy, who probably came from southern Ireland (some family members believe he was descended from the famous Northumberland Percys and there are some indications it may be true, though no definitive proof), settled in the Natchez area in 1773. From this man, who, after achieving much, suffered from some kind of mental illness, who called himself Don Carlos with pretensions of grandeur seemingly (though some of the pretensions arose later from his descendants' myth-making) and who committed suicide, family traits are first uncovered: the genetic depression that afflicted many down through the years (writing was used as a coping technique by some, mostly women) and a strong sense of noblesse-oblige (arising from the passing down of familial stories of honor and Stoicism).
I was surprised at how much the Percy family was involved in the history and politics of the American South. I knew about Walker Percy's older cousin (also a writer) "Uncle Will," who was a leading figure after the famous 1927 Flood and who knew all sorts of influential people, even on the East Coast, and Will's father, who was instrumental in ousting the Klan in their part of Mississippi in the 1920s, but I didn't know about the earlier Sarah, who owned Beauvoir Plantation, which she ended up bequeathing to Jefferson Davis, and not to her own family. (Walker Percy's youngest brother served on the same PT boat as John Kennedy.)
Like many 'aristocratic' Southern families, the names given to their children were once surnames of previous family members, so it was interesting to read of the early 19th-century close family friend John Walker whose name became a family name.
For me the most interesting discussions were on how Walker Percy used his family stories and legends in his fiction (disguised to a certain extent, of course) in ironic, self-deprecating and even scathing ways to help rid himself of his own demons. (His father committed suicide and WP called himself an ex-suicide.) But even if you haven't read any WP novels, you may still enjoy this complex history of an American family.
July 16, 2021
The Percys are a remarkable family. In the words of the author, "[t]hey were Stoics in a time of Epicurean license, conservatives in a time of liberalism, Catholics (at least some of them) in a Protestant region, and aristocrats in a country devoted to democratic principles. And yet for all these differences they still represented the ideals of their region." The Percys provide an excellent case study of both the Old South and the New, of the values and sentiments held by some Southerners through their generations, and also of the blindspots.
Before I started the book, I expected the chapters on Will Percy and Walker Percy to be the best. I found just the opposite to be true. The introduction as well as the sections on the early Percy lineage and the female Percys were better than the later sections on Will and Walker. The main downside of the book comes in these latter chapters where the author gives us too much of his own psychoanalysis.
Another important aspect of this book is its indirect impact, in an age of individualism where loyalty to family is less consequential. Family histories may once have been well-known and passed on as a matter of course, but that is certainly not true anymore. This loss makes books like the House of Percy all the more valuable. Wyatt-Brown set out to explore "a family's culture: a means to explain how the Percy dynasty has succeeded in retaining its social standing, wealth, set of habits, and steadfast principles over a lengthy span." The effort was certainly worthwhile. Wyatt-Brown shows how the Percys retained a set of values (though not all of these values were equally admirable) in the midst of a changing world. In doing so, he succeeded in accomplishing one of his main goals for the book, which was to "encourage an appreciation for the ways American families transmit their special sense of identity and challenge as well as accept the conventions and prescriptions of their region."
Before I started the book, I expected the chapters on Will Percy and Walker Percy to be the best. I found just the opposite to be true. The introduction as well as the sections on the early Percy lineage and the female Percys were better than the later sections on Will and Walker. The main downside of the book comes in these latter chapters where the author gives us too much of his own psychoanalysis.
Another important aspect of this book is its indirect impact, in an age of individualism where loyalty to family is less consequential. Family histories may once have been well-known and passed on as a matter of course, but that is certainly not true anymore. This loss makes books like the House of Percy all the more valuable. Wyatt-Brown set out to explore "a family's culture: a means to explain how the Percy dynasty has succeeded in retaining its social standing, wealth, set of habits, and steadfast principles over a lengthy span." The effort was certainly worthwhile. Wyatt-Brown shows how the Percys retained a set of values (though not all of these values were equally admirable) in the midst of a changing world. In doing so, he succeeded in accomplishing one of his main goals for the book, which was to "encourage an appreciation for the ways American families transmit their special sense of identity and challenge as well as accept the conventions and prescriptions of their region."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews