1 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2019
    1. I will relate to you an anecdote of his life, recounted to me by the parties themselves, which exemplifies the generosity, I had almost said the heroism of his nature.

      This small addition in the Thomas Copy softens Walton's initial impressions of his chief crewman. The 1831 edition makes a more substantive change by addressing Walton's sister more fully than in any of the 1818 edition's letters

      Interestingly, as the master is an "Englishman" the ready associations between Englishness and "heroism" and "generosity" are attributed to the master's "nature" in more modest terms, lending Walton's letter a slightly less chauvinistic air.