I just finished "The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus." While this is a wonderful story, this book is actually a poorly executed version of it.
Paul Mark Roget was born of Swiss Huguenot emigres to London. His father, a pastor of a London congregation and of relatively meager means, died while he was still a young boy. His mother, of much more substantial means, then supposedly smothered her boy with her overweening demands and mental instability. This is a recurrent theme the author Joshua Kendall puts forward in the book. I'm not all that convinced. He seems to be reaching at times. Nevertheless, mental instability, depression, etc., did seem to run in the Romilly (mother's side) family leaving virtually no one unscathed.
Why Roget is not more of a household name is really the story here. A doctor by training, he made his living through his scientific lectures on physiology and various other scientific topics. Apparently, he was a delightful and dynamic lecturer. Trained in Scotland by those we read about in "How the Scots Invented the Modern World," Herman's wonderful Scotland book on the Scottish Enlightenment, Roget was a wonderful academician who lived and worked with most of the leading scientists of the 18th century including Humphrey Davies (of laughing gas fame). The book is a virtual who's who of scientific thinkers. Roget actually worked on these laughing gas studies, invented the slide rule and developed some mathematical equations regarding optics that would eventually make motion pictures possible. His publishing of various articles in his roles on the sundry academic committees in which he served as well as his published books left a lasting legacy.
But his most important and lasting contribution would be Roget's Thesaurus. Now, this work while not the first of its kind did more scientifically categorize and thoroughly explore synonymy than any previous work.
While the story itself is extremely interesting, this is a poorly written and executed work. The author, or his editor, did Roget a disservice in a number of ways. First, the author used colloquial expressions at times while using higher level choices at others. For example, Roget's sister and daughter were "dumped" by prospective suitors. Surely, a thesaurus could have helped the author find a more suitable expression. This is but one example.
Also, the author's condescending attitude toward the theory of intelligent design is a distraction and discredits Roget. It is almost as if we should forgive Roget's limited abilities to think outside of "natural theology and science" for he is writing just at the time Darwin is putting together and finally publishing his seminal work. Of course, it goes without saying that anyone daring to doubt Darwin must be a complete idiot and fool. The last time I checked, Darwin's theory of evolution was still a theory and not a natural law.
Finally, the author falls short of explaining all of Roget's "lists" --- there is one which he continually refers. Much more could have been said.
I hate being so harsh with an author, but this book could have been so much more of a powerful experience. All of the fascinating story elements were there, but the writing itself is a distraction to it. I was hoping it would be similar to Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman," a book about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Alas, it just isn't.
Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.
