The history of the Sevarambians Denis Vairasse Books
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The history of the Sevarambians Denis Vairasse Books
For those who enjoy utopian novels, do not let this book get overlooked. It is unique and substantive. Although this was assigned reading for me in a college course, I found it much more interesting than More or Plato. It may seem obscure to those unfamiliar with historical texts, like me, but it is an incredibly fun read.Product details
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The history of the Sevarambians Denis Vairasse Books Reviews
Why did I read The History of the Sevarambians by Denis Veiras (surname also spelt Vairasse, Vairasse, Veyras, etc...)? I would be curious to learn why others might be reading this book in the early half of the 21st Century. I wonder if others came by this text in the same way as I did.
So, when reading Montesquieu's The Spirit of Laws, one quickly notices that Montesquieu has a penchant for citing other people's works. Well, that is how I got introduced to this weirdly enchanting story about a lost tribe of Noah's called the Sevarambians. Montesquieu's direct quote comes from Book IV, Chapter 6, ¶1 of his famous tome
"When you see, in the Life of Lycurgus, the laws he gives the Lacedaemonians, you believe you are reading The History of the Sevarambians."
I was feeling inquisitive, so I went to the library to see if this Histoy of the Sevarambians even existed or if this citation was like so many of Montesquieu's other sources in that it was going to be nearly impossible to unearth. As for Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus, I knew I could find that easily enough, but the other one I was not so sure about. Luckily, they had a copy and I was able to lose myself for an evening or two in some fun 17th Century lit.
The copy I read was edited by two people John Christian Laursen and Cyrus Masroori. If you are going to take the time to hunt this book down, then I recommend this edition for many reasons.
The first edition of this book was published in English in 1675, and again in 1679. The story is in the utopian genera. The only other specifically utopian book that I had read before this one was Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Laursen et al., however, describe Veriras's book more as a mixture between Thomas More's Utopia and Swift's Gulliver's Travels. I think that Veiras's book is more playful like Swift's, though without quite the same level of symbolism of Swift's tale.
Two elements I really enjoyed about the book were first the writing style (all those crazy, inconsistent spellings and verb endings of early-modern English as well as pre-novel confusion over the usefulness of things like quotes and paragraphs) and second all of the imaginative elements like unicorns for riding, different townships for people's different iniquities, and odd laws on both the prohibition and encouragement of intercourse. There are a few other fun elements as well that make up the Sevarambians's utopia, but I do want to give them away here.
The good thing about this edition by Laursen and Masroori, is that they have included the expanded editions of the text that appeared in other languages, but that was not translated back into English again until the 1738 publication. There also seems to be some doubt over whether or not this fellow named Denis Veiras even wrote the book. Laursen et al. proffer a nice introduction to the text that helps to explain this as well as elaborate on all of the other writers who have cited this strange book over the years (like Montesquieu, Kant, Bayle, Rousseau, Leibniz).
If you are looking for a fun and singular read from the 17th Century that can be finished in two or three sittings, then I recommend this interesting tale.
[...]
For those who enjoy utopian novels, do not let this book get overlooked. It is unique and substantive. Although this was assigned reading for me in a college course, I found it much more interesting than More or Plato. It may seem obscure to those unfamiliar with historical texts, like me, but it is an incredibly fun read.
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