The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus by Joshua Kendall

Author:Joshua Kendall [Kendall, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2008-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

Having obtained a situation in an Infirmary is of itself a degree of success, and will be considered so by the world: and the celebrity that is attained in a large town appears to admit more easily of transference to another town, than the described reputation, however great, of a country practitioner, which is obstinately attached to the spot where it sprung.

The initial plan called for Roget’s mother and sister to live with him. Catherine and Annette arrived in town on October 21, 1804, just a week after Roget started at the Infirmary. But within a couple of weeks, Catherine had had enough and started planning their escape. Though she wasn’t sure exactly where they would spend the winter, on November 17, she and Annette left town. Forced to choose between living in what she described as “such a smoky town,” and living apart from her beloved son, Catherine opted to become a “country rambler” once again.

Hearing about this sudden turn of events from Roget, Dumont was critical of Catherine for acting so precipitously. While acknowledging Manchester’s downside—“the fumes in the air” and its “unhealthfulness”—Dumont was convinced that Catherine should have tried living there for longer than a month. Offering words of consolation, Dumont assured the young doctor that he could understand his disappointment at the separation from his mother and sister. Little did Dumont know that deep inside Roget felt more relief than sadness about the family’s new living arrangements.

Roget figured that he would no longer have to cater to his mother’s whims, but he was mistaken. Once settled in the surrounding countryside, Catherine, heedless of her son’s hectic schedule, continued to pester him through the mail. “But can you employ your time better,” went the rhetorical question she posed in one of her frequent letters, “than in endeavoring to make those happy, who most sincerely love you?”

Roget enjoyed living apart from his mother and sister that first winter, but he felt lonely in his Oldham Street rooms. Except for the Philips family, he knew very few people in Manchester. Both his mother and uncle were extremely worried about his isolation, but, as before, their concerns only increased his own feelings of distress. In early January 1805, Catherine, who had not received responses to two previous letters, was nearly frantic: “I really long to hear from you, no doubt you thought of us these holidays, spending them quite alone, having not a soul to talk to!…Send us all the news you can, and that immediately as you receive this, or I shall fear you are ill, and shall go to Manchester to inquire after you.” Then residing in Parkgate, a seaside town thirty miles from Manchester, Catherine, as her son well knew, could have easily carried out her threat to show up on his doorstep. Writing her back as soon as he could, Roget succeeded in fending her off—at least for the time being.

Roget managed to disengage himself from his mother, but he still had to figure out how to cope with the problems Manchester posed for him.

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