A Little Lower Than the Angels No. 1 in the Signature Mormon Classics series By Virginia Sorensen Signature Books, 1997 (reprint of 1942 edition). 427 pages. ISBN: 1-56085-103-1 Suggested retail price: $14.95 (US)
Reviewed by: Skip Hamilton

[MOD: Skip Hamilton, one of our longtime correspondants, will be reviewing Virginia Sorensen's A Little Lower than the Angels in four parts, with the parts going out at weekly interviews beginning this morning. Skip provided this introduction to his series.]

Introduction

The book review for the title in the subject line will consist of five separate messages, the first being this Introduction while the remaining four will relate to the following topics:

1. Series Observations
2. The Book Review Proper
3. The Work, Women, and Polygamy
4. The Work: A Personal Interaction

The Series Observations will be in another e-mail and will be posted immediately after this message.

My reading of A Little Lower than the Angels was an intense experience. The review which I initially intended to write could not contain all I wanted to say. The work demands more than a simple "recommended." I hope this approach will support the consideration this novel deserves.

Series Observations

The above published work initiate a new series for Signature Books, "Signature Mormon Classics." Thus, the following will offer not only a review of the first title, but also provide some observations on the series and how the first two titles suggest the manner in which Signature will present the overall series. The Review will follow in subsequent posts, we will consider the series observations first.

Signature Mormon Classics, as currently planned, will republish two to four works a year. The works chosen for publication in this series will be those that have had a marked influence on not only the Mormon Religion and Culture, but also on how the world has perceived Mormons. To quote the publishers, "The authors [of the works], whether believers or skeptics occupy an important place in the development of LDS culture and identity." (From the series concept statement found on the free end paper inside the front cover of each work in the series.) Not all of the works published will be literary works, in fact the majority offer either critical, historical, theological, or cultural perspectives of Mormonism. Each work will contain a commissioned "Forward" written by an individual who has an academic knowledge of the work and the author. Signature will attempt to maintain each volume's price at $15.00 or under. To date only the above two have been published, though evidence suggests that Virginia Sorensen's Where Nothing Is Long Ago may be one of the next in the series to appear.

A conversation with the publisher indicated, that the edition reprinted for the majority of the items will be the first edition. Most of these first editions are now in the public domain. Questions could be asked about this, since some of these works have been revised. For example, James Talmadges' A Study of the Articles of Faith was "revised and in parts, rewritten" in its 12th edition printed in 1924. (from the title page of the twelth edition.) Since the Articles of Faith is still being printed by the Church, it appears republishing this work would provide for a legitimate, but limited historical interest. For those interested, A list of items planned for publication and the individual responsible for each "Forward", is provided at the end of these observations.

The printed format for the works is uniform and quite practical. The covers are a light shaded color with the title, author, and "Forward" authorship printed in black. The color of the spine and hinges is in black, providing a distinctive visual frame for the work. There is a black and white photograph of the work's author on the cover, as well. One presumes it is the author at the age at which they wrote the work, though there is nowhere in the book where this assumption, or the identification of the author is verified. This may be adequate for the non-fictional titles, but could be somewhat troublesome for the fictional works. (I wondered, briefly, if the photograph on the Sorensen work could have been the novel's main character, since that individual is identified in the "Forward" as being based on an historical relative of Virginia Sorensen.) Overall, however, the physical presentation of the work provides the series with an easily identifiable format of classical practical sensibility.

The "Forward" of each work is in modern type, but since the works, themselves, are photo-reproductions of the first editions, the printed word, the page and chapter ornamentations are in the styles of the period of the original work. This style offers the reader a constant reminder of the age in which the work was written. Such a reminder is only slightly intrusive while reading Sorensen's novel, but is a constant indication of the period in which Widstoe wrote his work.

The "Forward" for each title helps to bring that work into a contemporary context. Each traces the original intention of the work, and how was received by the public, and/or the Church. The value of each work in the series will rest on these "Forwards". In this context, I found Bradford's "Forward" intelligent and informative. It provided an excellent introduction to the work, and critical observations which I reread again when I finished the novel. Bradford's forward was complete, but the work, itself, so interested me, I wished she had been more expansive. LeCheminant's "Forward" seemed incomplete. While it did provide the basic information, certain contexts were only mentioned or hidden in the footnotes. For example, a fuller consideration of Widstoe's place in current Church theological discussions on an eternally progressing God would have offered an essential insight to this work. I would suggest that Signature strengthen their "Forwards" in future volumes. The "Forwards" are the part of their reprintings which provides not only the written justification for the work being reissued, but also a learned perspective in which to evaluate the work.

While I have heard of all of the titles Signature lists for this new series, I must admit I am much more excited about their reprinting of the Sorensen works than of the other titles. For years, I have been trying to buy my own copy of Sorensen's novel, The Evening and the Morning. It is a rare book in Mormon Book Stores and the one reprinting of which I became aware sold out before I could obtain a copy. With the Sorensen reprintings, Signature Books is doing the Mormon literary community a service. If the volumes below prove commercially successful, they will consider adding to the current list. It is to be hoped that they will find other out-of-print literary works which may be included in their future offerings.

Future Planned Voumes in the series: Signature Mormon Classics.

• Baskins, Robert N. Reminiscences of Early Utah. 1914 "Forward" by Brigham D. Madsen.
• Cannon, Frank J. and Harvey J. O'Higgins. Under the Prophet in Utah: The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft. 1911. "Forward" by Scott G. Kenney
• Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed or, A Faithful Account of that Singular Imposition and Delusion, from its Rise to the Present Time. 1834. "Forward" by Dan Vogel.
• Mcmurrin, Sterling. The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion. 1965. "Forward" by Jackson Newell
• Roberts, B. H. The Mormon Doctrine of Diety: The Roberts-Van der Donct Discussion, to which Is Added a Discourse, "Jesus Christ the Revelation of God"; Also a Collection of Authoritative Mormon Utterances on the Being and Nature of God. 1903 "Forward" by David L. Paulsen.
• Smith, Lucy Ward. Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet. 1908. "Forward" by Lavina Fielding Anderson
• Sorensen, Virginia. The Evening and the Morning. 1949 "Forward" by Linda Sillitoe.
• ------. Where Nothing Is Long Ago: Memories of a Mormon Childhood. 1963 "Forward" by Susan Elizabeth Howe.
• Talmadge, James. A Study of the Articles of Faith: Being a Consideration of the Principal Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1890. "Forward" by James P. Harris.
• Widstoe, John. Joseph Smith as a Scientist: A Contribution to Mormon Philosophy. 1908. "Forward" by Dwayne E. Jeffrey.
• Wyl, W. (really Wymetal, Wilhelm Ritter von). Joseph Smith, the Prophet, His Family and His Friends: A Study Based on Facts and Documents: (The first and only volume in his series Mormon Portraits; Or the Truth about the Mormon Leaders from 1830-1886.) 1886. "Forward" by Todd Compton.

Book Review

It may seem redundant to review a work which has already been identified as a classic through its republication. However, some -- like me, may have not read it, so --.

Published in 1942, A Little Lower than the Angels was Virginia Sorensen's first novel. It is the story of Mercy Baker, her husband Simon, their children -- particularly Jarvie, Menzo, and Betsy, and her associates in the Church -- including Joseph Smith, Eliza Snow, John Bennett, Brigham Young. The time period is the Nauvoo era of Church History. Her novel offers, as well, perspectives of the community, the land, and the people of the surrounding counties during the period shortly after Nauvoo received its Charter until the saints are forced to leave. The major focus of the work is not so much on the historical events as it is on the life of the family and how those events interrelate; particularly as seen through the eyes of the major protagonist Mercy Baker. Though Sorensen uses multiple character perspectives to broaden our view of what occurred in Nuavoo, yet it is clear certain individual perspectives are granted a greater validity.

The work, however, is not simply a story, it is an exploration of the human, philosophical, and theological conflicts overpowering some of these early Mormons. In addition, Virginia Sorensen is also telling the story of her husband's ancestor, though the treatment is not biographical but fictional. Her skills are evident at this very early period of her writing career. At times she is able to endow most of her characters with very human characteristics in spite of their symbolic, thematic, or historical place in the story. And, she can make a phrase crack like a whip, with echoes continuing through the rest of the novel. At a service in which Mercy's baby is blessed, Joseph Smith -- while blessing another child -- stumbles to a bench, his hand over his eyes. He recovers, saying he has seen a vision of Lucifer fighting for the children. He prayed for them, successfully, but in doing so goodness went out of him as it did from Jesus when the woman touched the hem of His garment. Then:

     He smiled. "Bring the little ones; I am strong again."
     For a moment, as he stood there, his figure merged with another figure that he had called up by his words, and a wave of feeling passed along the benches.
     Mercy heard the man behind her scraping his boot-heels on the ground, heard him distinctly as he whispered to somebody beside him: "The God-damned Christer, him!"
     She glanced quickly at Simon, but he had not heard; he was completely absorbed in another blessing that Joseph was speaking over the head of another child. (33)

Mercy, though baptised in the novel, is not a converted woman. She is an educated, poetic woman who can see the realistic nature of life all around her. Married to Simon, her joy is in him, her family, and in the home they are creating together. Her pain, her anger, her suffering is in that which separates her from, or destroys her joy. Some critics, while noting the significance of this novel have observed that such difficulties do not arise out of circumstances uniquely Mormon. ". . .it seems clear that Sorensen could have adapted her characters (in A Little Lower than the Angels) to, and worked out their problems in, another environment." (From "Mormon Storytellers" by Dale Morgan in Tending the Garden; Essays on Mormon Literature, page 10.) The criticism is unjust. One central difficulty of the novel, polygamy, is special to the Mormon experience, and particularly as viewed by Nauvoo's women. The other difficulties, though common to others persecuted for their religion, did happen to Mormons. Whether or not individual reactions were typical, worse, or better, the story is still a legtimate area of investigation for a novel. Read within any cultural perspective, this novel offers a true literary experience.

However, the story is more fully realized in certain segments of the novel than in others. Sorensen's telling of her more pristine truths occur when told through the experience of children or women. One thematic pinnacle occurs in Chapter XX , the story of Menzo's Indian Boat. Menzo is the second of Mercy's sons and has a natural affinity for the Native American's in the area. His idolization of their Chief is as intense as that of the Church members' committment to Joseph Smith. In the novel, interestingly, the Chief appears to be a more fully realized ideal figure than Joseph Smith. Menzo learns, almost intuitively with his family carpentry skills, how to build a birch canoe. His handling of it is almost as mystical as the lore which allows him to build it. Certain of his Mormon friends, jealous because he always controls it and won't allow them to row or guide it, steal the boat one night. They are unable to control the naturally light craft, it capsizes, and they drown. Their Mormon fathers, come to the Baker home after the funeral.

     Menzo sat still, stroking his canoe. He was there when Elijah Fordham and Joseph Nunn and John Peck came for justice. He knew it was no use, but he said, standing up to them; "It wasn't the canoe's fault -- they stole it."
     "It wouldn't have happened," Joseph Nunn said brokenly.
     "We don't want our boys a pack o' Injuns!" Elijah cried and his ax came down.
     And Joseph's ax came down and John Peck's. It lay riddled and sick, like white bones with gay colors where the flesh clung. Menzo turned the color of ashes in the hopper.
     Then they burned it.
     But the next morning, and it was a great joy to Simon and a wonder to Mercy, Menzo was out on the ground again, his mouth set. Tamping, tamping, hardening the clay to receive the bark.

It is the above type of realistic, poetic detail with its capability for symbolization and foreshadowing which makes the novel so strong. Virginia Sorensen aimed high in this first work. My reading of it was an intense experience, and I found I needed to devote time to reading it. For me, the novel wasn't a quick read. In the end I felt the complete experience wasn't totally satisfying. Paradoxically, I also feel this is an essential work of Mormon Literature. Some "Whys?", will follow in later posts. Signature is certainly justified in republishing it. I would recommend it, and already have, to anyone interested in reading serious Mormon Literature.

The Work, Women, and Polygamy

Sorensen's use of multiple voices also allows one to see certain heirarchies established in the work. These heirarchies establish not only levels of values, but also levels for the validity of speakers. The value which appears to be the dominant value is that of the home. Another value which has a high ideal value is what I would define as the "ideal of nature." The "home" is also one of the "ideals of nature", but where a home might comes in conflict with with that "ideal of nature", then it seems the concept of home is given a greater value. As I have mentioned previously, the two sets of characters whose voices speak with greater validity are women and children. Women's voices speak with the intelligence of experience and the wisdom of knowing. Children's voices speak the truth of innocence and of seeing.

Men rank lower in this heirarchy. Though what they say may also have the merit of truth, it is a truth which can appear suspect. This suspicion seems particularly pointed when mens words are placed in contrast with the heirarchies of home or natural order, or the other tellers. There are many conflicts in the book which lend themselves to greater illumination by examining them through the comparitive use of these heirarcchies. An exhaustive examination using such techniques would be well beyond the scope of these introductory comments. However, using this criteria illuminates the examination of polygamy.

Accepting the above criteria, it is significant that Mercy and the children are the main speakers of the story. And in the concept of home, it is Mercy's voice, a woman' voice, which delineates the ideal. Men never really define a home, they are concerned with building a place, a land, a community, a religion. But the women? One night starts with the family in a circle, kneelin for prayer. After the children have gone to bed, Mercy sits and contemplates:

     It was pure peace, pure. It was a peace distilled from one blood. Nowhere else in the world was there a similar peace or a purer one. It had to be made of those who belonged together through the firm right of blood and bones. First the father and mother, brought together by love and the highest desire, and then the children, one by one taking their places, one by one as the years passed filling another and another chair, taking their places in the cradles and trundles and cots, taking their places one by one at the table. In every child the father and mother were together again, every child was a seal on them.
     The Gospel was clear in its blessing upon the family. The First Family was God's, and it had grown like this, one by one, until it covered the world, . . . (p. 124)

That statement establishes the highest ideal in the work, and all other worthy ideals seem to branch from that one. Sorensen does not shy away from the difficult questions associated with this ideal. For example, Sex is discussed frankly, though never suggestively or photographically. Sex is a fundamental part of Mercy's marriage to Simon or any proper marriage. In the very first pages of the novel, Mercy thinks, "Even Simon's height she loved, beyond her spine so that from the beginning her spine must be stretched, kindling, for his kisses, . . . still, after all this married time, it was one of the things that mattered most." (pp. 4-5). The passion of marriage is natural with the ideals of having home and children, a family. And it is these ideals which polygamy breaks apart.

Eliza Snow and Emma Smith are two other women whose voices speak in the novel. Eliza could be seen as the voice of the faithful believing Mormon. However, even at first Mercy thinks to herself the following about Eliza.

     Her religion is like a cloak over her, and when she speaks the Prophet's name there's something in her voice like reverence. If she was like any other woman, I'd say she was head-over-heals in love with her Prophet.' But you couldn't think of Eliza being head-over-heels in anything. Love, or anything else, would have to come over her slowly and decorously. (p. 17)

Eliza's confirmation to Mercy of Mercy's suspicions establishes the formal beginning of several conflicts in the book. Significantly, it brings to bear the paradox of Polygamy for women. Mercy's love, an already established ideal in the work, is now contrasted with the love of Eliza for Joseph Smith. Eliza expresses a hope for the obtaining that which Mercy and Emma has. The promise of that is born in the novel's beginning. Polygamy, the doctrine of a prophet, may vision a heaven not capable of being known by a woman's home.

Eliza Snow's dreams of home life are real, but that ideal seems betrayed when Joseph announces the concept of polygamy to the apostles. In an ideal romantic courting scene, the betrayal is heightened when Joseph speaks lovingly to Eliza about a "home" when Eliza know only too well he has one. Mercy's disagreement with the concept contrasted with Eliza's faithful acceptance keeps the debate and the potential for the betrayal of idealism ever present. With Mercy as her only friend present, Eliza's antiseptic marriage to Joseph by Brigham Young in the upper room of the store, then Joseph turning immediately again to the task he had left while Mercy drives Eliza to her apartment, is an even further betrayal of the woman stated ideal.

Still Eliza's hopes are an ever present wish for the ideal to occur until even those slim dreams are shattered beyond response. First comes Emma's reproach to her after Eliza's somewhat jealously spies on Joseph for Emma to see if he is "associating" with other women. After returning to report "No!", Eliza finds Emma holding a list of Joseph's plural wives. Emma's icily formal bitterness destroys their sisterhood and rings throughout the rest of the book. " 'Good women all,' she (Emma) said coolly. 'Nothing short of marriage would make whores out of any of you.' " (p145) Finally, for Eliza, there is her approach to Joseph at the Mansion House celebration. To her entreaties he responds, "I didn't think I'd have this from you. I thought you were different. . . . And now you're jealous. Like any other stupid ordinary woman!" (p 171) Joseph, a male, only states what Eliza has already acknowledged to him, and to herself.

The above is not trite romance. The woman speaking are at the highest pantheon of the Mormon women we revere. What they are saying speaks to the loss of the Zion each as a woman had dreamed. Virginia Sorensen could have closed the story at that point. However, the work is exploring its issues more deeply, relating them to the concepts of male and female power, belief, and truth. Mercy, when contemplating polygamy, summarizes it and the basic conflicts it raises with the following words.

     It was just as Eliza had said once: " If you discount this from Brother Joseph, then you discount everything; if you fight this you fight everything." (p 324)

The novel, its analysis of polygamy, Nauvoo the ideal city, the "fall of the saints", the prophethood of Joseph Smith, etc. has only been partially considering these issues when Eliza's above related confrontation with Joseph Smith occurs.

After that episode the confrontation focus turns more away from the general to consider the specific. This focussing is explored through Mercy's family. It is not possible in this forum to offer as complete an investigation as I would like, but some of the remaining elements deserve comment. On the day of the martyrdom of the prophet, Mercy has identical twin girls born to her. A miracle of her ideal, she longs to express this to Simon, but one of the twins dies and Mercy has been mortally weakened through this birth. Mercy's physiological condition is so precarious that for weeks she cannot care for the babies, let alone for her family or home. In desperation Simon goes to Brigham Young and Brigham Young takes him to a mature sister, Charlot Leavitt, who's mother has just passed away. Brigham Young suggests Simon ask her to become his plural wife.

Charlot is a very capable woman, a caregiver, and converted. She accepts the proposal and Simon brings her into his house. As Helynne Hansen notes, Charlot is in reality one of the novel's most admirable female characters. Her capability to bring order out of of the confusion in the Baker home, her understanding which allow most of the children to love and follow her, and her angelic administrations to Mercy follow the highest ideals of Mormon womanhood. But, she comes into the Baker home as a wife, a betrayer of the ideal (Hansen. p. 87) When Mercy's two oldest son's realize this, and finally when Mercy is well and alert enough to realize this the actual battle of the novel begins. In a way it is a battle more bitter than that being waged to evict the saints from Nauvoo. We know the Saints will win because of Salt Lake City. But what of Mercy's, and women's, ideal of home?

The battle is in woman"s ways and is centered around the home. Mercy states it as being waged through "woman-emotion" and of a ". . . a cunning in her made of pain and desire and and of a new unfamiliar hate." (pp 322 and 323) In her initial conversation with Simon, she is forced to acknowledge, "So Charlot knew the way too." Mercy and Charlot fight in their silence by trying to maintain their individual identity of home. The tension becomes so great that Simon finally declares that Lucifer has come into the home. He wants all to live in "harmony", as God wants all men to live in harmony. But Mercy screams in her mind, "I am not All, I am only One. I am One and I suffer. I am One and I am in pain. I am One and I am afraid." But the mortal weaknesses of her last pregnancy robs Mercy of strength. The battle lapses into a strained armistice when during one crisis Simon announces that Charlot is going to have a child. It is almost with heartbreak we read Mercy musing about Charlot:

". . .let her have the first time of laying her finger on a cheek incredibly soft and let her have the looking at a certain curve of ear and say: 'Simons.'" (339-40)

Mercy knows who she is. She readily acknowledges her identity is established with her husband. "Even with the crust of shame and darkness between them, he was Simon and her Simon and would always be. She would never be the one to leave what was left of the circle, charmed once and flowing peacefully." (page 339) Yet her integrity is also knows this is is the betrayal to her own values. It is her circle, her family she is trying to maintain. But this country, this gospel, was overriding her human values.

     "I hate this country," she thought, "I hate it. I always hated it, really. Its to flat and terrible, there's no end or beginnng to it, and the people are to flat and patient, taking things the way they do and believing them. To inherit the highest degree of glory -- to sit beside brother Joseph again, in another world, and to be commanded by that voice again." She knew suddenly that Simon belonged to them and not to her -- he was flat and yielding and patient, too, Simon was. Simon wasn't living now, he was living forever. (315)

It is with the now that Mercy lives. In the now at Nauvoo polygamy came to exist. Mercy does as women have suggested all women do (Note 1 below). She adopts a strategy of silence. Ironically, she calls her silence the "Era of Man's Patience". (p 340) The silence however is not the end of her voice in the novel for though she may not be speaking to the family about polygamy, her resentment, her life, even the charitable administrations of Charlot show the betrayal of Polygamy. The men come to give her a priesthood administration with oil, but it is Charlot rubbing the oil into her body which helps her to breathe easier. Even with this act of charity, the feeling of relief is begrudging, the betrayal is evident. In her last self motivated act in the novel, Mercy makes sure she climbs into her families first wagon as first wife as the saints are forced from Nauvoo. She will not desert her ideals, nor the ideals the novel has espoused.

Mercy's voice and character dominate. This woman's concerns at the individual level rise over the dreams and tragedy of the community. Virginia Sorensen uses that voice to raise the questions of Polygamy and examines them in parallel with other questions about the Community which Joseph established, the ideals he espoused, the nature of his prophetic calling, and does so from a woman's seeing, at least from her character, Mercy's, seeing. Sorensen does not explicitly answer her questions. But she forces the questions to exist, to remain. I wonder if we, particularly we men, truly read them?

Notes

1. I am sure I am not the first individual to note the significance of the woman's voice. Helynne H. Hansen in her paper, "In Search of Women's Language and Feminist Expression Among Nauvoo Wives in A Little Lower than the Angels" delivered at 17 October 1992 cojoint session of the Association for Mormon Letters and the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association and published in the 1994 Mormon Letters Annual, pp 85-90, first brought this concept to my attention. Though she does not follow the same path as I do in this exploration, and I find it difficult to accept all of her conclusions, her fundamental points were the basis for making me want to read this work. I also give credit to Mary Bradford, and Susan Howe who also spoke at that conjoint meeting about Sorensen's work. Their comments, particularly in the question and answer period were enlightening and helped me look again at the woman's voice in Mormon Literature.

Skip Hamilton
English and American Literature Bibliographer
University of Colorado Boulder Libraries