A review by ed_moore
The Man of Feeling by Henry MacKenzie

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Henry Mackenzie’s ‘A Man of Feeling’ is regarded one of the most important works of sentimentalist literature, and if such is the case I can’t say sentimentalist literature is likely to be a literary movement I fall in love with. It was a movement focused on understanding the feelings of other people, and this book couldn’t match such genre better as its only plot is the protagonist Harley meeting someone, hearing their problems and then crying about them, often giving them money in which there is no explanation to why he is able to give sad people so much money either. 

‘A Man of Feeling’ was really hard to follow as Mackenzie wrote it in a fragmented form with many missing chapters. A prologue explains that a fictional curate put together the story from Harley’s papers scattered across his office, though I think Mackenzie simply couldn’t find a way to link his unrelated vignettes of grief and moments of Harley crying so just decided simply not to bother and publish a completely incoherent plot.

Though the sentimentalist movement portrays a unique type of character that defies patriarchal stereotypes at the time, Harley had no further characterisation other than being an empath to the point that it is unhealthy. My enjoyment of the book also wasn’t helped by my copy being 50 years old and the pages falling out as I turned them causing a very stressful reading experience. I am just thankful the story wasn’t a particularly long one, being just over 100 pages.