Starting at age 8, Roget would compile lists of words, an obsession that became a lifelong method of bringing order to his sometimes-chaotic world. Kendall views Roget's habit of list making as "the primary means by which he preserved his own sanity" in dealing with "the early death of his father and the emotional instability of his mother." Alas, since Roget himself seemed preternaturally unable to express his own emotions, Kendall's attempts at psychoanalyzing his inner life often seem as untethered as balloons drifting into the sky.
Kendall's efforts to depict Roget's romantic life are both sad and funny. As a successful doctor, Roget should have been a great catch in Jane Austen-era England, but his skills at wooing left much to be desired. Kendall recounts how one woman was initially attracted to the young doctor, describing him as "superior to most men" (which sounds a bit lukewarm). But she soon found herself bemoaning Roget's "want of ardour," a lack that "weighs with a deadly weight upon my feelings and produces a forced revulsion."
Roget ultimately did marry; his bride, Mary Hobson, appreciated his aloofness, which apparently rivaled that of a glacier. Kendall does his best to explain Roget's attraction to Mary, but romantics may be underwhelmed: Roget "was delighted to have found a woman happy to spend the evening taking an algebra lesson from him." OK, he was no Don Juan, but he sure could impress the ladies with those linear equations.
Kendall tries to insert some international intrigue into Roget's life. When Roget was staying in Geneva in 1803, he nearly found himself detained by a French government about to go to war against Great Britain. Roget escaped across the border, but Kendall's efforts to make this episode seem like a mano-a-mano confrontation between Napoleon Bonaparte and Roget don't quite work. Kendall tells us that during "Roget's extended nightmare" trying to return home, he "feared that Napoleon had somehow tracked him down." Readers may be left wondering whether capturing a less-than-dangerous British list maker was atop Bonaparte's to-do list.
