Listings for Author:
Irving
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Washington Irving : Life of Columbus
That I understood very little of what I read did not really matter to me (Washington Irving's 'Life of Columbus' was as awful as the dictionary because of the long words). I was caught by the passion for print as an alcoholic is caught by the bottle.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book
Washington Irving : Orations
' ... [13-to-14-year-old Constance Maynard's] most intimate contact with reading .. took place ... in a secluded corner of the garden, where she haphazardly consumed Milton's sonnets, Cowper, Irving's Orations, and Tennyson ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Constance Maynard Print: Book
Washington Irving : Rip van Winkle
'Growing up in Clapton during the Depression, Michael Stapleton needed a signature from his father (an Irish navvy) for a public library card, "but I asked him on the wrong evening and he merely shouted at me... So I... started examining every book in the house, ransacking forgotten cupboards and the hole under the stairs. I read everything I could understand, and begged twopenny bloods quite shamelessly from the boys at school who were fortunate enough to enjoy such things. I absorbed an immense amount of useless information, but occasionally a treasure came my way and I would strain my eyes under the twenty-watt bulb which lighted our kitchen. A month-old copy of the 'Wizard' would be succeeded by a handbook for vegetarians, and this in turn would be followed by 'Jane Eyre'. 'Tarzan and the Jewels of Ophir' was no sooner finished than I was deep in volumes three and four of a history of 'The Conquest of Peru' (the rest of the set was missing). I would go from that to 'Rip van Winkle' and straight on to a tattered copy of the Hotspur".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Michael Stapleton Print: Book
Washington Irving : [unknown]
'Charlie Chaplin was a classic autodidact, always struggling to make up for a dismally inadequate education, groping haphazardly for what he called "intellectual manna"... Chaplin could be found in his dressing room studying a Latin-English dictionary, Robert Ingersoll's secularist propaganda, Emerson's "Self- Reliance" ("I felt I had been handed a golden birthright"), Irving, Hawthorne, Poe, Whitman, Twain, Hazlitt, all five volumes of Plutarch's Lives, Plato, Locke, Kant, Freud's "Psychoneurosis", Lafcadio Hearn's "Life and Literature", and Henri Bergson - his essay on laughter, of course... Chaplin also spent forty years reading (if not finishing) the three volumes of "The World as Will and Idea" by Schopenhauer, whose musings on suicide are echoed in Monsieur Verdoux'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Spencer Chaplin Print: Book
Washington Irving : The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon
'Along with her old school books [Maud Montgomery] read whatever she could find both for pleasure and to learn from their authors how to improve her own writing: religious tracts, newspapers, the Godey's Lady's Book, Charles Dickens's "Pickwick Papers", Sir Walter Scott's novels, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The House of the Seven Gables", Washington Irving's "The Sketchbook", and Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Maud Montgomery Print: Book
Washington Irving : Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent
'In the course of the ensuing spring (1821), I read Mr. Washington Irving's "Sketch-Book". I thought it very beautiful, and only wished that he had more fully carried his fine imaginative powers beyond "this visible diurnal sphere". By the way, I must observe a similar defect exists in Akenside's "Pleasures of the Imagination"; a poem which in every other respect gives me very great satisfaction. I also read some volumes of the "London Magazine", which I thought to be a very cleverly conducted publication.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book
Washington Irving : A Tour on the Prairies
Fanny Kemble, journal letter to Harriet St. Leger, 27 June 1835, listing 'the books just now lying on my table, all of which I have been reading lately': 'Alfieri's "Life", by himself, a curious and interesting work; Washington Irving's last book, "A Tour on the Prairies", rather an ordinary book, upon a not ordinary subject, but not without sufficiently interesting matter in it too; Dr. Combe's "Principles of Physiology"; and a volume of Marlowe's plays, containing "Dr. Faustus". I have just finished Hayward's Translation of Goethe's "Faust", and wanted to see the old English treatment of the subject. I have read Marlowe's play with more curiosity than pleasure. This is, after all, but a small sample of what I read, but if you remember the complexion of my studies when I was a girl at Heath Farm and read Jeremy Taylor and Byron together, I can only say that they are still apt to be of the same heterogenous quality. But my brain is kept in a certain state of activity by them, and that, I suppose, is one of the desirable results of reading.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Fanny Kemble Print: Book
Irving : Discourses
Mary Berry, Journal, 5 November 1823, from Guy's Cliff: 'In the evening, Greathead read a portion of Irving's "Dscourses:" very bombastic and high-flown; strong in words and weak in argument.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Greathead Print: Book
Edward Irving : Sermons, Lectures and Occasional Discourses
[Marginalia]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book
Edward Irving : For Missionaries after the Apostolical School
[Marginalia]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book
W. Scott Irving : [poem celebrating peace at end of Napoleonic wars]
'I noticed, with pleasure, the insertion of your "Critique": but was very much mortified, - at seeing the pitiful conclusion which the Editor had foisted in,- in addition to the error in the signature. 'Tis a matter of no consequence - only it [italics]ruffles[end italics] in the mean-time. Our Bard has at length compelled them to print his poetry - and prose too, for, was not that same [italics]Blattum-Bulgium[end italics] disquisition his? And had not he a letter last week "on Burns"? - What a flo[w] of language - what a strength of epithet he pos[s]esses!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical
W. Scott Irving : [essays on Burns and monuments]
'I noticed, with pleasure, the insertion of your "Critique": but was very much mortified, - at seeing the pitiful conclusion which the Editor had foisted in,- in addition to the error in the signature. 'Tis a matter of no consequence - only it [italics]ruffles[end italics] in the mean-time. Our Bard has at length compelled them to print his poetry - and prose too, for, was not that same [italics]Blattum-Bulgium[end italics] disquisition his? And had not he a letter last week "on Burns"? - What a flo[w] of language - what a strength of epithet he pos[s]esses!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical
Washington Irving : Astoria
'I have read "Astoria" with great pleasure; it is a book to put in your library, as an entertaining, well written - [italics]very[end italics] well written - account of savage life, on a most extensive scale'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book
Thomas Irving : Introductory Address
'I attended the first meeting of the Philathelic Society - There were many new members, but the society seemed to have undergone no improvement. Jamie Thompson still speaks with his former pertinacity. Andrew made a harangue as vapid as ever, Thomas Irving read an introductory address, and the rest were all in readiness to 'nod assent and smile'[.] I left them with little regret.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: BookManuscript: Sheet
Irving : preface
Angela Bayford to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett, 23 June 1827: 'I am glad Ba [Elizabeth Barrett] is so pleased with Irving's new book; I have not yet been able to read it thro'. as there are so many here who have a prior claim to the first perusal; but Mama has read aloud to me some of the most striking passages in the preface, which have quite delighted me'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
Washington Irving : Unknown
'...Washington Irving, too, has a few delightful fragments of equal fidelity, rendered elegant by the elegance of his own mind.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eleanor Anne Porden Print: Book
Washington Irving : Biography and Poetical Remains of the late Margaret Miller Davidson
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 18 October 1841: 'I had heard of Lucretia Davidson, in a passing way, & I never read her memoir. Therefore notwithstanding the obviousness of the influence of her memory, the book you sent me suggested something better & brighter than an "imitation." [...] there is, I think (in the midst of the muck which is mere [italics]warbling[end italics]) indication of something capable of growth & survival beyond the hour of excitement & desease [...] It is a natural question to ask -- "Was it genius -- or a show?" -- and in the multitude of rhymings I stopped to ask it [...] Was Lucretia older than her sister at the time of death? -- & was her poetry more promising? [...] It is an interesting memoir [...] I thought it very painful. I would willingly hope that she was something more than a precocious prodigy.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Washington Irving : Conquest of Granada, The
'Permit me to ask you to lend me for a few days Washington Irving's last exquisitely written and interesting work - the Conquest of Granada - I want to consult it, and have been disappointed in having it from Hookham - No book has delighted me so much for a very long time - Your kind offer with regard to books has made me take this liberty - I hope I do not do wrong' [Letter to John Murray]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
Edward Irving : For The Oracles Of God, Four Orations
'I spent the day in reading part of Irving's sermons, which I have not finished. On the whole he should not have published it - till after a considerable time. There is strong talent in it, true eloquence, and vigorous thought: but the foundation is rotten, and the building itself is a kind of monster in architecture - beautiful in parts - vast in dimensions - but on the whole decidedly a monster.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: BookManuscript: Letter
Washington Irving : [Works]
'Mr Murray made me a present of the 5 Octavo Vols of Mr Irvings Works, the Sketch-Book & some others: I do understand this but it is not of Importance that I should'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book
Irving : pamphlet on mythology and the human mind
George Grote to G. C. Lewis, 6 November 1862: 'I send you herewith a letter and pamphlet which was forwarded to me by an unknown correspondent. I read the pamphlet with much interest, and think you will be pleased with it also. Mr. Irving is right in saying that his narrative illustrates very forcibly the myth-creating propensities of the human mind'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote
Washington Irving : Rip Van Winkle
'At "Rip Van Winkle" in evening, and much enjoyed it'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book
Washington Irving : Sketch Book
Tuesday, 8 April 1828: 'Learning from Washington Irving's description of Stratford that the hall of Sir Thomas Lucy the Justice who renderd Warwickshire too hot for Shakspeare [sic] and drove him to London was still extant, We [sic] went in quest of it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter and Anne Scott Print: Book
Washington Irving : Sketch Book [?of Geoffrey Crayon]
John Wilson Croker to John Murray, 18 January 1825: 'I never could read the "Sketch Book," nor, what d'ye call it? "Knickerbocker." Mr. Irving has a charming English style, formed by a careful and affectionate study of Addison, perhaps a little too much sweetened; and so polished that, although the surface is proportionably bright, it is nothing but surface. I can no more go on all day with one of his books than I could go on sucking a sugar-plum. The "American Dutchmen" I do not understand at all; an historical account of such people might be entertaining, but, without any means of distinguishing how much is fiction and how much truth, these stories tire and puzzle me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Wilson Croker Print: Book
Washington Irving : Sketch Book [?of Geoffrey Crayon]
John Wilson Croker to John Murray, 18 January 1825: 'I never could read the "Sketch Book," nor, what d'ye call it? "Knickerbocker." Mr. Irving has a charming English style, formed by a careful and affectionate study of Addison, perhaps a little too much sweetened; and so polished that, although the surface is proportionably bright, it is nothing but surface. I can no more go on all day with one of his books than I could go on sucking a sugar-plum. The "American Dutchmen" I do not understand at all; an historical account of such people might be entertaining, but, without any means of distinguishing how much is fiction and how much truth, these stories tire and puzzle me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Wilson Croker Print: Book
Washington Irving : 'Knickerbocker'
John Wilson Croker to John Murray, 18 January 1825: 'I never could read the "Sketch Book," nor, what d'ye call it? "Knickerbocker." Mr. Irving has a charming English style, formed by a careful and affectionate study of Addison, perhaps a little too much sweetened; and so polished that, although the surface is proportionably bright, it is nothing but surface. I can no more go on all day with one of his books than I could go on sucking a sugar-plum. The "American Dutchmen" I do not understand at all; an historical account of such people might be entertaining, but, without any means of distinguishing how much is fiction and how much truth, these stories tire and puzzle me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Wilson Croker Print: Book
Washington Irving : The American Dutchmen
John Wilson Croker to John Murray, 18 January 1825: 'I never could read the "Sketch Book," nor, what d'ye call it? "Knickerbocker." Mr. Irving has a charming English style, formed by a careful and affectionate study of Addison, perhaps a little too much sweetened; and so polished that, although the surface is proportionably bright, it is nothing but surface. I can no more go on all day with one of his books than I could go on sucking a sugar-plum. The "American Dutchmen" I do not understand at all; an historical account of such people might be entertaining, but, without any means of distinguishing how much is fiction and how much truth, these stories tire and puzzle me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Wilson Croker Print: Book
Washington Irving : 'Stout Gentleman'
Scrope Davies to John Murray, 17 May 1837: 'Barring the "Bubbles" (which I read because you recommended it to Nimrod [i.e. C. Apperly]) and Washington Irving's works, I know little of modern publications, and that little causes no regret at not knowing more. I was seduced into reading Washington Irving by accidentally stumbling on his "Stout Gentleman."'
