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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
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Listings for Author:  

Charles Lever

 

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Charles James Lever : Charles O'Malley

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?late July 1843: 'As you praise Charles O'Malley so much, I really must try to get thro' the thorns & read him. I tried only once certainly -- & then my own humour might have been partly in fault. My conclusion then was, that I cdnt read him -- that he was a very clever fellow & the very fellow to be written & read between the smoke of a cigar & the steam of a glass of brandy [...] His noise made my head ache, & his loud laughing made me grave. In fact, the book appeared to me a view of Life by the light of strong, somewhat coarse & altogether unworn animal spirits .. & not that touching, solemn, holy thing which Life is, in the eyes of that God who died for its purification, & those human beings who have learnt nearly all they know in the depth of its agonies.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett      Print: Book

  

Charles James Lever : Harry Lorrequer

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 5 February 1844: 'I [italics]cannot read[end italics] Lever, ... honestly & without affectation, I [italics]cannot[end italics] [...] Over and over again have I tried to read his book -- and every time I came to the conclusion that he was a remarkably clever writer who was unreadable by me. [...] The chapters, I have read of him, make my head ache as if I had been sitting in the next room to an orgy [...] of gentlemen topers, -- with their low gentility, & "hip hip hurrahs," & wine out of wine-coolers [...] he is contracted & conventional, & unrefined in his line of conventionality -- and I cannot believe that he represents fairly even the social & jovial side of men of much refinement'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett      Print: Book

  

Charles Lever : Tony Butler

'I have beguiled myself into forgetfulness of my own story by reading "Tony Butler" - it is so clear! - and Lowell's "Fireside Travels".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell      Print: Book

 

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