Listings for Reader:
Ward
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: Advertiser
Witness statement in trial for theft: Josiah Howard: The 19th of May I and three journeyman-packers left work and came to the Bull-head in Jewin-street; I get much in liquor; ...[in Redcross-street] I tumbled down... I felt my watch, my hat and my handkerchief go from me... I advertised my watch the 27th of May and the 26th of June; I read in the Advertiser there were eight people taken up in Kingsland-road and divers things found upon them..."
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Josiah Howard Print: Newspaper
Daniel Defoe : Robinson Crusoe
'At age twelve, recalled ploughboy John Ward, "I devoured - not read, that's too tame an expression - Robinson Crusoe, and that book gave me all my spirit of adventure, which has made me strike new ideas before old ones became antiquated, and landed me in many troubles, travels, and difficulties".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ward Print: Book
Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England
'Working class readers continued to enjoy Macaulay's drama and accessibility long after professional historians had declared him obsolete. Kathleen Woodward read Gibbon's Decline and Fall and Macaulay's History of England twice through over factory work, with such absorption she once injured a finger, leaving "an honourable scar".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Kathleen Woodward Print: Book
Edward Gibbon : The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
'Working class readers continued to enjoy Macaulay's drama and accessibility long after professional historians had declared him obsolete. Kathleen Woodward read Gibbon's Decline and Fall and Macaulay's History of England twice through over factory work, with such absorption she once injured a finger, leaving "an honourable scar".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Kathleen Woodward Print: Book
unknown : [Greek text/s]
Mrs Humphrey Ward would remember that 'in 1886, when her 10-year-old son was grappling with the classics, she "began seriously to read Greek."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Humphrey Ward Print: Book
Mrs Humphrey Ward : Canadian Born
"When ... [Mrs Humphrey Ward] read aloud from Canadian Born (1910) to the assembled guests at Lord Stanley's part at Alderley Park, the verdict was that 'it was terribly boring' [as Venetia Stanley wrote to Violet Asquith, 12 October 1910]."
UnknownCentury: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Humphrey Ward
Mary Augusta Ward : Robert Elsmere
'The retired Governor of Madras Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, to whom Mrs [Humphry] Ward read extracts from "Robert Elsmere "before it was published, was arrested by the novel's passages of "extraordinary power"...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Humphry Ward
J. Henry Shorthouse : John Inglesant
'One of the privately printed copies [of "John Inglesant" was] ... read by Mrs Humphry Ward and her advocacy persuaded Macmillan's to give it general release.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward
Edward Gibbon : presumably Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
'Wil John Edwards...pursued Gibbon, Hardy, Swinburne and Meredith. His reading was suggested by the literary pages of the Clarion, the librarian at the Miners' Institute (who directed him to Don Quixote) and [guidance from fellow pit workers].'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wil John Edwards Print: Book
Thomas Hardy :
'Wil John Edwards...pursued Gibbon, Hardy, Swinburne and Meredith. His reading was suggested by the literary pages of the Clarion, the librarian at the Miners' Institute (who directed him to Don Quixote) and [guidance from fellow pit workers].'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wil John Edwards Print: Book
Algernon Charles Swinburne :
'Wil John Edwards...pursued Gibbon, Hardy, Swinburne and Meredith. His reading was suggested by the literary pages of the Clarion, the librarian at the Miners' Institute (who directed him to Don Quixote) and [guidance from fellow pit workers].'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wil John Edwards Print: Book
George Meredith :
'Wil John Edwards...pursued Gibbon, Hardy, Swinburne and Meredith. His reading was suggested by the literary pages of the Clarion, the librarian at the Miners' Institute (who directed him to Don Quixote) and [guidance from fellow pit workers].'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wil John Edwards Print: Book
Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote
'Wil John Edwards...pursued Gibbon, Hardy, Swinburne and Meredith. His reading was suggested by the literary pages of the Clarion, the librarian at the Miners' Institute (who directed him to Don Quixote) and [guidance from fellow pit workers].'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wil John Edwards Print: Book
: Clarion (literary pages)
'Wil John Edwards...pursued Gibbon, Hardy, Swinburne and Meredith. His reading was suggested by the literary pages of the Clarion, the librarian at the Miners' Institute (who directed him to Don Quixote) and [guidance from fellow pit workers].'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wil John Edwards Print: Serial / periodical
Karl Marx : Das Kapital
'In 1925 Ifan Edwards was driven by unemployment to read Das Kapital in the public library. "It took him about four hundred pages of close print to come to the crux of his argument in the classic illustration of a labourer looking for a job in a factory, and, as he said, expecting nothing but a hiding", Edwards remembered. "This little aside appealed to me very much, as I had had one or two hidings myself".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ifan Edwards Print: Book
William Cowper : The Task
H. J. Jackson notes political and critical remarks added by Anna Seward to copy of William Cowper, The Task.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Mary Wortley Montagu : Letters
'[Mary Wortley] Montagu's Letters and accounts of the sexual freedom of Tahitian women were popular: Elizabeth Montagu and Anna Seward for instance, read both.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Thomas Gisborne : [conduct books]
[Anna Seward on Thomas Gisborne's conduct books]: 'too strict'; they 'might have been more generally useful upon a less rigid plan of admonition, especially the volume dedicated to females.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Mary Wortley Montagu : [Letters]
'Seward had been reading a five-volume edition of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's letters, and she had confessed her irritation with Lady Mary's avowed contempt for Pope' [see letter to Mrs Childers, 1804]
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
William Shakespeare : [unknown]
'[Anna Seward's] training was not necessarily less rigorous for being informal and solitary. Seward scoffed at a male contemporary who claimed never to have read or studied poetry. "If Shakespeare's talents were miracles of uncultured intuition, we feel, that neither Milton's, Pope's, Akenside's, Gray's or Darwin's were such, but that poetic investigation, and long familiarity with the best writers in that line, cooperated to produce their excellence".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
John Milton : [unknown]
'[Anna Seward's] training was not necessarily less rigorous for being informal and solitary. Seward scoffed at a male contemporary who claimed never to have read or studied poetry. "If Shakespeare's talents were miracles of uncultured intuition, we feel, that neither Milton's, Pope's, Akenside's, Gray's or Darwin's were such, but that poetic investigation, and long familiarity with the best writers in that line, cooperated to produce their excellence".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Mark Akenside : [unknown]
'[Anna Seward's] training was not necessarily less rigorous for being informal and solitary. Seward scoffed at a male contemporary who claimed never to have read or studied poetry. "If Shakespeare's talents were miracles of uncultured intuition, we feel, that neither Milton's, Pope's, Akenside's, Gray's or Darwin's were such, but that poetic investigation, and long familiarity with the best writers in that line, cooperated to produce their excellence".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Erasmus Darwin : [unknown]
'[Anna Seward's] training was not necessarily less rigorous for being informal and solitary. Seward scoffed at a male contemporary who claimed never to have read or studied poetry. "If Shakespeare's talents were miracles of uncultured intuition, we feel, that neither Milton's, Pope's, Akenside's, Gray's or Darwin's were such, but that poetic investigation, and long familiarity with the best writers in that line, cooperated to produce their excellence".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Thomas Gray : [unknown]
'[Anna Seward's] training was not necessarily less rigorous for being informal and solitary. Seward scoffed at a male contemporary who claimed never to have read or studied poetry. "If Shakespeare's talents were miracles of uncultured intuition, we feel, that neither Milton's, Pope's, Akenside's, Gray's or Darwin's were such, but that poetic investigation, and long familiarity with the best writers in that line, cooperated to produce their excellence".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Alexander Pope : Satires
[Anna Seward protested against criticism of Pope]'To... poet John Morfitt, she retorts: "It is not true of Pope that he polished everything high. His 'Satires', his 'Ethic Epistles', the glorious 'Dunciad', and even several parts of the 'Essay on Man', frequently present passages in a plain, unornamented style".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Alexander Pope : [Ethic Epistles]
[Anna Seward protested against criticism of Pope]'To... poet John Morfitt, she retorts: "It is not true of Pope that he polished everything high. His 'Satires', his 'Ethic Epistles', the glorious 'Dunciad', and even several parts of the 'Essay on Man', frequently present passages in a plain, unornamented style".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Alexander Pope : Dunciad
[Anna Seward protested against criticism of Pope]'To... poet John Morfitt, she retorts: "It is not true of Pope that he polished everything high. His 'Satires', his 'Ethic Epistles', the glorious 'Dunciad', and even several parts of the 'Essay on Man', frequently present passages in a plain, unornamented style".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Alexander Pope : Essay on Man
[Anna Seward protested against criticism of Pope]'To... poet John Morfitt, she retorts: "It is not true of Pope that he polished everything high. His 'Satires', his 'Ethic Epistles', the glorious 'Dunciad', and even several parts of the 'Essay on Man', frequently present passages in a plain, unornamented style".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Alexander Pope : Rape of the Lock, The
'When Erasmus Darwin espouses the late-century opinion that "poetry admits of few abstract terms", Seward replies, "poetry that is merely imaginative and picturesque may not. If we find few abstract terms in the 'Rape of the Lock', we find a profusion of them in the sublimer 'Essay on Man'".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book
Schlegel : work on drama
The Hon.J. W. Ward to Mary Berry, 11 May 1814: 'I have bought Mr Schlegel's book about the drama, which they have translated and printed here [Paris], but I have not had time to read much of it [goes on to remark upon difficulty of comprehending current German thought].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: The Hon. J. W. Ward Print: Book
[n/a] : The Derbyshire Patriot
'We had each seen the "Derbyshire Patriot" (I for the first time) of that day- Westminster election on Wednesday the people would not hear Hobhouse speak but pelted him with vegetables...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Ward Print: Newspaper
unknown : Novels
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her mother, Jane Sewell (nee Edwards; married 1802): 'She must have been naturally very clever; for, although she had received little or no education, her knowledge of books, and her memory for poetry and apt quotations, were quite remarkable. She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels, and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her mother, Jane Sewell (nee Edwards; married 1802): 'She must have been naturally very clever; for, although she had received little or no education, her knowledge of books, and her memory for poetry and apt quotations, were quite remarkable. She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels, and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
unknown : [Texts on history]
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her mother, Jane Sewell (nee Edwards; married 1802): 'She must have been naturally very clever; for, although she had received little or no education, her knowledge of books, and her memory for poetry and apt quotations, were quite remarkable. She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels, and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Unknown
Bayley : Dictionary
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her mother, Jane Sewell (nee Edwards; married 1802): 'She must have been naturally very clever; for, although she had received little or no education, her knowledge of books, and her memory for poetry and apt quotations, were quite remarkable. She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels, and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
[unknown] : [Report of the reforming commission of 1618]
'Up, and to my office with Tom, whom I made read to me the books of Propositions in the time of the Grand Commission, which I did read a good part of before church'
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Tom Edwards
[unknown] : [Report of the reforming commission of 1618]
'and I to my office and there made an end of the books of Proposicions; which did please me mightily to hear read, they being excellently writ and much to the purpose, and yet so as I think I shall make good use of in defence of our present constitution.'
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Tom Edwards [?]
Samuel Pepys : [work on naval history]
'Thence home; and after dinner, by water with Tom down to Greenwich, he reading to me all the way, coming and going, my collections out of the Duke of York's old manuscript of the Navy, which I have bound up and doth please me mightily.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Tom Edwards Manuscript: Unknown
Samuel Pepys : [work on naval history]
'and home, where I made my boy to finish the reading of my manuscript; and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Tom Edwards Manuscript: Unknown
Gregorio Leti : Il nipotismo di Roma: or The history of the Popes nephews from the time of Sixtus the IV to the death of the last Pope Alexander the VII. In two parts. Written originally in Italian, in the year 1667 and Englished by W.A.
'So home and to supper; and my wife to read, and Tom, my "Nipotisme", and then to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Tom Edwards Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
'She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passsages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
[unknown] : [history]
'She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passsages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
[unknown] : [great poets' works]
'She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passsages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
Bayley : [Dictionary]
'She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passsages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
Horace : [ode] 'Parcus deorum cultur et infrequens
'Horace having been mentioned; BOSWELL. "There is a great deal of thinking in his works. One finds there almost every thing but religion". SEWARD. "He speaks of his returning to it, in his Ode 'Parcus Deorum cultor et infrequens'" JOHNSON. "Sir, he was not in earnest: this was merely poetical".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Seward Print: Book
: New Testament
'[from a letter from Mary Ward to her father] the more I read and think over the New Testament the more impossible it seems to me to accept what is ordinarily called the scheme of Christianity'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
: [French and Spanish books]
'She complains in her letters that she cannot get through them [French and Spanish books to review in 'The Times', the 'Pall Mall Gazaette' etc] quickly enough. "Three or four volumes of these books a week is about all I can do, and that seems to go no way".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
Henri Frederic Amiel : Journal Intime
'it was during this year [1884] that she began her translation of Amiel's "Journal".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
William Shakespeare : Othello
'[from a letter from Mary Ward to her father] I have been reading Joubert's "Pensees" and "Correspondance" lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed with the letters and some of the [italics] pensees [end italics] are extraordinarily acute. Now I am deep in Senancour, and for miscellaneous reading I have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a great dramatist! [she discusses this at length, concluding] I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic bungling.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
William Shakespeare : Hamlet
'[from a letter from Mary Ward to her father] I have been reading Joubert's "Pensees" and "Correspondance" lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed with the letters and some of the [italics] pensees [end italics] are extraordinarily acute. Now I am deep in Senancour, and for miscellaneous reading I have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a great dramatist! [she discusses this at length, concluding] I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic bungling'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
Joseph Joubert : Pensees
'[from a letter from Mary Ward to her father] I have been reading Joubert's "Pensees" and "Correspondance" lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed with the letters and some of the [italics] pensees [end italics] are extraordinarily acute. Now I am deep in Senancour, and for miscellaneous reading I have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a great dramatist! [she discusses this at length, concluding] I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic bungling'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
Joseph Joubert : Correspondance
'[from a letter from Mary Ward to her father] I have been reading Joubert's "Pensees" and "Correspondance" lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed with the letters and some of the [italics] pensees [end italics] are extraordinarily acute. Now I am deep in Senancour, and for miscellaneous reading I have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a great dramatist! [she discusses this at length, concluding] I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic bungling'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
Horace : Epistles
'[from a letter from Mary Ward to her father] I have been reading Joubert's "Pensees" and "Correspondance" lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed with the letters and some of the [italics] pensees [end italics] are extraordinarily acute. Now I am deep in Senancour, and for miscellaneous reading I have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a great dramatist! [she discusses this at length, concluding] I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic bungling'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
Étienne Pivert de Senancour :
'[from a letter from Mary Ward to her father] I have been reading Joubert's "Pensees" and "Correspondance" lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed with the letters and some of the [italics] pensees [end italics] are extraordinarily acute. Now I am deep in Senancour, and for miscellaneous reading I have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a great dramatist! [she discusses this at length, concluding] I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic bungling'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
Thucydides :
'It was in 1886 [...] that Mrs Ward began seriously to read Greek, usually with her ten-year-old son; she bought a Thucydides in Godalming one day and was delighted to find it easier than she expected'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book
Mark Pattison : Memoirs
'[Mrs Ward's report of a conversation with Gladstone] 'I spoke of Pattison's autobiography as illustrating Newman's hold. He agreed, but said that Pattison's religious phase was so disagreeable and unattractive that it did small credit to Newman. He would much like to have seen more of the autobiography, but he understood that the personalities were too strong. I asked him if he had seen Pattison's last 'Confession of Faith', which Mrs Pattison decided not to print, in MS. He said no.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Mark Pattison : 'Confession of Faith'
'[Mrs Ward's report of a conversation with Gladstone] 'I spoke of Pattison's autobiography as illustrating Newman's hold. He agreed, but said that Pattison's religious phase was so disagreeable and unattractive that it did small credit to Newman. He would much like to have seen more of the autobiography, but he understood that the personalities were too strong. I asked him if he had seen Pattison's last 'Confession of Faith', which Mrs Pattison decided not to print, in MS. He said no.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Manuscript: Unknown
William Gladstone : Gleanings Of Past Years
'[letter from Mrs Ward to Gladstone] Thank you very much for the volume of "Gleanings" with its gracious inscription. I have read the article you point out to me with the greatest interest, and shall do the same with the others. Does not the difference between us on the question of sin come very much to this - that to you the great fact of the world and in this history of man, is [italics] sin [end italics] - to me, [italics] progress [end italics]? I remember Amiel somewhere speaks of the distinction as marking off two classes of thought, two orders of temperament.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Henri Frederic Amiel : Journal Intime
'[letter from Mrs Ward to Gladstone] Thank you very much for the volume of "Gleanings" with its gracious inscription. I have read the article you point out to me with the greatest interest, and shall do the same with the others. Does not the difference between us on the question of sin come very much to this - that to you the great fact of the world and in this history of man, is [italics] sin [end italics] - to me, [italics] progress [end italics]? I remember Amiel somewhere speaks of the distinction as marking off two classes of thought, two orders of temperament.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
T.H. Green : Witness of God and Faith, The: Two Lay Sermons
'[letter from Mrs Ward to Gladstone, regarding his projected article about "Robert Elsmere"] If you do speak of him [T.H. Green], will you look at his two Lay Sermons, of which I enclose my copy? - particularly the second one, which was written eight years after the first, and to my mind expresses his thought more clearly'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: Gospels
'There, too, in the book-lined room which she had made her study, she would on Sunday evenings carry out in practice those ideas on the teaching of the Bible which she had striven to inculcate at University Hall. The audience sat on low stools or lay on the floor, while she read to them usually a part of the Gospels, making the scene live again, as only she could make it, not only by her intimate knowledge of the times, but by her gift of presentation. Systematically, making us use our minds to follow her, she would work through a section of St Mark or St Matthew, comparing each with the other, showing the touches of the "later hand", taking us deep into the fascinating intricacies of the Synoptic Problem. [the account continues at length, discussing Mrs Ward's attitudes to various parts of the Bible, later saying] it was impossible to listen to her reading the Walk to Emmaus, or the finding of the empty tomb, without coming under the spell of an emotion as deep as it was austere. For the fact that we in these latter days had outgrown our childhood and must distinguish truth from phantasy was no reason in her mind, why we should renounce the poetic value of scenes and pictures woven into the very fabric of our being'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: [books on 18th century Lancashire life]
'[letter from Mrs Ward to her father] Read the books about Lancashire life a hundred years ago, and see if they have not improved - if they are not less brutal, less earthy, nearer altogether to the intelligent type of life.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: [Paul's 1st Epistle to the Corinthians]
'[letter to from Mrs Ward to Mrs Leonard Huxley, her sister] After seeing those temples with their sacrificial altars and [italics] cellae [end italics], their priests' sleeping rooms and dining rooms [in Pompeii], I read this morning St Paul's directions to the Corinthians about meat offered to idols - in fact, the whole first letter - with quite different eyes'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: [blue books of statistics]
'[Mrs Ward] regularly put herself to school to learn every detail of the system of sweated home work prevalent in the East End of London at that time; wading through piles of Blue-books.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: [papers on Factory Law]
'[Mrs Ward writes to Mr Buxton about Sidney Webb's idea for a Factory Act for east London, and comments] I find the same thing foreshadowed in various other things on Factory Law I have been reading.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Unknown
Rudyard Kipling :
'[At Mrs Ward's Passmore Edwards Settlement] One class, too, she kept as her very own - a weekly reading aloud for boys between eleven and fourteen, in the course of which she read them a great deal of Stevenson and Kipling'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Robert Louis Stevenson :
'[At Mrs Ward's Passmore Edwards Settlement] One class, too, she kept as her very own - a weekly reading aloud for boys between eleven and fourteen, in the course of which she read them a great deal of Stevenson and Kipling'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: [Catholic literature]
'All through the winter of 1896-7 Mrs Ward was steeping herself in Catholic literature' [as research for her book "Helbeck of Bannisdale"].
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: [Catholic literature]
'Many Catholic books, in which she browsed "with what thoughts", as Carlyle would say, followed her to Levens [a house she rented in Kent], giving her that grip of detail in matters of belief or ritual without which she could not have approached her subject [the novel "Helbeck of Bannisdale"], but which she had now learnt to absorb and re-fashion far more skilfully than in the days of "Robert Elsmere".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: [Catholic literature]
'[letter from Mrs Ward to her father] One of the main impressions of this Catholic literature upon me is to make me perceive the enormous intellectual pre-eminence of Newman. Another impression - I know you will forgive me for saying quite frankly what I feel - has been to fill me with a perfect horror of asceticism, or rather of the austerities - or most of them - which are indispensable to the Catholic ideal of a saint. [she discusses this at length, concluding] Don't imagine, dearest, that I find myself in antagonism to all this literature. The truth in many respects is quite the other way. The deep personal piety of good Catholics, and the extent to which their religion enters into their lives, are extraordinarily attractive.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: Civilta Cattolica
'[letter written by Mrs Ward from Italy] We read the "Tribuna" and the "Civilta Cattolica", which on opposite sides [of a controversy between Liberals and Clericals] breathe fire and flame'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Serial / periodical
: Tribuna
'[letter written by Mrs Ward from Italy] We read the "Tribuna" and the "Civilta Cattolica, which on opposite sides [of a controversy between Liberals and Clericals] breathe fire and flame'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Serial / periodical
François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand :
'She had been reading much of Chateaubriand and Mme de Beaumont during the winter, and had felt her imagination kindled by the relationship between the two'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont :
'She had been reading much of Chateaubriand and Mme de Beaumont during the winter, and had felt her imagination kindled by the relationship between the two'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Alfred von Harnack :
'[letter from Mrs Ward to her husband describing an inept Cardinal's lack of knowledge about the crypt of St Peters, Rome] I said not a word - and came home and read Harnack!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Adolf Julicher : An Introduction to the New Testament
'There was one German scholar with whom she had at any rate a lengthy correspondence - Dr Adolf Julicher, of Marburg, whose monumental work on the New Testament she presented one day in a moment of enthusiasm, to her younger daughter [the author] (aged seventeen), suggesting that she should translate it into English. The daughter dutifully obeyed, devoting the best part of three years to the task - only to find, when the work was all but finished, that the German professor had in the meantime brought out a new edition of his book, running to some 100 pages of additional matter. Dismay reigned at Stocks, but there was no help for it: the additional 100 pages had to be tackled. In the end Mrs Ward herself seized on the proofs and went all through them, pen in hand; little indeed was left of the daughter's unlucky sentences by the time the process was complete.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Janet Penrose Ward Print: Book
Adolf Julicher : An Introduction to the New Testament
'There was one German scholar with whom she had at any rate a lengthy correspondence - Dr Adolf Julicher, of Marburg, whose monumental work on the New Testament she presented one day in a moment of enthusiasm, to her younger daughter [the author] (aged seventeen), suggesting that she should translate it into English. The daughter dutifully obeyed, devoting the best part of three years to the task - only to find, when the work was all but finished, that the German professor had in the meantime brought out a new edition of his book, running to some 100 pages of additional matter. Dismay reigned at Stocks, but there was no help for it: the additional 100 pages had to be tackled. In the end Mrs Ward herself seized on the proofs and went all through them, pen in hand; little indeed was left of the daughter's unlucky sentences by the time the process was complete.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Adolf Julicher : An Introduction to the New Testament
'There was one German scholar with whom she had at any rate a lengthy correspondence - Dr Adolf Julicher, of Marburg, whose monumental work on the New Testament she presented one day in a moment of enthusiasm, to her younger daughter [the author] (aged seventeen), suggesting that she should translate it into English. The daughter dutifully obeyed, devoting the best part of three years to the task - only to find, when the work was all but finished, that the German professor had in the meantime brought out a new edition of his book, running to some 100 pages of additional matter. Dismay reigned at Stocks, but there was no help for it: the additional 100 pages had to be tackled. In the end Mrs Ward herself seized on the proofs and went all through them, pen in hand; little indeed was left of the daughter's unlucky sentences by the time the process was complete.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Unknown, page proofs
Thomas Arnold : [private papers]
'[letter from Mrs Ward to Bishop Creighton, after her father's death] My father's was a rare and [italics] hidden [end italics] nature. Among his papers that have now come to me I have come across the most touching and remarkable things - things that are a revelation even to his children'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Manuscript: Unknown
George Meredith :
'How they [Mrs Ward and her brother William Arnold] would talk, sometimes, about the details of her craft, about Jane Austen, or Trollope or George Meredith! For this latter they both had a feeling akin to adoration, based on a knowledge not only of his novels but of his poems (then not a common accomplishment); and I remember W.T.A. once saying to me that he thought the jolliest line in English poetry was Gentle beasties through pushed a cold long nose'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
George Meredith : Richard Feverel
'[Letter from Mrs Ward to the Society of Authors when that body recommended Herbert Spencer not George Meredith for the Nobel Prize] If Mr Meredith had written nothing but the love scenes in "Richard Feverel"; "The Egoist"; and certain passages of description in "Vittoria" and "Beauchamp's Career", he would still stand at the head of English "dichtung" [the quality Mrs Ward thought the prize should reward] There is no critic now who can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of letters he is easily first; to compare Mr Spencer's power of clear statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be absurd - in the literary field'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
George Meredith : Egoist, The
'[Letter from Mrs Ward to the Society of Authors when that body recommended Herbert Spencer not George Meredith for the Nobel Prize] If Mr Meredith had written nothing but the love scenes in "Richard Feverel"; "The Egoist"; and certain passages of description in "Vittoria" and "Beauchamp's Career", he would still stand at the head of English "dichtung" [the quality Mrs Ward thought the prize should reward] There is no critic now who can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of letters he is easily first; to compare Mr Spencer's power of clear statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be absurd - in the literary field'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
George Meredith : Vittoria
'[Letter from Mrs Ward to the Society of Authors when that body recommended Herbert Spencer not George Meredith for the Nobel Prize] If Mr Meredith had written nothing but the love scenes in "Richard Feverel"; "The Egoist"; and certain passages of description in "Vittoria" and "Beauchamp's Career", he would still stand at the head of English "dichtung" [the quality Mrs Ward thought the prize should reward] There is no critic now who can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of letters he is easily first; to compare Mr Spencer's power of clear statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be absurd - in the literary field'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
George Meredith : Beauchamp's Career
'[Letter from Mrs Ward to the Society of Authors when that body recommended Herbert Spencer not George Meredith for the Nobel Prize] If Mr Meredith had written nothing but the love scenes in "Richard Feverel"; "The Egoist"; and certain passages of description in "Vittoria" and "Beauchamp's Career", he would still stand at the head of English "dichtung" [the quality Mrs Ward thought the prize should reward] There is no critic now who can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of letters he is easily first; to compare Mr Spencer's power of clear statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be absurd - in the literary field'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Herbert Spencer :
'[Letter from Mrs Ward to the Society of Authors when that body recommended Herbert Spencer not George Meredith for the Nobel Prize] If Mr Meredith had written nothing but the love scenes in "Richard Feverel"; "The Egoist"; and certain passages of description in "Vittoria" and "Beauchamp's Career", he would still stand at the head of English "dichtung" [the quality Mrs Ward thought the prize should reward] There is no critic now who can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of letters he is easily first; to compare Mr Spencer's power of clear statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be absurd - in the literary field'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: [newspaper interviews with herself]
'[in America] on the very few occasions when Mrs Ward did consent to be interviewed, she insisted on seeing the proof and entirely re-writing what had been put into her mouth'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Unknown, newspaper proofs
Julia Ward Howe : Reminiscences
'[in Boston Mrs Ward] met the fine old veteran, Mrs Julia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", who had lately brought out her memoirs. Mrs Ward had been somewhat wickedly amused by certain passages in the latter: "Imagine Mrs Ward Howe declaring in public that a poem of hers, which a critic had declared to be in 'pitiable hexameters' (English of course) was not 'in hexameters at all - it was in pentameters of my own make - I never followed any special school or rule!' - I have been gurgling over that in bed this morning".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
George Bancroft : History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.
'[letter from Mrs Ward] I have been reading Bancroft this morning, and shall read G.O.T. tonight. We [italics] were [end italics] fools! - but really, I rather agree with H.G. Wells that they make too much fuss about it! [separation from Britain]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Emile Faguet : Dix-Huitieme Siecle: Études Littéraires
'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta ward Print: Book
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve :
'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta ward Print: Book
Walter Raleigh : Wordsworth
'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta ward Print: Book
Homer :
'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta ward Print: Book
Horace :
'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta ward Print: Book
Euripides :
'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Aeschylus : Agamemnon
'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Wlliam James :
'She was deep in the writings of Father Tyrrel, of Bergson and of William James during these years'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
George Tyrrell :
'She was deep in the writings of Father Tyrrel, of Bergson and of William James during these years'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
Henri Bergson :
'She was deep in the writings of Father Tyrrel, of Bergson and of William James during these years'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
William James :
'[Letter from Mrs Ward to her daughter Janet Trevelyan] It is good to be alive on spring days like this! I have been reading William James on this very point - the worth of being alive - and before that the Emmaus story and the appearance to the Maries'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
: bible
'[Letter from Mrs Ward to her daughter Janet Trevelyan] It is good to be alive on spring days like this! I have been reading William James on this very point - the worth of being alive - and before that the Emmaus story and the appearance to the Maries'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
:
'Mrs Ward never allowed the springs of thought to grow dry for lack of reading. The one advantage that she gained from her short nights - for her hours of sleep were rarely more and often less than six - was that the long hours of wakefulness in the early morning gave her time for the reading of many books and of poetry'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
:
Lady Harriet Cavendish to her grandmother, the Countess Dowager Spencer, 8 August 1807: 'George's reading goes on prosperously and Georgiana is the quickest little creature that ever was met with, but Caroline remains on my knee sometimes (to the credit of the patience of both aunt and niece) with b a, b e, before us, till I hardly know them better than she does, and my sister, who is a great instructress, must have great talents for teaching if she makes anything of her.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Howard Print: Book
Henri Bergson :
'The subject of this evening's discussion was The Philosophy of Henri Bergson. Interesting papers were given by C.E. Stansfield who introduced the discussion; by Howard R. Smith & Mary Hayward who dwelt particularly on Bergson's views upon Instinct, Intuition & Intelligence.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Print: Book
Mary Hayward : [paper on Henri Bergson]
'The subject of this evening's discussion was The Philosophy of Henri Bergson. Interesting papers were given by C.E. Stansfield who introduced the discussion; by Howard R. Smith & Mary Hayward who dwelt particularly on Bergson's views upon Instinct, Intuition & Intelligence.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Manuscript: Unknown
Mary Hayward : [paper on life of Lewis Carroll]
'The evening was then given over to the life & works of Lewis Carroll. Mary Hayward Life of Lewis Carroll. Songs. Well you walk etc Mrs Robson. Walrus & C. E.E.U. Speak gently. Mary Hayward. Readings by S.A. Reynolds, C.E. Stansfield, The Rawlings & Unwin families.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Manuscript: Unknown
Mark Twain :
'Mark Twain A very humorous essay written by C.E. Stansfield & read by R.H. Robson gave us a delightful introduction to this great American 'wit' [?] Readings from his works were given by Mrs W.H. Smith. Mrs Evans. Miss Mary Hayward. Mr Robson. Mr Unwin'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Print: Book
George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair
John Murray to Lord Byron, 3 February 1814, on first reception of The Corsair: 'Never, in my recollection, has any work, since the "Letter of Burke to the Duke of Bedford," excited such a ferment [...] I sold, on the day of publication, -- a thing perfectly unprecedented -- 10,000 copies; and I suppose thirty people, who were purchasers (strangers), called to tell the people in the shop how much they had been delighted and satisfied. Mr. Moore says it is masterly, -- a wonderful performance. Mr. Hammond, Mr. Heber, D'Israeli, every one who comes [...] declare their unlimited approbation. Mr. Ward was here with Mr. Gifford yesterday, and mingled his admiration with the rest [...] Gifford did what I never knew him do before -- he repeated several passages from memory [...] I was with Mr. Shee this morning, to whom I had presented the poem; and he declared himself to have been delighted [...] I have the highest encomiums in letters from Croker and Mr. Hay'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book
Herbert George Wells : [novels]
'The meeting then considered the work of H.G. Wells. The chief item of interest was undoubtedly a paper by Henry M. Wallis upon Wells's romances but a better title would be 'A Critique of the Wells Method in Story-writing'. This was certainly one of the ablest papers which H.M.W. has contributed to the Book Club in recent years and gave rise to interesting discussion. R.H. Robson read one of the short stories to illustrate this side of Wells's literary works. Mrs Smith read a paper upon Mankind in the Making and Mary Hayward dealt with the novels, showing by extracts his views upon the English middle class, marriage, social life & religion.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Print: Book
Herbert George Wells : [extracts from novels]
'The meeting then considered the work of H.G. Wells. The chief item of interest was undoubtedly a paper by Henry M. Wallis upon Wells's romances but a better title would be 'A Critique of the Wells Method in Story-writing'. This was certainly one of the ablest papers which H.M.W. has contributed to the Book Club in recent years and gave rise to interesting discussion. R.H. Robson read one of the short stories to illustrate this side of Wells's literary works. Mrs Smith read a paper upon Mankind in the Making and Mary Hayward dealt with the novels, showing by extracts his views upon the English middle class, marriage, social life & religion.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Print: Book
George Gordon Lord Byron : The Siege of Corinth
John Murray to Byron (c. January 1816): 'I enclose Ward's note after reading the "Siege of Corinth." I lent him "Parisina" also, and he called yesterday to express his mind at your hesitation about their merits [...] I lent Parisina to Mr. Hay (Mr. Wilmots friend) last night, and I enclose his note. I send the proof [...] I will send a revise of "Corinth" to-night or to-morrow.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown
George Gordon Lord Byron : Parisina
John Murray to Byron (c. January 1816): 'I enclose Ward's note after reading the "Siege of Corinth." I lent him "Parisina" also, and he called yesterday to express his mind at your hesitation about their merits [...] I lent Parisina to Mr. Hay (Mr. Wilmots friend) last night, and I enclose his note. I send the proof [...] I will send a revise of "Corinth" to-night or to-morrow.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown
George Gordon Lord Byron : poems [apparently including Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III]
John Murray to Byron, 22 January 1817: 'I had a letter from Mr. Ward, to whom, at Paris, I sent the poems, and he is delighted; and Mr. Canning, most particularly so with the third canto [...] Walter Scott always mentions you with kindness in his letters, and he thinks nothing better than Canto III.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group:
Herbert George Wells :
'The meeting then continued the discussion of H.G. Wells & his religious development. C.E. Stansfield had prepared an able paper dealing with this subject. He traced the growth of Wells' mind & thought as revealed in the series of published writings and showed by extracts from '1st & last things', 'God the invisible King' & 'The Soul of a Bishop' the striking development of his religious nature. Miss Hayward & Mrs Smith read extracts in support of this view.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Hayward Print: Book
Mary Hayward : [paper on the sub-conscious]
'The evening was then devoted to the subject of Psychical Phenomena. The Secretary (Ernest E. Unwin] read a brief introductory paper, giving some indication of the way in which the subject had come under his notice, and one or two general fundamental points which he was prepared to accept. This was followed by a paper dealing with the sub-conscious mind by Mary Hayward. The very great importance of the subconscious - the way in which we can use it to free our minds of worry - the relationship between mind & mind or telepathy were clearly brought out. Then Mrs Smith read a paper which gave a deeper note to the subject. She dealt with communications from the spirit world with living people - giving personal experiences & experiences of her friends'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Manuscript: Unknown
[a member of the XII Book Club] : [paper entitled 'An English Lumber Camp']
'The main business of the evening was then proceeded with - 5 mins essays upon some book read recently. Mrs Evans read 'An English Lumber Camp' - from internal evidence it is probably true that this was an essay drawn from real life rather than from any book read. It was a magnificent literary effort in the author's best style. Perhaps more of 'H.M.W.' than 'Ashton Hillier'. Mrs Smith read a paper upon 'The Garden of Survival' a book by Alg. Blackwood. The paper gave rise to much interest. The extraordinary beauty of the extracts read from the book and the insight into the spiritual meaning of 'Guidance' displayed by the author impressed us all. Ernest E. Unwin read a paper on 'The End of a Chapter' by Shane Leslie - this paper was written by H.M. Wallis & introduced most of us to a new writer of power. The change in the world, in the balance of the classes & their future importance formed the theme of the book. Mary Hayward described her discovery of 'The Story of my Heart' by Richard Jefferies & read some extracts from it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Edwards Manuscript: Unknown
Richard Jefferies : Story of my Heart, The
'The main business of the evening was then proceeded with - 5 mins essays upon some book read recently. Mrs Evans read 'An English Lumber Camp' - from internal evidence it is probably true that this was an essay drawn from real life rather than from any book read. It was a magnificent literary effort in the author's best style. Perhaps more of 'H.M.W.' than 'Ashton Hillier'. Mrs Smith read a paper upon 'The Garden of Survival' a book by Alg. Blackwood. The paper gave rise to much interest. The extraordinary beauty of the extracts read from the book and the insight into the spiritual meaning of 'Guidance' displayed by the author impressed us all. Ernest E. Unwin read a paper on 'The End of a Chapter' by Shane Leslie - this paper was written by H.M. Wallis & introduced most of us to a new writer of power. The change in the world, in the balance of the classes & their future importance formed the theme of the book. Mary Hayward described her discovery of 'The Story of my Heart' by Richard Jefferies & read some extracts from it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Print: Book
Mary Hayward : [paper on ballads]
'The subject of the evening, 'Ballads', now occupied attention. From an introductory paper prepared by Mary Hayward & from readings by Rosamund Wallis we learnt what a ballad is or was & is not. [this is summarised at length] The programme was divided into six parts dealing with the six main varieties of ballads. Some of these ballads were read & others were sung. Part 1. dealing with Magic Song The Two Musicians Mr & Mrs Unwin Reading The Demon Lover Mr Rawlings [ditto] Thomas the Rhymer Miss R Wallis Part 2. Stories of Romance Song Lord Rendel The Book Club Reading Edward Edward (Binnorie) R.B Graham Instead of Binnorie we were favoured by a rendering of a Berkshire version of this story by Mr Graham. In fact he broke forth into song & was assisted in the chorus refrain by the whole Club who sang with differing emphasis "And I'll be true to my love - if my love'll be true to me". part 3. Romance Shading into History reading Sir Patrick Spens Mr R.H. Robson [ditto] Bonnie house of Airly [sic] Mr H.R. Smith Part 4. Greenwood & Robin Hood Reading Nut Brown Maid Mr & Mrs Evans [ditto] Death of Robin Hood Mr Rawlings H.M. Wallis read at this stage an interesting paper upon the subject [contents summarised] Part 5. Later History Reading Battle of Otterburn Miss Marriage [ditto] Helen of Kirconnel H.M. Wallis Part 6. Showing gradual decline Song Bailiff's Daughter of Islington Mrs Robson Reading Undaunted Mary Mrs Rawlings Song Mowing the Barley All Song The Wealthy Farmer's Son Mr & Mrs Unwin'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Manuscript: Unknown
Leslie Stephen : [account of climbing the Zinal Rothorn]
'C.I. Evans read Geoffrey Young's [?] poem 'Mountain Playmates' & Mary Hayward read Leslie Stephen's account of the first ascent of the Rothorn. R.B. Graham circulated snapshots illustrating this reading & his own climb of the same mountain. After supper R.B. Graham gave a general chat on Mountaineering with views. A passage by Whymper on accidents was summarised by A. Rawlings who then read Whymper's account of an extraordinary accident he himself sustained. To conclude the Secretary read a parody of Wadsworth [Wordsworth?] 'We are Seven' composed by H.m. Wallis on climbing at Arolla'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Clarissa
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 26 January 1749:] 'I find, dear Sir, that if I put off my acknowledgements to the author of the divine Clarissa till I can meet with words that will fully express what I think and feel on that subject, I must for ever seem either insensible or ungrateful [...] Whether it be a milkiness of blood in me, as Shakespeare calls it, I know not, but I have never felt so much distress in my life as I have done for that dear girl [comments further]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Edmund Spenser : ?The Works of Mr Edmund Spenser
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 30 March 1751:] 'I never was master of any edition of Spenser but Rowe's, which, upon my first reading it, appeared to be published in a very hasty and careless manner: a very great number of faults I could discover and correct, without comparing with any other edition. Some time since I borrowed the folio of 1609; but it was not till lately that I could get a sight of the first quarto of 1590, which was published in Spenser's lifetime: and I proposed this summer, if I should have life and health, to collate the three together, -- as indeed I have begun to do [discusses this editorial project and related issues further]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Edmund Spenser : The Faerie Queene
Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 30 March 1751: 'I never was master of any edition of Spenser but Rowe's, which, upon my first reading it, appeared to be published in a very hasty and careless manner: a very great number of faults I could discover and correct, without comparing with any other edition. Some time since I borrowed the folio of 1609; but it was not till lately that I could get a sight of the first quarto of 1590, which was published in Spenser's lifetime: and I proposed this summer, if I should have life and health, to collate the three together, -- as indeed I have begun to do [discusses this editorial project and related issues further]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Edmund Spenser : The Faerie Queene
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 30 March 1751:] 'I never was master of any edition of Spenser but Rowe's, which, upon my first reading it, appeared to be published in a very hasty and careless manner: a very great number of faults I could discover and correct, without comparing with any other edition. Some time since I borrowed the folio of 1609; but it was not till lately that I could get a sight of the first quarto of 1590, which was published in Spenser's lifetime: and I proposed this summer, if I should have life and health, to collate the three together, -- as indeed I have begun to do [discusses this editorial project and related issues further]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Edmund Spenser :
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 8 May 1751:] 'All this while I have been hard at work upon [an edition of] Spenser; but to what purpose except my own private satisfaction? There, however, it will repay me: for every time I read I find new beauties in him; such fine moral sentiments, such height of colouring in his descriptions, such a tenderness when he touches any of the humane passions! -- Were but his language better understood, he must be admired by every one who has a a [italics]heart[end italics].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
: Proposal for 'Universal Dictionary of Commerce'
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 8 May 1751:] 'I had just been reading a paper which I met with at Aylesbury: it was a most puffy preface to proposals published by John and Paul, -- of what date I know not, for that was torn off. The name of the book was the Universal Dictionary of Commerce [comments further on proposal, mocking especially the author's wish "That our young British nobility and gentry [...] would condescend for a year or two to be initiated into the business of a merrchant in a well-regulated and methodical counting-house"] [...] A blessed scheme this! To fill our merchants' houses with a parcel of young, lawless, privileged rakes, to debauch their wives and daughters!'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Unknown
Hester Mulso : 'Odes'
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 28 February 1752:] 'I often entertain myself with reading over those charming Odes of Miss Mulso's, and admire them more and more every time I read them. I am so proud of the honour she has done me in one of them, that my gratitude has forced from me another sonnet [...] which I desire you to give her.'
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards
:
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 18 March 1752, following his account of recent storm damage to rooks' nests in his garden:] 'This impertinent episode of the rookery interrupted the account I was giving of my employment, which I was going to tell you is chiefly reading the choicest authors my little library affords; which, as they are few, I go over and over again; and indeed I almost read my eyes out.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Alexander Pope : 'Essays'
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 20 March 1752:] 'As to Mr Pope, though I had some acquaintance with him, and admired him as a poet, yet I must own I never had any great opinion of him in any other light [...] With all his affectation of humanity and a general benevolence, he was certainly a very ill-natured man; and can such a one easily be a good man? 'But were I ever so indisposed, what can I vindicate? Not the morality of his essays, for I think it very faulty. Mr Warburton has, indeed, tinkered it in some places to make it look orthodox, but yet it will not hold water [comments further on Warburton's edition of Pope]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Hester Mulso : sonnet
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 5 March 1753:] 'I am much obliged to you for the sonnet; it is very pretty'.
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 28 January 1754, on his return home from a stay in London:] 'I have not been a fort'n-night [sic] at home. The contrast between my late situation, happy in the enjoyment of the company of my friends, and my present solitary circumstances, was too strong for me not to want something to compensate the difference. I therefore called Sir Charles Grandison to my assistance; for the conversation I had with him at Ember and in town was so broken and interrupted that it had by no means satisfied my longing. And what was the consequence? Why, just the fable of the horse and the man: he whom I called in for an ally became my master, and made me spend with him every leisure hour I could command, till I had again gone through the five books; and had they been fifteen, I must have done so.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Anna Williams : verses addressed to Samuel Richardson
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 1 March 1754:] 'Who is that Miss Nanny Williams who has published a pretty copy of verses addressed to you in the Gentleman's Magazine of January last? Whoever she be, the girl has a good heart; and writes very well [...] If you know her, I desire my service and thanks to her.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Serial / periodical
John Duncombe : The Feminiad
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 29 May 1754:] 'I very much wonder, how it came to pass that I did not hear a syllable of Mr Duncombe's performance, till Miss Sally happened to rummage it out among other things for my entertainment that evening which I spent without you at North-End. I have since got it. I hope I am not bribed by the compliment to me, but I think it a very pretty poem. I indeed very much dislike the title [...] there can be no such word as Feminiad with an [italics]i[end italics] after the [italics]n[end italics] formed from femina; the Battiad, the Causidicad, and other foolish things which have come out with that termination in imitation of the Dunciad, have given people a surfeit of, and even an aversion to, "omne quod exit in ad." But what say the ladies to it? I wish it might be a means to persuade them to publish, though without names. If they would join to give us a miscellany, it would be a better collection than most we have had, and do honour both to themselves and the sex.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Unknown
: [Poetry by women]
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 18 July 1754:] 'I did say, and I really do think, that it is a pity so many fine performances, as you and I have seen written by ladies, should be lost to the world; that the public should be robbed of the pleasure and instruction, and they themselves of the honour of them [...] The prejudices against a learned wife (such I mean as are free from pedantry, and neglect not their proper duty to acuire their learning) are absurd, irrational, and often flow from envy, but they are strong, inveterate, and too general. Who then is she who dares step forth to vindicate her sex, and assert their claim to genius, at the hazard of forfeiting all her own hopes of a settlement in the world, and friendship with the rest of her sex? [reflects further on women's education and intellectual endeavour]'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: UnknownManuscript: Unknown
Miss Farrer : 'Ode on the Spring'
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 18 July 1754:] 'I return you many thanks for Miss Farrer's Ode on the Spring; it is a charming piece, and must do her honour with all judges.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Manuscript: Unknown
Miss Highmore : sonnet
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 18 July 1754:] 'The verses from my fair [italics]Pupil[end italics], as she does me the honour to call herself, did indeed a little alarm me. To chide me in a sonnet for writing of sonnets, was doing as a physician did by me the other day, -- who at the very time he was taking a pinch out of my box reproved me for taking snuff.'
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards
Edmund Spenser : Sonnets
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 18 July 1754, on his practice of writing sonnets:] 'The reading of Spenser's Sonnets was the first occasion of my writing that species of little poems, and my first six were written in the same sort of stanza as all his and Shakespeare's are. But after that Mr Wray brought me acquainted with the Italian authors, who are the originals of that sort of poetry, and whose measures have more variety and harmony in them, -- ever since, I wrote in that stanza; drawing from the same fountain as Milton drew from'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Miss Farrer : 'Ode to Cynthia'
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 1 August 1754:] 'I give you many thanks for that sweet little Ode of Miss Farrer's. I think myself honoured by the trust, and promise that the conditions [of his being given permission to read it] shall be religiously observed.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Manuscript: Unknown
Samuel Richardson : Pamela
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 19 December 1754:] 'Think not that I can be easily satisfied without your company: I have it in those excellent works which do honour to the present age, and are a great alleviation of my solitude [...] Pamela I have lately read, and begun upon Clarissa, and I must still say, the more I read the more I admire.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Clarissa
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 19 December 1754:] 'Think not that I can be easily satisfied without your company: I have it in those excellent works which do honour to the present age, and are a great alleviation of my solitude [...] Pamela I have lately read, and begun upon Clarissa, and I must still say, the more I read the more I admire.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke : Essays
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 15 January 1755:] 'You have a very just opinion of St. John's works [...] As far as I have seen, and I read at Ember the last volume, which contains his essays, there is nothing in his objections but what has been published and answered over and over [...] I know not whether his system may be more properly called deistical, or atheistical; since, though in words he allows a God, he seems to make him such a one as Epicurus did; and to think that we are beneath his notice, or have very little to do with him. He laughs at all notions of revelation, or a particular providence, and reckons the present life the whole of man's existence. These essays, by the way, afford us abundant and irrefragable proof, that the plan of the Essay on Man was St. John's, and not Pope's [...] You have here the whole scheme, the thoughts and in many places the very words of the poem; and a more consistent scheme it is here, than it appears there, after the poet and the parson had laid their heads together to disguise and make it pass for a christian system [comments further].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Alexander Pope : Essay on Man
Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 15 January 1755: 'You have a very just opinion of St. John's works [...] As far as I have seen, and I read at Ember the last volume, which contains his essays, there is nothing in his objections but what has been published and answered over and over [...] I know not whether his system may be more properly called deistical, or atheistical; since, though in words he allows a God, he seems to make him such a one as Epicurus did; and to think that we are beneath his notice, or have very little to do with him. He laughs at all notions of revelation, or a particular providence, and reckons the present life the whole of man's existence. These essays, by the way, afford us abundant and irrefragable proof, that the plan of the Essay on Man was St. John's, and not Pope's [...] You have here the whole scheme, the thoughts and in many places the very words of the poem; and a more consistent scheme it is here, than it appears there, after the poet and the parson had laid their heads together to disguise and make it pass for a christian system [comments further].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Clarissa
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 15 January 1755:] 'Your works are an inexhaustible fund of entertainment and instruction. I have been this day weeping over the seventh volume of Clarissa, as if I had attended her dying bed, and assisted at her funeral procession. O may my latter end be like hers!'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
Henry Fielding : Voyage to Lisbon
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 28 May 1755:] 'I have lately read over with much indignation Fielding's last piece, called his Voyage to Lisbon. That a man, who had led such a life as he had, should trifle in that manner when immediate death was before his eyes, is amazing. From this book I am confirmed in what his other works had fully persuaded me of, that with all his parade of pretences to virtuous and humane affections, the fellow had no heart.'
