Listings for Reader:
Liz
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Euripides : [all plays]
'I told him of my having now read every play of Euripides; & he seemed very much surprised [...] and observed, that very few men had done as much'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Laetitia Elizabeth Landon : The Emerald Ring
'the emerald ring' 'it is agem which [...]' [transcribes poem] 'le landon'.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan
Miss Elizabeth Smith : Fragments of prose and verse: by a young lady
'happiness is a very common plant...' 'e. smith's fragments' 'greenock'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan
Miss Elizabeth Smith : Fragments of prose and verse: by a young lady
'the christain life may be compared...' 'e. smith's fragments'. followed by extract ascribed to 'hannah more' 'those who are rendered unhappy by frivolous troubles seek comfort in frivolous enjoyments...'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan
Miss Elizabeth Smith : Fragments of prose and verse: by a young lady
'the cause of all sin...' 'e.smith's fragments'. signed 'e.d.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan
Robert Pollok : The course of time
''extract from the course of time' transcribes from 'true happiness had no localities...' to 'where happiness descending, sat and smiled.' signed 'aunt a.' 'quarry bank july 1830'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan
James Montgomery : The world before the flood; a poem in ten cantos
'far less shall earth now hastening to decay...' 'world before the flood' 'isle of man June 15th 31'.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan
James Hogg : Stanzas for music
'stanzas for music by the ettrick shepherd' [transcribes 2 stanzas] 'my sweet little...'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan
Hugh Blair : Sermons
'filled with profound reverence...' 'blair vii p.375' and 'since the time that heaven began...' 'blair's ser vii p.26'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan
St John Chrysostom : Commentary on the Ephesians
I read some of Chrysostom's commentary on the Ephesians. I am getting tired of this commentary. Such underground dark passages before you get at anything worth standing to look at! Very eloquent sometimes: but such a monotony & lengthiness! Sunday is not a reading day with me. Driving to church, driving back again, driving to chapel, driving back again - & prayers three times at home besides! All that fills up the day, except the few interstices between the intersections.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
:
Read as I have done lately, not for the pleasure of thinking: but for the comfort of not thinking.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
: Bible
Read, as I do every day, seven chapters of Scripture. My heart & mind are not affected by this exercise as they should be ? witness what I have written today. I would erase every line of it, could I annihilate the feelings, together with the descriptions of them; but, since I cannot, let the description pass!
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aeschylus :
Very busy today. Reading Aeschylus & learning the verb τύπτω.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Bible
Read the Bible, & Horne on its critical study. I do not think enough of the love of God, graciously as it has been manifested to me.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Horne :
Read the Bible, & Horne on its critical study. I do not think enough of the love of God, graciously as it has been manifested to me.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer : unknown
We [Barrett and Hugh Stuart Boyd] talked comparatively about Homer, Aeschylus & Shakespeare: and positively about Aeschylus's Prometheus ? Praises of the speech in the Medea.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aeschylus : unknown
We [Barrett and Hugh Stuart Boyd] talked comparatively about Homer, Aeschylus & Shakespeare: and positively about Aeschylus's Prometheus ? Praises of the speech in the Medea.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aeschylus : Prometheus
We [Barrett and Hugh Stuart Boyd] talked comparatively about Homer, Aeschylus & Shakespeare: and positively about Aeschylus's Prometheus ? Praises of the speech in the Medea.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Euripides : Medea
We [Barrett and Hugh Stuart Boyd] talked comparatively about Homer, Aeschylus & Shakespeare: and positively about Aeschylus's Prometheus ? Praises of the speech in the Medea.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Shakespeare : unknown
We [Barrett and Hugh Stuart Boyd] talked comparatively about Homer, Aeschylus & Shakespeare: and positively about Aeschylus's Prometheus ? Praises of the speech in the Medea.
Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Ann Radcliffe : Mysteries of Udolpho
'And besides she [Mrs Cliffe] wd. lend me the first two vols of the mysteries of Udolpho before she had finished them herself ? a kind of generosity which quite dazzled my weak moral sense. I have read the mysteries; but am anxious to read them again ? being a worshipper of Mrs. Radcliffe.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Ann Radcliffe : Mysteries of Udolpho
Went into the library to try to rationalize my mind about the deathwatch, - by reading the Cyclopaedia. Feel very unwell today, & nervous. Read the mysteries of Udolpho ? by way of quieting my imagination? & heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon - & read some of Victor Hugo?s & Lamartine?s poetry ? his last song of Childe Harold. Miss Steers kindly sent a packet of French poetry to Mr. Boyd?s for me yesterday. Le dernier chant wants the Byronic character (- an inevitable want for a French composition ? ) and is not quite equal even to Lamartine.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Cyclopaedia
Went into the library to try to rationalize my mind about the deathwatch, - by reading the Cyclopaedia. Feel very unwell today, & nervous. Read the mysteries of Udolpho ? by way of quieting my imagination? & heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon - & read some of Victor Hugo?s & Lamartine?s poetry ? his last song of Childe Harold. Miss Steers kindly sent a packet of French poetry to Mr. Boyd?s for me yesterday. Le dernier chant wants the Byronic character (- an inevitable want for a French composition ? ) and is not quite equal even to Lamartine.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Victor Hugo :
Went into the library to try to rationalize my mind about the deathwatch, - by reading the Cyclopaedia. Feel very unwell today, & nervous. Read the mysteries of Udolpho ? by way of quieting my imagination? & heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon - & read some of Victor Hugo?s & Lamartine?s poetry ? his last song of Childe Harold. Miss Steers kindly sent a packet of French poetry to Mr. Boyd?s for me yesterday. Le dernier chant wants the Byronic character (- an inevitable want for a French composition ? ) and is not quite equal even to Lamartine.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Lamartine :
Went into the library to try to rationalize my mind about the deathwatch, - by reading the Cyclopaedia. Feel very unwell today, & nervous. Read the mysteries of Udolpho ? by way of quieting my imagination? & heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon - & read some of Victor Hugo?s & Lamartine?s poetry ? his last song of Childe Harold. Miss Steers kindly sent a packet of French poetry to Mr. Boyd?s for me yesterday. Le dernier chant wants the Byronic character (- an inevitable want for a French composition ? ) and is not quite equal even to Lamartine.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Lamartine : Childe Harold
Went into the library to try to rationalize my mind about the deathwatch, - by reading the Cyclopaedia. Feel very unwell today, & nervous. Read the mysteries of Udolpho ? by way of quieting my imagination? & heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon - & read some of Victor Hugo?s & Lamartine?s poetry ? his last song of Childe Harold. Miss Steers kindly sent a packet of French poetry to Mr. Boyd?s for me yesterday. Le dernier chant wants the Byronic character (- an inevitable want for a French composition ? ) and is not quite equal even to Lamartine.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Euripides :
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Marcus Antoninus :
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Callimachus :
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Anthologia
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Epictetus :
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Isocrates :
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Leonardo Da Vinci : [Painting]
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Susan Ferrier : Destiny
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Susan Ferrier : The Inheritance
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Euripides : Alcestis
At breakfast, my parcel of books from Eaton came up the road. Fresh from the carrier. Unpacked it eagerly, & read the title pages of Barnes?s Euripides, Marcus Antoninus, Callimachus, the Anthologia, Epictetus, Isocrates, & Da Vinci?s Painting. The last I had sent for, for Eliza Cliffe, but the externals are so shabby that I have a mind to send it back again. Finished my dream about Udolpho; - & began Destiny, a novel by the author of the Inheritance [Susan Ferrier] which Miss Peyton lent me. I liked the Inheritance so much that my desires respecting this book were ?all alive?. I forgot to say that I don?t like the conclusion of the Mysteries. It is ?long drawn out? & not ?in linked sweetness?. Read some of the Alcestis. Mr. Boyd wishes me to read it; & I wished so too.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Euripides : Alcestis
I liked my solitude, even tho? I had no one to say so to - & in spite of La Bruy?re & Cowper! ? Nearly finished the Alcestis. I will finish it tomorrow, before breakfast
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Antoninus :
They did not return until past nine; & I meanwhile was hard at work at Antoninus. Finished his 5th book ? read 7 chap: in the Bible, & then went out to walk in the dark.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Bible
They did not return until past nine; & I meanwhile was hard at work at Antoninus. Finished his 5th book ? read 7 chap: in the Bible, & then went out to walk in the dark.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Marcus Antoninus :
I read half the 6th book of Antoninus today ? so I can?t say, after all, perdidi diem [I have lost a day].
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Marcus Antoninus :
I read the other half of Antoninus?s sixth book, - & half his seventh, besides. What a creature I am ? to spend my time in this way, between philosophy & folly. Anoninus wd. not be well pleased, if he could know whom he has for a reader!
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Marcus Antoninus :
On Wednesday before breakfast, I read the beginning of Antoninus?s 10th. book, & I went on with it today, but not the end. My energies felt dead within me: & how could I do anything without them? Nothing but reading the 3d. vol: of Mrs. Shelley, which I despatched in two hours ? (which did come at last!! - ) No going out today. Marcus Antoninus after Mrs. Shelly [sic], and drinking tea after Marcus.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Shelley : The Last Man
On Wednesday before breakfast, I read the beginning of Antoninus?s 10th. book, & I went on with it today, but not the end. My energies felt dead within me: & how could I do anything without them? Nothing but reading the 3d. vol: of Mrs. Shelley, which I despatched in two hours ? (which did come at last!! - ) No going out today. Marcus Antoninus after Mrs. Shelly [sic], and drinking tea after Marcus.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Marcus Antoninus :
On Wednesday before breakfast, I read the beginning of Antoninus?s 10th. book, & I went on with it today, but not the end. My energies felt dead within me: & how could I do anything without them? Nothing but reading the 3d. vol: of Mrs. Shelley, which I despatched in two hours ? (which did come at last!! - ) No going out today. Marcus Antoninus after Mrs. Shelly [sic], and drinking tea after Marcus.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Cebes : Dialogue
Solved my doubts, & read half Cebes?s dialogue before I went to bed. It is rather a pleasing than a profound performance, - & on this account as well as on account of the extreme facility of the Greek, it can bear fast reading.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Keats : Lamia
I finished Keats?s Lamia, Isabella, Eve of St Agnes & Hyperion, before breakfast. The three first disappointed me. The extracts I had seen of them, were undeniably the finest things in them. But there is some surprising poetry ? poetry of wonderful grandeur, in the Hyperion. The effect of the appearance of Hyperion, among the ruined Titans, is surpassingly fine. Poor poor Keats. His name shall be in my ?Poets Record.?
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Keats : Isabella
I finished Keats?s Lamia, Isabella, Eve of St Agnes & Hyperion, before breakfast. The three first disappointed me. The extracts I had seen of them, were undeniably the finest things in them. But there is some surprising poetry ? poetry of wonderful grandeur, in the Hyperion. The effect of the appearance of Hyperion, among the ruined Titans, is surpassingly fine. Poor poor Keats. His name shall be in my ?Poets Record.?
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Keats : Eve of St Agnes
I finished Keats?s Lamia, Isabella, Eve of St Agnes & Hyperion, before breakfast. The three first disappointed me. The extracts I had seen of them, were undeniably the finest things in them. But there is some surprising poetry ? poetry of wonderful grandeur, in the Hyperion. The effect of the appearance of Hyperion, among the ruined Titans, is surpassingly fine. Poor poor Keats. His name shall be in my ?Poets Record.?
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Keats : Hyperion
I finished Keats?s Lamia, Isabella, Eve of St Agnes & Hyperion, before breakfast. The three first disappointed me. The extracts I had seen of them, were undeniably the finest things in them. But there is some surprising poetry ? poetry of wonderful grandeur, in the Hyperion. The effect of the appearance of Hyperion, among the ruined Titans, is surpassingly fine. Poor poor Keats. His name shall be in my ?Poets Record.?
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Keats : Endymion
I finished the Endymion today. I do not admire it as a fine poem; but I do admire many passages of it, as being very fine poetry. As a whole, it is cumbrous & unwieldy. You don?t know where to put it. Your imagination is confused by it: & your feelings uninterested. And yet a poet wrote it. When I had done with Keats, I took up Theophrastus. Theophrastus has a great deal of vivacity, & power of portraiture about him; & uplifts that veil of distance ? veiling the old Greeks with such sublime mistiness; & shows you how they used to spit & take physic & wear nailed shoes tout comme un autre?Theophrastus does me no good just now: & as I can?t laugh with him, I shall be glad when I have done hearing him laugh.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Theophrastus :
I finished the Endymion today. I do not admire it as a fine poem; but I do admire many passages of it, as being very fine poetry. As a whole, it is cumbrous & unwieldy. You don?t know where to put it. Your imagination is confused by it: & your feelings uninterested. And yet a poet wrote it. When I had done with Keats, I took up Theophrastus. Theophrastus has a great deal of vivacity, & power of portraiture about him; & uplifts that veil of distance ? veiling the old Greeks with such sublime mistiness; & shows you how they used to spit & take physic & wear nailed shoes tout comme un autre?Theophrastus does me no good just now: & as I can?t laugh with him, I shall be glad when I have done hearing him laugh.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Percy Bysshe Shelley : Revolt of Islam
Read some passages from Shelley?s Revolt of Islam before I was up. He is a great poet; but we acknowledge him to be a great poet as we acknowledge Spenser to be so, & do not love him for it. He resembles Spenser in one thing, & one thing only, that his poetry is too immaterial for our sympathies to enclasp it firmly. It reverses the lot of human plants: its roots are in the air, not earth! ? But as I read him on, I may reverse this opinion.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Goldoni : Pamela
I am tired, & have been resting my body in my arm chair, & my mind in Goldoni. Read his Pamela, & Pamela Maritata. The merit of the first, is Richardson?s; & there is not much in the second, for anybody to claim!
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Goldoni : Pamela Maritata
I am tired, & have been resting my body in my arm chair, & my mind in Goldoni. Read his Pamela, & Pamela Maritata. The merit of the first, is Richardson?s; & there is not much in the second, for anybody to claim!
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Bible
I read parts of scripture with reference to the Calvinistic controversy, & little else today. I am going thro? all the epistles, marking with my pencil every expression that seems to glance at or against the doctrine of particular exclusive election.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Bible
Comparing scripture with scripture. Reading besides Self control [by Mary Brunton] which Henrietta has borrowed from Mrs. Martin. It is formed on the model of Clarissa Harlowe; but the heroine is more immaculate than even Clarissa, & more happy finally! ? The book is well-written & interesting. A combination of fortitude & delicacy always interests me in a particular manner.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Brunton : Self Control
Comparing scripture with scripture. Reading besides Self control [by Mary Brunton] which Henrietta has borrowed from Mrs. Martin. It is formed on the model of Clarissa Harlowe; but the heroine is more immaculate than even Clarissa, & more happy finally! ? The book is well-written & interesting. A combination of fortitude & delicacy always interests me in a particular manner.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Beverley : Letter to the Archbishop of York
I read Mr. Beverley?s pamphlets which Mr. Boyd had lent to me; the letter to the Archbishop of York, & the Tombs of the prophets. ? They are clever & forcible; coarse enough, & in some places too highly colored. For instance, I do not believe that the body of the established clergy are as much opposed to the reading of the scriptures, as the papistical clergy are; and I do know instances of members of that body, refusing the sacrament to persons of immoral character?
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Beverley : Tombs of the Prophets
I read Mr. Beverley?s pamphlets which Mr. Boyd had lent to me; the letter to the Archbishop of York, & the Tombs of the prophets. ? They are clever & forcible; coarse enough, & in some places too highly colored. For instance, I do not believe that the body of the established clergy are as much opposed to the reading of the scriptures, as the papistical clergy are; and I do know instances of members of that body, refusing the sacrament to persons of immoral character?
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Dr Card : Discourse
I have finished Dr. Clark?s Discourse. It is very clever: but as all metaphysical discourses on scriptural subjects, must be, - seeking only to convince the human reason, it is unconvincing. At least this is true of one or two material parts, where even I have detected fallacies. Dr. Card?s sermon on the Athanasian creed, is bound up in the same volume; & I have read it.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Card : Sermon on the Athanasian Creed
I have finished Dr. Clark?s Discourse. It is very clever: but as all metaphysical discourses on scriptural subjects, must be, - seeking only to convince the human reason, it is unconvincing. At least this is true of one or two material parts, where even I have detected fallacies. Dr. Card?s sermon on the Athanasian creed, is bound up in the same volume; & I have read it.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Channing : On the importance & means of a national Literature
Mrs. Martin lent me Dr. Channing?s treatise ?On the importance & means of a national Literature?, & I ought to be grateful to her. I have been reading it this morning. It is a very admirable, & lucidly & energetically written production. The style is less graceful than powerful. Indeed it has so much strength, that the muscles are by necessity, rather too obvious & prominent. But its writer is obviously & prominently an extraordinary man.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Iphigenia in Aulide
Getting on with Iphigenia [in Aulide] I am very much interested in it ? particularly in the scene between Iphigenia & her father. How much simple affectionate nature there is in her character! The opposition between her?s, & Clytemnestra?s stately dignity, is skilfully conceived.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Gregory : Apologetick
We [EB & Mr Boyd] read passages from Gregory?s apologetick, - comparing his marks with mine, in different copies, - & came to the conclusion, that our tastes certainly do agree!! And so they do.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Hippolytus
Finished the Hippolytus, - & began the Supllices of Aeschylus. I read a part of it before; but I have left off now my partial habits of reading.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aeschylus : Supplices
Finished the Hippolytus, - & began the Supllices of Aeschylus. I read a part of it before; but I have left off now my partial habits of reading.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aeschylus : Choephori
Finished the Choephori, & began the Eumenides. Read more than 500 lines of Greek, & was more tired by them than by the 800 the other day, because I met with more difficulties.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aeschylus : Eumenides
Finished the Choephori, & began the Eumenides. Read more than 500 lines of Greek, & was more tired by them than by the 800 the other day, because I met with more difficulties.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Joseph Clarke : Sacred Literature
I read yesterday in Mr. Joseph Clarke?s Sacred Literature, that Nonnus is an author whom few can read, & fewer admire. So that my opinion is nothing outrageous. I do not feel well; & look like a ghost.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Synesius : Poems
Finished not only the whole of Synesius?s poems, but four odes of Gregory, contained in the same little volume. And yet I really read nothing superficially. There is a great deal in Synesius which is very fine. He stands on a much higher step than Gregory does, as a poet; tho? occasional diffuseness is the fault of each. I like the 7th. hymn extremely. A slip of paper in the first leaf, tells me that in Mr. Boyd?s opinion the 1st. 5th. & 6th. are perhaps the finest, next to the 9th. I wd. lay a very strong emphasis on perhaps. The 9th. is, I agree with him, decidedly the finest.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Gregory : Odes
Finished not only the whole of Synesius?s poems, but four odes of Gregory, contained in the same little volume. And yet I really read nothing superficially. There is a great deal in Synesius which is very fine. He stands on a much higher step than Gregory does, as a poet; tho? occasional diffuseness is the fault of each. I like the 7th. hymn extremely. A slip of paper in the first leaf, tells me that in Mr. Boyd?s opinion the 1st. 5th. & 6th. are perhaps the finest, next to the 9th. I wd. lay a very strong emphasis on perhaps. The 9th. is, I agree with him, decidedly the finest.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Carlyle : Sartor Resartus
At age fourteen, Elizabeth Bryson read Sartor Resartus, a favorite book of her father, an impoverished Dundee bookkeeper. There she encountered "the exciting experience of being kindled to the point of explosion by the fire of words", words that expressed what she had always been trying to say: "It seems that from our earliest days we are striving to become articulate, stuggling to clothe in words our vague perceptions and questionings. Suddenly, blazing from the printed page, there ARE the words, the true resounding words that we couldn't find. It is an exciting moment... 'Who am I? The thing that can say I. Who am I, what is this ME?'. I had been groping to know that since I was three". She consumed Heroes and Hero-Worship, The French Revolution and Sartor Resartus with the same intoxication'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bryson Print: Book
Thomas Carlyle : Heroes and Hero-worship
At age fourteen, Elizabeth Bryson read Sartor Resartus, a favorite book of her father, an impoverished Dundee bookkeeper. There she encountered "the exciting experience of being kindled to the point of explosion by the fire of words", words that expressed what she had always been trying to say: "It seems that from our earliest days we are striving to become articulate, stuggling to clothe in words our vague perceptions and questionings. Suddenly, blazing from the printed page, there ARE the words, the true resounding words that we couldn't find. It is an exciting moment... 'Who am I? The thing that can say I. Who am I, what is this ME?'. I had been groping to know that since I was three". She consumed Heroes and Hero-Worship, The French Revolution and Sartor Resartus with the same intoxication'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bryson Print: Book
Thomas Carlyle : The French Revolution
At age fourteen, Elizabeth Bryson read Sartor Resartus, a favorite book of her father, an impoverished Dundee bookkeeper. There she encountered "the exciting experience of being kindled to the point of explosion by the fire of words", words that expressed what she had always been trying to say: "It seems that from our earliest days we are striving to become articulate, stuggling to clothe in words our vague perceptions and questionings. Suddenly, blazing from the printed page, there ARE the words, the true resounding words that we couldn't find. It is an exciting moment... 'Who am I? The thing that can say I. Who am I, what is this ME?'. I had been groping to know that since I was three". She consumed Heroes and Hero-Worship, The French Revolution and Sartor Resartus with the same intoxication'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bryson Print: Book
:
Witness statement in trial for housebreaking: Elizabeth Baglee: "I read in a newspaper of the robbery, a day or two after the robbery, and from the description it gave of Sanderson, I went immediately to him where he lodged.."
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Baglee Print: Newspaper
:
Witness statement in trial for theft: Elizabeth Marlow: "In the morning of the 23rd I was looking into the newspaper for a particular thing I wanted to see. I saw an advertisement that answered the description of the prisoner. I went immediately to Sir John Fieldings..."
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marlow Print: Newspaper
:
Witness statements in trial for theft: Eliza Morris: "I went to live servant at the Bank tavern, John-street, and one day I was reading the newspaper; the first thing I saw was the robbery of the mail and a description of the parties..."
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Morris Print: Newspaper
:
Witness statement in trial for burglary: Elizabeth Walter: "I read in the newspaper, when I had a pint of beer, what a burglary had been done on the 6th, and I was certain the young man was at home.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Walter Print: Newspaper
:
Witness statement in trial for theft: Francis Jobling: "I am the prosecutrix's mother. On the evening of the 28th of March, she went out; the prisoner and I were in the kitchen; after supper the prisoner read the newspaper, and then we both fell asleep."
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Harriet Guy Print: Newspaper
John Bunyan : Pilgrim's Progress
'Elizabeth Rignall, a London painter's daughter, was not permitted to read anything else on Sundays, so she treated Pilgrim's Progress as a horror comic. Irresistibly drawn to the lurid colour illustration of the horned Apollyon, "and stretched out full length on the sofa with the book open before me I would proceed, week after week, to frighten the life out of myself".'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Rignall Print: Book
Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn... proceeded to an evening institute course in English literature and by the rhythm of the looms she memorised all of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Milton's Lycidas, and Gray's Elegy. She discovered the ancient Greeks at the home of a neighbour, a self-educated classicist with six children, and a Sunday school teacher introduced her to the plays of Bernard Shaw. While attending her looms she silently analysed the character of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, "sometimes to the detriment of my weaving".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book
Percy Bysshe Shelley : Ode to the West Wind
'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn... proceeded to an evening institute course in English literature and by the rhythm of the looms she memorised all of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Milton's Lycidas, and Gray's Elegy. She discovered the ancient Greeks at the home of a neighbour, a self-educated classicist with six children, and a Sunday school teacher introduced her to the plays of Bernard Shaw. While attending her looms she silently analysed the character of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, "sometimes to the detriment of my weaving".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book
John Milton : Lycidas
'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn... proceeded to an evening institute course in English literature and by the rhythm of the looms she memorised all of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Milton's Lycidas, and Gray's Elegy. She discovered the ancient Greeks at the home of a neighbour, a self-educated classicist with six children, and a Sunday school teacher introduced her to the plays of Bernard Shaw. While attending her looms she silently analysed the character of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, "sometimes to the detriment of my weaving".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book
Thomas Gray : Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn... proceeded to an evening institute course in English literature and by the rhythm of the looms she memorised all of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Milton's Lycidas, and Gray's Elegy. She discovered the ancient Greeks at the home of a neighbour, a self-educated classicist with six children, and a Sunday school teacher introduced her to the plays of Bernard Shaw. While attending her looms she silently analysed the character of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, "sometimes to the detriment of my weaving".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book
[unknown] : [Ancient Greek literature]
'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn... proceeded to an evening institute course in English literature and by the rhythm of the looms she memorised all of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Milton's Lycidas, and Gray's Elegy. She discovered the ancient Greeks at the home of a neighbour, a self-educated classicist with six children, and a Sunday school teacher introduced her to the plays of Bernard Shaw. While attending her looms she silently analysed the character of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, "sometimes to the detriment of my weaving".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book
George Bernard Shaw : [plays]
'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn... proceeded to an evening institute course in English literature and by the rhythm of the looms she memorised all of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Milton's Lycidas, and Gray's Elegy. She discovered the ancient Greeks at the home of a neighbour, a self-educated classicist with six children, and a Sunday school teacher introduced her to the plays of Bernard Shaw. While attending her looms she silently analysed the character of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, "sometimes to the detriment of my weaving".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book
Havelock Ellis :
'An emancipated working woman like Elizabeth Ring was free to read the works of Freud, Havelock Ellis and Bertrand Russell in the late 1920s, but she was familiar with these books only because her schoolteachers had her exchange them at the Finsbury Public Library'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ring Print: Book
Sigmund Freud :
'An emancipated working woman like Elizabeth Ring was free to read the works of Freud, Havelock Ellis and Bertrand Russell in the late 1920s, but she was familiar with these books only because her schoolteachers had her exchange them at the Finsbury Public Library'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ring Print: Book
Bertrand Russell :
'An emancipated working woman like Elizabeth Ring was free to read the works of Freud, Havelock Ellis and Bertrand Russell in the late 1920s, but she was familiar with these books only because her schoolteachers had her exchange them at the Finsbury Public Library'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ring Print: Book
William Godwin : Mary Wollstonecraft
'Poor Godwin is a terrific example for all conjugal biography; but he has marked that path which may be avoided? The title of Mrs Owens? new work has something very charming in it: ?Ida of Athens? ? I have not yet been able to read any of her novels. I am now reading Leo the X, by Rescoe. War, religion, laws and elevated mankind are my delight, for among them I increase my love for politics of the present day, and find that our great enemy is less wicked than most heroes and politicians have been, and at the same time a vast deal wiser than them all.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Inchbald Print: Book
Rescoe : The Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth
'Poor Godwin is a terrific example for all conjugal biography; but he has marked that path which may be avoided? The title of Mrs Owens? new work has something very charming in it: ?Ida of Athens? ? I have not yet been able to read any of her novels. I am now reading Leo the X, by Rescoe. War, religion, laws and elevated mankind are my delight, for among them I increase my love for politics of the present day, and find that our great enemy is less wicked than most heroes and politicians have been, and at the same time a vast deal wiser than them all.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Inchbald Print: Book
: Bible
?The little Frys found the hours very long when they sat in the large, rather austere drawing-room, trying not to fidget, while their mother read aloud to them long chapters from the Bible or from books of instruction.?
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
:
Ellen Nussey's reminiscences of Patrick Bronte's sister-in-law Elizabeth Branwell (in 1871 account of her 1833 visit to Haworth Parsonage): 'In summer she spent part of the afternoon in reading aloud to Mr Bronte. In the winter evenings she must have enjoyed this; for she and Mr Bronte had often to finish their discussions on what she had read when we all met for tea.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Branwell
: Blackwood's Magazine
Emily Bronte, diary paper for 30 July 1841 'It is Friday evening -- near 9 o'clock ... Aunt upstairs in her room -- she has been reading "Blackwood's Magazine" to papa ...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Branwell Print: Serial / periodical
: Scriptures
"In her course of Reading she was still laying in for use and practice. Her course was, when she read the Scriptures, to gather out passages, and sort and refer them to their several uses, as some that were fit subjects for her Meditations: Some for encouragement to prayer, and other duties: Promises suited to various conditions and wants: as her papers shew." And for other Books, she would meddle with none but the sound and practicall, and had no itch after the empty Books, which make ostentation of Novelty, and which Opinionists are now so taken with; nor did she like writing or preaching in envy and strife. And of good Books, she chose to read but few, and those very often over, that all might be well digested. Which is a course (for private Christians) that tends to avoid luxuriancy, and make them sincere, and solid, and established.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Baker
Richard Baxter : The Saints Everlasting Rest
... between sixteen and seventeen years of age, by the serious reading of the Book called _The Saints Everlasting Rest_, she was more throughly awakened, and brought to set her heart on God, and to seek salvation with her chiefest care: From that time forward she was a more constant, diligent, serious hearer of the ablest Ministers in London.
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Baker Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'Reading aloud from "Cranford" one evening ... [Mary Crawford Fraser's] aunt [Elizabeth Sewell] came to a sudden full stop [on coming to episode unfit for children] ... skipped a little, and took up the story later on.'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
:
At first it was thought that Jeremy was deaf - but tests showed that his hearing was perfect. When the condition [dyslexia] was finally diagnosed his mother read to him at home alone in his bedroom and he began to pick up, even though he would still struggle to write words such as 'necessary', labouring over where the Es and Ss should go.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edith Huggins Print: Unknown
Joseph Butler : The Analogy of Religion
Elizabeth Sewell's brother William, seeing her reading Butler's "Analogy", exclaimed 'You can't understand that', which made her reticent for years about the comfort and strength this book had given her during adolescent depression.
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
: poetry
'[Lady Frances Balfour's] father and mother both read poetry aloud ...'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Georgiana Leveson-Gower
Walter Scott :
" ... Elizabeth Sewell's consumption of 'modern' works in the late 1820s and 1830s, she records [in her autobiography], specifically mentioning Scott and Byron, led to worry and 'hysteria' based on the feeling that it would be pleasant to have someone caring for her. She had not yet learnt, she claims, the joy that comes through caring for others."
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
George Gordon Lord Byron :
" ... Elizabeth Sewell's consumption of 'modern' works in the late 1820s and 1830s, she records [in her autobiography], specifically mentioning Scott and Byron, led to worry and 'hysteria' based on the feeling that it would be pleasant to have someone caring for her. She had not yet learnt, she claims, the joy that comes through caring for others."
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
John Clare : Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery
H. J. Jackson discusses copy of John Clare, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820) annotated by Eliza Louisa Emmerson for Lord Radstock.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Louisa Emmerson 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: Elizabeth Montagu Print: Book
Dr Shuckford : Dr Shuckford's Connection
'She rejects even "good" books if she finds them tedious or ling-winded, finding unreadable Hooker's "extremely good" Laws of ecclesiastical polity and the "very profound learning" of "Dr Shuckford's Connection".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Hooker : Laws of ecclesiastical polity
'She rejects even "good" books if she finds them tedious or ling-winded, finding unreadable Hooker's "extremely good" Laws of ecclesiastical polity and the "very profound learning" of "Dr Shuckford's Connection".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Teresia Constantia Phillips : An apology for the conduct of Mrs Teresia Constantia Phillips
'She claims, for instance, a "charity to all kinds of books" which allows her to read sympathetically even the scandalous memoirs of Teresia Constantia Phillips.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
John Hawkesworth : An account of voyages...
'Even conservative Elizabeth Montagu read "Bankes' voyage", and although she disapproved his religious scepticism she also criticised the "prudery of the Ladies", who are afraid to own they have read the "Voyages"', arguing that accounts of the open sexual freedom of the "Demoiselles of Ottaheite" were less "dangerous" to young British women than the "secret" liaisons of their own society.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Montagu Print: Book
James Bruce : Travels to discover the source of the Nile, in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773...
'as with history, women use their reading of travels to interrogate an androcentric concept of heroism. Elizabeth Montagu felt "surfeited" with what she thought the pointless explorations of Cook or Bruce: "of what use is this discovery of the source of the Nile?"'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Montagu Print: Book
Emilie de Chatelet :
'[Carter] read "a system of false philosophy" by Madame de Chatelet "for no other reason than because it was wrote by a lady".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Helen Maria Williams : various books
'[Carter] is sympathetic to women of different views, like Charlotte Smith or Helen Maria Williams whose books she finds "too democratical" but praises as "exprest with decency and moderation" and "very prettily written".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Charlotte Trotter Cockburn : works
'Having heard the work of another virtuous woman writer, Catherine Trotter Cockburn, was to be published, [Elizabeth Carter and Catherine Talbot] displayed great interest in this literary foremother, and when the 1751 edition of her work appeared, they were struck by her "most remarkable clear understanding and excellent heart".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Frances Hodgson Burnett : Little Lord Fauntleroy
[Aunt Bessy] 'used to read "Little Lord Fauntleroy" over and over again to the old women [in the Cambridge workhouse], because they never wanted any other book'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Darwin Print: Book
Elizabeth Rowe : works
'[Elizabeth Carter and Catherine Talbot] read and admired the work of Elizabeth Rowe, and questioned each other excitedly about the almost forgotten Katherine Philips, the "matchless Orinda", impressed that her work is mentioned with "the highest respect, admiration and reverence by the writers of that time".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Katherine Philips : works
'[Elizabeth Carter and Catherine Talbot] read and admired the work of Elizabeth Rowe, and questioned each other excitedly about the almost forgotten Katherine Philips, the "matchless Orinda", impressed that her work is mentioned with "the highest respect, admiration and reverence by the writers of that time."
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Francois-Marie Voltaire : Candide
'She began Candide but "threw it aside, and nothing, I believe, will tempt me ever to look into it again."'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Jean Jacques Rousseau : works
'she thinks Rousseau "the most dangerous writer I ever read", his work "of so bad tendency that, after a few trials, I have determined never to look into any thing he should publish".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Tobias Smollet : Roderick Random
'Carter and Talbot read fiction and corresponded about it, including "Roderick Random", the novels of Eliza Haywood, French romances, and Charlotte Lennox's "Henrietta", in which Talbot finds a number of objectionable qualities including "irreligion" and "the pride and sauciness" of the heroine. Their "favourite" among women novelists was Sarah Fielding, many of whose works they read and discussed.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Eliza Haywood : various novels
'Carter and Talbot read fiction and corresponded about it, including "Roderick Random", the novels of Eliza Haywood, French romances, and Charlotte Lennox's "Henrietta", in which Talbot finds a number of objectionable qualities including "irreligion" and "the pride and sauciness" of the heroine. Their "favourite" among women novelists was Sarah Fielding, many of whose works they read and discussed.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Charlotte Lennox : Henrietta
'Carter and Talbot read fiction and corresponded about it, including "Roderick Random", the novels of Eliza Haywood, French romances, and Charlotte Lennox's "Henrietta", in which Talbot finds a number of objectionable qualities including "irreligion" and "the pride and sauciness" of the heroine. Their "favourite" among women novelists was Sarah Fielding, many of whose works they read and discussed.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Sarah Fielding : many works
'Carter and Talbot read fiction and corresponded about it, including "Roderick Random", the novels of Eliza Haywood, French romances, and Charlotte Lennox's "Henrietta", in which Talbot finds a number of objectionable qualities including "irreligion" and "the pride and sauciness" of the heroine. Their "favourite" among women novelists was Sarah Fielding, many of whose works they read and discussed.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: French romances
'Carter and Talbot read fiction and corresponded about it, including "Roderick Random", the novels of Eliza Haywood, French romances, and Charlotte Lennox's "Henrietta", in which Talbot finds a number of objectionable qualities including "irreligion" and "the pride and sauciness" of the heroine. Their "favourite" among women novelists was Sarah Fielding, many of whose works they read and discussed.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
John Hawkesworth : An account of voyages undertaken... for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere and performed by Commodore Byrone, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret and Captain Cook (from 1702 to 1771) drawn up from the Journals...
'Even conservative Elizabeth Montagu read "Bankes's Voyage", and although she disapproved his religious scepticism she also criticised the "prudery of the Ladies, who are afraid to own they have read the Voyages", arguing that accounts of the open sexual freedom of the "Demoiselles of Ottaheite" were less "dangerous" to young British women than the "secret" liaisons of their own society.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Montagu Print: Book
: a number of novelists
'Carter read and enjoyed fiction until the end of her life. Pennington reveals her enthusiasm for a number of novelists "of considerable genius, as well as strict morals", who provided "a very pleasing relaxation from her severer studies" (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, vol 1, p. 69). According to him, she disliked realist fiction, though she made an exception for Burney's which she read with "increasing approbation more than once": her favourite was "Evelina" (Memoirs, p. 299). She also enjoyed Jane West (who dedicated "A Tale of the Times" to her) and Ann Radcliffe, who impressed her, according to Pennington, by "the good tendency of all her works, the virtues of her principal characters... and her accurate, as well as vivid delineation of the beauties of nature" (Memoirs, p. 300). She thought "A Sicilian Romance" "elegant" and praised its "good" moral (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, Vol III, p. 323).'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Frances Burney : Evelina
'Carter read and enjoyed fiction until the end of her life. Pennington reveals her enthusiasm for a number of novelists "of considerable genius, as well as strict morals", who provided "a very pleasing relaxation from her severer studies" (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, vol 1, p. 69). According to him, she disliked realist fiction, though she made an exception for Burney's which she read with "increasing approbation more than once": her favourite was "Evelina" (Memoirs, p. 299). She also enjoyed Jane West (who dedicated "A Tale of the Times" to her) and Ann Radcliffe, who impressed her, according to Pennington, by "the good tendency of all her works, the virtues of her principal characters... and her accurate, as well as vivid delineation of the beauties of nature" (Memoirs, p. 300). She thought "A Sicilian Romance" "elegant" and praised its "good" moral (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, Vol III, p. 323).'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Jane West : A Tale of the Times and other works
'Carter read and enjoyed fiction until the end of her life. Pennington reveals her enthusiasm for a number of novelists "of considerable genius, as well as strict morals", who provided "a very pleasing relaxation from her severer studies" (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, vol 1, p. 69). According to him, she disliked realist fiction, though she made an exception for Burney's which she read with "increasing approbation more than once": her favourite was "Evelina" (Memoirs, p. 299). She also enjoyed Jane West (who dedicated A Tale of the Times to her) and Ann Radcliffe, who impressed her, according to Pennington, by "the good tendency of all her works, the virtues of her principal characters... and her accurate, as well as vivid delineation of the beauties of nature" (Memoirs, p. 300). She thought A Sicilian Romance "elegant" and praised its "good" moral (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, Vol III, p. 323).'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Ann Radcliffe : A Sicilian Romance [and other novels]
'Carter read and enjoyed fiction until the end of her life. Pennington reveals her enthusiasm for a number of novelists "of considerable genius, as well as strict morals", who provided "a very pleasing relaxation from her severer studies" (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, vol 1, p. 69). According to him, she disliked realist fiction, though she made an exception for Burney's which she read with "increasing approbation more than once": her favourite was "Evelina" (Memoirs, p. 299). She also enjoyed Jane West (who dedicated "A Tale of the Times" to her) and Ann Radcliffe, who impressed her, according to Pennington, by "the good tendency of all her works, the virtues of her principal characters... and her accurate, as well as vivid delineation of the beauties of nature" (Memoirs, p. 300). She thought "A Sicilian Romance" "elegant" and praised its "good" moral (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, Vol III, p. 323).'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Charlotte Smith : Emmeline
'[Pennington] emphasises... that she "highly disapproved" the novels of Charlotte Smith, believing their morality "very defective" if not "positively bad" (Memoirs, p. 299). Carter's letters however show enthusiasm at least for "Emmeline", and deep sympathy for Smith's domestic situation: she tries hard to be fair even to the "democratic" Desmond, suggesting its critics are "perhaps prejudiced against it", while she has found the included poems "very beautiful" (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, vol III, 295-333)'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Charlotte Smith : Desmond
'[Pennington] emphasises... that she "highly disapproved" the novels of Charlotte Smith, believing their morality "very defective" if not "positively bad" (Memoirs, p. 299). Carter's letters however show enthusiasm at least for "Emmeline", and deep sympathy for Smith's domestic situation: she tries hard to be fair even to the "democratic" Desmond, suggesting its critics are "perhaps prejudiced against it", while she has found the included poems "very beautiful" (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, vol III, 295-333)'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
[author of "The Manoeuvering Mother"] anon : History of a Flirt, The
'Before I forget again?have you looked into the "History of a Flirt"? [The History of a Flirt, related by Herself ? by the author of "The Manoeuvring Mother"] The name may alarm you ? but the writer "leans to Miss Austen?s side," ? as I remember dear Dr. Mitford and yourself do - & there is some power and much truth to nature.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : Our Village
'The title is, The Neighbours ? just a title for Miss Austen you see! ? And for Miss Austen, you shall praise her as much as you please. She is delightful exquisite in her degree! ? only I wdnt have one of your dear hands "cut off" that you shd "write one page like her?s with the other", - because, really & earnestly, your Village and Belford Regis are more charming to me than her pages in congregation. She wants (admit it honestly, because you know she wants it) she wants a little touch of poetry. Her "neighbours" walk about & gossip, all unconscious of the sunshine & the trees & the running waters ? to say nothing of the God of nature & providence. "Persuasion" (ah! You are cunning to bring "Persuasion" to me!) is the highest & most touching of her works ? and I agree with you gladly that it is perfect in its kind, & with touches of a higher impulse in it than we look generally to receive from her genius.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : Belford Regis
'The title is, The Neighbours ? just a title for Miss Austen you see! ? And for Miss Austen, you shall praise her as much as you please. She is delightful exquisite in her degree! ? only I wdnt have one of your dear hands "cut off" that you shd "write one page like her?s with the other", - because, really & earnestly, your Village and Belford Regis are more charming to me than her pages in congregation. She wants (admit it honestly, because you know she wants it) she wants a little touch of poetry. Her "neighbours" walk about & gossip, all unconscious of the sunshine & the trees & the running waters ? to say nothing of the God of nature & providence. "Persuasion" (ah! You are cunning to bring "Persuasion" to me!) is the highest & most touching of her works ? and I agree with you gladly that it is perfect in its kind, & with touches of a higher impulse in it than we look generally to receive from her genius.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jane Austen : Persuasion
'The title is, The Neighbours ? just a title for Miss Austen you see! ? And for Miss Austen, you shall praise her as much as you please. She is delightful exquisite in her degree! ? only I wdnt have one of your dear hands "cut off" that you shd "write one page like her?s with the other", - because, really & earnestly, your Village and Belford Regis are more charming to me than her pages in congregation. She wants (admit it honestly, because you know she wants it) she wants a little touch of poetry. Her "neighbours" walk about & gossip, all unconscious of the sunshine & the trees & the running waters ? to say nothing of the God of nature & providence. "Persuasion" (ah! You are cunning to bring "Persuasion" to me!) is the highest & most touching of her works ? and I agree with you gladly that it is perfect in its kind, & with touches of a higher impulse in it than we look generally to receive from her genius.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Babington Macaulay : Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay
'Did you see ? what I am reading just too late (but we must be benighted sometimes) in the number before the last of the Edinburgh Review, a notice of Madme d?Arblay, very admirable in all ways, but chiefly interesting to you for the sake of the high estimate of your Miss Austen, who is called second to Shakespeare in the nice delineation of character.' [the review was in the January 1843 issue].
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Maria Edgeworth : unknown
'I confess my surprise at your considering Miss Edgeworth & Miss Austen mistresses in pathos ? when the fault of both those excellent writers appears to me (if indeed that can be a fault which is so closely allied to the peculiarity of their excellencies) a defect in passion altogether, through their habit of considering life & humanity on the cold conventional side. "Persuasion", to be sure, has touching passages ? and Miss Edgeworth permits you to see, not unfrequently, that she can feel as well as teach, though she chooses to teach. I hope I do not ungratefully misprize the writings of Miss Edgeworth ? it wd be rank ingratitude if I did. They are excellent & admirable ? but I cannot say, poetical & passionate. The depths of the heart & the heights of Heaven have no part or lot in them ? and pastoral Nature is as utterly shut out. Still, after their kind, they are excellent; and I too shd be one-sided if I could not honor them aright [?] Woe be to me, if I pretended to misprize Miss Edgeworth!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Inchbald : Simple Story, A
'Will you answer me one more question ?Is not the "Simple Story" more pathetic than "Persuasion"?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Howitt : Home, The
'Mary Howitt?s last translation from Frederika Bremer?s Swedish "The Home" charms me even more than "The Neighbours" did. The Athenaeum compares these books to Miss Austen?s, but I shd be afraid to tell you exactly how I wd modify the comparison. [The Athenaeum of 13 May 1843 said of the Bremer books: 'We have had nothing so simply life-like since Galt?s "Annals of the Parish" ? no pictures of female nature so finely touched, since Miss Austen.']
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
various : Athenaeum
'Mary Howitt?s last translation from Frederika Bremer?s Swedish "The Home" charms me even more than "The Neighbours" did. The Athenaeum compares these books to Miss Austen?s, but I shd be afraid to tell you exactly how I wd modify the comparison. [The Athenaeum of 13 May 1843 said of the Bremer books: 'We have had nothing so simply life-like since Galt?s "Annals of the Parish" ? no pictures of female nature so finely touched, since Miss Austen.']
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Jane Austen : Mansfield Park
'It is a long argument ? but I have been reading quite lately & for your sake & for the third time, her two best works ? Persuasion & Mansfield Park: & really my impressions do grow stronger & stronger in their old places. She is perfect after her kind ? true to the nature she SAW - & with a sufficient sense of the Beautiful, for grace. Like Mrs Hemans, she is too obviously a lady. I have put it in the shape of blame - & many might remark the same thing for praise: I mean however, that her ladyhood is always stronger in her than her humanity. Not that she is defective in strength as Mrs Hemans sometimes is ? she can "always do the thing she would" better than anybody else. Surely, surely I am not a niggard in my praise of Jane Austen! To call her a great writer & learned in the secrets, heights & depths of our nature, or a poet in anywise, is all that I refuse to call her ? and indeed I have not breath & articulation for such an opinion: & it astonishes me that you shd be so exorbitant my dearest Miss Mitford, in your claim for her!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jane Austen : Persuasion
'It is a long argument ? but I have been reading quite lately & for your sake & for the third time, her two best works ? Persuasion & Mansfield Park: & really my impressions do grow stronger & stronger in their old places. She is perfect after her kind ? true to the nature she SAW - & with a sufficient sense of the Beautiful, for grace. Like Mrs Hemans, she is too obviously a lady. I have put it in the shape of blame - & many might remark the same thing for praise: I mean however, that her ladyhood is always stronger in her than her humanity. Not that she is defective in strength as Mrs Hemans sometimes is ? she can "always do the thing she would" better than anybody else. Surely, surely I am not a niggard in my praise of Jane Austen! To call her a great writer & learned in the secrets, heights & depths of our nature, or a poet in anywise, is all that I refuse to call her ? and indeed I have not breath & articulation for such an opinion: & it astonishes me that you shd be so exorbitant my dearest Miss Mitford, in your claim for her!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Felicia Hemans : [poems]
'It is a long argument ? but I have been reading quite lately & for your sake & for the third time, her two best works ? Persuasion & Mansfield Park: & really my impressions do grow stronger & stronger in their old places. She is perfect after her kind ? true to the nature she SAW - & with a sufficient sense of the Beautiful, for grace. Like Mrs Hemans, she is too obviously a lady. I have put it in the shape of blame - & many might remark the same thing for praise: I mean however, that her ladyhood is always stronger in her than her humanity. Not that she is defective in strength as Mrs Hemans sometimes is ? she can "always do the thing she would" better than anybody else. Surely, surely I am not a niggard in my praise of Jane Austen! To call her a great writer & learned in the secrets, heights & depths of our nature, or a poet in anywise, is all that I refuse to call her ? and indeed I have not breath & articulation for such an opinion: & it astonishes me that you shd be so exorbitant my dearest Miss Mitford, in your claim for her!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jane Austen : Pride and Prejudice
'Yes, I think that Pride & Prejudice is one of the very best of the Austen novels ? and yet I do not quite rank it with Mansfield Park, it seems to take the line just below. Sense & Sensibility is inferior, by my impression, to every one of them?& I am inclined to call that weak and commonplace occasionally.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jane Austen : Sense and Sensibility
'Yes, I think that Pride & Prejudice is one of the very best of the Austen novels ? and yet I do not quite rank it with Mansfield Park, it seems to take the line just below. Sense & Sensibility is inferior, by my impression, to every one of them?& I am inclined to call that weak and commonplace occasionally.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
[Miss] Pickering : [novels]
'As to Miss Pickering, if there shd be anybody in the world who makes a Miss Austen of her, or a Scott of her, that body cannot be famous for his or her literary judgement. Miss Pickering was a good & pure novelist of the circulating libraries - & could tell a story to an end without letting it fall. But her very appreciators would not think of anticipating the continuance of her reputation much beyond the burning of the candle they read her by. Did she ever dream of such a claim herself?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jane Austen : Mansfield Park
'Cassandra - thought it quite as clever, tho' not so brilliant as P. & P. - Fond of Fanny. - Delighted much in Mr Rushworth's stupidity.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Cassandra Elizabeth Austen Print: Book
William Jackson : Thirty letters on various subjects
'To amuse ourselves at the inns on this road we brought with us Jackson's "30 Letters" & Moritz's "Travels in England" (both in our Society) but having finish'd the latter (w'ch John was now reading) & Mrs M being reading the other, I got Mrs Radcliffe's novel of the "Sicilian Romance" from the Library there, which I this day began reading & was much pleased with.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marsh Print: Book
[unknown] : [various]
'As to Mrs M & I, we have been, ever since we lived at Nethersole, great readers, taking each always a book at breakfast & at tea when without company in the house & also for some time after dinner & supper, by w'ch means we each read about 2 hours or make everyday our young men likewise taking their books at the same time, ... except after supper on days when we had been visiting, or at the Concert, the talking over which afterwards generally furnish'd amusement for the remainder of the evening.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marsh Print: Book
Jane Austen : Emma
'Cassandra - better than P. & P. - but not so well as M.P.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Cassandra Elizabeth Austen Print: Book
Jane Austen : Pride and Prejudice
'Cassandra - thought it quite as clever, tho' not so brilliant as P. & P.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Cassandra Elizabeth Austen Print: Book
: The Bible
'Elizabeth Goodman, who in the ordinary way read only the Bible and a popular comic, "Ally Sloper's Weekly", at Christmas time "flung into the festooned disorder of the nursery a pile of Christmas numbers, and thence forward walked with us, for a week or two, in a world of pure romance."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Goodman Print: Book
: Ally Sloper's Weekly
'Elizabeth Goodman, who in the ordinary way read only the Bible and a popular comic, "Ally Sloper's Weekly", at Christmas time "flung into the festooned disorder of the nursery a pile of Christmas numbers, and thence forward walked with us, for a week or two, in a world of pure romance."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Goodman Print: Serial / periodical
unknown : unknown
'Yesterday the news came of Mrs Gaskell's death. She died suddenly while reading aloud to her daughters'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gaskell Print: Unknown
unknown : [books of engravings]
Mary Berry, Journal, 25 August 1810, on visit of the Princess of Wales to Strawberry Hill: 'The Princess was very lively, though the company was certainly not very amusing for her. She remained long at table, then walked and sat in the garden, and afterwards looked at some books of engravings; and was sufficiently amused to remain till twelve o'clock'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenb?ttel Princess of Wales Print: Book
Alexander Pope : Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
'In a 1735 letter to Lady Hertford, [Elizabeth Singer] Rowe observes that the "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" "Seems to be writ with a malice more than human, and has surely something infernal in it. It is surprising, that a man can divest himself of the tender sentiments of nature so far, as deliberately to give anguish and confusion to beings of his own kind".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Singer Rowe Print: Unknown
Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixotte
To Miss Hunt, April 7, 1794 'At present I am puzzling at Persian and Arabic, and I mean to begin Hebrew. I get on at least with Spanish, for I have been able to meet with only one book since I read Don Quixotte, which was the "History of the Incas" by Garcillaso de la Vega. I was very pleased with it, though it is very long and in some parts tedious.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Garcilaso de la Vega : History of the Incas
To Miss Hunt, April 7, 1794 'At present I am puzzling at Persian and Arabic, and I mean to begin Hebrew. I get on at least with Spanish, for I have been able to meet with only one book since I read Don Quixotte, which was the "History of the Incas" by Garcillaso de la Vega. I was very pleased with it, though it is very long and in some parts tedious.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Feyjoo : Theatro critico universale
To Miss Hunt, Bath Sept 27, 1794 'I have the great store of Spanish lately; the "Teatro Critico Universale" by Feyjoo, a very clever work in 14 volumes; and I am now reading post-haste [italics] Mariana's "History of Spain", of which I have only read half, but am determined to finish it before I go. It is not so interesting as some other histories, but one must know it.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Juan de Mariana : History of Spain
To Miss Hunt, Bath Sept 27, 1794 'I have the great store of Spanish lately; the "Teatro Critico Universale" by Feyjoo, a very clever work in 14 volumes; and I am now reading post-haste [italics] Mariana's "History of Spain", of which I have only read half, but am determined to finish it before I go. It is not so interesting as some other histories, but one must know it.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Thomas James Mathias : The Pursuits of Literature
To Lady Isabella King, Bath March 8th 1798 'Have you read "The Pursuits of Literature"? It is a satirical poem. I dislike satire in general, but this appears to me one of the cleverest books I ever met with, and indeed this is the general opinion respecting it... I have read Robinson on the "Illuminati". It is said by people wel-informed on the subject to be a true representation.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
John Robinson : Illuminati
To Lady Isabella King, Bath March 8th 1798 'Have you read "The Pursuits of Literature"? It is a satirical poem. I dislike satire in general, but this appears to me one of the cleverest books I ever met with, and indeed this is the general opinion respecting it... I have read Robinson on the "Illuminati". It is said by people wel-informed on the subject to be a true representation.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Marcus Tullius Cicero : Tuscular Disputations
To Miss Hunt Shirley, July 28, 1795 'I must tell you that I cannot help being quite reconciled to Cicero... If you have not yet met with it, only read, as a sample, the first book of his "Tuscular disputations", "de contemrenda morte", and I think you will agree with me, that with the addition of Christianity to confirm his supposition, and rectify a few mistakes in them, and the knowledge of the true state of the universe, no doctrine can be more perfect than his; and that half the modern books on the subject might have been spared, had the writers of them, before they began, read this dialogue.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Edward Hyde Clarendon : History of the Rebellion and civil wars in England
To Miss Hunt Shirley, July 28, 1795 'I have just finished Clarendon's "History of the rebellion", which Miss Bowdler long ago desired me to read. It is extremely interesting and instructive.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
anon : "ribald" song about Harriet Martineau
'One day my [Harriet Martineau's] mother was distressed at finding in the "Times" a ribald song addressed to me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Martineau Print: Newspaper
Thomas Gisbourne : An enquiry into the duties of men in the higher and middle classes of society in Great Britain
To Miss Hunt Shirley, July 28, 1795 'We have read Mr Gisborne's book aloud ["On the duties of Man"] and all the party was extremely pleased with it.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Conyeds Middleton : History of the life of Marcus Tullius Cicero
To Miss Hunt, December 12 1792 'The "Lusiad" I never read. It was Middleton's "Life of Cicero" that I meant. I was not tired with its length because the chief of its contents were new to me. I have lately undertaken Smollet's "History of England", but must leave it in the middle.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Tobias George Smolett : History of England
To Miss Hunt, December 12 1792 'The "Lusiad" I never read. It was Middleton's "Life of Cicero" that I meant. I was not tired with its length because the chief of its contents were new to me. I have lately undertaken Smollet's "History of England", but must leave it in the middle.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Ossian : [poems]
To Miss Hunt, July 7, 1792 'At present I am engaged in an argument with my dear Miss Bowdlen concerning Ossian. I support him against all other poets. You may easily guess who will say all I can for Ossian, for I really love [italics] his poems beyond all others. Milton must stand alone; but surely Ossian is in some respects [italics] superior to Homer.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Homer : [poetry]
To Miss Hunt, July 7, 1792 'At present I am engaged in an argument with my dear Miss Bowdlen concerning Ossian. I support him against all other poets. You may easily guess who will say all I can for Ossian, for I really love [italics] his poems beyond all others. Milton must stand alone; but surely Ossian is in some respects [italics] superior to Homer.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
John Milton : [poems]
To Miss Hunt, July 7, 1792 'At present I am engaged in an argument with my dear Miss Bowdlen concerning Ossian. I support him against all other poets. You may easily guess who will say all I can for Ossian, for I really love [italics] his poems beyond all others. Milton must stand alone; but surely Ossian is in some respects [italics] superior to Homer.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Ossian : hymns
To Miss Hunt, July 7, 1792 'Can you find anything equal to his [Ossian's] descriptions of nature; his address to the Sun in Carthos, that to the Moon in Darthula, and the last hymn? Surely in the joy of grief and in night scenes there is nothing equal to him. I would rather read the description of one of his ghosts than of all Homer's gods. One of my greatest reasons for admiring him is that his heroes are so good [italics].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
William Shakespeare : [works]
'At other times we studied Shakespeare, Milton and some other English poets as well as some of the Italians. We took long walks and often drew from nature. We read with great attention the whole of the New Testament, Secker's lectures on the Catechism and several other books on the same important subjects.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
John Milton : [poems]
'At other times we studied Shakespeare, Milton and some other English poets as well as some of the Italians. We took long walks and often drew from nature. We read with great attention the whole of the New Testament, Secker's lectures on the Catechism and several other books on the same important subjects.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
[various English poets] : [poems]
'At other times we studied Shakespeare, Milton and some other English poets as well as some of the Italians. We took long walks and often drew from nature. We read with great attention the whole of the New Testament, Secker's lectures on the Catechism and several other books on the same important subjects.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Thomas Secker : Lectures on Catechism
'At other times we studied Shakespeare, Milton and some other English poets as well as some of the Italians. We took long walks and often drew from nature. We read with great attention the whole of the New Testament, Secker's lectures on the Catechism and several other books on the same important subjects.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
[n/a] : New Testament
'At other times we studied Shakespeare, Milton and some other English poets as well as some of the Italians. We took long walks and often drew from nature. We read with great attention the whole of the New Testament, Secker's lectures on the Catechism and several other books on the same important subjects.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
[unknown] : Den golden spiegel
To Miss Hunt, St Winifred's Dale, August 18 1793 'I admire the German you sent me extremely. I have read none since you left me, except two books of Dr Randolph's "Den Golden Spiegel", which is an imitation of an Eastern tale, by way of making dissertations upon government. It is entertaining and there is an account of a happy valley, that makes one long to live in it. The other book is Wiessen's Poems (Lyrische Gedischte) some of which are very pretty.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Wiessen : Lyrische Gedischte
To Miss Hunt, St Winifred's Dale, August 18 1793 'I admire the German you sent me extremely. I have read none since you left me, except two books of Dr Randolph's "Den Golden Spiegel", which is an imitation of an Eastern tale, by way of making dissertations upon government. It is entertaining and there is an account of a happy valley, that makes one long to live in it. The other book is Wiessen's Poems (Lyrische Gedischte) some of which are very pretty.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Kliest : [unknown]
To Miss Hunt, April 7 1794 'I am very rich in German books right now for Dr Randolph, who has a great many, has given me his entire library, to take whatever I like. I have got your friend "Kliest", which I think delightful; Hallen's poems; and Zimmerman's "Einsamkert", which pleases me more that [sic] almost any book I ever read... There are some ideas in Zimmerman's upon a future state very like your book [Essay on the happiness of the life to come].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Hallen : [poems]
To Miss Hunt, April 7 1794 'I am very rich in German books right now for Dr Randolph, who has a great many, has given me his entire library, to take whatever I like. I have got your friend Kliest, which I think delightful; Hallen's poems; and Zimmerman's "Einsamkert", which pleases me more that [sic] almost any book I ever read... There are some ideas in Zimmerman's upon a future state very like your book [Essay on the happiness of the life to come].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Zimmerman : Einsamkert
To Miss Hunt, April 7 1794 'I am very rich in German books right now for Dr Randolph, who has a great many, has given me his entire library, to take whatever I like. I have got your friend Kliest, which I think delightful; Hallen's poems; and Zimmerman's "Einsamkert", which pleases me more that [sic] almost any book I ever read... There are some ideas in Zimmerman's upon a future state very like your book [Essay on the happiness of the life to come].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Hunt : Essay on the happiness of the life to come
To Miss Hunt, April 7 1794 'I am very rich in German books right now for Dr Randolph, who has a great many, has given me his entire library, to take whatever I like. I have got your friend Kliest, which I think delightful; Hallen's poems; and Zimmerman's "Einsamkert", which pleases me more that [sic] almost any book I ever read... There are some ideas in Zimmerman's upon a future state very like your book [Essay on the happiness of the life to come].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Harriet Martineau : Life in the Sickroom
From letter of Elizabeth B. Ker, niece of Harriet Martineau: 'I regret infinitely that she desired all her letters to be destroyed. I had so large a boxful that it took some time to read and burn them [...] on reading that most charming of all her publications, "Life in the Sick-Room" [...] I said, "Oh, but I have read it all before! -- this is only my burnt letters!"'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth B. Ker Print: Book
: [newspaper reports]
'Eliza talks of having read in a Newspaper that all the 1st Lieut:s of the Frigates whose Captains were to be sent into Line-of-Battle ships, were to be promoted to the rank of Commander.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza de Feuillide Print: Newspaper
unknown : unknown
'It is now half past twelve, & having heard Lizzy [JA's niece] read, I am moved down into the Library for the sake of a fire...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lizzy Knight Print: Unknown
John Aikin : Evenings at Home
'It would be well if both tales and books werwe always calculated to ... In the "Evenings at Home", or "Juvenile Budget", all this appears to be effected in it's utmost extent...' [more praise follows].
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Homer : Iliad
[An account of the boy's secret reading, and how his parents only found out when he asked a question about his reading].
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: [a boy known to Elizabeth Hamilton] Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'In the morning up early and wrote another [character], my wife lying in bed and reading to me'
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys
Martin le Roy de Gomberville : Polexandre
'Home and to bed, leaving my wife reading in "Polixandre".'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Madeleine de Scuderi : Artamene, ou Le grand Cyrus
'I fell a-reading in Fuller's "history of Abbys" and my wife in "Grand Cyrus" till 12 at night, and so to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas : Divine weekes and workes
'My wife and I spent a good deal of this evening in reading Du' Bartas's "Imposture" and other parts, which my wife of late have taken up to read, and is very fine as anything I meet with.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Ovid : Metamorphoses
'and my wife and I to read Ovids "Metamorphoses", which I brought her home from Pauls churchyard tonight (having called for it by the way) and so to bed'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : The tryal of Sir Henry Vane, Kt., at the Kings Bench, Westminster, June the 2nd and 6th, 1662, together with what he intended to have spoken the day of his sentence (June 11) for arrest of judgment...
'at night my wife read "Sir H. Vanes trial" to me, which she begun last night, and I find it a very excellent thing, worth reading, and him to have been a very wise man.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Unknown
[unknown] : The tryal of Sir Henry Vane, Kt., at the Kings Bench, Westminster, June the 2nd and 6th, 1662, together with what he intended to have spoken the day of his sentence (June 11) for arrest of judgment...
'at night my wife read "Sir H. Vanes trial" to me, which she begun last night, and I find it a very excellent thing, worth reading, and him to have been a very wise man.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Unknown
: The Royal Mandate
'The Royal Mandate deserves to be printed in letters of gold - how sweetly descriptive it is, the help to private devotion too, I think very spiritual, for a small work. I have not met with any thing equal [underlined] to it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marshall Print: Unknown
Isaac Ambrose : Looking into Jesus
'I have been reading a sweet work lately, and earnestly recommend it to you my dear, pray let me have your opinion when you have read it. "Looking into Jesus" is the title, written by Isaac Ambrose [sic] The original was a large book, the one I speak of is about the size of a New Testament having been abridged by Rev Robert Cox-Hackney to render it a more saleable work.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marshall Print: Book
Hannah More : Practical piety
'Mrs Hannah More's "Practical piety" is a very useful book I think, perhaps you have read it if you think of any [underlined] you wish me to read my dear Susan please to name them [...] I am much favor'd with books which the kindness of friends supply, but while drinking with pleasure of some streams, I find the water of life only [underlined] in the Fountain [underlined]! I need not say I mean the Bible.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marshall Print: Book
: Bible
'Mrs Hannah More's "Practical piety" is a very useful book I think, perhaps you have read it if you think of any [underlined] you wish me to read my dear Susan please to name them [...] I am much favor'd with books which the kindness of friends supply, but while drinking with pleasure of some streams, I find the water of life only [underlined] in the Fountain [underlined]! I need not say I mean the Bible.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marshall Print: Book
unknown : Lectures on the Bible and liturgy
'Her own private readings here were chiefly on Divinity, a volume in 8 vo. consisting of "Lectures on the Bible and liturgy" being her principal vade mecum [sic] - this looked well, as though she bore in mind - the end - "that bourne whence no traveller returns!"'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Kemble Print: Book
Oliver Goldsmith : The Vicar of Wakefield
'Mr Jaegle makes us read an English book that is called "The Vicar of Wakefield" which is very pretty, interesting, well wrote and where there are some very good characters'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Unknown
Moliere [pseud.] : L'Ecole des Maris
'we came back in the dark and read "L'Ecole des Maris" and after we played at 21'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Unknown
[unknown] : [unknown]
'I got up very late and ate a large breakfast after which I prayed and read with Mama almost till dinner time'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Unknown
Thomas a Kempis : The Imitation of Jesus Christ
'I spent the evening reading with Mama "the Imitation of Jesus Christ" until supper'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Unknown
Friedrich Schiller : Don Carlos in German
[27th December]'I took my lessons and learnt part of a superb tragedy in german called "Don Carlos" with Mr Jaegle.' ... [28th December]'We finished the lecture of "Don Carlos" that interested me extremely it really is the finest trajedy I have ever read. How much do I hate the memory of the abominable Philip whilst I respected and admired that of the Marquis de Poso that faithful and tender friend who lets himself be thought a traitor in order to save the life of Don Carlos his friend to whom he was under a small obligation, who takes his own life in order to save his and what was my sorrow to see that charming man end his life in vain. The wicked Philip stabbed his son the same day through jealousy! Another thing that annoyed me was not to have the pleasure of seeing the abominable tyrant punished yet I think that he is and that certainly and already.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Unknown
Pierre Corneille : Cinna
'This evening we read a fine trajedy by Corneille where there are many noble characters Emily has such strength and such nobleness'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Unknown
Daniel Defoe : Robinson Crusoe
'I read a little of "Robinson Crusoe" that is how I spent my evening'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
[n/a] : Gazettes
'The weather was fine but so dirty I could not go out. I read the "Gazettes" this evening'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Newspaper
unknown : [Story]
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her childhood reading in her family home: 'To be alone was never unpleasant to me. In the nursery my great pleasure was to sit by myself in a dark closet, opening into a room, with a little lanthorn by my side, and read a story, while my sisters played about. I enjoyed hearing them, but I did not wish to join them.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Unknown
unknown : French idioms
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on studies at Miss Crooke's boarding school, Newport, Isle of Wight: 'When my regular lessons for the day were over, I used to sit until bed-time with my back to a long table, on which two candles were placed, and learn by heart columns of French idioms'.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell
: The Spectator
'My chief acquaintance with the writers of the eighteenth century is derived from reading to Aunt Lyddy papers in the [italics]Spectator[end italics] and [italics]The Rambler[end italics],Mason's plays, Addison's [italics]Cato[end italics], etc. This we were often called to do when we were invited to dine with Aunt Clarke [reader's great-aunt, to whom "Lyddy," Sewell's father's unmarried sister, a companion].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Serial / periodical
Samuel Johnson : The Rambler
'My chief acquaintance with the writers of the eighteenth century is derived from reading to Aunt Lyddy papers in the [italics]Spectator[end italics] and [italics]The Rambler[end italics], Mason's plays, Addison's [italics]Cato[end italics], etc. This we were often called to do when we were invited to dine with Aunt Clarke [reader's great-aunt, to whom "Lyddy," Sewell's father's unmarried sister, a companion].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Serial / periodical
Mason : Plays
'My chief acquaintance with the writers of the eighteenth century is derived from reading to Aunt Lyddy papers in the [italics]Spectator[end italics] and [italics]The Rambler[end italics], Mason's plays, Addison's [italics]Cato[end italics], etc. This we were often called to do when we were invited to dine with Aunt Clarke [reader's great-aunt, to whom "Lyddy," Sewell's father's unmarried sister, a companion].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Joseph Addison : Cato
'My chief acquaintance with the writers of the eighteenth century is derived from reading to Aunt Lyddy papers in the [italics]Spectator[end italics] and [italics]The Rambler[end italics],Mason's plays, Addison's [italics]Cato[end italics], etc. This we were often called to do when we were invited to dine with Aunt Clarke [reader's great-aunt, to whom "Lyddy," Sewell's father's unmarried sister, a companion].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Burger : Lenore
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on visits to her uncle Edwards (a barrister)'s library in his home at Binstead: 'My first sight of German letters, and my first wish to know the language, was gained from being allowed to look at a beautiful copy of Burger's [italics]Lenore[end italics], illustrated by striking line engravings, and having the German on one page and the English translation on the other.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
anon : Arabian Nights' Entertainments
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on books lent to herself and her siblings, when children, during visits to her uncle Edwards (a barrister): 'My uncle was so particular about his books that he used to declare that when a child's finger had touched one it was spoilt. Acting upon this idea, he gave up certain books to us, when as children we stayed with him at Binstead, on condition of our never touching any others. My brothers had Glanvill's [italics]History of the Witches[end italics], and we four [Sewell girls] had a handsome edition of the [italics]Arabian Nights' Entertainments[end italics], which, being unexpurgated, was not the wisest choice that could have been made, though it gave me hours of entrancing delight at the time, and taught me to understand allusions to tales which have become part of general literature.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
: Biblical story of Jephthah
'I was always given to strange scrupulous fancies, and not long before [leaving her first boarding school when aged almost thirteen] had made myself miserable, after reading about Jephthah's vow, because I imagined that every time the thought of making a vow came into my head I had actually made it, and was bound to keep it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Unknown
Walter Scott : The Lady of the Lake
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on reading at her Bath boarding school: 'We learned passages from the best authors, and my delight in Walter Scott made me add to the regular lesson large portions of "The Lady of the Lake".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
William Russell : History of Modern Europe
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
William Robertson : History of Charles the Fifth
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Isaac Watts : Improvement of the Mind
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
unknown : [Italian history of the Venetian Doges]
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
unknown : Spanish grammar
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
unknown : Spanish dictionary
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
unknown : [Texts on botany]
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Unknown
Walter Scott : novels
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Walter Scott : [poetry and novels]
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
George Gordon, Lord Byron : poetry
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Walter Scott : Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk
'In 1835, [James] Edwards [Sewell, reader's brother] [...] had the curacy of Hursley. Mr. Gilbert Heathcote held the living, and Ellen [reader's sister] and I were sent to Hursley [...] whilst Lucy [reader's friend] was ill. We were at the old vicarage [...] [Mr. Heathcote's books] were very kindly left for our use, and I made an acquaintance with Sir Walter Scott's "Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk", and read Shakespeare to Ellen, and led a quiet life, seeing no one.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
William Shakespeare : works
'In 1835, [James] Edwards [Sewell, reader's brother] [...] had the curacy of Hursley. Mr. Gilbert Heathcote held the living, and Ellen [reader's sister] and I were sent to Hursley [...] whilst Lucy [reader's friend] was ill. We were at the old vicarage [...] [Mr. Heathcote's books] were very kindly left for our use, and I made an acquaintance with Sir Walter Scott's "Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk", and read Shakespeare to Ellen, and led a quiet life, seeing no one.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Laetitia Matilda Hawkins : The Countess and Gertrude
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on a stay at her aunt Mrs Hanbury's London house during late 1835: 'The house and the situation [John Street, Bedford Row] were alike dreary [...] The only gleam of romance I had in connection with the place was derived from the fact that the large bare house reminded me of a description of one like it in an old novel by Miss Hawkins --"The Countess and Gertrude".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Joseph Butler : Analogy of Religion
'[By c. late 1830s] My mind had [...] become much quietened and strengthened by the reading of Butler's "Analogy", which I had always heard mentioned with admiration,and which I stumbled upon, as it seemed accidentally (though doubtless it was a Providential help sent me) [...] I took it up first for curiosity, and read it through nearly, but not quite to the end; feeling very much afraid all the time that some one would inquire into my studies, and being greatly humiliated by an observation made by William [reader's brother, a clergyman], who one day found me with it in my hand. His surprised tone, as he exclaimed, "You can't understand that," made me shrink into my shell of reserve, and for years I never owned to anyone that Butler's "Analogy" had been to me, as it has been to hundreds, the stay of a troubled intellect and a weak faith.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Mrs. Mary Sherwood : Tales
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the start of her writing career: 'I began "Amy Herbert"-- I scarcely know why -- only I had been reading some story of Mrs. Sherwood's, which struck me as having pretty descriptions, and I fancied I could write something of the same kind; and as a matter of curiosity I determined to make the attempt. I read both the few chapters of the intended tract ["Stories on the Lord's Prayer"], and the beginning of "Amy Herbert"to my sisters, and they liked them'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Stories on the Lord's Prayer
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the start of her writing career: 'I began "Amy Herbert"-- I scarcely know why -- only I had been reading some story of Mrs. Sherwood's, which struck me as having pretty descriptions, and I fancied I could write something of the same kind; and as a matter of curiosity I determined to make the attempt. I read both the few chapters of the intended tract ["Stories on the Lord's Prayer"], and the beginning of "Amy Herbert"to my sisters, and they liked them'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Amy Herbert
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the start of her writing career: Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the start of her writing career: 'I began "Amy Herbert"-- I scarcely know why -- only I had been reading some story of Mrs. Sherwood's, which struck me as having pretty descriptions, and I fancied I could write something of the same kind; and as a matter of curiosity I determined to make the attempt. I read both the few chapters of the intended tract ["Stories on the Lord's Prayer"], and the beginning of "Amy Herbert"to my sisters, and they liked them'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Stories on the Lord's Prayer
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the anonymity of her first publication ("Stories on the Lord's Prayer", serialised in "The Cottager's Monthly Visitor" in 1840): 'I did not give my name, and no one knew anything about it, except my mother and sisters. I have often vexed myself since -- thinking that I did not tell my father -- but I had a dread of any person talking to me about my writing, and I knew that if he was pleased he would not be able to keep himself from telling me so. I was reading the little book aloud to my mother one evening when he was in the room, and not being well was lying on the sofa half asleep, as I thought; but he listened, and I think was interested, for he asked me what I was reading. I forget exactly what answer I made, but it certainly was not that I was reading anything of my own, and so I lost the opportunity of giving him pleasure.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Unknown
Thomas Hood : 'We watched her breathing through the night --'
Describing the terminal illness of a friend in her "Autobiography", Elizabeth Missing Sewell reproduces four stanzas from Thomas Hood, 'We watched her breathing through the night --'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : The Earl's Daughter
'[italics]The Earl's Daughter[end italics] was [...] begun before my mother's death, and I read part of it to her, but she saw from the beginning that it was likely to be sad, and I think it rather oppressed her. [italics]Margaret Percival[end italics] I read to her entirely, and also a portion of [italics]Laneton Parsonage[end italics], and I remember being obliged to assure her that Alice Lennox (in the latter tale) when taken ill would not die, she took such a vivid interest in the story -- which was only completed after her death.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Margaret Percival
'[italics]The Earl's Daughter[end italics] was [...] begun before my mother's death, and I read part of it to her, but she saw from the beginning that it was likely to be sad, and I think it rather oppressed her. [italics]Margaret Percival[end italics] I read to her entirely, and also a portion of [italics]Laneton Parsonage[end italics], and I remember being obliged to assure her that Alice Lennox (in the latter tale) when taken ill would not die, she took such a vivid interest in the story -- which was only completed after her death.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Laneton Parsonage
'[italics]The Earl's Daughter[end italics] was [...] begun before my mother's death, and I read part of it to her, but she saw from the beginning that it was likely to be sad, and I think it rather oppressed her. [italics]Margaret Percival[end italics] I read to her entirely, and also a portion of [italics]Laneton Parsonage[end italics], and I remember being obliged to assure her that Alice Lennox (in the latter tale) when taken ill would not die, she took such a vivid interest in the story -- which was only completed after her death.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
[Abbe] Barthelemy : Les Voyages du Jeune Anacharsis
'I took my two lessons with Mr Jaegle, we began to read "Les Voyages du Jeune Anarchasis". The little that I heard today pleased me enormously and the style is very fine'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Bernardin de St Pierre : Paul et Virginie
'I began to read "Paul and Virginia" book that Mrs Braun brought here it is very pretty'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Stephanie Felicite de Genlis : Veilees du Chateua ou Cours Morale a l'usage des Enfants
'We read today in the "Veilees du Chateau" I think that book very good for the young people'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
William Russell : History of Modern Europe
'We finished today to read Russels "Modern History", which is perfectly well wrote and in a very intertaining [sic] manner'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
James Thomson : [a tragedy]
'I read today an English Tragedy by Thomson that pleased me much and made me like that author's works'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Unknown
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
'I staid at home and read "Charles Grandison" that we have in French a charming book'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
'The Day was beautifull and I enjoyed the sweetness of the weather in riding walking and sitting out in the fields with a book - "Charles Grandisson" I am but at the second volume much amuses me I have begun to read also in English Robertsons history of America and Blairs lectures on Rhetoric and belles lettres - We have bought these books at Basle where they are well printed and cheap'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
William Robertson : The History of America
'The Day was beautifull and I enjoyed the sweetness of the weather in riding walking and sitting out in the fields with a book - "Charles Grandisson" I am but at the second volume much amuses me I have begun to read also in English Robertsons history of America and Blairs lectures on Rhetoric and belles lettres - We have bought these books at Basle where they are well printed and cheap'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Hugh Blair : Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
'The Day was beautifull and I enjoyed the sweetness of the weather in riding walking and sitting out in the fields with a book - "Charles Grandisson" I am but at the second volume much amuses me I have begun to read also in English Robertsons history of America and Blairs lectures on Rhetoric and belles lettres - We have bought these books at Basle where they are well printed and cheap'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
'I read of "Grandisson" - That Book pleases and interests me very much'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
'I have done to read "Grandisson" that book has amused me vastly'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
[unknown] : Rudolph of Wertenberg
'Ever since I have read "Rudolph of Wertenberg" I have more pleasure when I walk round this country, as it makes me remember on all that has happen in former times in this part of Switzerland, of which I have been well informed by that book; which I read with the greatst Satisfaction - and that I shall not forget So Soon'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Elizabeth Wynne : [diaries]
'I have been reading today some of my journals and indeed find them so horribly stupid that it did not encourage me to continue them but as I hope that I shall soon have great many fine things to describe I will still write them and endeavour to make them less stupid'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Manuscript: diary
John Henry Newman : Obedience, the remedy for religious perplexity
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 20 June 1845: 'The Meyricks have been here today. Mr. Meyrick told Edwards [Sewell's brother] there was no doubt that Newman is going over to Rome, which agrees but little with an observation made by Dr. Pusey to G. F. a short time since that no one could know how devoted a servant of the Church Newman was till after his death. The Church though may mean the Catholic or Universal Church, and so Rome may be included. It is a horrid, startling notion, but a sermon of Newman's I was reading to-night would be a great safeguard against being led into mischief by it. "Obedience, the remedy for religious perplexity."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
unknown : Article on the Jesuits
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 21 October 1845: 'Some of us went for a lovely walk yesterday by the sea cliffs of St. Lawrence. Mr. Edgar Estcourt [...] talked to me a little about William [Sewell]'s novel [italics]Hawkstone[end italics], doubting the fact told me about the Jesuits, and wishing they could be tried in a court of justice; and afterwards he gave me an article about them in the [italics]Oxford and Cambridge Review[end italics], most laudatory of them, and of Ignatius Loyola, and very condemnatory of Luther. It had no effect upon me however. There is too much of the partisan style about it, and it is too bombastic, and contains few facts....'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Serial / periodical
: The Oxford and Cambridge Review
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 21 October 1845: 'Some of us went for a lovely walk yesterday by the sea cliffs of St. Lawrence. Mr. Edgar Estcourt [...] talked to me a little about William [Sewell]'s novel [italics]Hawkstone[end italics], doubting the fact told me about the Jesuits, and wishing they could be tried in a court of justice; and afterwards he gave me an article about them in the [italics]Oxford and Cambridge Review[end italics], most laudatory of them, and of Ignatius Loyola, and very condemnatory of Luther. It had no effect upon me however. There is too much of the partisan style about it, and it is too bombastic, and contains few facts....'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Serial / periodical
Cecilia Tilley : Chollerton
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, September 1846: 'We went into London one day [...] Burns's is a dull shop decidedly. You see the same books time after time [...] It is an inconvenient shop too. No place to sit down at, and the books crowded too close to the door. I took up [italics]Chollerton[end italics] (a Church tale) and skimmed parts through the uncut leaves and was not fascinated. It seemed strained and the fasting was brought forward prominently, and there seemed too much womanish humility.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Harriet Martineau : Tales on the Game Laws
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 26 November 1846: 'I read nothing scarcely [...] Miss Martineau's [italics]Tales on the Game Laws[end italics] I began, but they are so dull to me that I have scarcely patience to finish. The thing I like about them is their fairness. The rich people are not all wretches, though Miss Martineau's sympathies are evidently with the poor.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Unknown
Alison : accounts of Napoleon's battles
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 31 December 1846: 'I read a little now, and am almost afraid I am learning to do without reading. Napoleon's battles in Alison's history are so dreadfully dry, after one has been writing and working all day.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Unknown
: Life of Southey
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 [sic: should be 13] August 1850, during stay with the Rev. G. Cooke, Cubington: 'I have been reading [italics]Southey's Life[end italics]; it does me a great deal of good. His life in a book [...] [has] helped me more than any sermon. Southey's hard work and pecuniary anxieties come home to me. His plodding on, longing to be free; and yet his perfect contentment.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Unknown
John Ruskin : Lectures on Architecture and Painting
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 14 August 1850: 'Ruskin's [italics]Lectures on Architecture and Painting[end italics] which I have been reading, interest and please me immensely. They certainly are dogmatical. They are disfigured by exaggerated tirades against Romanism, but they are full of wonderful thought, and an intense feeling for truth'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
unknown : An Authentic Sketch of the life and public services of His Excellency Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, Bart., KCB etc (second volume)
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 February 1856: 'I came here [Bournemouth] for a fortnight and have stayed a month. I have written a little, and read a good deal, -- the second volume of [italics]Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life[end italics], which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and [italics]Hypatia[end italics] and two sermons of Dr. Pusey's against Germanism, and part of [italics]Hero Worship[end italics], to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of [italics]The Times[end italics] every evening.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Pusey : two sermons
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 February 1856: 'I came here [Bournemouth] for a fortnight and have stayed a month. I have written a little, and read a good deal, -- the second volume of [italics]Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life[end italics], which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and [italics]Hypatia[end italics] and two sermons of Dr. Pusey's against Germanism, and part of [italics]Hero Worship[end italics], to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of [italics]The Times[end italics] every evening.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Unknown
Thomas Carlyle : Heroes and Hero-Worship
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 February 1856: 'I came here [Bournemouth] for a fortnight and have stayed a month. I have written a little, and read a good deal, -- the second volume of [italics]Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life[end italics], which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and [italics]Hypatia[end italics] and two sermons of Dr. Pusey's against Germanism, and part of [italics]Hero Worship[end italics], to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of [italics]The Times[end italics] every evening.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
: pamphlets
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 February 1856: 'I came here [Bournemouth] for a fortnight and have stayed a month. I have written a little, and read a good deal, -- the second volume of [italics]Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life[end italics], which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and [italics]Hypatia[end italics] and two sermons of Dr. Pusey's against Germanism, and part of [italics]Hero Worship[end italics], to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of [italics]The Times[end italics] every evening.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell
: magazines
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 February 1856: 'I came here [Bournemouth] for a fortnight and have stayed a month. I have written a little, and read a good deal, -- the second volume of [italics]Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life[end italics], which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and [italics]Hypatia[end italics] and two sermons of Dr. Pusey's against Germanism, and part of [italics]Hero Worship[end italics], to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of [italics]The Times[end italics] every evening.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Serial / periodical
: The Times
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 February 1856: 'I came here [Bournemouth] for a fortnight and have stayed a month. I have written a little, and read a good deal, -- the second volume of [italics]Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life[end italics], which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and [italics]Hypatia[end italics] and two sermons of Dr. Pusey's against Germanism, and part of [italics]Hero Worship[end italics], to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of [italics]The Times[end italics] every evening.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Serial / periodical
Charles Kingsley : Hypatia
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 February 1856: 'I came here [Bournemouth] for a fortnight and have stayed a month. I have written a little, and read a good deal, -- the second volume of [italics]Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life[end italics], which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and [italics]Hypatia[end italics] and two sermons of Dr. Pusey's against Germanism, and part of [italics]Hero Worship[end italics], to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of [italics]The Times[end italics] every evening.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
St Paul : Epistle to the Hebrews
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 19 February 1856: 'I was reading to-day the 5th chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. I have taken this epistle for a particular study this Lent. It is a great favourite of mine. In so many ways it comes home to one's everyday trials and needs. Thinking of my birthday [19 February] threw me back into the past, and the description of our Lord having been made perfect through suffering seemed to harmonise with the great lesson which I suppose we all learn as we go on in life, that whatever we have done, or said, or thought, which may be in any way of value [...] is the fruit of suffering.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 'Tuesday Evening, 9th June [1857]': 'I have just finished Mrs. Gaskell's [italics]Life of Miss Bronte[end italics]. Years ago, when [italics]Jane Eyre[end italics] came out I read it. People said it was coarse, and I felt it was, but I felt also that the person who wrote it was not necessarily coarse-minded, that the moral of the story was intended to be good; but that it failed in detail. The life is intensely, painfully interesting. A purer, more high-minded person it seems there could scarcely be, wonderfully gifted, and with a man's energy and power of will and passionate impulse; and yet gentle and womanly in all her ways [goes on to reflect upon Bronte's depressive temperament, and to characterise her religious feeling as 'abstract belief not personal love']'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte : Jane Eyre
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 'Tuesday Evening, 9th June [1857]': 'I have just finished Mrs. Gaskell's [italics]Life of Miss Bronte[end italics]. Years ago, when [italics]Jane Eyre[end italics] came out I read it. People said it was coarse, and I felt it was, but I felt also that the person who wrote it was not necessarily coarse-minded, that the moral of the story was intended to be good; but that it failed in detail. The life is intensely, painfully interesting. A purer, more high-minded person it seems there could scarcely be, wonderfully gifted, and with a man's energy and power of will and passionate impulse; and yet gentle and womanly in all her ways [goes on to reflect upon Bronte's depressive temperament, and to characterise her religious feeling as 'abstract belief not personal love']'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Charles de Remusat : 'French Essays on Literature'
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 28 January [?1865]: 'I am reading [italics]French Essays on Literature[end italics] [sic] -- so clever they are! Charles de Remusat describes the French of the eighteenth century as "Des gens qui ne lisaient qu'afin de pouvoir parler". Could anything be more apt?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Jean Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire : Conferences de Notre Dame de Paris
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 7 November 1868: 'Began Lacordaire's [italics]Conferences de Notre Dame[end italics]. He starts with premises open to much discussion, and all his arguments fall to the ground unless one can accept the premises.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
anon : slip of paper printed with news of declaration of war [?between France and Prussia]
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 15 July 1870, from Eisenach: 'War [apparently the Franco-Prussian war] is actually declared. We heard the news this morning as we were at breakfast in the [italics]Salle[end italics]. Some one (I think it was the master of the hotel) came up and laid before me a printed slip of paper. I had just been talking about railway trains, and thought this had something to do with them. When I read it you can understand the surprise.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: loose slip of paper
Richard Rowe : Episodes in an Obscure Life
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 15 August 1871, during visit to friends at Ashbourne Green, Derbyshire: 'I have been reading [italics]Episodes of an Obscure Life[end italics] [sic], and have made up my mind that I know as little of the life of the East End of London, or rather of the lives of the people, as I do of those of the angels. Write, or think, or work, as one may, there are thousands one could never reach, simply because one could not understand them.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Unknown
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Preparation for the Holy Communion
From letter to Eleanor L. Sewell reproduced in [italics]The Autobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell[end italics], written on 15 December 1906 by Miss [E.] Wordsworth , in response to appeal for thoughts and reminiscences regarding Sewell and her works: 'We are all apt to forget how much good there was in England before "Tractarianism" had become a potent influence in the Church. There is one little book [of Sewell's] that I should like to name [...] [italics]Preparation for the Holy Communion[end italics] by the author of [italics]Amy Herbert[end italics] [sic]. It was given me years ago, and I have found it very helpful. There is an earnestness and sobriety [...] in its tone, which makes it very suitable for many who would shrink from making use of the less restrained phraseology of more modern manuals.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Wordsworth Print: Book
: The Times
Eleanor L. Sewell, niece of Elizabeth Missing Sewell, in chapter 21 of [italics]The utobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell[end italics]: 'Miss Sewell's arduous life-work came to an end [...] in 1890, and from that year to 1897 she kept up many outside activities [...] keenly interested in events of the day, reading the [italics]Times[end italics] aloud in the evening or some book of note.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Newspaper
unknown : ['books of note']
Eleanor L. Sewell, niece of Elizabeth Missing Sewell, in chapter 21 of [italics]The utobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell[end italics]: 'Miss Sewell's arduous life-work came to an end [...] in 1890, and from that year to 1897 she kept up many outside activities [...] keenly interested in events of the day, reading the [italics]Times[end italics] aloud in the evening or some book of note.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Sophie Cottin : Mathilde
'I read a French novel, "Matilde", which interested me much and is extremely well written - by Mde Cottin'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Fremantle Print: Book
Anna Laetitia Barbauld : 'Eyes, and No Eyes; or, The Art of Seeing'
From Letter V, "Letters on Daily Life": 'I wonder whether you ever met with an old-fashioned story called "Eyes and no Eyes." It was written, I think, by Mrs. Barbauld. I read it when I was a child. It went to show that two persons going for a walk through the same fields might return home with totally different impressions made upon them.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Fanny Kemble : Autobiography
From Letter VIII, [italics]Letters on Daily Life[end italics]: 'In what spirit of self-denial, and with what noble motives acting can be undertaken as a profession, we have all learnt lately by the publication of Mrs. Fanny Kemble's autobiography [...] certainly after reading it I do not think any one can say that acting is incompatible with the highest womanly dignity, and most sincere religious purpose.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Trench : sonnet opening 'Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident'
In Letter XI, "Letters on Daily Life", Elizabeth Missing Sewell reproduces a sonnet by 'Archbishop Trench' opening 'Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident / It is the very place God meant for thee,' with the remark that this poem 'has often been a help to me when I have felt inclined to wish my position other than it is.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell
?Maria ?Edgeworth : 'To-morrow'
In Chapter XII [sic], "Letters on Daily Life": 'In my young days we used to read Miss Edgeworth's story of "To-morrow", in which the procrastinator gives the history of the misfortunes that his habit has involved him in, and breaks off abruptly, leaving it to his editor to say that the story was to be finished [italics]to-morrow[end italics]. I don't know that the tale actually prevented me from procrastinating when I was a child, but it imprinted firmly in my mind that procrastination was a dangerous fault, and the impression has remained with me and been very useful ever since.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Jane Taylor : The Contributions of Q.Q.
In Letter XXI, "Letters on Daily Life" (addressed to 'C___'), on the correspondent's supposedly having mentioned to her her feeling that 'government of the thoughts' was 'an impossibility': 'I can recollect the book which first brought to me the conviction that such mental control was a duty. It was a volume of short essays and stories, called [italics]The Contributions of Q.Q.[end italics], by Jane Taylor, the well-known author of [italics]Hymns for Infant Minds[end italics]. It brought me a new idea just at the time when I most needed the help [...] I am glad to be able to acknowledge thankfully the aid that this old-fashioned, book, with its quaint title, afforded me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Giovanni Perrone : Catechismi intorno al Protestantesimo ed alla Chiesa Cattolica
In letter to 'My Dear ----,' E. M. Sewell reproduces several passages (in English translation) from Giovanni Perrone, "Catechismi intorno al Protestanteismo ed alla Chiesa Cattolica" (1861), following remark: 'An Italian catechism, published some years ago, has lately been reprinted, in which the people are warned against the insidious heresies of Protestantism generally, and of the English in particular. The lies it contains send one into fits of laughter.' [Discussion of text continued after examples].
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
unknown : Pamphlet on the Chiesa Evangelica
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, in letter to 'My Dear _____', from Florence, May 1861: 'A pamphlet [on the Chiesa Evangelica] which has been lent me, giving an account of its formation, plainly owns that it does not pretend to be a regular church.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell
Mary Russell Mitford : Rienzi
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, describing travel from Pisa toward Spezzia in letter of 5 June 1861 to 'My Dear _____', headed 'Bugiasta or Pagiastra, or something of the kind; but we can't quite make out where we are, only it is half-way between Spezzia and Sestri, and on the road to Genoa.': 'We started after six [am], M and myself on the outside seat [?of coach]. What with pleasant conversation, the reading of "Rienzi" and the newspaper, and occasional little naps, I managed to spend an agreeable day.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
: newspaper
Elizabeth Missing Sewell, describing travel from Pisa toward Spezzia in letter of 5 June 1861 to 'My Dear _____', headed 'Bugiasta or Pagiastra, or something of the kind; but we can't quite make out where we are, only it is half-way between Spezzia and Sestri, and on the road to Genoa.': 'We started after six [am], M and myself on the outside seat [?of coach]. What with pleasant conversation, the reading of "Rienzi" and the newspaper, and occasional little naps, I managed to spend an agreeable day.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Newspaper
anon : [novel]
'When we arrived at Turin, we had no hope of being present at a sitting of Parliament, but our Sicilian friend [a friend of Cavour and acquaintance of Garibaldi, previously encountered by Sewell in a railway carriage], who had promised to call upon us, came [...] to bring us tickets of admission for Monday [...] He was as voluble and excited as before, and produced a novel which he had lately written, and which he begged us to accept. A most remarkable production it was, as I found when I read it! ___ the Pope, Antonelli, and Lamorciere, being brought in by name, and made to take part in a plot of atrocious and not very readable wickedness.'
UnknownCentury: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell
Moliere [pseud.] : Les Precieuses Ridicules
[Betsey]:'The gazettes from France were read this evening there was nothing remarquable in them. We began again "Les Precieuses Ridicules" but had no time to for supper was called'. [Eugenia]: 'In the evening the Paris papers were read I did not give them any attention then we began to reread for Madame de Bombelles "Les Precieuses Ridicules" which was interrupted by supper'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
Mrs Hugh Fraser, describing life at the select girls' boarding school she attended, run by Elizabeth Missing Sewell and her sisters at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight: 'the only unpleasant incident of my whole stay in Bonchurch was connected with the evening readings. The book in question was "Cranford," and we were all electrified when Aunt Elizabeth [the pupils' name for Sewell] came to a full stop in the beginning of the part where the nephew plays a practical joke -- something connected with a baby -- on the old ladies. "I will leave this out," said Miss Sewell, looking quite stern. The she turned the page and took up the story further on. [goes on to relate how a new girl who was caught looking for the offending passage in the book was subsequently expelled]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Lindley Murray : English grammar
'When I first ventured to write a sentence for publication, having a deep sense of my profound ignorance of the rules of punctuation, I applied myself to the study of Lindley Murray's grammar -- then the one accepted authority for English people. He gave seventeen rules for the right placing of the comma, and I thought it my duty to endeavour to master them. But my patience did not hold out [...] I threw aside the seventeen rules of punctuation, and in their stead placed on one mental page the simple definitions of the respective values of periods, colons, semi-colons, and commas which I had learnt as a child, and then took which ever common sense and observation pointed out as suitable to my purpose; and in the end I found that I had escaped any special criticism.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
William Pinnock : Catechism
Elizabeth Missing Sewell recalls her studies to the age of thirteen: 'As regards history, I had learnt absolutely perfectly the chief events in the reigns of the English kings given in Pinnock's Catechism, and could go through the dates without a mistake.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
: New Testament Gospels
Elizabeth Missing Sewell recalls her studies to the age of thirteen: 'The Gospels were as familiar to me as the Lord's Prayer and the Catechism; almost too familiar, indeed, for I read them day after day as a lesson, and thus in a certain degree lost the sense of their meaning.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
St Matthew : Matthew 2:1
'It had [...] been a favourite idea of my mother's that her girls should learn Latin, and she engaged an old schoolmaster living in a back street in our native town to give my eldest sister and myself lessons when we were about ten and eight years of age [...] But the lessons did not last long. The tears I shed over the difficulties of the first verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, which was the material for our first Latin lesson, were so bitter that they were too much for my mother's tender heart, and I was allowed to give up the study [...] The failure of this attempt, which was never renewed, has been a regret to me all my life.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Mangall : Questions
Elizabeth Missing Sewell recalls studies at the second school she attended (to the age of 15): 'Our subjects of study included -- besides English history and exercises in grammar -- lessons in mythology and upon the English Constitution learnt by heart from Mangall's Questions, the outlines of the rise of nations, with Roman, Grecian, and French history (the latter read in French), Mrs. Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry and Political Economy, and Joyce's Scientific Dialogues.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
unknown : [texts on French history]
Elizabeth Missing Sewell recalls studies at the second school she attended (to the age of 15): 'Our subjects of study included -- besides English history and exercises in grammar -- lessons in mythology and upon the English Constitution learnt by heart from Mangall's Questions, the outlines of the rise of nations, with Roman, Grecian, and French history (the latter read in French), Mrs. Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry and Political Economy, and Joyce's Scientific Dialogues.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Mrs Marcet : Conversations on Chemistry
Elizabeth Missing Sewell recalls studies at the second school she attended (to the age of 15): 'Our subjects of study included -- besides English history and exercises in grammar -- lessons in mythology and upon the English Constitution learnt by heart from Mangall's Questions, the outlines of the rise of nations, with Roman, Grecian, and French history (the latter read in French), Mrs. Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry and Political Economy, and Joyce's Scientific Dialogues.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Mrs Marcet : Conversations on Political Economy
Elizabeth Missing Sewell recalls studies at the second school she attended (to the age of 15): 'Our subjects of study included -- besides English history and exercises in grammar -- lessons in mythology and upon the English Constitution learnt by heart from Mangall's Questions, the outlines of the rise of nations, with Roman, Grecian, and French history (the latter read in French), Mrs. Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry and Political Economy, and Joyce's Scientific Dialogues.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Joyce : Scientific Dialogues
Elizabeth Missing Sewell recalls studies at the second school she attended (to the age of 15): 'Our subjects of study included -- besides English history and exercises in grammar -- lessons in mythology and upon the English Constitution learnt by heart from Mangall's Questions, the outlines of the rise of nations, with Roman, Grecian, and French history (the latter read in French), Mrs. Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry and Political Economy, and Joyce's Scientific Dialogues.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Thomas Fuller : The church-history of Britain
'and then home, and my wife and I to read in Fullers "Church History", and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Lady Barker : Letters from New Zealand
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of non-fictional works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Lady Barker's Letters from New Zealand almost everyone knows. They are lively and graphic. I suspect, from what I have heard from my New Zealand friends, that they are rather highly coloured, but they give a very vivid impression of the pleasures and toils of life in the Antipodes, and are good for reading aloud.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
George Kennan : Tent Life in Siberia
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of non-fictional works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Tent Life in Siberia. -- Not a very new book, but interesting from its account of northern scenery and civilization.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
J. A. Froude : Short Essays on Great Subjects
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of non-fictional works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Froude's Short Essays on Great Subjects. -- I mention this book with a certain reservation, because, with all my admiration of Mr. Froude's talents, I certainly do not agree with him in principle [...] "Calvinism" appears to me to be about anything but Calvinism. It is rather an exposition of Mr. Froude's Protestant view of Christianity; but it is interesting and suggestive. Several of the other essays are on the colonial policy of England, and will be chiefly attractive to those who have colonial sympathies; but they are very clever.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Count Beugnot : Memoirs
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of non-fictional works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Count Beugnot's Memoirs I have been reading in the original, and I have come to the conclusion that the book is likely to be more agreeable to an English reader in the English dress which Miss Yonge has given it. So much of it refers to individuals and politics exclusively French; but in any form it must be interesting at this time, when France is, as it was then, undergoing a process of re-construction.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Frederick William Robinson : Christie's Faith
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Christie's Faith, by the author of "Owen, a Waif," is a novel which I can guarantee myself. The scenes are not laid in a very elevated class of life, and some are extremely painful, but there is a noble religious tone throughout the book which carries one through all. If I were inclined to criticise, I should say that the author does not understand women as well as he does men, and one scene, in which a so-called lady offers to be the wife of a man much her inferior in position, would in other hands have been very unpleasant. As it is, it is merely unnatural. The author's sympathies are evidently not with the English Church, but he is no way antagonistic to it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
J. G. Sharp : Culture and Religion
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of non-fictional works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Culture and Religion, by J. G. Sharp, is a delightful little book, which should be read and thought over till it is fully mastered.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so to my chamber, and got her to read to me for saving of my eyes'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Robert Boyle : Some considerations touching the style of the Holy Scriptures
'and then my wife and I to my chamber, where through the badness of my eyes she was forced to read to me, which she doth very well; and was Mr Boyle's discourse upon the Style of the Scripture, which is a very fine piece.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Robert Boyle : Some considerations touching the style of the Holy Scriptures
'and then home and my wife read to me as last night, and so to bed'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so parted and to bed - after my wife had read something to me (to save my eyes) in a good book.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'In the evening read [a] good book, my wife to me'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then home without strangers to dinner, and then my wife to read, and then I to the office'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Thomas Fuller : The church-history of Britain
'Then home and got my wife to read to me out of Fuller's "Church History"'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Thomas Fuller : The church-history of Britain
'and there to save my eyes, got my wife at home to read again, as last night, in the same book, till W. Batelier came and spent the evening talking to us'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then home to supper and my wife to read; and then to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Sir Robert Cotton : An answer to such motives as were offer'd by certain military-men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect arms more than peace
'and so home and there to read and my wife to read to me out of Sir Rob Cotton's book about Warr; which is very fine, showing how the Kings of England have raised money heretofore upon the people, and how they have played upon the kings also.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Sir Robert Cotton : An answer to such motives as were offer'd by certain military-men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect arms more than peace
'So home, and my wife to read to me in Sir R. Cotton's book of Warr, which is excellent reading; and perticularly I was mightily pleased this night in what we read about the little profit of honour this Kingdom ever gained in its greatest of its conquests abroad in France.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Sir Robert Cotton : An answer to such motives as were offer'd by certain military-men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect arms more than peace
'He gone, I home; and there my wife made an end to me of Sir R. Cottons discourse of Warr, which is endeed a very fine book. So to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and when came home there, I got my wife to read'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
John Davies [transl] : The history of Algiers and its slavery
'and there however I got her to read to me the "History of Algier", which I find a very pretty book.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'And so it growing night, I away home by coach, and there set my wife to read'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : Mustapha
'And in the evening betimes came to Reding and there heard my wife read more of "Mustapha".'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Madame de Scud?ri : Ibrahim, ou L'illustre Bassa
'And after dinner, she to read in the "Illustr. Bassa" the plot of yeterday's play, which is most exactly the same.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Madame de Scud?ri : Ibrahim, ou L'illustre Bassa
'And there I saw this new play my wife saw yesterday; and do not like it, it being very smutty, and nothing so good as "The Maiden Queen" or "The Indian Imperour", of his making, that I was troubled at it; and my wife tells me is wholly (which he confesses a little in the epilogue) taken out of the "Illustr. Bassa".'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then home - and there to get my wife to read to me till supper, and then to bed'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
John Wilkins : An essay towards a real character, and a philosophical language
'and I did get my wife to spend the morning reading of Wilkins's "Real Character".'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then at night, my wife to read again and to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so to bed, after hearing my wife read a little.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then they gone, and my wife to read to me, and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so home and did get my wife to read to me'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so home and to supper, and got my wife to read to me and so to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and we home to supper, and my wife to read to me and so to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
William Habington : The Queene of Arragon
'and so by coach home; and there, having this day bought the "Queene of Arragon" play, I did get my wife and W Batelier to read it over this night by 11 a-clock, and so to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and in the evening home, and there made my wife read till supper time, and so to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so home, and my wife to read to me; and then with much content to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and after dinner, all the afternoon got my wife and boy to read to me.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and my wife to read to me all the afternoon'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'And so in to solace myself with my wife, whom I got to read to me, and so W. Hewer and the boy'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then with comfort to sit with my wife, and get her to read to me'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then home, where my wife to read to me; and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and thence home, and my wife to read to me and W. Hewer to set some matters of accounts right at my chamber; to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then home to ease my eyes and make my wife read to me.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Peter Heylyn : Cyprianus Anglicus, or The history of the life and death of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury
'He gone, my wife and I to supper; and so she to read and made an end of the "Life of Archbishop Laud", which is worth reading, as informing a man plainly in the posture of the Church, and how the things of it were managed with the same self-interest and design that every other thing is, and have succeeded accordingly. So to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
L.G. de Cordemoy : A philosophicall discourse concerning speech, conformable to the Cartesian principles ... Englished out of French
'and then she to read a little book concerning Speech in general, a translation late out of French, a most excellent piece as ever I read, proving a soul in man and all the ways and secrets by which Nature teaches speech in man - which doth please me most infinitely to read.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
William Davenant : The siege of Rhodes
'so home, my wife to read to me out of "The Siege of Rhodes"; and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'So home, and there to talk and my wife to read to me, and so to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'In the evening, he gone, my wife to read to me and talk, and spent the evening with much pleasure; and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so home, with much pleasure talking and then to reading; and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so home with my wife, who read to me late; and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and there to read and talk with my wife, and so to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so took my wife home, and there to make her to read, and then to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and home, my wife to read to me'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then home to supper with my wife, and to get her to read to me.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Robert Boyle : The origin of formes and qualities
'and there hired my wife to make an end of Boyles book of Forms tonight and tomorrow'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Robert Boyle : The origin of formes and qualities
'and I spent all afternoon with my wife and W. Battelier talking and then making them read, and perticularly made an end of Mr Boyl's book of Formes, which I am glad to have over; and then fell to read a French discourse which he hath brought over with him for me, to invite the people of France to apply themselfs to Navigacion; which it doth do very well, and is certainly their interest, and what will undo us in a few years if the King of France goes on to fit up his Navy and encrease it and his trade, as he hath begun.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Edward Chamberlayne : Angliae Notitia; or The present state of England: together with divers reflections upon the ancient state thereof
'and after supper, and W. Battler gone, my wife begun another book I lately bought, a new book called "The State of England", which promises well and is worth reading; and so after a while to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and after dinner, to get my wife and boy, one after another, to read to me - and so spent the afternoon and evening'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'And so home to supper, and get my wife to read to me, and then to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
William Penn : The sandy foundation shaken: or, Those so generally believed and applauded doctrines, of one God, subsisting in three distinct and separate persons, the impossibility of God's pardoning sinners, without a plenary satisfaction, ...
'and so home, and there Pelling hath got me W. Pen's book against the Trinity; I got my wife to read it to me, and I find it so well writ, as I think it too good for him ever to have writ it - and it is a serious sort of book, and not fit for everybody to read.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Middleton : [Middleton's memorandum]
'Up, and got my wife to read to me a copy of what the Surveyor offered to the Duke of York on Friday, he himself putting it into my hand to read; but Lord, it is a poor silly thing ever to think to bring it in practice in the King's Navy; it is to have the Captain's to endent for all stores and victuals; but upon so silly grounds to my thinking, and ignorance of the present instructions of Officers, that I am ashamed to hear it.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Manuscript: Unknown
[unknown] : [unknown]
'I away home; and there spent the evening talking and reading with my wife and Mr Pelling'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then home to my wife to read to me, and to bed'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and then home, and there my wife to read to me, my eyes being sensibly hurt by the too great lights of the playhouse.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'So home, and my wife read to me till supper, and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'So down to supper, and she to read to me, and then with all possible kindness to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and my wife to read to me, and then to bed in mighty good humour, but for my eyes.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'So home, and did get my wife to read, and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'At night, my wife to read to me and then to supper'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so home, where got my wife to read to me, and so after supper to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'So home, and there to my chamber and got my wife to read to me a little'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
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.
'and then home and got my wife to read to me again in "The Nepotisme", which is very pleasant, and so to supper and to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'and so away, back by water home, and after dinner got my wife to read'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
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: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
La Calpren?de : Cassandra
'and then to her, and she read to me the "Epistle of Cassandra", which is very good endeed, and the better to her because recommended by Sheres. So to supper, and I to bed.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book
Silas Taylor : The Serenade, or Disappointment
'But I will find time to get it read to me - and I did get my wife to begin a little tonight in the garden, but not so much as I could make any judgement on it.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Manuscript: Unknown
Robert Wild : Upon the rebuilding the city ... the Lord Mayor and the noble company of bachelors dining with him, May 5th, 1669
'in the evening, my wife and I all alone, with the boy, by water up as high as Putney almost with the tide, and back again, neither staying, going nor coming; but talking and singing, and reading a foolish copy of verses up[on] my Lord Mayors entertaining of all the Bachelors, designed in praise to my Lord Mayor.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Unknown
Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon : Les Aventures de Telemaque
Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, c. December 1816: 'I have finished "Telemaque," and have read one, or two of Racine's plays, which I like very much'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jean Racine : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, c. December 1816: 'I have finished "Telemaque," and have read one, or two of Racines plays, which I like very much'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Latin grammar
Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, c. December 1816: 'I have begun Latin, and I have gotten as far in the Grammar as "Propriae quae maribus"; I do not like it at all, I think it twice as difficult as French'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Maria Edgeworth : Manoeuvring
Elizabeth Barrett to her mother, Mary Moulton-Barrett, c.1817 (originally in French): 'My very dear Mama / Excuse me, I do not at all like Manoeuvring, it is not to my taste. I recognize that it is still Miss Edgeworth, but it is no longer the author of Patronage in reality [...] I agree that Mr. Palmer is a charming character [...] except that one the novels you choose for me always give me pleasure.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Maria Edgeworth : Patronage
Elizabeth Barrett to her mother, Mary Moulton-Barrett, c.1817 (originally in French): 'I agree that Caroline [in Edgeworth's Patronage] is perfection. I admit that she is not entirely made to be a heroine [...] she has too much sense of mind. 'The few novels I have read confirm this thought -- for example, [in] Rob Roy -- the lofty and noble soul of Diana Vernon strikes us with admiration [...] she forgets womanly duties in the personality of a man; she is a heroine, Caroline is not [...] [when] she chooses to fill the character she sustains [with] grief for her parents [...] it pleased me greatly'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Walter Scott : Rob Roy
Elizabeth Barrett to her mother, Mary Moulton-Barrett, c.1817 (originally in French): 'I agree that Caroline [in Edgeworth's Patronage] is perfection. I admit that she is not entirely made to be a heroine [...] she has too much sense of mind. 'The few novels I have read confirm this thought -- for example, [in] Rob Roy -- the lofty and noble soul of Diana Vernon strikes us with admiration [...] she forgets womanly duties in the personality of a man; she is a heroine, Caroline is not [...] [when] she chooses to fill the character she sustains [with] grief for her parents [...] it pleased me greatly'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Gordon, Lord Byron : Works including The Corsair
Elizabeth Barrett to her father, Edward Moulton-Barrett, c. November 1817: 'I have been reading Lord Byrons Corsair &c how foolish I have been not to read them before they did not entertain me much as I have perused the extracts and the reviews on them [...] I think many of the passages exquisitely beautiful the parting of Conrad and Medora & the intercessory between the hero and Gulnare are in my humble opinion two of the MOST beautiful'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Gordon, Lord Byron : Reviews of the Corsair
Elizabeth Barrett to her father, Edward Moulton-Barrett, c. November 1817: 'I have been reading Lord Byrons Corsair &c how foolish I have been not to read them before they did not entertain me much as I have perused the extracts and the reviews on them [...] I think many of the passages exquisitely beautiful the parting of Conrad and Medora & the intercessory between the hero and Gulnare are in my humble opinion two of the MOST beautiful'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Frederick Sylvester North Douglas : An Essay on Certain Points of Resemblance between the Ancient and Modern Greeks
Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, November 1818: 'I have read "Douglas on the Modern Greeks." I think it a most amusing book ... I have not yet finished "Bigland on the Character and Circumstances of Nations." An admirable work indeed ... I do not admire "Madame de Sevigne's letters," though the French is excellent [...] yet the sentiment is not novel, and the rhapsody of the style is so affected, so disgusting, so entirely FRENCH, that every time I open the book it is rather as a task than a pleasure -- the last Canto of "Childe Harold" (certainly much superior to the others) has delighted me more than I can express. The description of the waterfall is the most exquisite piece of poetry that I ever read [...] All the energy, all the sublimity of modern verse is centered in those lines'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Bigland : An Historical Display of the Effects of Physical and Moral Causes on the Character and Circumstances of Nations
Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, November 1818: 'I have read "Douglas on the Modern Greeks." I think it a most amusing book ... I have not yet finished "Bigland on the Character and Circumstances of Nations." An admirable work indeed ... I do not admire "Madame de Sevigne's letters," though the French is excellent [...] yet the sentiment is not novel, and the rhapsody of the style is so affected, so disgusting, so entirely FRENCH, that every time I open the book it is rather as a task than a pleasure -- the last Canto of "Childe Harold" (certainly much superior to the others) has delighted me more than I can express. The description of the waterfall is the most exquisite piece of poetry that I ever read [...] All the energy, all the sublimity of modern verse is centered in those lines'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Marquise de Sevigne : Letters
Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, November 1818: 'I have read "Douglas on the Modern Greeks." I think it a most amusing book ... I have not yet finished "Bigland on the Character and Circumstances of Nations." An admirable work indeed ... I do not admire "Madame de Sevigne's letters," though the French is excellent [...] yet the sentiment is not novel, and the rhapsody of the style is so affected, so disgusting, so entirely FRENCH, that every time I open the book it is rather as a task than a pleasure -- the last Canto of "Childe Harold" (certainly much superior to the others) has delighted me more than I can express. The description of the waterfall is the most exquisite piece of poetry that I ever read [...] All the energy, all the sublimity of modern verse is centered in those lines'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Fourth
Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, November 1818: 'I have read "Douglas on the Modern Greeks." I think it a most amusing book ... I have not yet finished "Bigland on the Character and Circumstances of Nations." An admirable work indeed ... I do not admire "Madame de Sevigne's letters," though the French is excellent [...] yet the sentiment is not novel, and the rhapsody of the style is so affected, so disgusting, so entirely FRENCH, that every time I open the book it is rather as a task than a pleasure -- the last Canto of "Childe Harold" (certainly much superior to the others) has delighted me more than I can express. The description of the waterfall is the most exquisite piece of poetry that I ever read [...] All the energy, all the sublimity of modern verse is centered in those lines'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
unknown : Review of Robert Southey, A Tale of Paraguay (1825) (including extracts from poem)
Elizabeth Barrett to James Graham-Clarke, letter postmarked 12 November 1825: 'Have you met with Southey's new Poem "The Tale of Paraguay["]? The extracts I have seen delight me maugre the reviewing commentary which speaks I think much too harshly and partially.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Uvedale Price : An Essay on the Modern Pronunciation of the Greek and Latin Languages
Elizabeth Barrett to Uvedale Price, Foxley [Price's home] October 1826: 'Mr Price's desire that I should have read these sheets [proofs of Price's Essay on the Modern Pronunciation of the Greek and Latin Languages] with the design of remarking on them I have obeyed with much deference to him [...] I have read them with deep interest & attention [goes on to discuss and dispute text in great depth and detail]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Petronius : Satyricon
Elizabeth Barrett to Uvedale Price, 30 December 1826, in response to his remarks on the description of a storm in George Robert Greig's The Subaltern: 'There is undoubtedly a new combination of striking circumstances in your Capture of St Sebastian [...] I cannot however allow that sulphur is only mentioned in [italics]Homer[end italics] when I find this expressive passage in Petronius Arbiter [slightly misquotes two lines from the Satyricon, followed by further relevant quotes from William Chamberlayne, Pharonnida (III canto 3); Beattie, The Minstrel, I v.54, and Shakespeare's Tempest I.2.203-204] [...] 'After some searching, I have only found "the alarming impression of the storm, while yet collecting, on all animals" mentioned in Chatterton's Excellent Balade of Charitie, -- which I am sure you must think poetically excellent [quotes line from verse 5] [...] but here the cattle have had a more ordinary indication of the aproaching storm [i.e. falling rain] than your awful circumstances of close oppressive heat, praeternatural stillness & silence'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Chamberlayne : Pharonnida, an Heroic Poem
Elizabeth Barrett to Uvedale Price, 30 December 1826, in response to his remarks on the description of a storm in George Robert Greig's The Subaltern: 'There is undoubtedly a new combination of striking circumstances in your Capture of St Sebastian [...] I cannot however allow that sulphur is only mentioned in [italics]Homer[end italics] when I find this expressive passage in Petronius Arbiter [slightly misquotes two lines from the Satyricon, followed by further relevant quotes from William Chamberlayne, Pharonnida (III canto 3); Beattie, The Minstrel, I v.54, and Shakespeare's Tempest I.2.203-204] [...] 'After some searching, I have only found "the alarming impression of the storm, while yet collecting, on all animals" mentioned in Chatterton's Excellent Balade of Charitie, -- which I am sure you must think poetically excellent [quotes line from verse 5] [...] but here the cattle have had a more ordinary indication of the aproaching storm [i.e. falling rain] than your awful circumstances of close oppressive heat, praeternatural stillness & silence'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
James Beattie : The Minstrel
Elizabeth Barrett to Uvedale Price, 30 December 1826, in response to his remarks on the description of a storm in George Robert Greig's The Subaltern: 'There is undoubtedly a new combination of striking circumstances in your Capture of St Sebastian [...] I cannot however allow that sulphur is only mentioned in [italics]Homer[end italics] when I find this expressive passage in Petronius Arbiter [slightly misquotes two lines from the Satyricon, followed by further relevant quotes from William Chamberlayne, Pharonnida (III canto 3); Beattie, The Minstrel, I v.54, and Shakespeare's Tempest I.2.203-204] [...] 'After some searching, I have only found "the alarming impression of the storm, while yet collecting, on all animals" mentioned in Chatterton's Excellent Balade of Charitie, -- which I am sure you must think poetically excellent [quotes line from verse 5] [...] but here the cattle have had a more ordinary indication of the aproaching storm [i.e. falling rain] than your awful circumstances of close oppressive heat, praeternatural stillness & silence'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Shakespeare : The Tempest
Elizabeth Barrett to Uvedale Price, 30 December 1826, in response to his remarks on the description of a storm in George Robert Greig's The Subaltern: 'There is undoubtedly a new combination of striking circumstances in your Capture of St Sebastian [...] I cannot however allow that sulphur is only mentioned in [italics]Homer[end italics] when I find this expressive passage in Petronius Arbiter [slightly misquotes two lines from the Satyricon, followed by further relevant quotes from William Chamberlayne, Pharonnida (III canto 3); Beattie, The Minstrel, I v.54, and Shakespeare's Tempest I.2.203-204] [...] 'After some searching, I have only found "the alarming impression of the storm, while yet collecting, on all animals" mentioned in Chatterton's Excellent Balade of Charitie, -- which I am sure you must think poetically excellent [quotes line from verse 5] [...] but here the cattle have had a more ordinary indication of the aproaching storm [i.e. falling rain] than your awful circumstances of close oppressive heat, praeternatural stillness & silence'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Chatterton : An Excelente Balade of Charitie
Elizabeth Barrett to Uvedale Price, 30 December 1826, in response to his remarks on the description of a storm in George Robert Greig's The Subaltern: 'There is undoubtedly a new combination of striking circumstances in your Capture of St Sebastian [...] I cannot however allow that sulphur is only mentioned in [italics]Homer[end italics] when I find this expressive passage in Petronius Arbiter [slightly misquotes two lines from the Satyricon, followed by further relevant quotes from William Chamberlayne, Pharonnida (III canto 3); Beattie, The Minstrel, I v.54, and Shakespeare's Tempest I.2.203-204] [...] 'After some searching, I have only found "the alarming impression of the storm, while yet collecting, on all animals" mentioned in Chatterton's Excellent Balade of Charitie, -- which I am sure you must think poetically excellent [quotes line from verse 5] [...] but here the cattle have had a more ordinary indication of the aproaching storm [i.e. falling rain] than your awful circumstances of close oppressive heat, praeternatural stillness & silence'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer :
'Homer I adore as more than human and I never read Popes fine translation without feeling exalted above my self'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Johnson : The Famous Historie of the Seven Champions of Christendom
'At four and a half my great delight was poring over fairy phenomenons and the actions of necromancers -- & the seven champions of Christendom in "Popular tales" has beguiled many a weary hour.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
unknown : 'History of England and Rome'
'At 7 [...] I read the History of England and Rome -- at 8 I perused the History of Greece and it was at this age that I first found real delight in poetry -- "The Minstrel" Popes "Iliad"[,] some parts of the "Odyssey" passages from "Paradise lost" selected by my dearest Mama and some of Shakespeares plays among which were "The Tempest," "Othello," and a few historical dramatic pieces constituted my studies!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
unknown : 'History of Greece'
'At 7 [...] I read the History of England and Rome -- at 8 I perused the History of Greece and it was at this age that I first found real delight in poetry -- "The Minstrel" Popes "Iliad"[,] some parts of the "Odyssey" passages from "Paradise lost" selected by my dearest Mama and some of Shakespeares plays among which were "The Tempest," "Othello," and a few historical dramatic pieces constituted my studies!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
James Beattie : The Minstrel
'At 7 [...] I read the History of England and Rome -- at 8 I perused the History of Greece and it was at this age that I first found real delight in poetry -- "The Minstrel" Popes "Iliad"[,] some parts of the "Odyssey" passages from "Paradise lost" selected by my dearest Mama and some of Shakespeares plays among which were "The Tempest," "Othello," and a few historical dramatic pieces constituted my studies! -- I was enchanted with all these but I think the story interested me more that [sic] the poetry till "The Minstrel" met my sight [...] The brilliant imagery[,] the fine metaphors and the flowing numbers of "the Minstrel" truly astonished me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer : The Iliad
'At 7 [...] I read the History of England and Rome -- at 8 I perused the History of Greece and it was at this age that I first found real delight in poetry -- "The Minstrel" Popes "Iliad"[,] some parts of the "Odyssey" passages from "Paradise lost" selected by my dearest Mama and some of Shakespeares plays among which were "The Tempest," "Othello," and a few historical dramatic pieces constituted my studies!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer : The Odyssey
'At 7 [...] I read the History of England and Rome -- at 8 I perused the History of Greece and it was at this age that I first found real delight in poetry -- "The Minstrel" Popes "Iliad"[,] some parts of the "Odyssey" passages from "Paradise lost" selected by my dearest Mama and some of Shakespeares plays among which were "The Tempest," "Othello," and a few historical dramatic pieces constituted my studies!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Milton : Paradise Lost (extracts)
'At 7 [...] I read the History of England and Rome -- at 8 I perused the History of Greece and it was at this age that I first found real delight in poetry -- "The Minstrel" Popes "Iliad"[,] some parts of the "Odyssey" passages from "Paradise lost" selected by my dearest Mama and some of Shakespeares plays among which were "The Tempest," "Othello," and a few historical dramatic pieces constituted my studies!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Shakespeare : The Tempest
'At 7 [...] I read the History of England and Rome -- at 8 I perused the History of Greece and it was at this age that I first found real delight in poetry -- "The Minstrel" Popes "Iliad"[,] some parts of the "Odyssey" passages from "Paradise lost" selected by my dearest Mama and some of Shakespeares plays among which were "The Tempest," "Othello," and a few historical dramatic pieces constituted my studies!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Shakespeare : Othello
'At 7 [...] I read the History of England and Rome -- at 8 I perused the History of Greece and it was at this age that I first found real delight in poetry -- "The Minstrel" Popes "Iliad"[,] some parts of the "Odyssey" passages from "Paradise lost" selected by my dearest Mama and some of Shakespeares plays among which were "The Tempest," "Othello," and a few historical dramatic pieces constituted my studies!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer : unknown
'During these eight months [of striving for literary fame, aged eleven] I never felt myself of ore consequence or had a better opinion of my own talents -- In short I was in infinite danger of being as vain as I was inexperienced! During this dangerous period I was from home & the fever of a heated imagination was perhaps increased by the intoxicating gai[e]ties of a watering place Ramsgate where we then were and where I commenced my poem "The Battle of Marathon" [...] When we came home one day after having written a page of poetry which I considered models of beauty I ran downstairs to the library to seek Popes Homer in order to compare them that I might enjoy my OWN SUPERIORITY [...] I brought Homer up in triumph & read first my own Poem & afterwards began to compare -- I read fifty lines from the glorious Father of the lyre -- It was enough -- I felt the whole extent of my own immense & mortifying inferiority -- 'My first impulse was to throw with mingled feelings of contempt & anguish my composition on the floor -- my next to burst into tears! & I wept for an hour and then returned to reason and humility [...] From this period for a twelvemonth I could find no pleasure in any book but Homer. I read & longed to read again and tho I had it nearly by heart I still found new beauties & fresh enchantments'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer : unknown
'During these eight months [of striving for literary fame, aged eleven] I never felt myself of ore consequence or had a better opinion of my own talents -- In short I was in infinite danger of being as vain as I was inexperienced! During this dangerous period I was from home & the fever of a heated imagination was perhaps increased by the intoxicating gai[e]ties of a watering place Ramsgate where we then were and where I commenced my poem "The Battle of Marathon" [...] When we came home one day after having written a page of poetry which I considered models of beauty I ran downstairs to the library to seek Popes Homer in order to compare them that I might enjoy my OWN SUPERIORITY [...] I brought Homer up in triumph & read first my own Poem & afterwards began to compare -- I read fifty lines from the glorious Father of the lyre -- It was enough -- I felt the whole extent of my own immense & mortifying inferiority -- 'My first impulse was to throw with mingled feelings of contempt & anguish my composition on the floor -- my next to burst into tears! & I wept for an hour and then returned to reason and humility [...] From this period for a twelvemonth I could find no pleasure in any book but Homer. I read & longed to read again and tho I had it nearly by heart I still found new beauties & fresh enchantments'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett : The Battle of Marathon
'During these eight months [of striving for literary fame, aged eleven] I never felt myself of ore consequence or had a better opinion of my own talents -- In short I was in infinite danger of being as vain as I was inexperienced! During this dangerous period I was from home & the fever of a heated imagination was perhaps increased by the intoxicating gai[e]ties of a watering place Ramsgate where we then were and where I commenced my poem "The Battle of Marathon" [...] When we came home one day after having written a page of poetry which I considered models of beauty I ran downstairs to the library to seek Popes Homer in order to compare them that I might enjoy my OWN SUPERIORITY [...] I brought Homer up in triumph & read first my own Poem & afterwards began to compare -- I read fifty lines from the glorious Father of the lyre -- It was enough -- I felt the whole extent of my own immense & mortifying inferiority -- 'My first impulse was to throw with mingled feelings of contempt & anguish my composition on the floor -- my next to burst into tears! & I wept for an hour and then returned to reason and humility [...] From this period for a twelvemonth I could find no pleasure in any book but Homer. I read & longed to read again and tho I had it nearly by heart I still found new beauties & fresh enchantments'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
John Locke : unknown
'At twelve I enjoyed a literary life in all its pleasures. Metaphysics were my highest delights and after having read a page from Locke my mind not only felt edified but exalted.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Amelia Opie : Temper, or Domestic Scenes
'In my sixth year [...] Nothing could contribute so much to my amusement as a novel. A novel at six years may appear ridiculous, but it was a real desire that I felt, -- not to instruct myself, I felt no such wish, but to divert myself and to afford more scope to my nightly meditations ... and it is worthy to remark that in a novel I carefully past over all passages which described CHILDREN -- 'The Fops love and pursuit of the heroines mother in "Temper" delighted me, but the description of the infancy of Emma was past over'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Milton : unknown
'This year [when aged twelve] I read Milton for the first time [italics]thro[end italics] together with Shakespeare & Pope's Homer [...] I now read to gain idea's [sic] not to indulge my fancy and I studied the works of those critics whose attention was directed to my favorite authors.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Shakespeare : unknown
'This year [when aged twelve] I read Milton for the first time [italics]thro[end italics] together with Shakespeare & Pope's Homer [...] I now read to gain idea's [sic] not to indulge my fancy and I studied the works of those critics whose attention was directed to my favorite authors.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer : unknown
'This year [when aged twelve] I read Milton for the first time [italics]thro[end italics] together with Shakespeare & Pope's Homer [...] I now read to gain idea's [sic] not to indulge my fancy and I studied the works of those critics whose attention was directed to my favorite authors.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer : unknown
'At this period [aged thirteen] I perused all modern authors who had any claim to superior merit & poetic excellence. I was familiar with Shakespeare Milton Homer and Virgil Locke Hooker Pope -- I read Homer in the original with delight inexpressible together with Virgil.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Virgil : unknown
'At this period [aged thirteen] I perused all modern authors who had any claim to superior merit & poetic excellence. I was familiar with Shakespeare Milton Homer and Virgil Locke Hooker Pope -- I read Homer in the original with delight inexpressible together with Virgil.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hooker : unknown
'At this period [aged thirteen] I perused all modern authors who had any claim to superior merit & poetic excellence. I was familiar with Shakespeare Milton Homer and Virgil Locke Hooker Pope -- I read Homer in the original with delight inexpressible together with Virgil.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Cicero : unknown
'we each [Elizabeth Barrett and her brother Edward] are blessed with abilities -- my dear Bro's are more solid & more profound -- mine are more refined & dazzling [...] He delights in the sober reasoning of the Historian! He feels greater interest in the noble Sallust while I have remained entranced over a page of the divine & animated Cicero!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'A Day of Pleasure at Malvern'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 11 March 1827: 'I thanked you, in my last note, for sending me your works, -- & now, having read them, I have it in my power to thank you for the pleasure you have afforded me. As you desire me to mention which of the two poems on the calamity at Malvern, I prefer, I will frankly select the [italics]first[end italics], tho' the "Malvern tale" has many lines that interest me, together with a smoothness of versification which is common in your writings. Your prologue & epilogue to St Gregory's poems are elegant; & your preface to that translation, attractive on several accounts. I am not ungrateful to the [italics]Elegy[end italics]: but were I to say on what page I linger longest, I think I should turn at once to your translation from the [italics]Electra[end italics].'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Hugh Stuart Boyd : A Malvern Tale
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 11 March 1827: 'I thanked you, in my last note, for sending me your works, -- & now, having read them, I have it in my power to thank you for the pleasure you have afforded me. As you desire me to mention which of the two poems on the calamity at Malvern, I prefer, I will frankly select the [italics]first[end italics], tho' the "Malvern tale" has many lines that interest me, together with a smoothness of versification which is common in your writings. Your prologue & epilogue to St Gregory's poems are elegant; & your preface to that translation, attractive on several accounts. I am not ungrateful to the [italics]Elegy[end italics]: but were I to say on what page I linger longest, I think I should turn at once to your translation from the [italics]Electra[end italics].'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Hugh Stuart Boyd : Prologue and Epilogue to poems of St Gregory
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 11 March 1827: 'I thanked you, in my last note, for sending me your works, -- & now, having read them, I have it in my power to thank you for the pleasure you have afforded me. As you desire me to mention which of the two poems on the calamity at Malvern, I prefer, I will frankly select the [italics]first[end italics], tho' the "Malvern tale" has many lines that interest me, together with a smoothness of versification which is common in your writings. Your prologue & epilogue to St Gregory's poems are elegant; & your preface to that translation, attractive on several accounts. I am not ungrateful to the [italics]Elegy[end italics]: but were I to say on what page I linger longest, I think I should turn at once to your translation from the [italics]Electra[end italics].'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'Elegy'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 11 March 1827: 'I thanked you, in my last note, for sending me your works, -- & now, having read them, I have it in my power to thank you for the pleasure you have afforded me. As you desire me to mention which of the two poems on the calamity at Malvern, I prefer, I will frankly select the [italics]first[end italics], tho' the "Malvern tale" has many lines that interest me, together with a smoothness of versification which is common in your writings. Your prologue & epilogue to St Gregory's poems are elegant; & your preface to that translation, attractive on several accounts. I am not ungrateful to the [italics]Elegy[end italics]: but were I to say on what page I linger longest, I think I should turn at once to your translation from the [italics]Electra[end italics].'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Hugh Stuart Boyd : Translation from Sophocles' Electra
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 11 March 1827: 'I thanked you, in my last note, for sending me your works, -- & now, having read them, I have it in my power to thank you for the pleasure you have afforded me. As you desire me to mention which of the two poems on the calamity at Malvern, I prefer, I will frankly select the [italics]first[end italics], tho' the "Malvern tale" has many lines that interest me, together with a smoothness of versification which is common in your writings. Your prologue & epilogue to St Gregory's poems are elegant; & your preface to that translation, attractive on several accounts. I am not ungrateful to the [italics]Elegy[end italics]: but were I to say on what page I linger longest, I think I should turn at once to your translation from the [italics]Electra[end italics].'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Uvedale Price and James Commeline : correspondence on pronunciation of classical languages
Elizabeth Barrett to Uvedale Price, c.15 April 1827: 'I have done reading your correspondence with Mr Commeline [...] I thought it odd that an article of the Edinburgh Review should be referred to, on a philological subject; &, on looking into the one which Mr Commeline calls the "Manual of his heresy", I was surprised to find us accused there of ["]subverting the true metrical structure of Latin hexameters, even according to the accentual system" by [italics]not[end italics] laying our accent on the [italics]long[end italics] syllable, & by laying it on the short ones. The Reviewer seems confused in his speculations'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
unknown : Review of William Mitford, An Inquiry into the Principles of Harmony in Language...
Elizabeth Barrett to Uvedale Price, c.15 April 1827: 'I have done reading your correspondence with Mr Commeline [...] I thought it odd that an article of the Edinburgh Review should be referred to, on a philological subject; &, on looking into the one which Mr Commeline calls the "Manual of his heresy", I was surprised to find us accused there of ["]subverting the true metrical structure of Latin hexameters, even according to the accentual system" by [italics]not[end italics] laying our accent on the [italics]long[end italics] syllable, & by laying it on the short ones. The Reviewer seems confused in his speculations'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Hugh Stuart Boyd : Reflections on the Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, September 1827: 'I am [...] obliged to you for sending me your work on the Atonement [...] I have read your book with sincere respect both for your ability as a disputant & your elevated feelings as a Christian.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett : (probably) "The Development of Genius"
Elizabeth Barrett to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett, from Eastnor Castle, c.October 1827: 'As Lady Margaret wished to see a part of my poem, I read her a few sheets, & when I had done she begged they might remain with her till I left Eastnor [...] 'She said the work shewed "great mind & thought [italics]always[end italics], -- & poetical power [italics]frequently[end italics]:" observing in criticism that I was "too metaphysical now & then."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Sheet
Hugh Stuart Boyd : Select Passages from the Writings of St Chrysostom, St Gregory Nazianzen, and St Basil
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 3 November 1827: 'You have extremely obliged me by lending me your Select Translations, -- passages from which, I have repeatedly read with increasing delight & admiration: particularly the Oration on Eutropius, which is a picture in motion , -- & that [italics]Homeric[end italics] description of a battle, contained in your extract from the 6th book of St Chrysostom "On the Priesthood".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Lucan : Pharsalia
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1 December 1827: 'I [italics]have[end italics] read the Pharsalia; & am very glad that you do not join in the classical [italics]growl[end italics] against it, given vent to, by most critics [...] Lucan is an ardent poet: the lightning of his spirit [...] has a real stormy grandeur which can only proceed from genius.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Uvedale Price : An Essay on the Modern Pronunciation of the Greek and Latin Languages
Uvedale Price to Elizabeth Barrett, 11 December 1827: 'It gave me great pleasure to hear that you think so favorably of my Essay now that you have read the whole of it, & that what you [italics]had[end italics] read in MS., has gained by being in print.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Hebrew scriptures
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 12 January 1828: 'I know very little Hebrew, & have indeed only read a few chapters in the original scriptures.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aeschlylus : Prometheus Bound
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 3 March 1828: I have reconsidered Io [...] I quite agree with you in admiring the night visions, the geographical descriptions, & several other passages full of animation & power. I can do this with perfect truth, as I read the scene in an unconnected state'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
anon : Review of Elizabeth Barrett, An Essay on Mind with Other Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, March 1828: 'I send you three notices of my poem [An Essay on Mind] [...] They are the only ones I have [italics]seen[end italics] [...] The flat contradiction between the Eclectic Review & Literary Gazette, with respect to [italics]Akenside[end italics], will amuse you [...] I was put out of humour for at least ten minutes, by the charge of my having imitated Darwin. I never could [italics]bear[end italics] Darwin! I have tried his Botanic Garden four or five times, & never could get thro' above twenty pages!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
anon : Review of Elizabeth Barrett, An Essay on Mind with Other Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, March 1828: 'I send you three notices of my poem [An Essay on Mind] [...] They are the only ones I have [italics]seen[end italics] [...] The flat contradiction between the Eclectic Review & Literary Gazette, with respect to [italics]Akenside[end italics], will amuse you [...] I was put out of humour for at least ten minutes, by the charge of my having imitated Darwin. I never could [italics]bear[end italics] Darwin! I have tried his Botanic Garden four or five times, & never could get thro' above twenty pages!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Erasmus Darwin : The Botanic Garden, a Poem
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, March 1828: 'I send you three notices of my poem [An Essay on Mind] [...] They are the only ones I have [italics]seen[end italics] [...] The flat contradiction between the Eclectic Review & Literary Gazette, with respect to [italics]Akenside[end italics], will amuse you [...] I was put out of humour for at least ten minutes, by the charge of my having imitated Darwin. I never could [italics]bear[end italics] Darwin! I have tried his Botanic Garden four or five times, & never could get thro' above twenty pages!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
St Chrysostom : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 20-21 April 1828: 'I have been reading St Chrysostom in Greek & in your English [...] Besides this, I have been reading several parts of your translation, exactly as you desired me to do -- slowly, & out loud: and I have admired the particular cadences & the general rhythm, all the way.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
St Chrysostom : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 20-21 April 1828: 'I have been reading St Chrysostom in Greek & in your English [...] Besides this, I have been reading several parts of your translation, exactly as you desired me to do -- slowly, & out loud: and I have admired the particular cadences & the general rhythm, all the way.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
anon : 'Review'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1-3 May 1828: 'Saturday, eight o' clock. Our dinner hour was rather later than usual today [...] we have only just left the table. I find your parcel waiting for me in my room, & hear that your messenger is in eminent [sic] danger of being benighted. Therefore my quick way of reading, which you are so severe upon, has done me some service, in looking over the magazine & your letter [...] The Review is a very satisfactory one to [italics]my[end italics] vanity'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Uvedale Price : Essay on the Picturesque
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 28-29 May 1828: "If you have not read the Essay on the Picturesque, will you let me send it to you [...] It is one of the books which I read for the sake of its style, without feeling an interest in its subject'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Lady Mary Shepherd : Essays on the Perception of an External Universe
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Mary Shepherd, c.July 1828: 'I am reduced to the necessity of offering my [italics]written[end italics] but warm thanks, for the valuable present, left for me by your Ladyship -- I have read several parts of the Essays with a [italics]curious[end italics] pleasure -- several with an entire mental satisfaction: and I have everywhere admired the originality, brilliancy, & power, which, -- whether your Ladyship's positions be questionable or the contrary, -- undeniably distinguish your mode of supporting them.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henrietta Muschett : poem
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 11 July 1828: 'I will [italics]not[end italics] keep Miss Muschett's poem, -- notwithstanding your kind permission [...] My general impression of the poem is this, -- that it is very elegantly & feelingly & pleasingly written; but it is deficient in harmony, and the ideas seem to me to be diluted by a [italics]wordiness[end italics] in the expression [...] I like the 20th and 21st stanzas best.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'elegy'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 'Saturday Night,' 2 August 1828: 'It is late for me to be writing, -- but I have this moment received your elegy, -- & I do not wish our servant to go tomorrow [...] without taking a few lines from me on the subject [...] for its has [italics]particularly pleased me[end italics] [goes on to discuss in detail]'.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
E.H. Barker : Parriana; or, Notices of the Rev. Samuel Parr, collected by E. H. Barker
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 'Saturday Night,' 2 August 1828: 'I have not gone [italics]thro'[end italics] the Parriana yet. I have been extremely amused by your most [italics]characteristic[end italics] letters, published by Mr Barker.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
E. H. Barker : The Claims of Sir Philip Francis, K.B., to the Authorship of Junius's Letters, Disproved
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 6 August 1828: 'I have finished the Parriana -- but not the work on Junius.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hugh Stuart Boyd : Thoughts on an Illustrious Exile
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 26-27 September 1828: 'On opening your book to look for Joan of Arc, I came upon your translation of the beautiful episode in the Georgics [i.e. "The Death of Orpheus and Eurydice"] [...] Did I not once tell you how much I admired this translation? I believe I did -- but I must say it over again.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
E.H. Barker (ed.) : Cicero's Catilinian Orations
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 2 February 1829, thanking him for forwarding parcel containing E. H. Barker's edition of Cicero's Catilinian Orations: 'I was much interested by the extracts from Schottus's dissertation. I was surprised that Tacitus's treatise should be printed without notes [...] I was also surprised [...] to find Mr Barker's notes in English, while the notes of Ernesti & Ernestus are left in Latin. Surely some uniformity should have been preserved: either the Latin notes should have been rendered into English, or the English notes into Latin. These remarks are for [italics]you[end italics]. You need not take the trouble of repeating, to Mr Barker, anything more than my thanks.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Heliodorus : Aethiopica
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 May 1829: 'I return Heliodorus, -- & [italics]keep[end italics] many pleasant recollections of him. The lamentation of Chariclia on the death of Calasiris, at page 171. book 7., appears to me the most [italics]eloquent[end italics] passage in the work [goes on to cite and discuss other passages]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hugh Stuart Boyd : notes to the Agamemnon
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 May 1829: 'I never learnt anything about the rule [...] of the Greek Article, -- except what I learnt from [italics]you[end italics]: first, from your notes to the Agamemnon, & Select passages; & secondly, & more fully & clearly, from your essays in Dr Clarkes commentary.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'Essay on the Greek Article'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 May 1829: 'I never learnt anything about the rule [...] of the Greek Article, -- except what I learnt from [italics]you[end italics]: first, from your notes to the Agamemnon, & Select passages; & secondly, & more fully & clearly, from your essays in Dr Clarkes commentary.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Dugald Stewart : essays
Elizabeth Barrett to Edmund Henry Barker, 12 May 1829: 'You desire to have my remarks on Dugald Stewart versus Sir Uvedale [Price]. Some time ago I read Stewart's Essays; & I flattered myself, till this moment, that I recollected his arguments clearly enough, to be able to write upon them to you. But upon opening the book & turning over the pages, I find more pages [...] on the subject, than I recollected or reckoned upon: and this letter must not be kept till I can read & think them all over.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Dugald Stewart : essays
Elizabeth Barrett to Edmund Henry Barker, 12 May 1829: 'You desire to have my remarks on Dugald Stewart versus Sir Uvedale [Price]. Some time ago I read Stewart's Essays; & I flattered myself, till this moment, that I recollected his arguments clearly enough, to be able to write upon them to you. But upon opening the book & turning over the pages, I find more pages [...] on the subject, than I recollected or reckoned upon: and this letter must not be kept till I can read & think them all over.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Gregory Nazianzen : In laudem virginitatis
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 16 May 1829: 'I have actually & absolutely finished the seven hundred & thirty one lines of Gregory Nazianzen's poem In laudem virginitatis. It will be impossible for me to forget the exact number, as long as I live! I began the poem with the very best intentions of being pleased & interested. At the end of two hundred lines, my Patience became restless & uncomfortable, but took courage & toiled on; & then grew feverish & spasmodically affected, -- & finally sank under accumulations of dulness & dryness & heaviness & tediousness & lengthiness, between the 400th & 500th lines [goes on to discuss piece critically and in detail].]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Jebb : Sermons on Subjects Chiefly Practical
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 25 May 1829: 'I have received the Bishop of Limerick's book, & thank you for sending it [...] I read one Sermon last night, & thought it very well & classically written.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jean Jacques Barthelemy : Voyage du jeune Anarcharsis en Grece (introduction)
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1829: 'I meant to have taken with me today the following extract from the learned Abbe Barthelemi's introduction to his "Voyage of Anarcharsis". It consists of his opposition to a few of the charges generally & principally brought against Homer [including lack of dignity in presentation of noble characters] -- & pleased me very much when I read it for the first time a few days ago [goes on to transcribe passage in own English translation].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
St Basil : Oration on Barlaam
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, October 1829: 'I have now read the oration[s] on Barlaam & Gordius, & the treatise on reading the books of the Gentiles. The [italics]homily on the Faith[end italics] I had read by your desire, before your last letter reached me [goes on to discuss texts in detail].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
St Basil : Oration on Gordius
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, October 1829: 'I have now read the oration[s] on Barlaam & Gordius, & the treatise on reading the books of the Gentiles. The [italics]homily on the Faith[end italics] I had read by your desire, before your last letter reached me [goes on to discuss texts in detail].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
St Basil : Treatise on reading the books of the Gentiles
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, October 1829: 'I have now read the oration[s] on Barlaam & Gordius, & the treatise on reading the books of the Gentiles. The [italics]homily on the Faith[end italics] I had read by your desire, before your last letter reached me [goes on to discuss texts in detail].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
St Basil : Homily 'De Fide'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, October 1829: 'I have now read the oration[s] on Barlaam & Gordius, & the treatise on reading the books of the Gentiles. The [italics]homily on the Faith[end italics] I had read by your desire, before your last letter reached me [goes on to discuss texts in detail].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'treatise on Geology'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 'Tuesday Evening,' October 1829: 'With regard to your treatise on Geology, I will say nothing about the science of it, for fear you should laugh at me, in which case I should not have even the satisfaction of complaining of your injustice. I assure you I have read it quite thro', & more than once [goes on to cite specific passages].'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
St Chrysostom : 'In Eutropium Eunuchum, Patrium et Consulem'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 'Thursday Morng.', October 1829: 'You will think me very idle when I tell you that the Apologetis is not finished yet. But the Oration on Eutropius [italics]is[end italics]; I have read it twice, -- & I have besides, been reading a little of Longinus's treatise every day, of which I had previously read only own or two chapters [...] the brilliancy of his imaginative powers dazzles you so much, as almost to prevent your perceiving the roughness & cragginess [...] As to the Oration on Eutropius, it has of course delighted me extremely [...] But it has [...] weakness occasioned not merely by [italics]repetition[end italics], but by a super-abundance of supererogatory epithets.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Longinus : De Sublimitate
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 'Thursday Morng.', October 1829: 'You will think me very idle when I tell you that the Apologetis is not finished yet. But the Oration on Eutropius [italics]is[end italics]; I have read it twice, -- & I have besides, been reading a little of Longinus's treatise every day, of which I had previously read only own or two chapters [...] the brilliancy of his imaginative powers dazzles you so much, as almost to prevent your perceiving the roughness & cragginess [...] As to the Oration on Eutropius, it has of course delighted me extremely [...] But it has [...] weakness occasioned not merely by [italics]repetition[end italics], but by a super-abundance of supererogatory epithets.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
St Chrysostom : orations including (probably) Homily on 1 Corinthians
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 'Friday Night,' December 1829: 'I have read the seven orations on Paul, & the eighth one on the same subject [goes on briefly to cite specific passages].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Plato : Phaedon
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 21 December 1829: 'I have been reading over again Plato's Phaedon [...] The reasoning seems to me very inconsecutive & inconclusive [...] But the style is a veil of golden tissue, like that which over- hung the countenance of Moore's Veiled Prophet [in Lalla Rookh]: and let no-one upraise it! [...] Do you recollect the chapters on natural philosophy? How splendid they are!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hugh Stuart Boyd : Greek epitaph 'On the death of a favourite Tom Cat'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, Monday 28 December 1829, thanking him for his epitaph on a cat, and following critical appraisal of it: 'You told me never to read anything of yours to anybody, because I read so badly. Notwithstanding this, I did transgress on Saturday by reading your [italics]feline[end italics] epitaph to Bro, because I thought it sounded better when read in [italics]our[end italics] way, than Carthusianly, as he would have read it. And as I read really very slowly (for [italics]me[end italics]!) & distinctly [...] you need not bewail yourself nor be severe upon me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
St Chrysostom : 'In Epistolarum primam ad Corinthos'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 16 January 1830: 'Chrysostom has been staggering me lately by his commentary on those passages of the Epistles to the Corinthians, which relate to the Lord's Supper. I have felt every now & then, that he [italics]must[end italics] hold transubstantiation, -- & then I look at your pencil marks upon those very passages, & recollect your opinion of his holding no such doctrine -- & then I am in perplexity'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hugh Stuart Boyd : Annotations to St Chrysostom, 'In Epistolarum primam ad Corinthos'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 16 January 1830: 'Chrysostom has been staggering me lately by his commentary on those passages of the Epistles to the Corinthians, which relate to the Lord's Supper. I have felt every now & then, that he [italics]must[end italics] hold transubstantiation, -- & then I look at your pencil marks upon those very passages, & recollect your opinion of his holding no such doctrine -- & then I am in perplexity'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Longinus : De Sublimitate
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 16 January 1830: 'Today I finished Longinus's treatise, & Euripedes's Rhesus. I read them [italics]regularly[end italics] thro', which would have been incredible & impossible, if I had not known you. [goes on briefly to comment on texts].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Euripides : Rhesus
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 16 January 1830: 'Today I finished Longinus's treatise, & Euripedes's Rhesus. I read them [italics]regularly[end italics] thro', which would have been incredible & impossible, if I had not known you. [goes on briefly to comment on texts].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Latin epigraph
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 29 January 1830: 'As you like epigrams, & are not likely to have met with one which I met with yesterday in the Times newspaper, & thought ingenious, I will write it down. The subject is Mr [Martin Archer] Shee's election to the office of President, in the room of Sir Thomas Lawrence, -- a circumstance unexpected by any person, -- Mr Shee being better known by his "Rhymes on Art" than by his practice in art. '"Pictoribus atque poetis, Quidlibet audendi" -- 'Lo! Painting crowns her sister Poesy -- The world is all astonished! So is [italics]She[end italics].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
: report on change-ringing
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 16 February 1830: 'Here is a paragraph about Bells which I copy from the Times [transcribes passage reporting first ringing of 'Holt's complete peal of Grandsire triples' in country, by Ipswich senior society of change ringers] [...] 'Perhaps, after all, there may be nothing worth your reading in the paragraph; but as it contained mystic words, "change-ringers", "Grandsire triples" &c I thought I would run the chance of sending it to you.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
Jean Jacques Racine : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 8 September 1830: 'I have been reading lately with my brothers some of Racine's plays [...] It is several years since I read them by myself; and if they disgusted me then, they are intolerable to me now. The French have no part or lot in poetry [goes on to complain of what she perceives to be excessive formality and orderliness of French neoclassical poetry]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Bentley : A Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 21 January 1831: 'You will lend me Phalaris (will you not?) at some future time -- -- i have read it [italics]once[end italics] thro', -- yet, as there are many things [italics]in[end italics] the book which I should like to read oftener than once, I do not feel quite satisfied, & would bespeak a second loan [...] It is certainly a wonderful work, -- & less wonderful in the extent & depth of its learning, than in the felicity & aptitude & vivacity of that learning's application.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Moore : Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of His Life
Elizabeth Barrett to Ann Lowry Boyd, c. April 1831: 'For the last week I have not been at all well, & indeed was obliged yesterday to go to bed after breakfast instead of after tea, where I contrived to abstract myself out of a good deal of pain into Lord Byron's Life by Moore.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Sir William Blackstone : Commentaries on the Laws of England
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1 June 1831: 'I recollect many years ago when I read one whole volume of Blackstone through, I also read a little treatise by a Mr Hawkins an INFINITE Tory, entitled "Reform in Parliament, the ruin of Parliament"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Hawkins : 'Reform of Parliament the Ruin of Parliament'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1 June 1831: 'I recollect many years ago when I read one whole volume of Blackstone through, I also read a little treatise by a Mr Hawkins an INFINITE Tory, entitled "Reform in Parliament, the ruin of Parliament"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
: 'Letter to the Lords' (article concerning Reform Bill)
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 15 November 1831: 'I have been reading an article in the Quarterly Review this morning [italics]about[end italics] the administration, where of course bill the second, is prophetically considered as dead & buried, & Lord Grey turned out. Nothing beats the insolence of the writer except his own folly!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Sir Humphrey Davy : Consolation in Travail
Arabella Graham-Clarke to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett, 14 Deecmber 1830: 'Ba [Elizabeth Barrett] read the last work of Sir Humphrey Davey "Consolation in travail" It is philosophical and I think would amuse her'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Homer : Carmina Homerica
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 24 March 1832: 'When I had Payne Knight here, I took the trouble of counting the number of lines he has thought proper to leave out of his Homer. If I make no mistake, about 2500 lines are left out of his Iliad, and 1926, out of his Odyssey. Is not this atrox [horrible]?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Genesis
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 9 June 1832: 'I have been reading thro' the eight first chapters of Genesis in Hebrew [...] As I knew the character[s] or something of the grammar before, I have not been fagging hard -- or indeed [italics]at all[end italics] -- for Papa would not let me do so. Instead of fagging, I have read Corinne for the third time, & admired it more than ever. It is an immortal book, & deserves to be read three score & ten times.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Germaine de Stael : Corinne, ou L'Italie
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 9 June 1832: 'I have been reading thro' the eight first chapters of Genesis in Hebrew [...] As I knew the character[s] or something of the grammar before, I have not been fagging hard -- or indeed [italics]at all[end italics] -- for Papa would not let me do so. Instead of fagging, I have read Corinne for the third time, & admired it more than ever. It is an immortal book, & deserves to be read three score & ten times.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Genesis
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, July 1832: 'I have read Hebrew regularly every day since I told you of my beginning Genesis, -- and I am now more than half way through Genesis, & begin to relax a little from the lexicon. From its being a primitive language it is very interesting in a philosophical point of view. I like to find the roots of words & ideas at the same time [...] I am glad I thought of having recourse to it, for if it had no other advantage, it has at least given a change of air to my mind. I have been reading besides, two Italian novels -- one by Manzani [sic], entitled the Betrothed, which, tho' heavy enough sometime, is very well written & very amiably written. The other is a continuation of the story, by a different & an unequal writer'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Hebrew lexicon
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, July 1832: 'I have read Hebrew regularly every day since I told you of my beginning Genesis, -- and I am now more than half way through Genesis, & begin to relax a little from the lexicon. From its being a primitive language it is very interesting in a philosophical point of view. I like to find the roots of words & ideas at the same time [...] I am glad I thought of having recourse to it, for if it had no other advantage, it has at least given a change of air to my mind. I have been reading besides, two Italian novels -- one by Manzani [sic], entitled the Betrothed, which, tho' heavy enough sometime, is very well written & very amiably written. The other is a continuation of the story, by a different & an unequal writer'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Alessandro Manzoni : I Promessi Sposi
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, July 1832: 'I have read Hebrew regularly every day since I told you of my beginning Genesis, -- and I am now more than half way through Genesis, & begin to relax a little from the lexicon. From its being a primitive language it is very interesting in a philosophical point of view. I like to find the roots of words & ideas at the same time [...] I am glad I thought of having recourse to it, for if it had no other advantage, it has at least given a change of air to my mind. I have been reading besides, two Italian novels -- one by Manzani [sic], entitled the Betrothed, which, tho' heavy enough sometime, is very well written & very amiably written. The other is a continuation of the story, by a different & an unequal writer'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: sequel to I Promessi Sposi
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, July 1832: 'I have read Hebrew regularly every day since I told you of my beginning Genesis, -- and I am now more than half way through Genesis, & begin to relax a little from the lexicon. From its being a primitive language it is very interesting in a philosophical point of view. I like to find the roots of words & ideas at the same time [...] I am glad I thought of having recourse to it, for if it had no other advantage, it has at least given a change of air to my mind. I have been reading besides, two Italian novels -- one by Manzani [sic], entitled the Betrothed, which, tho' heavy enough sometime, is very well written & very amiably written. The other is a continuation of the story, by a different & an unequal writer'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Anne Kemble : Francis the First, an Historical Drama
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 10 July 1832: 'I have read Miss Fanny Kemble's tragedy [...] It seems to me to be a very clever & indeed surprising production as from the pen of a young person; but I think that from any other pen, it would not find readers. The dialogue is sometime very spirited & ably done; but the poetry is seldom good as poetry'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
James Boswell : The Life of Samuel Johnson
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 10 July 1832: 'Mr Croker has lately published an edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson. I have been looking over it, and do not think his additions & notes of much value. But he is impartial, -- which is a wonderful merit in an editor.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Hebrew Bible
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 30 August 1832: 'As soon as breakfast is over, I read a chapter from the Hebrew Bible [...] and then I hear my brothers read Greek; at two we are so patriarchal as to dine: and afterwards I go out upon a donkey [...] & read Pelham, & do many idle things'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : Pelham, or The Adventures of a Gentleman
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 30 August 1832: 'As soon as breakfast is over, I read a chapter from the Hebrew Bible [...] and then I hear my brothers read Greek; at two we are so patriarchal as to dine: and afterwards I go out upon a donkey [...] & read Pelham, & do many idle things'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Synesius Bishop of Ptolemais : Hymns
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 16 April 1832: 'I believe I ought to have written to you before to thank you for lending Synesius to me [...] I have gone thro' the whole of Synesius; and notwithstanding his occasional diffuseness & self- repetition [...] he does [italics]make you feel[end italics] that he is a poet.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Euripedes : Orestes
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 2 November 1832: 'I am glad you have been reading Euripedes. I have looked at the passages you referred me to, in my Euripedes, -- and I observe that I have marked them all three. A pencil line of admiration is drawn along the whole margin of the scene you speak of, in the Orestes.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Pindar : Odes
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 2 November 1832: 'I have read, since I spoke to you last about my Greek reading, the last line of the last ode of Pindar, & have again gone thro' the Alcestis & the Troades; -- Besides this I have gone thro' the whole of the Aeneid except two books which I was familiar with, and half the Hebrew Bible. Forster's bible is in two quarto volumes, -- and one of them I have read regularly from beginning to end'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Alcestis
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 2 November 1832: 'I have read, since I spoke to you last about my Greek reading, the last line of the last ode of Pindar, & have again gone thro' the Alcestis & the Troades; -- Besides this I have gone thro' the whole of the Aeneid except two books which I was familiar with, and half the Hebrew Bible. Forster's bible is in two quarto volumes, -- and one of them I have read regularly from beginning to end'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Troades
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 2 November 1832: 'I have read, since I spoke to you last about my Greek reading, the last line of the last ode of Pindar, & have again gone thro' the Alcestis & the Troades; -- Besides this I have gone thro' the whole of the Aeneid except two books which I was familiar with, and half the Hebrew Bible. Forster's bible is in two quarto volumes, -- and one of them I have read regularly from beginning to end'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Virgil : Aeneid
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 2 November 1832: 'I have read, since I spoke to you last about my Greek reading, the last line of the last ode of Pindar, & have again gone thro' the Alcestis & the Troades; -- Besides this I have gone thro' the whole of the Aeneid except two books which I was familiar with, and half the Hebrew Bible. Forster's bible is in two quarto volumes, -- and one of them I have read regularly from beginning to end'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Biblia Hebraica
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 2 November 1832: 'I have read, since I spoke to you last about my Greek reading, the last line of the last ode of Pindar, & have again gone thro' the Alcestis & the Troades; -- Besides this I have gone thro' the whole of the Aeneid except two books which I was familiar with, and half the Hebrew Bible. Forster's bible is in two quarto volumes, -- and one of them I have read regularly from beginning to end'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : novels including The Disowned
Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 14 December 1832: 'I have been reading Bulwer's novels & Mrs Trollope's libels, & Dr Parr's works [...] [Mrs Trollope] has neither the delicacy nor the candour which constitute true nobility of mind [...] Bulwer has quite delighted me: he has all the dramatic talent which Scott has: & all the passion which Scott has not -- and he appears to me to be besides a far profounder discriminator of character. There are some very fine things in his Denounced [sic].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Trollope : Domestic Manners of the Americans
Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 14 December 1832: 'I have been reading Bulwer's novels & Mrs Trollope's libels, & Dr Parr's works [...] [Mrs Trollope] has neither the delicacy nor the candour which constitute true nobility of mind [...] Bulwer has quite delighted me: he has all the dramatic talent which Scott has: & all the passion which Scott has not -- and he appears to me to be besides a far profounder discriminator of character. There are some very fine things in his Denounced [sic].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Dr Parr : 'works'
Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 14 December 1832: 'I have been reading Bulwer's novels & Mrs Trollope's libels, & Dr Parr's works [...] [Mrs Trollope] has neither the delicacy nor the candour which constitute true nobility of mind [...] Bulwer has quite delighted me: he has all the dramatic talent which Scott has: & all the passion which Scott has not -- and he appears to me to be besides a far profounder discriminator of character. There are some very fine things in his Denounced [sic].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: The Theatre of the Greeks
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 31 December 1832: 'I have had my hands & head full of a book called the Greek Theatre, composed in part of extracts, & edited by a Cambridge Student [...] In the body of the work, are extracts from Schlegel: so full of poetical & classical enthusiasm, that I should like to know something of the [italics]German[end italics] Schlegel!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
August Wilhelm von Schlegel : Uber dramatische Kunst und Literatur (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 31 December 1832: 'I have had my hands & head full of a book called the Greek Theatre, composed in part of extracts, & edited by a Cambridge Student [...] In the body of the work, are extracts from Schlegel: so full of poetical & classical enthusiasm, that I should like to know something of the [italics]German[end italics] Schlegel!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: An Account of the Infancy, Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke
Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 7 September 1833: 'Dr Clarke's doctrines are not always & altogether and strictly Scriptural; but on all essential doctrines, he is always & altogether & strictly spiritual, -- and the Lord Jesus KNEW [italics] that he loved Him[end italics]. I am just beginning to read the third volume of his Life.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Gottlieb Friedrich Klopstock : The Messiah
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 14 September 1834: 'Have you seen a poetical translation of Klopstock's messiah, the performance of a lady residing close to Honiton. I have read and been much pleased with it [goes on to comment upon specific passages].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Herbert : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 15 November 1833: 'Do you know Herbert's poems? [Mr Hunter] lent them to me a week ago [...] His poetry has a more spiritually devotional character than any which I ever read.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Plato : Parmenides
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 15 November 1833: 'Just at this moment I am busy with Plato, trying to find out from the Parmenides what [italics]one[end italics] is and what it is not.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Brown : Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 24 June 1835: 'I am reading Dr Brown's Philosophy -- shall have [italics]read[end italics] it tomorrow -- and like metaphysics better than ever, & am beginning to think it quite as [italics]demonstrative[end italics] as mathematics the beloved! -- I am reading besides, Anthony Collins, and Luther, [italics]on the will[end italics].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Anthony Collins :
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 24 June 1835: 'I am reading Dr Brown's Philosophy -- shall have [italics]read[end italics] it tomorrow -- and like metaphysics better than ever, & am beginning to think it quite as [italics]demonstrative[end italics] as mathematics the beloved! -- I am reading besides, Anthony Collins, and Luther, [italics]on the will[end italics].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Martin Luther :
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 24 June 1835: 'I am reading Dr Brown's Philosophy -- shall have [italics]read[end italics] it tomorrow -- and like metaphysics better than ever, & am beginning to think it quite as [italics]demonstrative[end italics] as mathematics the beloved! -- I am reading besides, Anthony Collins, and Luther, [italics]on the will[end italics].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Peter Brougham, Lord Brougham : A Discourse upon Natural Theology
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 28 July 1835: 'I have been reading [...] Lord Brougham's Natural Theology, -- and have shaken my head over it [...] It seems to me to have its most valuable parts in its notes, -- in the observations there upon Hume's philosophy.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Bridgewater Treatises
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, c.September 1835: 'I have been reading the Bridgewater treatises, -- and am now trying to understand Prout upon chemistry.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Prout : Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Digestion Considered with Reference to Natural Theology
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, c.September 1835: 'I have been reading the Bridgewater treatises, -- and am now trying to understand Prout upon chemistry.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Chalmers : On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, c.September 1835: 'I have been reading the Bridgewater treatises, -- and am now trying to understand Prout upon chemistry [...] Chalmers's treatise is, as to eloquence, surpassingly beautiful: as to matter, I could not walk with him all the way -- altho' I longed to do it, for he walked on flowers, & under shade'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Collins : work 'upon necessity'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, c.October 1835, regarding possible visit to him: 'Don't expect [...] to find me improved in anything -- albeit I [italics]have[end italics] read Collins upon necessity. You know, women never [italics]do[end italics] improve -- after a certain point.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Ralph Wardlaw : A Dissertation on the Scriptural Authority, Nature, and Uses, of Infant Baptism
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, c.October 1835: 'Did you ever hear of Dr Wardlaw's treatise upon infant baptism? It is very clearly and forcibly written, -- and altho' I cannot bring my mind to agree with him on all points, yet I think that the main question is placed by him in a satisfying light [notes having copied remarks of Wardlaw's, concerning language in Greek testament, on flyleaf of own Greek testament]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Kirby : The Habits and Instincts of Animals
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, ?4 November 1835: 'The Bridgewater treatises seem to me (I have not read them all) very unequal [...] They are not consistent in their character. For instance .. Kirby! Who, except a man of science, has understanding for everything in him [...] it was all I could do to get thro' with him, & more than I could do to make out his meaning in many places. His introduction interested me above all the rest, in its subject: but [...] its is written in a very superficial manner, & indicates that he has touched Hebrew as the Mahometan did Paradise, with one foot.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Brown : Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, ?4 November 1835: 'Dr Brown's philosophy! No philosophy is like it. Poetry knows the place of his soul [...] I have gone thro' every sentence of his "philosophy of the human mind", making clear to mine that he is so. With regard to cause and effect, I do not believe him, -- and on some other questions'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Noon Talfourd : Ion
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 9 December 1835: 'Have you seen Serjeant Talfourd's new tragedy, the Ion [...] He has been kind & flattering enough to send it to my publisher for me; & I read it thro' yesterday with much pleasure & admration. The tone of sentiment throughout it, is high & noble -- & the impression of the whole, like the sight of a hero. My fault finding is confined to a want of concentration, which I either perceive or fancy.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling : autobiography
Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 9 December 1835: 'I have read lately Stilling's autobiography; & was by turns touched & amused by it. It is an instance of the durability of romance & sentiment. I read it in English of course'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : Dramatic Scenes, Sonnets and Other Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 July 1836: 'You have not my dear kind friend thought me unkind and thankless in not writing my gratitude to you the moment I felt it, for your books [...] [explains having waited until had time to do justice to these, including one of Mitford's own] [...] My pencil has marked Emily and Fair Rosamund and Henry Talbot The bridal Eve, The Captive & The masque of the Seasons as chief favorites of mine. My pencil always does for me the prudent business which beans & pebbles did for the heroes of childish romance .. marking his footsteps in the wood [...] In these paths, these new paths -- thank you dear Miss Mitford for letting me walk in them'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Robert Browning : Paracelsus
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 August 1836: 'I can tell you [...] of [John Kenyon's] having given himself a great deal of kind trouble in finding the Countess of Essex for me and of my reading it and Paracelsus besides which he also lent me. As to the play, its talent may be both felt & seen -- but felt & seen [italics]in parts[end italics] [...] But have you seen Paracelsus? I am a little discontented even [italics]there[end italics], & wd wish for more harmony & rather more clearness & compression [...] but I do think that the pulse of poetry is full & warm & strong in it [...] There is a palpable power! a height & depth of thought, -- & sudden repressed gushings of tenderness which suggest to us a depth beyond, in the affections. I wish you wd read it, & agree with me that the author is a poet in the holy sense. And I wish that some passages in the poem referring to the divine Being had been softened or removed. They sound to me daringly; and [italics]that[end italics] is not the appropriate daring of genius.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Shepherd : The Countess of Essex
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 August 1836: 'I can tell you [...] of [John Kenyon's] having given himself a great deal of kind trouble in finding the Countess of Essex for me and of my reading it and Paracelsus besides which he also lent me. As to the play, its talent may be both felt & seen -- but felt & seen [italics]in parts[end italics] [...] But have you seen Paracelsus? I am a little discontented even [italics]there[end italics], & wd wish for more harmony & rather more clearness & compression [...] but I do think that the pulse of poetry is full & warm & strong in it [...] There is a palpable power! a height & depth of thought, -- & sudden repressed gushings of tenderness which suggest to us a depth beyond, in the affections. I wish you wd read it, & agree with me that the author is a poet in the holy sense. And I wish that some passages in the poem referring to the divine Being had been softened or removed. They sound to me daringly; and [italics]that[end italics] is not the appropriate daring of genius.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : 'Jesse Cliffe'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 August 1836: 'Jesse Cliffe -- I have read it! [italics]Thank you for it![end italics] and you must hear that from so many!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Alfred Tennyson : 'The Mermaid'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?24 August 1836: 'You have not read all Tennyson's poems -- neither have I -- but did you see his "mermaid" at the end of Leigh Hunt's paper on mermaids in the New Monthly Magazine? There is a tone in the poetry -- in the very extravagance of the poetry & language -- an abandonment & wildness -- which seemed to me to accord beautifully with the subject, & stayed with me afterwards -- a true sign of true poetry -- whether I would or not. And if there are [...] occasional perplexities & obscurations in the meaning -- still, no one could complain of them [italics]there[end italics] -- seeing that the language seems to have caught its strangeness with its music from the Mermaid's tongue.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
: 'Saunders & Ottley's catalogue of new publications'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?24 August 1836: 'You have not read all Tennyson's poems -- neither have I -- but did you see his "mermaid" at the end of Leigh Hunt's paper on mermaids in the New Monthly Magazine? [...] I am very anxious to read something besides -- having seen in Saunder's & Ottley's catalogue of new publications -- [italics]A new novel by Miss Mitford[end italics]. How long are people to stand on tiptoe waiting for it?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Advertisement, Unknown, catalogue
H.F. Chorley : Memorials of Mrs Hemans
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, c.29 August 1836: 'Mrs Lenox Conyngham's name had come to my ears but it was not familiar to them, -- & your brief account of her wd have interested me even if you had not said that she thought kindly of me. I am going to read her poems, & to go on reading Mr Chorley's Memorials. Shame upon me, you may think, for not having finished reading [italics]them[end italics] long ago!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Sheridan Knowles : The Wrecker's Daughter
Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 7 December 1836: 'I have been reading [...] Sheridan Knowles's play of "The Wreckers" [sic]. It is full of passion and pathos, -- & made me shed a great many tears.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher : plays (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 December 1836: 'How much ignorance I have to confess in sackcloth, with respect to the old dramatists! -- for indeed I have had little opportunity of walking with them in their purple & fine linen. Only [italics]extracts[end italics] from Bea[u]mont & Fletcher -- & Ford, -- have past before my eyes!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Ford : plays (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 December 1836: 'How much ignorance I have to confess in sackcloth, with respect to the old dramatists! -- for indeed I have had little opportunity of walking with them in their purple & fine linen. Only [italics]extracts[end italics] from Bea[u]mont & Fletcher -- & Ford, -- have past before my eyes!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Justin Martyr : Apologia Prima Pro Christianis (LVXI,2)
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1837: 'I will write out two passages from Justin Martyr, the only ones which struck me while I was reading him, on the subject of the Lord's supper [transcriptions follow from two works, in Greek].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Justin Martyr : Dialogus cum Tryphone Judaeo, 70
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1837: 'I will write out two passages from Justin Martyr, the only ones which struck me while I was reading him, on the subject of the Lord's supper [transcriptions follow from two works, in Greek].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Combe : Elements of Phrenology
Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 23 January 1837: 'I have read Coombs [sic] Phrenology [...] [It] is very clever, & amusing; but I do not think it logical or satisfactory.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Fletcher : The Faithful Shepherdess
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 17 February 1837: 'I have been reading & rejoicing in your Faithful Shepherdess. The general conception & plan are feeble & imperfect -- do you not admit it? but the work in detail -- how prodigal it is in exquisite poetry'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : Otto of Wittelsbach
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?17 March 1837: 'I have read your play [Otto of Wittelsbach] my dearest Miss Mitford, & so you will be obliged to read my admiration upon it [goes on to discuss text in detail]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Frances Anne Butler : The Star of Seville
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 May 1837: 'Yes! the extracts from Mrs Butler's play, in the Athenaeum, are very beautiful -- and so are some others which I have seen in another paper.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Lady Margaret Cocks : dramatic poems
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, mid-May 1837: 'I am very much obliged by your kindness in allowing me to read the MS dramatic poems -- it seems to me that the character of your writing is not sufficiently concentrated & passionate for tragic poetry -- and that the moral beauty of gentle & tender & holy feeling is not eminent enough with glaring light & angular shadow, to constitute of itself the dramatic. Such a moral beauty -- & it pervades what you write -- is however a better & happier thing than dramatic excellence.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Barbarina Brand, Lady Dacre : Translations from the Italian
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, mid-May 1837: 'I have been much pleased lately in reading Lady Dacre's translations from Petrarch, which she has very kindly sent me. They are elegant & classical, -- & she has managed skilfully to double & redouble her rhymes in the manner of her original, & be graceful all the while.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Charles Dickens : The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 June 1837: 'I agree with you in thinking Pickwick admirable -- but I have not read every number [...] what is striking in him is his wonderful individuality -- He never or seldom sacrifices the natural to the comic -- but wins the jest from Nature without stealing it. No one could pass a character of his in the street without bowing.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Frances Anne Butler : The Star of Seville
Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 June 1837: 'I have read the Star of Seville [...] It [italics]is[end italics] unequal -- it appears as if its writer stopped to take breath after her finest things -- and she has written some very fine things. You will admire Estrella's apology for her appearance [italics]alone[end italics], at the trial scene. It touched me deeply'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : Country Stories
Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 17 July 1837: 'Why should we [']'mere balladmongers" have so much to say of ourselves, when the "Country stories" lie cut & read upon the table? They have the Mitford-charm all over them! [..] The characteristic of your mind seems to be -- the power of bringing from the surfaces of things that freshness of beauty, which others seek from in the profundities of nature [...] Indeed it is a beautiful book'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Age of Bronze
Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 22 July 1837: 'I am sure I ought to be proud of my verses ["Victoria's Tears," about Queen Victoria's weeping during the Accession Proclamation on 21 June] finding their way into a Belford Regis newspaper! The young Queen is very interesting to me -- & those tears [...] are beautiful & touching to think upon. Do you remember Lord Byron's bitter lines [...] '"Enough of human ties in royal breasts! Why spare men's feelings when their own are jests?" 'They have never past from my memory since I read them. There is something hardening, I fear, in power [...] But our young Queen wears still a very tender heart! and long may its natural emotions lie warm within it!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: death notice for Harriet Baker (d.17 August)
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 19 August 1837: 'I have seen in the papers, the death of a beloved friend of yours, & of one for whom I myself had a true esteem [...] The illness of dear Miss Baker was known to me a very short time before the last news came.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
J. C. F. von Schiller : Die Jungfrau von Orleans
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 19 August 1837: 'I scarcely ever do anything -- in the way of [italics]business[end italics] I mean -- except writing [...] even the German has not been studied or looked at much -- except a few tragedies of Schiller's & Goethe's seen by glimpses. Of these, I like Jean better than Mary Stuart, & him of the Iron hand less than Egmont'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
J. C. F. von Schiller : Maria Stuart
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 19 August 1837: 'I scarcely ever do anything -- in the way of [italics]business[end italics] I mean -- except writing [...] even the German has not been studied or looked at much -- except a few tragedies of Schiller's & Goethe's seen by glimpses. Of these, I like Jean better than Mary Stuart, & him of the Iron hand less than Egmont'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Gotz von Berlichingen mit der eisenen Hand
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 19 August 1837: 'I scarcely ever do anything -- in the way of [italics]business[end italics] I mean -- except writing [...] even the German has not been studied or looked at much -- except a few tragedies of Schiller's & Goethe's seen by glimpses. Of these, I like Jean better than Mary Stuart, & him of the Iron hand less than Egmont'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Egmont
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 19 August 1837: 'I scarcely ever do anything -- in the way of [italics]business[end italics] I mean -- except writing [...] even the German has not been studied or looked at much -- except a few tragedies of Schiller's & Goethe's seen by glimpses. Of these, I like Jean better than Mary Stuart, & him of the Iron hand less than Egmont'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Charles Lamb : Letters of Charles Lamb, With a Sketch of His Life
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 19 August 1837: 'Has your Ladyship seen Lamb's letters, in Mr Talfourd's edition? I quite [italics]sighed[end italics] when I finished them. They are exquisite -- & the "gentle-hearted Charles" [quotes Coleridge] shows in them all his gentle heart, together with his very quaint sly brilliant (as [italics]star[end italics]light) fancies.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Lady Mary Wortley Montague : Letters
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 29 September 1837: 'I confess to you that I utterly dislike Lady Mary! [...] She had a hard shining imagination, instead of a heart -- and words studied into carelessness, beating up & down, where warm natural woman pulses ought to have beat. She had too little depth for manhood, -- & too little softness for womanhood. Take away the corner stone & the top stone from Horace Walpole's imagination -- or rather, take away what poetry he had -- & dress him up in a hoop -- & there is Lady Mary Wortley Montague ready for court!! ---- I never could bear her -- or Horace Walpole either -- and whenever I have looked at her letters, I have felt too much out of humour to be amused.' '
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : Letter to Elizabeth Barrett
Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 September 1837: 'You certainly shd write Dash [Mitford's dog]'s memoirs! My youngest brothers, to say nothing of my eldest, were delighted with the [italics]memorabilia[end italics], I read to them out of your letter.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
Frances Trollope : The Vicar of Wrexhill (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 12 October 1837: 'The village [i.e. (apparently) Mitford's] reminds me of the Vicar of Wrexhill -- at least of the extracts I have seen from it! -- What a lamentable book -- & to be written by a woman -- who from the weakness & softness of her nature should so feel the need & the beauty of that strength & surpassing tenderness found in the religion of Jesus Christ, & only there! -- It is very ill to hold up to scorn the most unsecular portion of the Church of England -- but to do so by misrepresen[ta]tion & perversion is most ill! [goes on to complain further regarding representation of religious characters, and quotation from Scripture, in text]'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Jane Porter : novels
Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 November 1837: 'Hearing of Miss Porter is like being a child again. I remember weeping & wailing over her romances, when I had nothing besides to weep and wail for. Whatever their faults may be, they have in them an elevation & an heroism which this learned age wd do well to learn.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Anna Seward : Letters of Anna Seward: Written Between the Years 1784 and 1807
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 January 1838: 'In my childish days & for some days afterwards I have read & re-read Miss Seward's Letters. They had a charm for me notwithstanding their vanity & elaborateness & bombast; and that charm was from the earnest love of poetic literature with which they are penetrated, & the generous thoughts & feelings which light them up.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Kenyon : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, c. February 1838: 'I [italics]will[end italics] thank you for all the pleasure I have had in reading these poems -- so full of strong thoughts & lovely stedfast feelings [...] "Moonlight" is full of beauty [...] Of the "occasional verses" [...] I like least the "neglected wife" & like most [...] "music" -- & "Bromfield Churchyard", & "Reminiscence", & the "Two harps" & the powerful "Destiny"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
: advertisement for rare antique Bible
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, c.26 February 1838: 'I saw the following advertisement in the Athenaeum of Saturday, & believing that it may interest you, do not delay to send it [reproduces advertisement for sale of 1539 folio edition of Cranmer's Bible]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Advertisement, Serial / periodical
Henry Alford : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, c. March 1838: 'Thank you for Alford's poems. There is much beauty in some of them -- but [italics]there is a want of abiding power[end italics]. Do you not think so? -- It might be a fault in my humour at the time I read them.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Samuel Garth : The Dispensary, a Poem
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, March 1838: '[To] satisfy some curiosity, [I] have been reading Garth's "Dispensary," a poem very worthy of its subject'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : "The Exile"
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, March 1838: 'I have been reading the "Exile," from Marion Campbell, with much interest and delight'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Monckton Milnes : Memorials of a Residence on the Continent, and Historical Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 April 1838: 'I had to thank [John Kenyon] for [...] lending me Mr Milnes's Poems just printed for private circulation. They are of the Tennyson school [...] & very much delighted me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Kenyon : "The Greek Wife"
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, c. June 1838: 'The opening stanzas of your poem would charm Criticism into silence, even if she had a little to say [goes on to discuss piece in detail] Thank you for the great pleasure I have had in reading this poem -- Its concluding stanzas are animated & forcible, & leave an impression'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
John Edmund Reade : Italy
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 7 June 1838: 'I turned over the leaves of Mr Reade's poem for some minutes before I opened your letter'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Noon Talfourd : The Athenian Captive
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Noon Talfourd, 13 June 1838: 'Miss Barrett presents her compliments to Mr Serjeant Talfourd, and desires to express to him her thankfulness both for his very obliging note [of 2 June 1838], and also and in particular for the valued present accompanying it. She is glad to be able to associate with the true pleasure with which she lately read his beautiful play, the gratification of now receiving it from its author.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Fothergill Chorley : letter (extract)
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 21 June 1838: 'I have seen an extract from a private letter of Mr Chorley editor of the Athenaeum, which speaks [italics]huge[end italics] praises of my poems. If he were to say a tithe of them in print it wd be nine times above my expectation!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
Richard Edwin Austin Townsend : Visions of the Western Railways
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 June 1838: 'Mr Townsend's poems have just reached me. I have had no time to read them, except at a rail road speed, & that not continuously. They seem to have much thought & poetic beauty'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Edwin Austin Townsend : Visions of the Western Railways
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 July 1838: 'I have written to Mr Townsend. The more I read of his poems, the more deeply I feel their beauty. I [italics]did[end italics] read the romance of Mr Osggood [sic].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Sargent Osgood : 'romance'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 July 1838: 'I have written to Mr Townsend. The more I read of his poems, the more deeply I feel their beauty. I [italics]did[end italics] read the romance of Mr Osggood [sic].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Madame de Grandrion : Duty and Inclination
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 25 September 1838: 'I "remind you" to tell me all about Miss Landon's husband. I have a full conviction that he is the author of [italics]Duty and Inclination[end italics], of which I could only read the first volume. The reason of my conviction is, that it is unaccountable otherwise how Miss Landon could consent to edit & [italics]praise[end italics] such -- -- trash.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Findens' Tableaux of the Affections: A Series of Picturesque Illustrations of the Womanly Virtues
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 October 1838: 'I did not receive Finden immediately. I had desired Papa to unpack & take possession of it -- because I fancied [...] it might be a pleasure to him. From this arrangement I have scarcely finished my own vision of the beautiful volume [goes on to discuss contents of anthology in detail, praising Mitford's pieces in it, as well as other contents including poetry by Richard Edwin Austin Townsend, John Chorley, and Henry Chorley; also thanks Mitford, editor of volume, for manner in which she presented Barrett's own contribution, 'The Romaunt of the Page']'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Theodosia Garrow : poems 'The Gazelles' and 'On Presenting a Young Invalid With a Bunch of Early Violets'
Elizabeth Barrett to Theodosia Garrow, late November 1838: 'I cannot return the [italics]Book of Beauty[end italics] to Miss Garrow without thanking her for allowing me to read in it sooner than I should otherwise have done, those contributions of her own which help to justify its title, and which are indeed sweet and touching verses.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
J. C. F. von Schiller : Die Rauber
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 12 March 1839: 'I like Schiller's Robbers better than any other play of his I have read.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Lancelot Andrewes : Sermons
Elizabeth Barrett, invalid, to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 April 1839: 'What can I do bound hand and foot in this wilderness, in the way of book-ferreting? with a physician who groans in the spirit whenever he sees within my reach any book larger & graver looking than "the last new octavo neatly bound"? [...] but you tempted me with Bishop Andrews, the Bishop is in folio, & I was in an obstinate fit -- & I [italics]did[end italics] read -- -- & [italics]was[end italics] scolded'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Edmund Reade : Italy
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 April 1839: 'Mr Reade has power [...] both of thought & language [...] It [Italy] is the only poem of Mr Reade's I ever read [...] I may confess to [italics]you[end italics] that it [italics]provoked[end italics] me [i.e. with imitation of Byron]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Parkhurst : An Hebrew and English Lexicon
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 April 1839: 'At painful times, when composition is impossible & reading not [italics]enough[end italics], grammars & dictionaries are excellent for [italics]distraction[end italics]. Just at such a time .. when we were leaving Herefordshire .. I pinned myself down to Hebrew, took Parkhurst & Professor Lee for my familiars, & went through the Hebrew Bible form Genesis to Malachi, Syrica & all, as if I were studying for a professorship, -- & never once halting for breath. But I do hope & trust to learn no more languages. There is no mental exertion, per se so little beneficial to the mind.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Samuel Lee : A Grammar of the Hebrew Language
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 April 1839: 'At painful times, when composition is impossible & reading not [italics]enough[end italics], grammars & dictionaries are excellent for [italics]distraction[end italics]. Just at such a time .. when we were leaving Herefordshire .. I pinned myself down to Hebrew, took Parkhurst & Professor Lee for my familiars, & went through the Hebrew Bible form Genesis to Malachi, Syrica & all, as if I were studying for a professorship, -- & never once halting for breath. But I do hope & trust to learn no more languages. There is no mental exertion, per se so little beneficial to the mind.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Rosina, Lady Bulwer-Lytton : Cheveley, or the Man of Honour
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 May 1839: 'I am glad you have looked at Cheveley. [italics]Now[end italics] I can confess with one blush less that I have just read it through. People obliged to be dumb like me, & under a medical disciplinarian like Dr Barry have as good an excuse as any can have for reading it [...] The book, if not the reader, is without excuse. It is wonderful in unwomanliness [...] The book is a hard cold coarse book -- a bold impudent book -- & she who wrote it may have COUNTED many strifes but has [italics]felt[end italics] none'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Fullerton Cumming, M.D. : Notes of a Wanderer in Search of Health, Through Italy, Egypt, Greece, Turkey; Up the Danube and Down the Rhine
Elizabeth Barrett to Arabella Moulton-Barrett, 4 June 1839: ''[Dr Barry] has been lending me his friend & patient Dr Cummings book, to read -- "Wanderings in search of Health" [...] His adventures in wandering down the Nile in search of health inclined me to laugh as much as his confession that he was "a physician in search of it'"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Theodosia Garrow : stanzas on the death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 11 July 1839: 'I do not know whether Miss Garrow does or does not write ballads [...] I have seen no writing of her's except what was published in Lady Blessington's annual last year, & some stanzas in MS. upon LEL's death, which appeared to me rather inferior to the rest. Her verses are, in my mind, to judge from these specimens, graceful & feeling, without much indication of either mounting or sinking into other characteristics'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Samuel Naylor : Ceracchi, a Drama and other Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Arabella Moulton-Barrett, 13-14 July 1839: 'I told [Mr Naylor] [...] that the gift of his book was the more gratifying to me as coming from a friend of Miss [Mary Russell] Mitford. Praising the poetry of it generally, was quite out of the question. It is an excellent [italics]mimicry from le comique[end italics] of Tennyson -- Tennyson's mannerism & peculiarities [end italics]without his genius[end italics]. I felt myself quite laughing while I was reading some things in it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 August 1839: 'I a personally quite unacquainted with Mr Horne [...] Have you not heard of his Cosimo de' Medici? He is a man of indubitable genius. I feel THAT quite distinctly, although I have read only a little of his poetry'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Henry Fothergill Chorley : The Lion, a Tale of the Coteries
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 11 August 1839: 'I have read Mr Chorley's Lion [...] it is a work highly indicative of ability [...] brilliant with allusion, yet not too dazzling to think by. A great part of the first volume & the greater part of the third struck & interested me much'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Fothergill Chorley : Sketches of a Sea Port Town
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 11 August 1839: 'Mr Chorley's Sea port town was brought to me a little while ago -- but not as Mr Chorley's. Henrietta [sister] brought it from the circulating library -- The [italics] librarian had recommended it![end italics] -- & I am so forced to be dumb & to abstain from continuous attention to grave subjects, that amusing books of the class to which it belongs are necessary to me sometimes. Well! I did not like the name of the book -- & was turning listlessly to the title page with the words "I cant read this", -- when [italics]there[end italics], was Mr Chorley's name! Of course I [italics]cd[end italics] read it immediately, -- & was much struck by the power it indicated, & the constructiveness of the stories -- a rare characteristic, even in these story telling days.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
anon : Two Old Men's Tales: The Deformed, and The Admiral's Daughter
Elizabeth Barrett to Theodosia Garrow, md-August 1839: 'I was too tired upon my return from the [italics]voyage[end italics] [water excursion] yesterday, to do more than feel very pleased & honored too, by Mr Landor's gift. Thank you for conveying it to me [...] The Admiral's daughter is the second of the "[italics]Two old men's tales[end italics]". I read it upon its publication several years ago, & was much struck with its passion & intensity'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Eliza Cook : Melaia, and Other Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 December 1839: 'I have lately held within my hands Miss Eliza Cook's poems [...] [comments upon book's introduction and frontispiece] [...] The sight of the book & its whole tone amused me very much. For the rest I cd read nothing in it worth reading again.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Catalogue of library of Samuel Parr
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 29 January 1840: '[Dr Scully (physician attending Barrett)] brought me a book last week, a catalogue raisonne of Dr Parr's Library in which, among the Patres ecclesiastici "my heart leaped up to see'" the mention of your select passages [from writings of SS Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzen, and Basil] -- by S. Boyd, [italics]1810[end italics]. No observation upon it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Catherine Gore : Preferment: or, My Uncle the Earl
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, late January 1840: 'Have you seen Mrs Gore & Mrs Trollope in their late avatars? "Preferment", with an undeniable cleverness, is dull & heavy [...] As to "One fault", with neither dulness nor heaviness, the book seems to [italics]me[end italics] far less clever than Mrs Trollope's books generally or always are [goes on to discuss aspects of this text, including plot, further]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Trollope : One Fault. A Novel
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, late January 1840: 'Have you seen Mrs Gore & Mrs Trollope in their late avatars? "Preferment", with an undeniable cleverness, is dull & heavy [...] As to "One fault", with neither dulness nor heaviness, the book seems to [italics]me[end italics] far less clever than Mrs Trollope's books generally or always are [goes on to discuss aspects of this text, including plot, further]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Ann Schimmelpenninck : Select Memoirs of Port Royal
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, late January 1840: 'Did you ever meet with an account partly translated partly composed by Miss Schimmelpenninck, of the Port Royal? It is long since I read, will be longer before I forget that most interesting account of the most interesting establishment which ever owed its conventual name & form to the Church of Rome, & its purity & nobility to God's blessing & informing Spirit'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Percy Bysshe Shelley : Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments
Elizabeth Barrett to Septimus Moulton-Barrett, 6 February 1840: ''Tell [Papa] too what I forgot to tell, that I have finished Shelley's volumes which, if it were not for the here & there defilement of his atrocious opinions [...] would have very deeply delighted me. As it is there are traces of my pencil "[italics]in a passion[end italics]" as dear Georgie [brother] would say. [goes on to criticise Shelley's translations from Plato in particular]'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Review of William Reade's poems Italy and The Deluge
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, mid-February 1840: 'Did you ever hear how poor Mr Reade has compromised himself with Fraser .. in the magazine? [...] how Fraser reviewed his poetry savagely last December or January, & published at full length still more savagely divers applications & submissions which the poet had addressed to his private tender mercies [...] It made my blood run cold with sympathy for the poor poet when I read it first.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
William Merry : The Philosophy of a Happy Futurity est. on the Sure Evidence of the Bible
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 February 1840: 'I never received Mr Merry's book until a very few days since. Wasn't it too bad of my dear people in Wimpole Street? [...] they [...] kept the book until boots, & shoes enough for a colony cd be made -- allowing for that corresponding genius of procrastination common to shoemakers. I really was ashamed to write to you until I had the book -- & when I had it I read it off my conscience & wrote to Mr Merry'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Leigh Hunt : A Legend of Florence
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 6 March 1840: 'I cant agree about the Legend, I read the whole of it - & although your remark upon the versification seems to me not without its verity -- I do think it a beautiful & most touching play [goes on to discuss specific passages]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Darley : Sylvia; or, The May Queen
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 March 1840: 'I [italics]have[end italics] Sylvia or the May Queen among my books in London. Dont you remember telling me to read it, & did'n't I obey you & buy it directly? It overflows with poetry [...] but does as pastorals can scarcely choose but do, hold on to one by the skirts of one's fancy rather than by the imagination in a high sense'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : The History of Napoleon
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 15 May 1840: 'I had finished Napoleon & was about to write to you on the subject -- & I will still write.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Darley : Thomas a Becket
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 June 1840: 'Have you given up the idea of seeing Mr Darley's book again -- It chaperons or is chaperoned by some Devonshire cream -- but I beg you to remember that the stains upon its back came to me as they go, and proceeded from neither cream nor me -- The chronicle is very clever & spirited -- picturesque & racy -- & the character of Becket appears to me developped [sic] with no ordinary power: at the same time I confess myself disappointed in the absence of tragic passion & concentration'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Noon Talfourd : Glencoe
Elizabeth Barrett to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett, 17 June 1840: '["Glencoe"] never reached me until last week [...] Thank you my dearest Georgie! [...] It was, as you well knew it wd be, a great pleasure to me to look into Glencoe -- and yet the play is to my mind, a failure [...] High & tender thoughts there are, gracefully & harmoniously expressed -- which is not [italics]being tragic[end italics]!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : Our Village
Elizabeth Barrett, invalid, to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 December 1840: 'You cant guess what my business has been lately [...] my business has been retracing my steps in the Village, your village [...] You cannot realize, -- you the writer -- cannot, -- the peculiar effect of that delightful book, upon one in a prison like me, shut up from air & light [...] It frees me at once for the moment -- shows me the flowers & the grass they grow by, & pours into my face the sweetness & freshness & refreshment of the whole summer in a breath.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Powell : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Powell, 24 December 1840: 'It is right to apprize you of the safe arrival [of book from Powell] [...] I see the Monthly Chronicle -- & had read some of the poems which accompanied the book.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Richard Hengist Horne : response to article in the Monthly Critic
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, late January 1841: 'I have just read your reply to the Monthly Critic -- though not his attack'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Robert Montgomery Bird : Nick of the Woods: A Story of Kentucky
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 February 1841: 'If you are looking out for romances to melt away the sense of snow & long evenings from your invalid [i.e. Mitford's father], there is the American Dr Bird's "Nick of the Woods" -- which for adventure & hair breadth escapes & rapid movement from the beginning to the end, will charm you far above the freezing point, though face to face with a thermometer. I recommend to you "Nick of the Woods". I read it lately myself, & went forthwith by metempsychosis into a pilgrim of those vast sighing forests'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : 'Orpheus'
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 10 March 1841: 'I have seen Orpheus, & write just to thank you for the pleasure of the vision [...] You have gathered power, intensity, freedom of versification -- But in my brain ---- "slow the Argo ploughs her way LIke a dun dragon spreading moonlit wings", to suggest certain unsurpassable lines.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Bury : The History of a Flirt: Related by Herself
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 July 1841: 'Before I forget again .. have you looked into the "History of a flirt"? The name may daunt you -- but the writer "leans to Miss Austen's side" [...] There is nothing high toned or passionate -- & supposing you safely over the monotony of the subject & the odiousness of the heroine, it may not prove heavy reading for your evenings [...] It did indeed strike me as one of the very best domestic novels which have fallen upon these evil days.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Letitia Elizabeth Landon : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 July 1841: 'Poor LEL! Just as she had outstretched her hand to touch nature, & to feel thrillingly there that is poetry is more than fantasy .. to die so! I have dropped tears on tears over some of her later poems'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Robert Browning : Pippa Passes (Bells and Pomegranates, No. I)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 15 July 1841: 'I have read the Bells & Pomegranates! -- "Pippa passes" .. comprehension, I was going to say! [...] There are fine things in it -- & the presence of genius, never to be denied! -- At the same time it is hard .. [italics]to understand[end italics] -- is'nt it?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : Exposition of the False Medium and Barriers Excluding Men of Genius from the Public
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 4 August 1841: 'I have seen & read [italics]the book[end italics] [...] It is written by an enthusiast in the cause of genius upon the spectacle of its misery, lighted up to ghastliness by the torchlight of [Isaac] D'Israeli & other memorialists [...] Its thunderbolts are hurled against all false media -- such as interpose between men of genius & the public, in the form of [italic]readers[end italics] for publishers & Theatrical managers, &c &c [...] There is, in fact, with much talent & power, a sufficiency of acrimony & indiscretion [...] notwithstanding the sense forced upon me of the overweight of certain words -- I did feel myself taken off my feet & carried along in the brave strong generous current of the spirit of the book -- It is a fearless book, with fine thoughts on a stirring subject'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : 'On the Portrait of the Duchess of Burlington, Painted after her Death by Mr Lucas'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 August 1841: 'How glad I was to see the graceful stanzas in the Athenaeum! -- Lady Burlington's I mean!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Theodosia Garrow : 'The Doom of Cheynholme'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 August 1841: 'In regard to Miss Garrow's poetry, I cannot to please any person in the world take the Landor & Kenyon estimate of it. Mr Landor, you know, says "Sappho" -- and Mr Kenyon says [...] "wonderful genius!" [...] The best poem I have seen of hers, is the Ballad in Lady Blessington's Keepsake for next year [...] and I think & feel of that ballad as of the rest, that it is flowingly & softly written, with no trace of the thing called genius [...] It is right to admit that I have seen only four or five poems -- but those were selected ones .. for Lady Blessington -- (two selected by Mr Landor)'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Theodosia Garrow : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 August 1841: 'In regard to Miss Garrow's poetry, I cannot to please any person in the world take the Landor & Kenyon estimate of it. Mr Landor, you know, says "Sappho" -- and Mr Kenyon says [...] "wonderful genius!" [...] The best poem I have seen of hers, is the Ballad in Lady Blessington's Keepsake for next year [...] and I think & feel of that ballad as of the rest, that it is flowingly & softly written, with no trace of the thing called genius [...] It is right to admit that I have seen only four or five poems -- but those were selected ones .. for Lady Blessington -- (two selected by Mr Landor)'.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Benjamin Robert Haydon : letters to Mary Russell Mitford
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 September 1841: 'Mr Haydon's letters shut up in the best letter of all [i.e. one from Mitford], I received this morning & will return to you in a day or two. I must let Papa just look at them. They interested me much [...] How fine this life of genius is! -- & its religion too! [...] I like these letters. They spring up like a fountain among the world's conventionalities'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
George Stephens : Martinuzzi
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 23 September 1841: 'Mr Horne set me Martinuzzi to read, a day or two ago [...] Martinuzzzi is in a course of performance still [...] After the fatal first night, sundry corrections & reformations were made in the tragedy [...] The tragedy has fine things in it, but not very frequently & always broken into chips [...] Mr Horne lent me the play -- & now I have to stutter out the truth to him in all courtesy.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
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
John Kenyon : 'Upper Austria'
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 10 November 1841: 'I have been wandering in Lower Austria [sic] -- very much pleased -- by the help of your music-tongued & smiling philosophy.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Theodosia Garrow : poem on death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 12 November 1841, having recommended she read Theodosia Garrow's narrative poem 'The Doom of Cheynholme' in The Keepsake For 1842: 'You may like it better than I do [...] Individuality & inspiration I do [italics]not[end italics] find in her. Enclosed is a paper I laid my hand on this morning -- some stanzas of hers on poor LEL's death, & in her own autograph. Read it & tell me what you think'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
John A. Heraud : The Roman Brother: A Tragedy
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 25 November 1841: 'The Roman Brother -- & thank you! -- There are fine things in it -- very -- but it wants continuity, interest altogether -- & leaves you cold as a stone.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
R. M. Milnes : One Tract More, or, The System Illustrated by "The Tracts for the Times," Externally Regarded: by a Layman
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 6 December 1841: 'What a singular movement is this Puseyite one [...] Mr Milnes is a Puseyite & wrote the "One tract more," which I read at Torquay by grace of Mr Kenyon's kindness, but thought little of.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Ann Radcliffe : Gaston de Blondeville
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 8 December 1841: 'I have not read Self formation, -- & [italics]have[end italics] read "Gaston de Blondeville". perhaps you don't know it, but I am, have been .. in all sorts of tenses -- a profound reader of romances. I have read Gaston [...] The fault of Mrs Radcliffe's preceeding works was her want of courage in not following back the instincts of our nature to their possible causes. She made the instinct toward the supernatural too prominent, to deny & belie the thing [...] Can anything be more irritating than the Key to her mysteries [...]? 'Just in proportion to the degree of this disagreeableness, is Gaston better & nobler in [italics]design[end italics]. Inasmuch as the ghost is real, it is excellent, but inasmuch as the book hath three volumes (or two) -- it is naught. It did hang upon me (with all its advantages as a ghost story) with a weight from which her preceeding works are sacred. It quite disappointed me! [...] the whole appeared to me heavy & not impressive -- &, what is strange, not so terrible with its actual marvels, as were the waxen mimicries of the Castle of Otranto.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas J. Serle : Joan of Arc
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 8 December 1841: 'I have not read Self formation, -- & [italics]have[end italics] read "Gaston de Blondeville" [...] And I have been reading your Mr Serle's Joan of Arc -- confessing with you the talent of the book, while I groaned a little under the heaviness [...] Joan is not very interesting -- true & beautiful as is the aspect she wears. She is seen as in a picture -- attitude, countenance -- but we dont feel her heart beat -- we know nothing of her inward life.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Anna Brownell Jameson : writings including Conversations on the State of Art and Literature in Germany (1837)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 23-25 December 1841: 'Mrs Jameson's early writings -- the Ennuyee for instance -- have an adroit leaning to sentiment, which is [italics]sentimentality[end italics], & provokes one the more for the excellent taste observable & admirable even there. In her later books, I do, I confess, see much to admire. The conversations, for instance, on the state of art & literature in Germany .. oh surely, we cannot all but admire their acuteness & eloquence & high intonation.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Trollope : The Blue Belles of England
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 23-25 December 1841: 'Have you read the "Blue Belles"? Do -- it is very clever -- and besides I want you to send me the little key which belongs to the personalities. Who is Lady Dort? -- & Mrs Stewart Gardiner? Who is the painter? It is very clever -- good for its bad class!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Joseph Hunter : A Disquisition on the Scene, Origin, Date, etc. of Shakespeare's Tempest
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1-6 January 1842: 'Did you see Mr Hunter's treatise upon the Tempest? Mr Kenyon "caused it to pass before my face" & I did not complain of the briefness of the vision [...] I do hate all those geographical statistical historical yea, & natural-historical illustrators of a great poet [...] I dont care a grain of sand on the shore whether Prospero's island was Bermuda or Lampedusa! [goes on to make more detailed criticisms of this text, and the attempts in it to identify real-life origins of Shakespeare's settings and characters]'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Alford : Chapters on the Poets of Ancient Greece
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1-6 January 1842: 'Did you see Mr Hunter's treatise upon the Tempest? Mr Kenyon "caused it to pass before my face" & I did not complain of the briefness of the vision [...] I have been reading too by the same grace .. of dear Mr Kenyon .. Mr Alford's Chapters on the Greek poets. I dont like them at all. Such criticism, on the surface & of long familiarity with the common eye, the sense of the world has outgrown. It wd have done for those days when poetry was considered a pretty play like skittles, but is not suitable to this [italics]now[end italics], when its popularity as a toy is passed, & its depth & holiness as a science more surely tho' partially regarded.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Westwood : Note to Elizabeth Barrett
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 7 January 1842: 'Miss Barrett -- inferring Mr Westwood from the handwriting, -- begs his acceptance of the unworthy little book [Barret's An Essay on Mind] he does her the honour of desiring to see [...] Will he receive at the same moment, the expression of the touched & gratified feelings with which Miss Barrett read what he wrote on the subject of her later volumes [...] she is thankful for what he said so kindly in his note to her'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
: Poetae Graeci Christiani, una cum Homericus Centonibus
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 12 January 1842: 'I have won a sight of the Poetae Christiani -- but the price is ruinous -- [italics]fourteen guineas[end italics] -- and then the work consists almost entirely of Latin poets -- deducting Gregory & Nonnus, and John Damascenus & a cento from Homer by somebody or other -- Turning the leaves rapidly I do not see much else'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : Alsargis
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 18 January 1842: 'What can you have thought, my dear Mr Horne, of all this loitering with your tragedy? [...] Here it is all safe back for you [...] thank you, thank you, twice over, for all the -- -- -- [italics]pleasure[end italics] is the wrong word -- -- -- [italics]sensation[end italics] is not quite right -- the [italics]emotion[end italics], which this fine tragedy has given me [goes on to comment upon text in detail]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Thomas Westwood : Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 5 February 1842: 'I [italics]was[end italics] and [italics]am[end italics] very grateful to you for the gift of your poems [...] my pencil has marked my favourites. I like, among others, that song with the pretty wild measure, about the summer, and the song to spring about the "bright-vein'd flowers"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Burney : Diary and Letters (Volume 1)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 February 1842: 'What an amusing book these Burneyana [italics]do[end italics] make! There is certainly a [italics]consciousness[end italics] which combined with the egoism & the Evelinaism "in saecula saeculorum", suggests no idea of modesty, real modesty [...] And thus I do not worship the "dear little Burney" as a fair incarnate modesty [...] But I do like her book -- I do think it full of living pulses & delightfulness, & my heart leaps up at the hum of work-day life issuing thus from the tomb-door of that dead generation. Oh -- do read the book -- I mean, at once -- read it at once.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Margaret Baron-Wilson : The Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 31 February [sic] 1842: 'I have not very long done with Lewis's memoirs, -- & have actually scarcely laid aside Hayley's Autobiography [goes on to criticise these texts in detail]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Hayley : Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley, Esq ... Written by Himself
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 31 February [sic] 1842: 'I have not very long done with Lewis's memoirs, -- & have actually scarcely laid aside Hayley's Autobiography [goes on to criticise these texts in detail]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: De legibus
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 March 1842: 'I had two volumes of Euripedes [sic] with me in Devonshire -- & have read him as well as Aeschylus & Sophocles [...] both before & since I went there. You know I have gone through every line of the three tragedians, long ago, in the way of regular, consecutive reading. You know also that I had at different times read different dialogues of Plato: but when three years ago, & a few months previous to my leaving home, I became possessed of a complete edition of his works edited by Bekker, why then I began with the first volume & went thorugh the whole of his writings [...] one after another, -- & have at this time read all that is properly attributed to Plato, but even those dialogues & epistles which pass falsely under his name, -- everything except two books I think, or three, of that treatise "De legibus" which I shall finish in a week or two'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Plato : Works including Dissertation sur le Passage du Rhone et les Alpes par Annibal
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 March 1842: 'I had two volumes of Euripedes [sic] with me in Devonshire -- & have read him as well as Aeschylus & Sophocles [...] both before & since I went there. You know I have gone through every line of the three tragedians, long ago, in the way of regular, consecutive reading. 'You know also that I had at different times read different dialogues of Plato: but when three years ago, & a few months previous to my leaving home, I became possessed of a complete edition of his works edited by Bekker, why then I began with the first volume & went through the whole of his writings [...] one after another, -- & have at this time read all that is properly attributed to Plato, but even those dialogues & epistles which pass falsely under his name, -- everything except two books I think, or three, of that treatise "De legibus" which I shall finish in a week or two'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: works attributed to Plato
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 March 1842: 'I had two volumes of Euripedes [sic]with me in Devonshire -- & have read him as well as Aeschylus & Sophocles [...] both before & since I went there. You know I have gone through every line of the three tragedians, long ago, in the way of regular, consecutive reading. 'You know also that I had at different times read different dialogues of Plato: but when three years ago, & a few months previous to my leaving home, I became possessed of a complete edition of his works edited by Bekker, why then I began with the first volume & went through the whole of his writings [...] one after another, -- & have at this time read all that is properly attributed to Plato, but even those dialogues & epistles which pass falsely under his name, -- everything except two books I think, or three, of that treatise "De legibus" which I shall finish in a week or two'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aeschylus : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 March 1842: 'I had two volumes of Euripedes [sic] with me in Devonshire -- & have read him as well as Aeschylus & Sophocles [...] both before & since I went there. You know I have gone through every line of the three tragedians, long ago, in the way of regular, consecutive reading. 'You know also that I had at different times read different dialogues of Plato: but when three years ago, & a few months previous to my leaving home, I became possessed of a complete edition of his works edited by Bekker, why then I began with the first volume & went through the whole of his writings [...] one after another, -- & have at this time read all that is properly attributed to Plato, but even those dialogues & epistles which pass falsely under his name, -- everything except two books I think, or three, of that treatise "De legibus" which I shall finish in a week or two'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Sophocles : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 March 1842: 'I had two volumes of Euripedes [sic] with me in Devonshire -- & have read him as well as Aeschylus & Sophocles [...] both before & since I went there. You know I have gone through every line of the three tragedians, long ago, in the way of regular, consecutive reading. 'You know also that I had at different times read different dialogues of Plato: but when three years ago, & a few months previous to my leaving home, I became possessed of a complete edition of his works edited by Bekker, why then I began with the first volume & went through the whole of his writings [...] one after another, -- & have at this time read all that is properly attributed to Plato, but even those dialogues & epistles which pass falsely under his name, -- everything except two books I think, or three, of that treatise "De legibus" which I shall finish in a week or two'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Euripides : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 March 1842: 'I had two volumes of Euripedes [sic] with me in Devonshire -- & have read him as well as Aeschylus & Sophocles [...] both before & since I went there. You know I have gone through every line of the three tragedians, long ago, in the way of regular, consecutive reading. 'You know also that I had at different times read different dialogues of Plato: but when three years ago, & a few months previous to my leaving home, I became possessed of a complete edition of his works edited by Bekker, why then I began with the first volume & went through the whole of his writings [...] one after another, -- & have at this time read all that is properly attributed to Plato, but even those dialogues & epistles which pass falsely under his name, -- everything except two books I think, or three, of that treatise "De legibus" which I shall finish in a week or two'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aristotle : Poetics
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 10 March 1842: 'I have read of Aristotle, only His poetics, his ethics & his work upon rhetoric -- but I mean to take him regularly into both hands when I finish Plato's last page.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aristotle : Ethics
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 10 March 1842: 'I have read of Aristotle, only His poetics, his ethics & his work upon rhetoric -- but I mean to take him regularly into both hands when I finish Plato's last page.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Aristotle : 'work upon rhetoric'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 10 March 1842: 'I have read of Aristotle, only His poetics, his ethics & his work upon rhetoric -- but I mean to take him regularly into both hands when I finish Plato's last page.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jean Francois Marmontel : Memoires
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 March 1842: 'I [italics]have[end italics] read Marmontel's memoirs .. & a most amusing book it is'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : Zanoni
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 17 March 1842: 'In regard to Zanoni, I think with you that there is much in it, one wd yearn to see cast out of it, in reverence to the unity of the whole [goes on to comment on text in further detail]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Correspondence
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 March 1842: 'Richardson's correspondence has charmed me -- "charming" being the right word, since I verily & indeed believed myself wrapt up close in the domestic brocades of the Harlowe family, all the time I spent in reading it. His own letters are letters out of his romances to the very crossing of the t[']s [...] Lady Bradleigh [sic] is delightful -- -- I don't wonder that he tired himself with pacing up & down Hyde Park in his desire to catch a glimpse of her! [...] I read that volume with quite a romance-palpitation. Thank you, thank you for telling me of the book'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Edwin Austin Townsend : poem on the departure and farewell sermon of George Augustus Selwyn, on his being appointed Bishop of New Zealand
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 March 1842: 'I like this waste of the public money upon bishops of New Zealand!! [...] as little as you do, & have ventured to be open with Mr Townsend & tell him as much. The utter absurdity [...] of forcing out the forms & ceremonies of this Parliament church, out among the savages, I cd even cry over in utter vexation [...] let those who are sent, be [italics]missionaries[end italics]. The bishops are impotent [...] in all situations of the kind -- & as I ventured to tell Mr Townsend, the martyr soul of poor Williams was the true Bishop-soul for the South Seas. 'There is great sweetness in his little poem to be sure -- a few lines together which one smiles over to oneself as for pleasure. Still -- what a subject!'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27-28 March 1842: 'Do you know how Mr Macready has been attacked for trying [...] to suppress [italics]the saloons[end italics] [...] and how it has been declared that no theatre can exist at the present day without a saloon -- & how, if it could, the effect wd be to force vicious persons & their indecencies into full view in the boxes --!! Now this appears to me enough to constitute a repulsive objection! & I who have read hard at the old dramatists since I last spoke to you about them, -- Beaumont & Fletcher Massinger Ben Jonson all Dodsley's collection, -- can yet see that objection in all its repulsiveness! .. & read on!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Philip Massinger : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27-28 March 1842: 'Do you know how Mr Macready has been attacked for trying [...] to suppress [italics]the saloons[end italics] [...] and how it has been declared that no theatre can exist at the present day without a saloon -- & how, if it could, the effect wd be to force vicious persons & their indecencies into full view in the boxes --!! Now this appears to me enough to constitute a repulsive objection! & I who have read hard at the old dramatists since I last spoke to you about them, -- Beaumont & Fletcher Massinger Ben Jonson all Dodsley's collection, -- can yet see that objection in all its repulsiveness! .. & read on!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Ben Jonson : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27-28 March 1842: 'Do you know how Mr Macready has been attacked for trying [...] to suppress [italics]the saloons[end italics] [...] and how it has been declared that no theatre can exist at the present day without a saloon -- & how, if it could, the effect wd be to force vicious persons & their indecencies into full view in the boxes --!! Now this appears to me enough to constitute a repulsive objection! & I who have read hard at the old dramatists since I last spoke to you about them, -- Beaumont & Fletcher Massinger Ben Jonson all Dodsley's collection, -- can yet see that objection in all its repulsiveness! .. & read on!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Select Collection of Old Plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27-28 March 1842: 'Do you know how Mr Macready has been attacked for trying [...] to suppress [italics]the saloons[end italics] [...] and how it has been declared that no theatre can exist at the present day without a saloon -- & how, if it could, the effect wd be to force vicious persons & their indecencies into full view in the boxes --!! Now this appears to me enough to constitute a repulsive objection! & I who have read hard at the old dramatists since I last spoke to you about them, -- Beaumont & Fletcher Massinger Ben Jonson all Dodsley's collection, -- can yet see that objection in all its repulsiveness! .. & read on!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Daniel Defoe : Memoirs of a Cavalier
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27-28 March 1842: 'I have read the "Cavalier" -- but years ago. I must see it again. Nothing in Defoe fastened upon me much, except Robinson Crusoe & The Plague'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Daniel Defoe : Robinson Crusoe
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27-28 March 1842: 'I have read the "Cavalier" -- but years ago. I must see it again. Nothing in Defoe fastened upon me much, except Robinson Crusoe & The Plague'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Daniel Defoe : A Journal of the Plague Year
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27-28 March 1842: 'I have read the "Cavalier" -- but years ago. I must see it again. Nothing in Defoe fastened upon me much, except Robinson Crusoe & The Plague'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Ralph Waldo Emerson : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett, 30 March 1842: 'I have been reading Emerson -- He does away with individuality & personality in a most extraordinary manner -- teaching that [...] every man's being is a kind of Portico to the God Over-soul -- with Deity for background [...] there are heresies as thick as blackberries. Still the occasional beauty of thought & expression, & the noble erectness of the thinking faculty gave me "wherewithal to glory".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
James Russell Lowell : A Year's Life
Elizabeth Barrett to James Russell Lowell, 31 March 1842: 'I beg you at last to receive my very earnest thanks for the volume of graceful poetry which I received from you some months ago through the hands of our mutual friend Mr Kenyon [...] There is a natural bloom upon the poems, a one-heartedness with nature, which is very pleasant to me to recognize [...] I hope that you will write on'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Kenyon : A Rhymed Plea for Tolerance
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 April 1842: 'The "Rhymed Plea" is admirable "after its kind" -- but with all my true & admiring regard for its author & his writings I could not be content to receive it as sole comforter for the absence of higher inspirations.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Agnes Maria Bennett : The Beggar Girl and Her Benefactors
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 April 1842: 'I read the Beggar girl, when I was very young'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Robert Southey (ed) : The Works of William Cowper, Esq., ... With a Life of the Author
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 6 April 1842: 'The best and fullest biography [of William Cowper] in all ways appears to be poor Southey's -- the life published together with the works a few years ago [...] I read the book some years ago -- Mr Kenyon lent it to me'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Wordsworth : Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years; Including The Borderers, a Tragedy
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 13 April 1842: 'I send you back the [italics]two[end italics] books with a great many thanks. 'The Tragedy will be considered probably "naught" as a whole, but of considerable entity of beauty in its detached parts. It appears to [italics]me[end italics] that there are even fine dramatic touches in it although it is not a fine tragedy [...] For the rest -- there is much which is beautiful & powerful -- only you have [end italics]to dig for it[end italics] -- Do read the sonnets to the painter .. & the next palinodia sonnet -- & the one beginning "A Poet" -- & that composed on May morning 1838'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Wordsworth : Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years; Including The Borderers, a Tragedy
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 April 1842: 'Dear Mr Kenyon lent me Wordsworth's new volume two days ago -- & I have read the last line & end gratefully to the poet. The tragedy [italics]fails[end italics] [...] yet has more dramatic feature occasionally than I had expected to find [...] Among the other poems there are some four or five sonnets which are supremely excellent [makes other criticisms]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier : Memoires
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 25 April 1842: 'Of course you know Mademoiselle de Monpensier's [sic] Memoires. They are most characteristically delightful -- yet I am only just now reading them -- & the Duc de St Simon's also. I have a sort of Memoir brain fever at the present season-- Don't you think so?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon : Memoires
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 25 April 1842: 'Of course you know Mademoiselle de Monpensier's [sic] Memoires. They are most characteristically delightful -- yet I am only just now reading them -- & the Duc de St Simon's also. I have a sort of Memoir brain fever at the present season-- Don't you think so?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : letter to Elizabeth Barrett
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 May 1842: 'I cdnt help reading to Crow your beautiful story of your Flush [dog] [...] mine immediately took up the gesture of listening intently gathering his ears over his great eyes as if he saw a hare [...] & patting about his little paws everytime the word [...] "Flush" occurred. Be sure he thought I was reading about [italics]him[end italics]!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
Alfred Tennyson : Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 15 May 1842: 'I ought to be thanking you for your great kindness about this divine Tennyson [...] But notwithstanding the poetry of the novelties -- & you will observe that his two preceding volumes (only one of which I had seen before .. having enquired for the other vainly) are included in these two, -- nothing appears to me quite equal to Oenone [...] That is not said in disparagement of the last, but in admiration of the first. There is in fact more thought, more bare brave working of the intellect in the later poems, even if we miss some of the high ideality, & the music that goes with it, of the older ones.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Ralph Waldo Emerson : Essays: First Series
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 June 1841: 'Yes [...] to [having read] Emerson's letters [sic]. Or rather, yes, to the letters, & "no" to Carlyle's preface -- because I read the American edition. Mr Kenyon lent the book to me, the book belonging to Mr Crabbe Robinson whose hair stood on end when he heard of its being lent to me! "Why" he said "that book is too stiff even for myself -- and I am not very orthodox." In fact the book [...] is very extravagant in some of its views. It sets about destroying [...] the personality of every person, & speaks of the Deity as of a great Background to which every created individual forms a little porch!!! For the rest, there are beautiful & noble thoughts in the book, beautifully & nobly said.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Wollstonecraft : A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 22 July 1842: 'I read Mary Wolstonecraft [sic] when I was thirteen: no, twelve! .. and, through the whole course of my childhood, I had a steady indignation against Nature who made me a woman, & a determinate resolution to dress up in men's clothes as soon as ever I was free of the nursery'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Ellen Pickering : novels
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 July 1842: 'If our dear Mr Kenyon should turn out to be bewitched [by Ellen Pickering], it was not achieved by the novels. He keeps Wordsworth & Tennyson in his house until weeks count up into months without reading a page of them: he is not likely to read a Miss P. But I who read more of good & bad than I dare confess, & who of late years [as invalid] have stretched out my hand for literature, more sometimes to be languid & half asleep over than for thoughtful purpose, know her novels very well, & have found the degree of amusement or beguilement I sought, from several of them. Nobody can praise them for good writing to be sure, -- nor for any other sort of elevation above the commonplace [...] But there is a degree of amusement to be confessed in the books -- at least by me when I am sleepy -- & there is an amiableness & good feeling which I was always pleased to confess.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna : 'little books'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 August 1842: 'As to Charlotte Elizabeth -- yes, I have read that little book you speak of, & several of her little books besides. Her bitterness & narrowness towards the R Catholics [...] I admit & lament to the roots of my heart. She is a very devoted woman, & lives to God nearly as if she lived with Him -- and I believe that in exciting religious feeling her books have done much good & especially among the young.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Samuel Romilly : Memoirs of the Life of Sir Samuel Romilly, Written by Himself
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 August 1842: 'Romilly's memoirs have interest [...] Not that I am an enthusiast about [italics]him[end italics] [...] it is wonderful & chilling to me, his unconsciousness, -- apparent at least & unbroken to the observation, by voice or sign, throughout these memoirs, -- of the Spiritual Realities beyond his humanity. Is it not so? I think it was my impression.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: The Berkshire Chronicle
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 September 1842: 'My dearest friend, here is the newspaper [containing report of Mitford's laying corner stone of New Public Rooms, London Street, Reading, on 31 August] back & thanks upon thanks for the pleasure of the sight of it. I admire your chief orator [Dr Cowan, who gave speech on occasion] [...] & applaud with all the applause & exult in all the exultation'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
: report of reprieve of condemned criminal Elizabeth Barrett
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 September 1842: 'Will Mrs Partridge receive the expression of my earnest thoughts for her happiness? [...] But I never had the pleasure of seeing Mr Partridge on either side the Alps -- never alas! WAS on any side but one [...] I read in the paper lately that Elizabeth Barrett was reprieved from capital punishment. So "we are [italics]three[end italics]" -- or were at least.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
Benjamin Robert Haydon : letter to the Sheffield Mercury regarding formation of a School of Design in Sheffield.
Elizabeth Barrett to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 29 October 1842: 'I have to thank you [...] for the sight of a very interesting letter of the Sheffield paper which I seem to be bound to return to you, as you do not say "keep it".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
Frances Trollope : The Barnabys in America
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 4 November 1842: 'I have been reading Mrs Trollope in the New Monthly. She is very clever there is no denying. But I do wonder whether the [italics]educated[end italics] quakers make use of [italics]Thee[end italics] in the nominative case -- whether they make use of such execrable grammar (for instance) as "Thee bee'st". I never heard a quaker talk, and yet I cd scarcely wonder or doubt at all about it, if I did not observe that Capt. Marryat & Mrs Trollope & other writers of at least supposed education, represent their quakers always talking so.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Frederick Marryat : A Diary in America, With Remarks on its Institutions
'E[lizabeth] B[arrett] B[arrett] had read Marryat's [...] A Diary in America, With Remarks on its Institutions (1839), in 1841'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Kenyon, Walter Savage Landor, Theodosia Garrow : The Keepsake for 1843
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 12 November 1842: 'Mr Kenyon called yesterday [...] and he left Lady Blessington's Annual [...] The annual is fuller of trash than usual I think, which is saying a good deal of ill. His own contribution indeed is a very excellent & poetical paraphrase of Schiller's "Gods of Greece" -- & there is a prose story by Mr Landor which has much beauty in his peculiar manner, -- & there is, moreover, a graceful fairy story by Miss Garrow, which I prefer to her last year's ballad, although retaining my opinion of the want of individuality & of power.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 November 1842: 'Keep my secret -- but I have been reading a good deal lately of the new French literature [...] I was curious beyond the patience of my Eve-ship, & besides grew so interested in France & the French through my long apprentice ship to the old Memoirs that I felt pricked to the heart to know all about the posterity of my heroes & heroines. And besides I live out of the world altogether, & am lonely enough & old enough & sad enough & experienced enough in every sort of good & bad reading, not to be hurt personally by a French superfluity of bad [...] [George Sand] is eloquent as a fallen angel [...] Then there is Eugene Sue, & Frederic Soulie, & De Queile .. why the whole literature looks like a conflagration -- & my whole being aches with the sight of it [...] Full indeed of power & caprice & extravagance is this new French literature [...] The want is, of fixed principle [...] Now tell me, what you think? That it is very naughty of me to read naughty books -- or that you have done the same?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Eugene Sue : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 November 1842: 'Keep my secret -- but I have been reading a good deal lately of the new French literature [...] I was curious beyond the patience of my Eve-ship, & besides grew so interested in France & the French through my long apprentice ship to the old Memoirs that I felt pricked to the heart to know all about the posterity of my heroes & heroines. And besides I live out of the world altogether, & am lonely enough & old enough & sad enough & experienced enough in every sort of good & bad reading, not to be hurt personally by a French superfluity of bad [...] [George Sand] is eloquent as a fallen angel [...] Then there is Eugene Sue, & Frederic Soulie, & De Queile .. why the whole literature looks like a conflagration -- & my whole being aches with the sight of it [...] Full indeed of power & caprice & extravagance is this new French literature [...] The want is, of fixed principle [...] Now tell me, what you think? That it is very naughty of me to read naughty books -- or that you have done the same?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frederic Soulie : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 November 1842: 'Keep my secret -- but I have been reading a good deal lately of the new French literature [...] I was curious beyond the patience of my Eve-ship, & besides grew so interested in France & the French through my long apprentice ship to the old Memoirs that I felt pricked to the heart to know all about the posterity of my heroes & heroines. And besides I live out of the world altogether, & am lonely enough & old enough & sad enough & experienced enough in every sort of good & bad reading, not to be hurt personally by a French superfluity of bad [...] [George Sand] is eloquent as a fallen angel [...] Then there is Eugene Sue, & Frederic Soulie, & De Queile .. why the whole literature looks like a conflagration -- & my whole being aches with the sight of it [...] Full indeed of power & caprice & extravagance is this new French literature [...] The want is, of fixed principle [...] Now tell me, what you think? That it is very naughty of me to read naughty books -- or that you have done the same?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Louis de Maynard de Queilhe : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 November 1842: 'Keep my secret -- but I have been reading a good deal lately of the new French literature [...] I was curious beyond the patience of my Eve-ship, & besides grew so interested in France & the French through my long apprentice ship to the old Memoirs that I felt pricked to the heart to know all about the posterity of my heroes & heroines. And besides I live out of the world altogether, & am lonely enough & old enough & sad enough & experienced enough in every sort of good & bad reading, not to be hurt personally by a French superfluity of bad [...] [George Sand] is eloquent as a fallen angel [...] Then there is Eugene Sue, & Frederic Soulie, & De Queile .. why the whole literature looks like a conflagration -- & my whole being aches with the sight of it [...] Full indeed of power & caprice & extravagance is this new French literature [...] The want is, of fixed principle [...] Now tell me, what you think? That it is very naughty of me to read naughty books -- or that you have done the same?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : Leila
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27 November 1842: '"Leila" [...] made me blush in my solitude to the ends of my fingers -- blush three blushes in one .. for [italics]Her[end italics] who could be so shameless -- for her sex, whose purity she so disgraced -- & for myself in particular, who cd hold such a book for five minutes while a coal-fire burnt within reach of the other.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Victor Hugo : Les derniers jours d'un condamne
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27 November 1842: ''Have you observed what I have observed [...] that Charles Dickens has meditated deeply & not without advantage upon Victor Hugo, -- and that some of his very finest things .. (all for instance of the Jew's condemnation-hours in Oliver Twist) .. are taken from Victor Hugo, .. "Les derniers jours d'un condamne" & passim? I admire Boz very absolutely & gratefully [...] but my sense of his power & genius grew grey & weak [...] with reading Hugo.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frederic Soulie : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27 November 1842: 'I have just done reading a romance of Frederick Soulie's which begins with a violation & a murder, & ends consistently with a murder & a violation, -- the hero who is the agent of this "just proportion" being shut up at last & starved in a premature coffin, after having his eyelids neatly sowed [sic] up by the fair fingers of his lady-love.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Robert Pollock : The Course of Time
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 November 1842: 'I have read through Pollock's Course of Time, -- & I confess it appeared to me an extroardinary [sic] work for a young poet -- full of grand conceptions half formed -- & tracked everywhere with unequal staggering footsteps of genius.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : review article on Tennyson and/or Browning
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 November 1842: 'Mr Leigh Hunt & Mr Horne have been reviewing Tennyson & Browning in the Church of England quarterly [...] Mr Horne is acute and generous as he always is, -- but Leigh Hunt's article, altho' honest in criticism, I do not doubt, & wise in many of the remarks, strikes me as a cold welcome from a poet to a poet -- & to such a poet as Tennyson! -- & I felt a little vexed while I was reading it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Leigh Hunt : review article on Tennyson and/or Browning
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 November 1842: 'Mr Leigh Hunt & Mr Horne have been reviewing Tennyson & Browning in the Church of England quarterly [...] Mr Horne is acute and generous as he always is, -- but Leigh Hunt's article, altho' honest in criticism, I do not doubt, & wise in many of the remarks, strikes me as a cold welcome from a poet to a poet -- & to such a poet as Tennyson! -- & I felt a little vexed while I was reading it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Frederika Bremer : The Neighbours: A Story of Everyday Life
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 December 1842: 'My thoughts have lately been of Frederica Bremer?s "Neighbours" instead of my own?I mean of the very charming novel which Mrs Howitt has just "done into English" from the Swedish ? or German peradventure ? it being probably a translation from the German ? Read it my dearest friend, & agree with me that it is delightful. "Like Miss Austen" says Mrs Howitt - & "like Miss Austen" being the best introduction to you possible, "I echo her" ? altho? in my private & individual opinion & saving your presence, I do consider the book of a higher & sweeter tone than Miss Austen had voice and soul for. There is more poetry, more of the inner life, more of the ideal aspiration more of a Godward tendency in the book than we need seek for or than even you my beloved friend, can, I think, imagine in any book or books of Miss Austen considered in a moment of your most enthusiastic estimation. I am pleased, & touched .. charmed for the better, by the book. The serenity, the sweetness, the undertone of Christian music, affect me the more for coming to me in the midst of my lion & tiger hunting with La jeune France [ie her reading of lurid, recent French fiction]; & the impression will not pass, it appears to me, with the reading of the last page.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Burney D'Arblay : Diary and Letters (Volume 5)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 5 December 1842: 'I did think the fifth volume [of Frances Burney D'Arblay's Diary and Letters] interesting & very interesting -- and yet, I dont give it the preference quite as you do [...] I believe I was [...] vexed at her wary conduct & cold policy & most provident distrust towards that noble woman Madme de Stael [goes on to comment upon and criticise text in detail].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Howitt : The Seven Temptations
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 7 December 1842: 'I like Mary Howitt's lyrical poetry -- ballad poetry, I shd say distinctively, -- and once thought, -- before I had read the "Seven Temptations", that I wd prefer having her genius to work with, than either Mrs Hemans's & [sic] Miss Landon's. The Seven Temptations changed my view, & checked my admiration. She cannot sustain a high song'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Alfred Tennyson : 'Oriana'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 December 1842: 'Do you really object to the re-iteration of [italics]Oriana[end italics] [in Tennyson's poem of that name]? Do you think it affected? To my mind, it is highly artistic, & [italics]effective[end italics] instead! It rang all day in my head when first I read it [...] You hear the Norland wind wail in it!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Robert Browning : Bells and Pomegranates III (Dramatic Lyrics)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 December 1842: 'Mr Browning's last "Bells and Pomegranates" I sigh over. There are fine things [...] But there is much in the little (for the publication consists of only a few pages) which I, who admire him, wish away -- impotent attempts at humour, -- a vain jangling with rhymes [...] and a fragmentary rough-edgedness about the [italics]mounting[end italics] of some high thoughts.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : Le Pere Goriot
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 17 December 1842: 'I sent Pere Goriot [...] because it is my belief that I never mentioned to you the name of Balzac, & that he [italics]is[end italics], nevertheless, the most powerful writer of the French day next to Victor Hugo & George Sand! [...] Pere Goriot is a very painful book -- but full of moody power, dashed with blood & mud. It appears to me the most powerful work of its writer, I have read -- & also the most open to tenderness.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : Leila
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 December 1842: 'Because I would not, [italics]could not[end italics] send you Leila a serpent book both for language-color & soul-slime & one which I could not read through for its vileness myself, .. I sent this Jacques, which seemed to me to stink less in the [italics]phrase[end italics], altho' the bearing & countenance & general moral tone are identically bad [...] Indiana, less revolting as a whole leans alike & with the bent of the author's peculiar womanhood, to the sensual & physical -- and yet that work does appear to me very brilliant & powerful, & eloquent beyond praising.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : Jacques
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 December 1842: 'Because I would not, [italics]could not[end italics] send you Leila a serpent book both for language-color & soul-slime & one which I could not read through for its vileness myself, .. I sent this Jacques, which seemed to me to stink less in the [italics]phrase[end italics], altho' the bearing & countenance & general moral tone are identically bad [...] Indiana, less revolting as a whole leans alike & with the bent of the author's peculiar womanhood, to the sensual & physical -- and yet that work does appear to me very brilliant & powerful, & eloquent beyond praising.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : Indiana
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 December 1842: 'Because I would not, [italics]could not[end italics] send you Leila a serpent book both for language-color & soul-slime & one which I could not read through for its vileness myself, .. I sent this Jacques, which seemed to me to stink less in the [italics]phrase[end italics], altho' the bearing & countenance & general moral tone are identically bad [...] Indiana, less revolting as a whole leans alike & with the bent of the author's peculiar womanhood, to the sensual & physical -- and yet that work does appear to me very brilliant & powerful, & eloquent beyond praising.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Trollope : Letter to Mary Russell Mitford
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 December 1842: 'I am bewitched, my beloved friend, to be sure! Do you know I could have been obstinate in my self-persuasion that I had returned to you Mrs Trollope's letter & here it is in my writing basket. And all this while I have been rewarding you for your kindness in letting me see it [...] & keeping you from sending your answer, by my carelessness.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon fils : Le Sopha, Conte Moral
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 December 1842: 'Did you ever look at -- I dont say [italics]read[end italics] -- the "Sofa" of Crebillon fils. I sent for it once in the innocense [sic] of my ignorance, & after a quarter of an hour's turning of the leaves dropped it like a burning iron. It is the most disgusting sensual book I ever [italics]tried[end italics] to read -- but [italics]did'nt[end italics] read, I do assure you.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Etienne Leon de Lamothe-Langon : Memoires d'une Femme de Qualite sur Louis XVIII, sa Cour et son Regne
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 December 1842: 'I remember [...] reading in the curious Memoires d'une femme de qualite, a mot upon Madme de Genlis who was said to have confessed in [italics]her[end italics] memoirs [italics]everybody's sins except her own[end italics].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Comtesse de Genlis : Adele et Theodore, ou Lettres sur l'Education
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 December 1842: 'I like Madme de Genlis in many of her writings [...] Do you know [...] the story of the Duchesse de C. in the cavern, extended into three volumes? Would you like to know it, if you do not already? I have it here. It belongs to me. And it always seems to me the very best, most vivid & most interesting of its author's various romances, & well worth reading once or twice or thrice.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
James Macpherson (as 'Ossian') : 'Carthon'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 January 1843: 'It is many years since I looked at Ossian; & I never did much delight in him as that fact proves. Since your letter came I have taken him up again -- & have just finished 'Carthon' -- There are beautiful passages in it [...] But [...] nothing is articulate -- nothing [italics]individual[end italics], nothing various.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Plato : Gorgias
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 January 1843: 'Did I tell you that I have been reading through an M.S. translation of the Gorgias of Plato, by a Mr Hyman of Oxford, who is a step-son of Mr Haydon's the artist? It is an excellent translation with learned notes -- but it is [italics]not elegant[end italics]. He means to try the public upon it -- but as I have intimated to him, the Christians of the present day are not civilized enough for Plato.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Benjamin Robert Haydon : autobiography
Elizabeth Barrett to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 8 January 1843: 'Your autobiography my dear Mr Haydon is delightful! I have been deeply interested in it in all ways [...] you owe this M.S. to the world as you owe to it the productions of your Art [...] the descriptions of Northcote, Opie, & Fuseli are highly graphic & life-like'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
William Ware : Zenobia: or, The Fall of Palmyra
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 January 1843: 'I have read the Letters from Palmyra. They are [...] powerfully written, in an elevated style which rises, not unfrequently, into eloquence! Still there does appear to me a coldness -- oh I may be very wrong -- but I read the book some time since, it struck me so.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Anton Felix Schindler : The Life of Beethoven
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 15 January 1843: 'I read this very morning Schindler's interesting memoirs of Beethoven'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Shakespeare : unknown
Benjamin Robert Haydon, in his Autobiography, mentions 'Liz', 'An attractive girl on the second floor of a house full of young men ... [who] attached herself to the party, made tea for them, marketed with them, carved for them, went to the lay with them, read Shakespeare with them,' going on to remark, 'Her position was anomalous, but I firmly believe it was innocent ... She was a girl with a man's mind ... as interesting a girl as you would wish to see'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Liz Print: Book
Charles Dickens : Martin Chuzzlewit
Elizabeth Barrett to James Martin, 6 February 1843: 'Do you know that the royal Boz lives close to us -- three doors from Mr Kenyon in Harley Place? The new numbers appear to me admirable, & full of life & blood .. whatever we may say to the thick rouging & extravagance of gesture. There is a beauty, a tenderness, too, in the organ-scene'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
John Gower : Confessio Amantis
Elizabeth Barrett to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 11 February 1843: 'I wish I could send you the "Confessio amantis" -- I have read it but do not possess it -- & have been waiting for some time until a black letter copy shall fall within reach of my hands'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Wilson (as Christopher North) : The Recreations of Christopher North (vol. 3)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?3 March 1843: 'Mr Kenyon calls Christopher North a "glorious brute" -- [italics]I[end italics] call him a "brute- angel" [...] Oh surely, surely, he is a great poet .. in prose! I am reading the Recreations -- 3d volume.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Maria Edgeworth : 'The Cherry Orchard'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 8 March 1843: '[The writings of Miss Edgeworth] are excellent & admirable -- but I cannot say, poetical or passionate [...] Still, after their kind, they are excellent [...] Why I learnt to read out of those first little books for children, & my child's heart has beat very fast in the "Cherry Orchard" & for Rosamond's "Purple vase"!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Maria Edgeworth : 'Rosamond'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 8 March 1843: '[The writings of Miss Edgeworth] are excellent & admirable -- but I cannot say, poetical or passionate [...] Still, after their kind, they are excellent [...] Why I learnt to read out of those first little books for children, & my child's heart has beat very fast in the "Cherry Orchard" & for Rosamond's "Purple vase"!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
anon : Duty and Inclination (volume 1)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 March 1843: 'I have [italics]tried[end italics] to read "Duty and Inclination" -- I tried twice & failed. the first time I tried, it had just come out with Miss Landon's name on the title page & a laudatory introduction -- & I sent it back to the booksellers in the agony of a yawn in the middle of the first volume. A year afterwards I wanted something light to doze over, & I bethought me of "Duty of Inclination", -- & how Miss Landon cdnt surely have praised it quite for nothing, -- & how the fault of my yawning might have been in my physics rather than in "Duty['s]" imaginatives, .. & how I wd try it again. So I sent for the book and tried it for the second time. My dearest Miss Mitford, it is as nearly [italics]trash[end italics] as any book I can think of [...] It is the sort of lightness which tires you to death'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
anon : Duty and Inclination
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 March 1843: 'I have [italics]tried[end italics] to read "Duty and Inclination" -- I tried twice & failed. the first time I tried, it had just come out with Miss Landon's name on the title page & a laudatory introduction -- & I sent it back to the booksellers in the agony of a yawn in the middle of the first volume. A year afterwards I wanted something light to doze over, & I bethought me of "Duty of Inclination", -- & how Miss Landon cdnt surely have praised it quite for nothing, -- & how the fault of my yawning might have been in my physics rather than in "Duty['s]" imaginatives, .. & how I wd try it again. So I sent for the book and tried it for the second time. My dearest Miss Mitford, it is as nearly [italics]trash[end italics] as any book I can think of [...] It is the sort of lightness which tires you to death'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, mid-March 1843: 'Thank you, my dear cousin, for Mr Longfellow's verses -- a [italics]whole book[end italics] of which I never saw before, & never liked him so little as in the same. But I suppose verses of this sort are meant to be light & insigni[fi]cative'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Leonard Horner : Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, M.P. (volume I)
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, mid-March 1843: 'Here is the first volume of Horner -- thank you! It is very interesting -- but he seems to me to have had too wavering a will, or rather too many objects, .. to be a great man.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Leonard Horner : Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, M.P. (volume II)
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, mid-March 1843: 'This Mr Horner is very noble & strong -- & I like him better, my dear cousin, as a whole politician .. as he gathers himself into one slowly with all his energy & strength [...] And then what an admirable letter Sydney Smith's is, in the appendix -- quite perfect in its kind I think.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : The Last of the Barons
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 March 1843: 'Notwithstanding my admiration of Bulwer, I had the hardest & most laborious work passing through his "Last of the Barons" (May it be the last of his romances wrought after such a fashion!) [...] There are threads of golden beauty [...] the sub-stuff being strong, & stiff, & useful -- very good stout history [...] but as for romance & poetic Art, the Goddess of useful knowledge has set her face against them.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Bewick : The History of British Birds (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 25 March 1843: 'I have seen Bewick only in extracts -- therefore you are justified in reproaching my ignorance --- and I dare say I was perfectly wrong in supposing him to be a mere scientific writer without a soul'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frances Trollope : Hargrave, or the Adventures of a Man of Fashion
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 March 1843: 'I have been reading to my amusement, Mrs Trollope's Hargrave. She has great skill in the construction of a story & shows it here; although I do not think that otherwise & generally, the work is of her cleverest.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
James Macpherson (as 'translator' of Ossian) : The Death of Cuchullin
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 31 March 1843: 'I feel guilty before you, since your last letter has remained too long unanswered [...] I thought it necessary to read "Cuthullin" steadily through as a preliminary to replying to your remarks upon it. This has been achieved at last [...] I admit the great beauty of certain things in the poem [...] although I preserve my opinion upon the general monotony & defective individuality'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Julius Caesar : De Bello Gallico
Elizabeth Barrett to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 7 April 1843: 'I have read Caesar's commentaries, to be sure, .. but I found them harder to read than his battles were to fight'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mrs Samuel Carter Hall : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 21 April 1843: 'Mrs S. C. Hall is an agreeable & graceful writer, & I am one of her many readers [...] From her husband I had one or two kind notes once, when he had the editorship of Colburn's magazine & I was a contributor to the same.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
William Pinnock : [?] Catechism of the History of England
'we learned Pinnock's Catechisms of History and Geography, and parsed sentences grammatically. For religious instruction we read portions of the Old Testament, and the Gospels, and Acts of the Apostles in a class every day, using Mrs Trimmer's "Selections"; and on Sundays we repeated the Collect and learned Watts's hymns, besides going through the Church Catechism. We also had Crossman's Catechism given us as an explanation of the Church Catechism'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
William Pinnock : Catechism of Geography; being an easy Introduction to the Knowledge of the World
'we learned Pinnock's Catechisms of History and Geography, and parsed sentences grammatically. For religious instruction we read portions of the Old Testament, and the Gospels, and Acts of the Apostles in a class every day, using Mrs Trimmer's "Selections"; and on Sundays we repeated the Collect and learned Watts's hymns, besides going through the Church Catechism. We also had Crossman's Catechism given us as an explanation of the Church Catechism'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Sarah Trimmer : Abridgement of Scripture History, consisting of Lessons selected from the Old Testament, for the Use of Schools and Families
'we learned Pinnock's Catechisms of History and Geography, and parsed sentences grammatically. For religious instruction we read portions of the Old Testament, and the Gospels, and Acts of the Apostles in a class every day, using Mrs Trimmer's "Selections"; and on Sundays we repeated the Collect and learned Watts's hymns, besides going through the Church Catechism. We also had Crossman's Catechism given us as an explanation of the Church Catechism'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[n/a] : Church Catechism
'we learned Pinnock's Catechisms of History and Geography, and parsed sentences grammatically. For religious instruction we read portions of the Old Testament, and the Gospels, and Acts of the Apostles in a class every day, using Mrs Trimmer's "Selections"; and on Sundays we repeated the Collect and learned Watts's hymns, besides going through the Church Catechism. We also had Crossman's Catechism given us as an explanation of the Church Catechism'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[n/a] : Book of Isaiah
'whilst yet in the nursery, I learned the greater portion of the first chapter of Isaiah, and can repeat it to this day. No one told me to do so, or even knew that I had done it. The beauty of the language, the exquisite musical rhythm of the sentences caught my ear, but I had little perception of anything beyond.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Joseph Addison : Spectator
'My chief acquaintance with the writers of the eighteenth century is derived from reading to Aunt Lyddy papers in the "Spectator" and "The Rambler", Mason's plays, Addison's "Cato" etc. This we were often called upon to do when we were invited to dine with Aunt Clarke'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Serial / periodical, possibly bound as a book
Samuel Johnson : Rambler, The
'My chief acquaintance with the writers of the eighteenth century is derived from reading to Aunt Lyddy papers in the "Spectator" and "The Rambler", Mason's plays, Addison's "Cato" etc. This we were often called upon to do when we were invited to dine with Aunt Clarke'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Serial / periodical, possibly bound as a book
Mason : [Plays]
'My chief acquaintance with the writers of the eighteenth century is derived from reading to Aunt Lyddy papers in the "Spectator" and "The Rambler", Mason's plays, Addison's "Cato" etc. This we were often called upon to do when we were invited to dine with Aunt Clarke'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Joseph Addison : Cato
'My chief acquaintance with the writers of the eighteenth century is derived from reading to Aunt Lyddy papers in the "Spectator" and "The Rambler", Mason's plays, Addison's "Cato" etc. This we were often called upon to do when we were invited to dine with Aunt Clarke'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Gottfried August Burger : Lenore
'My first sight of German letters, and my first wish to know the language, was gained from being allowed to look at a beautiful copy of Burger's "Lenore", illustrated by striking line engravings, and having the German on one page and the English translation on the other.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[n/a] : Book of Judges
'[I] had made myself miserable, after reading about Jephtha's vow, because I imagined that every time the thought of making a vow came into my head I had actually made it and was bound to keep it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Walter Scott : Lady of the Lake, The
'We learned passages from the best authors, and my delight in Walter Scott made me add to the regular lesson large portions of "The Lady of the Lake" which are fresh in my memory at this moment'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Thomas Carlyle : Past and Present
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 1 May 1843: 'I have been reading Carlyle .. his "Past & Present" -- There is nothing new in it -- even of Carlyleism .... but almost everything true -- I am a devotee of Carlyle.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Wordsworth : Grace Darling
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 18 May 1843: '[William Wordsworth] had the kindness to send me the poem upon Grace Darling when it first appeared: and with a curious mixture of feelings [...] I yet read it with so much pain from the nature of the subject, that my judgement was scarcely free to consider the poetry [...] '[italics]But[end italics] ... I do confess to you my dear friend, that I suspect, .. through the mist of my sensations, .. the poem in question to be very inferior to his former poems'.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Frederika Bremer : The Home: or, Family Cares and Family Joys
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 May 1843: 'Mary Howitt's last translation from Frederika Bremer's swedish, "The Home" charms me even more than "The Neighbours" did.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Julia Pardoe : 'Modern Turkish Travellers'
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 29 May 1843: 'The other day I took up the Foreign Quarterly of last January in which is your Chinese paper, & fell upon another article called "Turkish travellers" which I had never fallen upon before. Some things in it are so like you, and some other things are so unlike [...] Surely the style is yours -- or I am bewitched, which is possible too.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Nicholas John Halpin : Oberon's Vision in the Midsummer-Night's Dream
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 29 May 1843: 'Reading Mr Halpin of the Shakespeare society upon Oberon's command to Puck in the "midsummer night's dream," & falling into the degree of passion to which sympathy is more necessary than it is to grief itself, I turned in my thoughts to you as the person most likely of all to be in a competent passion [...] Now by the soul of Shakespeare, it ought to be a reason or blasphemy by act of Parliament for men to write such treaties & call them commentaries. They are [italics]mentaries[end italics] in the strictest sense [...] Mr Halpin gives us a "paraphrase" of Oberon's "sug'red words", -- from which, here is an extract. '"And so the imperial votaress passed on In maiden meditation, fancy-free." 'Halpin loquitur. "And so the virgin queen departed from Kenilworth castle, unshackled by any matrimonial engagement & as heart-whole as ever .." 'I hope you dont belong to the Shakespeare society.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : article on Royal Commission on Children's Employment
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 29 May 1843: 'By the way [...] I have been reading you in the Illuminated Magazine.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
John Edmund Reade : Sacred Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 May 1843: 'Mr Reade's "Sacred Poems" I am now looking into by dear Mr Kenyon's kindness. He is [italics]in Wordsworth now[end italics], having made the circuit of the poets. What a phenomenon!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Philip James Bailey : Festus
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 9 June 1843: 'A gentleman, a poet, a correspondent, at large intervals, of mine [...] wrote to me, praising [John] Sterling extravagantly. [italics]I[end italics], .. who never cd see much in Sterling, .. was sincere & cold about him in reply, .. & begged the praiser to read Festus, which I was reading at the moment. Well! -- Presently I had another letter. My correspondent was astounded at me! Upon my praise, he had procured Festus, & looked at one or two pages, .. when he was driven back in convulsive fits, by the hot blast of Indecency & Blasphemy emitted from the leaves -- he found it impossible to read such a book!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
V : IX Poems by V. (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 June 1843: 'My idea of [italics]V[ed italics] has always been .. a clever woman, whose vocation it is not, to write poetry. Her "I watched the Heavens" is after Dante -- [italics]after[end italics] in all sorts of ways. Of the "Nine Poems" I have seen extracts only.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Mrs Coleridge : 'On Rationalism'
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 30 June 1843: 'I honor Mrs Coleridge for the readiness of reasoning & integrity in her reasoning, for the learning, energy & impartiality which she has brought to her purpose -- & I agree with her in many of her objects; & disagree, by opposing her opponents with a fuller front than she is always inclined to do [...] I have read the book in spite of prophecies. After all I shd like to cut it in two -- it wd be better for being shorter -- and it might be clearer also. There is in fact some dulness & perplexity [...] & what I cannot help considering a superfluous tenderness for Puseyism.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Russell : History of Modern Europe
'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was wofully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr Turnbull'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
William Robertson : History of the Reign of Charles the Fifth
'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was wofully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr Turnbull'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Isaac Watts : Improvement of the Mind, The
'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was wofully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr Turnbull'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[unknown] : [History of Venetian Doges]
'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was wofully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr Turnbull'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote
'I taught myself besides to read Spanish - for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no-one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the book which I knew so well by name'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[unknown] : [a Spanish grammar]
'I taught myself besides to read Spanish - for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no-one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the book which I knew so well by name'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[unknown] : [a Spanish dictionary]
'I taught myself besides to read Spanish - for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no-one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the book which I knew so well by name'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
George Payne Rainsford James : novels
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 July 1843: 'I like the spirit & courteous goodness of Mr James's books [...] I believe I have read almost everyone [sic] of his books .. either when I was ill or when I was well. They have much of what Chaucer calls "gentilesse" .. if not much passion & imagination -- and his scenic descriptions are admirable. I do not know better books for an invalid -- although the author may not be pleased with my reason for saying so -- viz that they seldom make the heart beat.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
[unknown] : [Linnaean botany book]
'The elements of botany on the Linnaean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, besides the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too, was a great favourite'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Walter Scott : [unknown]
'The elements of botany on the Linnaean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, besides the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too, was a great favourite'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]
'The elements of botany on the Linnaean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, besides the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too, was a great favourite'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier : Memoires
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 July 1843: 'You must remember Mademoiselle de Montpensier's delightful memoirs. She was fifty or past it when she met Lauzun, & the tears ran down my cheeks as I read the recitation of her love sorrows.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Walter Scott : Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk
'We were at the old vicarage, which had then only one sitting room, or at least only one which we could use, for the floor of the other room was covered with Mr Heathcote's books. They were very kindly left for our use, and I made an acquaintance with Sir Walter Scott's "Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk", and read Shakespeare to Ellen, and led a quiet life, seeing no one'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
William Shakespeare : [unknown]
'We were at the old vicarage, which had then only one sitting room, or at least only one which we could use, for the floor of the other room was covered with Mr Heathcote's books. They were very kindly left for our use, and I made an acquaintance with Sir Walter Scott's "Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk", and read Shakespeare to Ellen, and led a quiet life, seeing no one'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Laetitia Hawkins : Countess and Gertrude, The; or, Modes of Discipline
'The only gleam of romance I had in connection with the place [a house in John St, Bedford Row, London] was derived from the fact that the large bare house reminded me of a description of one like it in an old novel by Miss Hawkins - "The Countess and Gertrude".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Joseph Butler : Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature
'My mind also had become much quieted and strengthened by the reading of Butler's "Analogy", which I had always heard mentioned with admiration, and which I stumbled upon, as it seemed accidentally (though doubtless it was a Providential help sent me), while we were spending a few days at the Hermitage. I took it up first for curiosity, and read it through nearly, but not quite to the end; feeling very much afraid all the time that some one would inquire into my studies, and being greatly humiliated by an observation made by William, who one day found me with it in my hand. His surprised tone as he exclaimed, "You can't understand that", made me shrink into my shell of reserve, and for years I never owned to anyone that Butler's "Analogy" had been to me, as it has been to hundreds, the stay of a troubled intellect and a weak faith'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
George Borrow : The Bible in Spain; or, The Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonment of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 22 July 1843: 'Mr Borrow [italics]is[end italics] a very original & characteristic writer -- I was delighted with his book [...] the Bible Society committee was not satisfied with him. They call him wild I believe & wanting in gravity [...] but I admire Mr Borrow, & like him all the better for putting off the conventional demureness of a pattern missionary, & daring to be a [italics]man[end italics] in spirit & in truth.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Henry Newman : Tracts for the Times
'I had seen some numbers of "Tracts for the Times" lying on the counter in a bookseller's shop in Newport, and they had excited my curiosity, and led to inquiry; and, as my brother William's opinions had by that time become marked, he soon succeeded in indoctrinating us all with them. A very great comfort it certainly was to myself to have my ideas cleared upon subjects which had long been floating about in my brain, and worrying me almost without my knowing it. Especially it was a relief to me to find great earnestness and devotion in a system which allowed of reserve in expression, and did not make the style of conversation, which I had met with in the only definitely religious tales I had read, a necessary part of Christianity. Mrs Sherwood's "Tales" and others of a similar kind, described children as quoting texts, and talking of their feelings in an unnatural way, or what seemed to me unnatural; and I had really suffered so much at school from things said to me which jarred upon my taste that it was perfect rest to be able to talk upon religious subjects without hearing or using cant phrases'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
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
Mary Martha Sherwood : [Tales]
'I had seen some numbers of "Tracts for the Times" lying on the counter in a bookseller's shop in Newport, and they had excited my curiosity, and led to inquiry; and, as my brother William's opinions had by that time become marked, he soon succeeded in indoctrinating us all with them. A very great comfort it certainly was to myself to have my ideas cleared upon subjects which had long been floating about in my brain, and worrying me almost without my knowing it. Especially it was a relief to me to find great earnestness and devotion in a system which allowed of reserve in expression, and did not make the style of conversation, which I had met with in the only definitely religious tales I had read, a necessary part of Christianity. Mrs Sherwood's "Tales" and others of a similar kind, described children as quoting texts, and talking of their feelings in an unnatural way, or what seemed to me unnatural; and I had really suffered so much at school from things said to me which jarred upon my taste that it was perfect rest to be able to talk upon religious subjects without hearing or using cant phrases'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Stories on the Lord's Prayer
'I read both the few chapters of the intended tract, and the beginning of "Amy Herbert" to my sisters, and they liked them'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Amy Herbert
'I read both the few chapters of the intended tract, and the beginning of "Amy Herbert" to my sisters, and they liked them'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
Michael Scott : Tom Cringle's Log
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 [...] His noise made my head ache, & his loud laughing made me grave [...] I tried the Log & cdnt quite get thro' it. I shrink too from these maritime books now, for other reasons.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Charlotte Yonge : Daisy Chain, The
'In 1840 Miss Yonge was a bright attractive girl, at least ten years younger than myself and very like her own Ethel in "The Daisy Chain". Great interest was expressed by her and her mother in Mrs Mozley (Cardinal Newman's sister), the author of a tale called the "Fairy Bower", which had appeared shortly before. It was the precursor of the many tales, illustrative of the Oxford teaching, that were written at this period, and which were hailed with special satisfaction by young people, who turned fom the texts, and prayers, and hymns, which Mrs Sherwood had introduced into her stories, and yet needed something higher in tone than Miss Edgeworth's morality'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Stories on the Lord's Prayer
'I was reading the little book aloud to my mother one evening when he was in the room, and not being well was lying on the sofa half asleep, as I thought; but he listened, and I think was interested, for he asked me what I was reading. I forget exactly what answer I made, but it certainly was not that I was reading anything of my own, and so I lost the opportunity of giving him pleasure'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Mary Martha Sherwood : [Tales based on Church Catechism]
'The idea of connecting it ["Laneton Parsonage", by Sewell] with the Church Catechism had been originally suggested to me by Mrs Sherwood's stories on the same subject, which in my childhood had been a great source of Sunday amusement'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Earl's Daughter, The
'"The Earl's Daughter" was also begun before my mother's death, and I read part of it to her, but she saw from the beginning that it was likely to be sad, and I think it rather oppressed her. "Margaret Percival" I read to her entirely, and also a portion of "Laneton Parsonage", and I remember being obliged to reassure her that Alice Lennox (in the latter tale) when taken ill would not die, she took such a vivid interest in the story - which was only completed after her death'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Margaret Percival
'"The Earl's Daughter" was also begun before my mother's death, and I read part of it to her, but she saw from the beginning that it was likely to be sad, and I think it rather oppressed her. "Margaret Percival" I read to her entirely, and also a portion of "Laneton Parsonage", and I remember being obliged to reassure her that Alice Lennox (in the latter tale) when taken ill would not die, she took such a vivid interest in the story - which was only completed after her death'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Laneton parsonage
'"The Earl's Daughter" was also begun before my mother's death, and I read part of it to her, but she saw from the beginning that it was likely to be sad, and I think it rather oppressed her. "Margaret Percival" I read to her entirely, and also a portion of "Laneton Parsonage", and I remember being obliged to reassure her that Alice Lennox (in the latter tale) when taken ill would not die, she took such a vivid interest in the story - which was only completed after her death'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown
John Henry Newman : [a sermon]
'The Church though may mean the Catholic or Universal Church and so Rome may be included. It is a horrid, startling notion, but a sermon of Newman's I was reading to-night would be a great safeguard against being led into mischief by it, "Obedience, the remedy for religious pereplexity".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[unknown] : Life of Stephen Langton
'We had a wet day yesterday, and amused ourselves with reading aloud "The Life of Stephen Langton" in "The Lives of the English Saints" (These lives were small biographies written by the more extreme members of the Oxford party.) It is well written and interesting, but I cannot go with it Thomas a Becket is no saint to my mind, and I dislike the uncalled-for hits at the Reformation'. [text in parenthesis added by the author or editor, it is unclear which, when turning journal text into publishable material]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Cecilia Frances Tilley : Chollerton: A tale of our own times
'I took up "Chollerton" (a Church tale) and skimmed parts through the uncut leaves and was not fascinated. It seemed strained and the fasting was brought forward prominently, and there seemed too much womanish humility. In one place the authoress cannot follow a young clergman, by description, in his feelings, or intrude "into that sacred edifice which formerly a woman's foot was forbidden to profane". This is, if I remember rightly, the drift of the observation, and really my humility cannot reach that depth. I think I [italics] can [end italics] imagine something of what a clergyman might feel, and I should never consider it an intrusion to go wherever men go, taking them as men. Of course the altar is different; but there the distinction is not between men and women, but between God and man'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Harriet Martineau : Forest and Game-Law Tales
'I read nothing scarcely, all my spare time being given to German exercises. Miss Martineau's "Tales on the Game Laws" I began, but they are so dull to me that I have scarcely patience to finish. The thing I like about them is their fairness. The rich people are not all wretches,though Miss Martineau's sympathies are evidently with the poor'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Archibald Alison : History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon in MDCCCXV to the Accession of Louis Napoleon in MDCCCLII
'I read a little now, and am almost afraid I am learning to do without reading. Napoleon's battles in Alison's history are so dreadfully dry, after one has been writing and working all day.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Robert Southey : Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
'I have been reading "Southey's Life"; it does me a great deal of good. His life in a book and Mrs Charles Worsley's in actuality, have helped me more than any sermon. Southey's hard work and pecuniary anxieties come home to me'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
John Ruskin : Lectures on Architecture and Painting
'Ruskin's "Lectures on Architecture and Painting" which I have been reading, interest and please me immensely. They certainly are dogmatical. They are disfigured by exaggerated tirades against Romanism, but they are full of wonderful thought, and an intense feeling for truth, which must have an effect, one would think, upon those who read, or who have heard them'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
J.W. Kaye : Life and correspondence of Charles, Lord Metcalfe
'I have written a little, and read a good deal, - the second volume of "Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life", which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and "Hypatia" and two sermons of Dr Pusey's against Germanism, and part of "Hero Worship", to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of "The Times" every evening. "Hypatia" is a marvel; very painful because it gives such a miserable view of Christianity in those days. In striving to be true, the description seems as if it must be untrue, even by its own acknowledgment. There must have been self-denial and faith, and charity working beneath those turbulent outward scenes. Yet it gives one no sympathy with philosophy. Mrs Meyrick and I both agree that "Pelagia" wins our affection much more than "Hypatia".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Charles Kingsley : Hypatia - or New Foes with an Old Face
'I have written a little, and read a good deal, - the second volume of "Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life", which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and "Hypatia" and two sermons of Dr Pusey's against Germanism, and part of "Hero Worship", to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of "The Times" every evening. "Hypatia" is a marvel; very painful because it gives such a miserable view of Christianity in those days. In striving to be true, the description seems as if it must be untrue, even by its own acknowledgment. There must have been self-denial and faith, and charity working beneath those turbulent outward scenes. Yet it gives one no sympathy with philosophy. Mrs Meyrick and I both agree that "Pelagia" wins our affection much more than "Hypatia".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Edward Bouverie Pusey : [Sermons]
'I have written a little, and read a good deal, - the second volume of "Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life", which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and "Hypatia" and two sermons of Dr Pusey's against Germanism, and part of "Hero Worship", to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of "The Times" every evening. "Hypatia" is a marvel; very painful because it gives such a miserable view of Christianity in those days. In striving to be true, the description seems as if it must be untrue, even by its own acknowledgment. There must have been self-denial and faith, and charity working beneath those turbulent outward scenes. Yet it gives one no sympathy with philosophy. Mrs Meyrick and I both agree that "Pelagia" wins our affection much more than "Hypatia".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
William Howitt : Rural and Domestic Life of Germany
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 July 1843: 'I am reading William Howitt's Germany with a good deal of interest.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Carlyle : Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History
'I have written a little, and read a good deal, - the second volume of "Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life", which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and "Hypatia" and two sermons of Dr Pusey's against Germanism, and part of "Hero Worship", to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of "The Times" every evening. "Hypatia" is a marvel; very painful because it gives such a miserable view of Christianity in those days. In striving to be true, the description seems as if it must be untrue, even by its own acknowledgment. There must have been self-denial and faith, and charity working beneath those turbulent outward scenes. Yet it gives one no sympathy with philosophy. Mrs Meyrick and I both agree that "Pelagia" wins our affection much more than "Hypatia".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
[n/a] : Times, The
'I have written a little, and read a good deal, - the second volume of "Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life", which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and "Hypatia" and two sermons of Dr Pusey's against Germanism, and part of "Hero Worship", to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of "The Times" every evening. "Hypatia" is a marvel; very painful because it gives such a miserable view of Christianity in those days. In striving to be true, the description seems as if it must be untrue, even by its own acknowledgment. There must have been self-denial and faith, and charity working beneath those turbulent outward scenes. Yet it gives one no sympathy with philosophy. Mrs Meyrick and I both agree that "Pelagia" wins our affection much more than "Hypatia".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Newspaper
[unknown] : [pamphlets and magazines]
'I have written a little, and read a good deal, - the second volume of "Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life", which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and "Hypatia" and two sermons of Dr Pusey's against Germanism, and part of "Hero Worship", to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of "The Times" every evening. "Hypatia" is a marvel; very painful because it gives such a miserable view of Christianity in those days. In striving to be true, the description seems as if it must be untrue, even by its own acknowledgment. There must have been self-denial and faith, and charity working beneath those turbulent outward scenes. Yet it gives one no sympathy with philosophy. Mrs Meyrick and I both agree that "Pelagia" wins our affection much more than "Hypatia".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Serial / periodical
Cornelius Mathews : Motley Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Cornelius Mathews, 31 August 1843: 'I wrote immediately upon receiving your works in their reprint to acknowledge that kindness [...] Since then, I have read them with great attention & recognised the power & talent which are destined, I do not doubt, to develop themselves still farther & in more distinctive forms. There is an inclination to the grotesque which while it gives evidence of a ready fancy, disturbs the effect of the general impression to such readers as I am -- & the very faithfulness to American manners & associations while I consistently applaud it, does nevertheless occasionally in spite of myself increase this disturbance.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Cornelius Mathews : Behemoth, a Legend of the Moundbuilders
Elizabeth Barrett to Cornelius Mathews, 31 August 1843: 'I wrote immediately upon receiving your works in their reprint to acknowledge that kindness [...] Since then, I have read them with great attention & recognised the power & talent which are destined, I do not doubt, to develop themselves still father & in more distinctive forms. There is an inclination to the grotesque which while it gives evidence of a ready fancy, disturbs the effect of the general impression to such readers as I am -- & the very faithfulness to American manners & associations while I consistently applaud it, does nevertheless occasionally in spite of myself increase this disturbance.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Thomas Babington Macaulay : Lays of Ancient Rome
Elizabeth Barrett, invalid, to Richard Hengist Horne, 5 October 1843: 'I very much admire Mr Macaulay -- & could scarcely read his ballads & keep lying down. They seemed to draw me up to my feet as the mesmeric powers are said to do'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Merry : Predestination and Election, Considered Scripturally
Elizabeth Barrett to William Merry, 2 November 1843: 'Your book [...] is written in a spirit so amiable & conciliating, .. so Christian-heartedly [...] that it almost reconciles me to its controversial character & its subject [...] again and again, as I read along, I felt ... "[italics]That[end italics] is true" -- "[italics]that[end italics] is rightly put"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Baron Jean du Potet de Sennevoy : An Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism ... With an Appendix Containing Reports of British Practitioners in Favour of the Science
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 12 December 1843: 'I have read in Baron Dupotet's & Dr Stone's book upon Mesmerism, that in cases of the chest, it will not avail -- and that the spitting of blood has been brought on very violently by attempting to cast the patient into sleep'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Monckton Milnes : 'Lay of the Humble'
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 13 December 1843: 'I admired [Richard Monckton Milne's] first volume very much; but his later poetry seems to want fire and imagination, and to strain too much at the didactic [...] And then that exquisite "Lay of the Humble" which I was praising lately, and which affected me very much at the time I read it (it appeared in the first volume), somebody told me the other day that it was not original. Taken from the German I think they said it was. I wish I knew. It is very beautiful in any case.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Hood : 'The Song of the Shirt'
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 22 December 1843: 'I read the "Song of the Shirt" & felt all the power of it. It is not every man -- is it? -- who can prick so into the heart with a needle -- but Hood is an extraordinary writer [...] What tragic passion he throws into that "sti[t]ch sti[t]ch before he has done with it! -- enough to make two or three successful modern tragedies'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Hannah Lawrance : Historical Memoirs of the Queens of England from the Commencement of the Twelfth Century
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 23 December 1843: 'One or two volumes of the Memoirs of the queens of England, I have read -- & they seemed to me to show industry & good taste in the selection & compilation of material. But I did not read any more, just because I like the old chronicles & dislike the compiling spirit.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Sarah Ellis (nee Stickney) : The Poetry of Life
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 23 December 1843: 'Either a Stickney or a Strictland wrote the "Poetry of Life", prose (very) essays, which I couldn't get to the end of'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Hooker : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 26 December 1843: 'Although I have read rather widely the divinity of the Greek Fathers [...] & have of course informed myself in the works generally of our old English divines, Hooker's, Jeremy Taylor's & so forth, I am not by any means a frequent reader of books of theology as such [...] I read the Scriptures every day & in as simple a spirit as I can; thinking as little as possible of the controversies engendered in that great sunshine, & as much as possible of the heat & glory belonging to it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jeremy Taylor : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 26 December 1843: 'Although I have read rather widely the divinity of the Greek Fathers [...] & have of course informed myself in the works generally of our old English divines, Hooker's, Jeremy Taylor's & so forth, I am not by any means a frequent reader of books of theology as such [...] I read the Scriptures every day & in as simple a spirit as I can; thinking as little as possible of the controversies engendered in that great sunshine, & as much as possible of the heat & glory belonging to it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: Bible
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 26 December 1843: 'Although I have read rather widely the divinity of the Greek Fathers [...] & have of course informed myself in the works generally of our old English divines, Hooker's, Jeremy Taylor's & so forth, I am not by any means a frequent reader of books of theology as such [...] I read the Scriptures every day & in as simple a spirit as I can; thinking as little as possible of the controversies engendered in that great sunshine, & as much as possible of the heat & glory belonging to it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Caroline Bowles : The Birth-Day
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27 December 1843: 'Although not agreeing with you that the poetry of Caroline Bowles (the Birthday & the minor verses) is "meretricious," -- nay, seeming to see in it much tender simplicity, freshness & moral sweetness, I do not class it or herself highly as poet & poetry, & am aware of the feebleness essentially, -- the want of reach of mind & imagination [goes on to comment upon specific passages of The Birth-Day].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Charles Dickens : A Christmas Carol
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27 December 1843: 'The Christmas Carol strikes me much as it does you. I dont like the machinery -- which is entangled with allegory & ghostery -- but I like & admire the mode of the working out -- & the exquisite scenes about the clerk & little Tiny [Tim]; I thank the writer in my heart of hearts for them.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
William Wordsworth : epitaph for Robert Southey
Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 27 December 1843: 'On my return from a long, weary walk through mud & mist, yesterday morning, my eyes were gladdened by the sight of your letter [...] Thank you for those lines of Wordsworth's [epitaph for Robert Southey, transcribed by Barrett in her letter, of 26 December 1843]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Woods : lines of poetry
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 31 December 1843: 'With thanks I return the verses of your artist friend [enclosed in letter from Westwood of 27 December]. It is a pretty fancy, & gave me pleasure to read.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
: Book catalogue
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 29 December 1843: 'Looking over a book catalogue this morning I saw Agnes Strickland's name attached to a "Demetrius & other poems" whereof I never heard before.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
George Payne Rainsford James : novels
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 5-6 January 1844: '[George Payne Rainsford James] is a picturesque writer [...] Often when I have been very unwell, I have been able to read his books with advantage, when I cd not read better ones. You may read him from end to end without a superfluous beat of the heart -- & they are just the sort of intellectual diet fitted for persons "ordered to be kept quiet" by their physicians [...] I am grateful to Mr James for many a still serene hour.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Westwood : Beads from a Rosary
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 11 January 1844: 'I have [...] read your volume through [...] I have several favourite poems -- the "Invocation" [...] & "Spring" [...] & the "Mill-song," & the Wind, & the "Parlour Fire," .. but my favourite in the whole book, I think, must be confessed to be the "Birth song of the Flowers."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : The Ballad of Delora
Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 28 January 1844: 'For the Dramas [of Richard Hengist Horne], we owe you many thanks -- we have read them all, & admired them all [...] I confess I have formed an almost higher opinion of Mr Horne's genius from them, than from "Orion" [poem] [...] "Delora["] too, has many fine passages, -- and I should be more particular in adverting to them & others, were it not that your own pencil has forestalled me, so that my encomiums would be, in most cases, but a reiteration of your own [goes on to reflect upon pleasures of reading annotations by others in books]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Samuel Lover : novels
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 5 February 1844: '[Samuel Lover] is a very powerful writer of Irish novels [...] You probably know his ballads [...] His novels, however, all of which I have not read, are the stuff whereon his fame is made -- and they are highly vital, & of great value in the sense of commentary on the national character.'
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
Eugene Sue : The Mysteries of Paris
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20-21 February 1844: 'We will talk of Eugene Sue. ' know the "Mysteries of Paris" very well, & much admire the genius which radiates, from end to end, through that extraordinary work [...] the writer, if of less general power than Balzac, is still more copious in imagination & creation. He glories in all extremities & intensities of evil & of passion [...] he has written other romances [...] "Mathilde" interested me beyond them all, & consists of some seven or eight volumes [...] but except for the insight it gives into French society, I am not sure that you wd be pleased with it [...] I have been thinking that the American translation in which you read the "Mysteries," may probably be a [italics]purified[end italics] edition, of which I have seen some notices.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Eugene Sue : Mathilde, Memoires d'une Jeune Femme
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20-21 February 1844: 'We will talk of Eugene Sue. I know the "Mysteries of Paris" very well, & much admire the genius which radiates, from end to end, through that extraordinary work [...] the writer, if of less general power than Balzac, is still more copious in imagination & creation. He glories in all extremities & intensities of evil & of passion [...] he has written other romances [...] "Mathilde" interested me beyond them all, & consists of some seven or eight volumes [...] but except for the insight it gives into French society, I am not sure that you wd be pleased with it [...] I have been thinking that the American translation in which you read the "Mysteries," may probably be a [italics]purified[end italics] edition, of which I have seen some notices.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Philip James Bailey : Festus
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, letter postmarked 21 February 1844: '[italics]Have[end italics] I read "Festus"? Certainly I have [...] Oh yes! I was much struck by "Festus" [...] Both the "Festus" & the supplement apologetic to it, which appeared in the Monthly Repository (I think) filled me with admiration [...] Its [italics]fault[end italics] is an extraordinary inequality -- so really one falls down precipices continually; & from pinnacles of grandeur, into profundities of badness. Parts of the poem are as bad, & as weak as is well possible to be conceived of: and moreover [...] there is an occasional coarseness & gratuitous indelicacy [...] Also, I will not say that there is not some over-daring in relation to divine things [...] But when all is said, what poet-stuff remains!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Philip James Bailey : Additional scene for Festus
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, letter postmarked 21 February 1844: '[italics]Have[end italics] I read "Festus"? Certainly I have [...] Oh yes! I was much struck by "Festus" [...] Both the "Festus" & the supplement apologetic to it, which appeared in the Monthly Repository (I think) filled me with admiration [...] Its [italics]fault[end italics] is an extraordinary inequality -- so really one falls down precipices continually; & from pinnacles of grandeur, into profundities of badness. Parts of the poem are as bad, & as weak as is well possible to be conceived of: and moreover [...] there is an occasional coarseness & gratuitous indelicacy [...] Also, I will not say that there is not some over-daring in relation to divine things [...] But when all is said, what poet-stuff remains!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Henry Taylor : Philip van Artevelde
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, letter postmarked 21 February 1844: 'I suppose by an opinion upon Taylor you mean nothing elaborate -- & indeed I am not qualified for it without a little study, having read Van Artevelde once in a hurry (once -- long ago!) & no work of his subsequently at all.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Edmund Reade : letter to Mary Russell Mitford
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 March 1844: 'My dearest friend I return Mr Reade's letter which amused me more perhaps than it [italics]shd[end italics] have done, as representing a human being bound, so, upon the agonizing wheel of an extreme & incessant vanity [...] Did you not laugh out loud when you read it? [goes on to mock Reade's views on his contemporaries in literature]'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
George Burges : criticism on lines of Aeschylus attributed to Sophocles
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 16 March 1844: 'I return Mr Burges's criticism [...] which interested me much in the reading. Do let him understand how obliged to him I am for permitting me to look, for a moment, according to his view of the question [...] I am delighted to be able to call by the name of Aeschylus, under the authority of Mr Burges, those noble electrical lines [...[ which had struck me twenty times as Aeschylean, when I read them among the recognized fragments of Sophocles.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
Sophocles : 'recognised fragments of Sophocles'
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 16 March 1844: 'I return Mr Burges's criticism [...] which interested me much in the reading. Do let him understand how obliged to him I am for permitting me to look, for a moment, according to his view of the question [...] I am delighted to be able to call by the name of Aeschylus, under the authority of Mr Burges, those noble electrical lines [...[ which had struck me twenty times as Aeschylean, when I read them among the recognized fragments of Sophocles.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
unknown : A Memoir of ... The Late William Taylor of Norwich
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 21 March 1844: 'Southey's letters! I did quite delight in [italics]them[end italics]! They are more [italics]personal[end italics] than any I ever saw of his, -- & have more warm everyday life in them.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Sterling : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 22 December 1843: 'I never saw [John Sterling']s book, although I have read many of his poems in Blackwood. He falls, to my apprehension, into the class of respectable poets: good sense & good feeling, somewhat dry & cold, and very level smooth writing, being what I discern in him.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Bartholomew Simmons : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 22 December 1843: 'I never saw [John Sterling']s book, although I have read many of his poems in Blackwood. He falls, to my apprehension, into the class of respectable poets: good sense & good feeling, somewhat dry & cold, and very level smooth writing, being what I discern in him -- There are Mr Sterling, Mr Simmons, Lord Leigh [...] who have education & natural ability enough to be anything in the world EXCEPT poets -- & who choose to be poets "in spite of nature & their stars" [...] Moreover all these men, by a curious consistency, take up & use the Gallic- Drydeny corruption of versification [source eds believe by this Barrett means blank verse] -- so at least the passing glances I have had of their proceedings lead me to suppose.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Chandos Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 22 December 1843: 'I never saw [John Sterling']s book, although I have read many of his poems in Blackwood. He falls, to my apprehension, into the class of respectable poets: good sense & good feeling, somewhat dry & cold, and very level smooth writing, being what I discern in him -- There are Mr Sterling, Mr Simmons, Lord Leigh [...] who have education & natural ability enough to be anything in the world EXCEPT poets -- & who choose to be poets "in spite of nature & their stars" [...] Moreover all these men, by a curious consistency, take up & use the Gallic- Drydeny corruption of versification [source eds believe by this Barrett means blank verse] -- so at least the passing glances I have had of their proceedings lead me to suppose.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Paul de Kock : novels
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 March 1844: 'Really, [Paul de Kock] is very bad -- he is very [italics]nasty[end italics] -- he splashes the dirt about him, like a child in a guttter [...] Twice I tried books of his, & sent them back again, .. feeling them to be to bad to read. The third time, they sent me a book of his in mistake for another which I had asked for -- & I went through with it, -- & saw so much (getting used to the filth) to like & recognise for picture & faculty, .. that I took courage, -- & have read most of his forty or fifty volumes, I do believe [goes on to discuss author further]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton : The Dream, and Other Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 13 June 1844: 'The poem [of Caroline Norton's] which I called [italics]domestic[end italics] is one, I think, in an octave stanza, containing a story .. of a wife who becomes aware of the dishonour of her husband. It succeeds the Dream -- It has more [italics]power[end italics], than any composition of Mrs Norton's which I ever read. The name quite escapes me -- & I have so painful an association of a personal nature with the book, as to lose all courage to look into it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Fothergill Chorley : Memorials of Mrs Hemans
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 22 July 1844: 'I have been reading for the second time, that interesting memoir of Mrs Hemans by Mr Chorley -- full of interest certainly. Still I stand by my position, that she was too conventionally a [italics]lady[end italics], to be a great poetess [...] I took up Blanchard's memoir of LEL just after Mr Chorley's book, & was struck by an undeniable vulgarity spreading all the way through it, in obvious contrast to the refinement of the other work.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Samuel Laman Blanchard : Life and Literary Remains of L.E.L.
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 22 July 1844: 'I have been reading for the second time, that interesting memoir of Mrs Hemans by Mr Chorley -- full of interest certainly. Still I stand by my position, that she was too conventionally a [italics]lady[end italics], to be a great poetess [...] I took up Blanchard's memoir of LEL just after Mr Chorley's book, & was struck by an undeniable vulgarity spreading all the way through it, in obvious contrast to the refinement of the other work.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
James Russell Lowell : Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to James Russell Lowell, 31 July 1844, thanking him for copy of his Poems (1844): 'Your "Legend of Brittany" is full of beautiful touches [...] Then among the miscellaneous poems my pencil has marked various beauties & felicities. Chief of all I like the [italics]ode[end italics], which has struck a deep string in me, as it must in all, to whom Poetry has been as to me, the Life-light of existence. 'If I ventured to make a remark in criticism on this new volume in a general point of view, it wd be that there is a certain vagueness of effect, through a redundant copiousness of what may be called poetical diction!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9-10 August 1844: 'Do you remember, by the glance you had, my lovely little cousin Lizzie Barrett [...] Well -- that child is only ten years old, & not remarkable in any way for precocity, .. simply an intelligent child, and fond of reading -- and she delights, quite delights in your books!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lizzie Barrett Print: Book
Catherine Smith Pyer : Wild Flowers; or Poetic Gleanings from Natural Objects
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 September 1844: 'I have sent you Miss Pyer's volume of poems today .. & see in it an address to yourself. The subscription is all settled.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : Le Lys dans la Vallee (including Preface)
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 September 1844: 'I read the preface to "Le Lis" & was delighted by it -- but I admire the romance far more than you seem to do, and as a love-romance, a nouvelle "nouvelle Heloise," think it quite exquisite.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : La Vieille Fille
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 September 1844: 'The first book of Balzac's I ever read, disgusted me so, that I vowed to read no more of him, -- & it was by a mere accident that he met me again & overcame me. That first book was his "Veille [sic] fille," which I still think a prodigy of noisomeness.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Benjamin Disraeli : Coningsby: or, The New Generation
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 September 1844: 'I have just read Coningsby. It is very able, & yet scarcely efficient [...] It has no story, & not a great deal of character; and is powerful as an exponent of the Young England political views, without being specific. Still, a master-mind lives in the book, & the reader feels it everywhere.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Eugene Sue : Le Juif Errant
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 October 1844: 'I thought I had read only the [italics]third[end italics] volume of "Le Juif," -- but your fourth must be my third, for I have assuredly read the madhouse scene -- & a very fine thing it is [goes on to comment further upon specific episodes in novel] [...] I do wish I had the other volumes of the "Juif Errant" -- but I suppose they are not written yet.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henry Rogers : 'Recent Developments of Puseyism'
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 29 October 1844: 'There is an excellent refutation of Puseyism in the Edinburgh Review, .. by whom? -- and I have been reading besides the admirable paper by Macaulay in the same number.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Thomas Babington Macaulay : 'Early Administrations of George the Third: The Earl of Chatham'
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 29 October 1844: 'There is an excellent refutation of Puseyism in the Edinburgh Review, .. by whom? -- and I have been reading besides the admirable paper by Macaulay in the same number.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
John Gibson Lockhart : Some Passages in the Life of Mr. Adam Blair Minister of the Gospel at Cross-Meikle
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 November 1844: 'Have you any recollection of Adam Blair? I believe there was an outcry against the indecency of that book, -- & lately, on comparing the first with a last edition of it, I find that the author has left out the few lines which were taken generally to be offensive, & which compared to the least of certain offences, were the merest lamb-innocences.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : La Torpille
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 November 1844: 'I read "La Torpille" -- but I cannot give you any information, such as you ask for [...] As to Casimir Delavigne, I dislike his poetry so much that I dont think I [italics]can[end italics] try to read any more of it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jean Francois Casimir Delavigne : poetry
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 November 1844: 'I read "La Torpille" -- but I cannot give you any information, such as you ask for [...] As to Casimir Delavigne, I dislike his poetry so much that I dont think I [italics]can[end italics] try to read any more of it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Camille Bodin : Pascaline et Savinie
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 November 1844: 'Madame Bodin is a mere Madame. Poor & weak. I read two of her books -- Savinie -- and Stenia, .. which last I cd not have lived through if it had not been for the [italics]precious ridiculousnesses[end italics] (as Mrs Malaprop might translate Moliere) of the Englishisms.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Camille Bodin : Stenia et l'abbe Maurice
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 November 1844: 'Madame Bodin is a mere Madame. Poor & weak. I read two of her books -- Savinie -- and Stenia, .. which last I cd not have lived through if it had not been for the [italics]precious ridiculousnesses[end italics] (as Mrs Malaprop might translate Moliere) of the Englishisms.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Edward Moxon : Sonnets
Elizabeth Barrett to Edward Moxon, 25 November 1844: 'I am grateful to you for the gift you have sent me [...] I have glanced through a good many of the sonnets already, & am able to appreciate their refined grace.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Madame d'Abrantes : romances
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 November 1844: 'I have read some of the romances of Madme d'Abrantes [...] Yes -- she is delightful.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Jenny Bodin (nee Bastide) : Stenia et l'abbe Maurice
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 November 1844: 'Madme Bodin nee Jenny Bastide is neither very pure nor at all powerful [...] "Stenia" did me to the death of dulness.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Leonard Sylvain Jules Sandeau : Marianna
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 November 1844: 'Of [italics]Sandeau[end italics] I have read very little. His "Marianna" has power in its way [...] but acclimatation is a necessary precaution -- for the passion of the book exceeds the comprehension of an Englishman by leagues of extravagance. It's a melancholy, desecrating book'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Casimir Delavigne : Don Juan d'Autriche, ou la Vocation
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 November 1844: 'I read Don Juan d'Autriche -- & looked into a good deal, .. or perhaps not a good deal, .. of Casimir Delavigne's other plays -- but he seemed to me to pine after Racine & the ([italics]French[end italics]) classic abominations of desolation so obviously that I turned back.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Casimir Delavigne : plays
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 November 1844: 'I read Don Juan d'Autriche -- & looked into a good deal, .. or perhaps not a good deal, .. of Casimir Delavigne's other plays -- but he seemed to me to pine after Racine & the ([italics]French[end italics]) classic abominations of desolation so obviously that I turned back.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : Les Maitres Mosaistes
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 November 1844: '"Les Maitres Mosaistes" I [italics]will[end italics] answer for [to friend seeking advice on choosing French fiction to read] -- it is perfectly pure, & very beautiful; and so also is "Les sept chords du lyre" -- a prose poem which delighted me'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : Les sept cordes de la lyre
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 November 1844: '"Les Maitres Mosaistes" I [italics]will[end italics] answer for [to friend seeking advice on choosing French fiction to read] -- it is perfectly pure, & very beautiful; and so also is "Les sept chords du lyre [sic]" -- a prose poem which delighted me'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Leigh Hunt : Imagination and Fancy
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 3 December 1844: 'I am grateful enough to [Leigh Hunt] [...] having, .. in addition to all former causes of gratitude, .. the present delight of reading his new critical work upon poetry. The most delightful and genial of poetical critics he is assuredly. Not that I always agree with him [goes on to criticise work in detail] [...] the book is, however, a beautiful book, & will be a companion to me for the rest of my life. My brother George gave it to me, as the most acceptable gift in the world.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Horace Twiss : The Public and Private Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, with Selections from His Correspondence (vol. 1)
Elizabeth Barrett to James Martin, 10 December 1844: 'I am glad I have so much interesting matter to look forward to in the Eldon memoirs, as Pincher's biography. I am only in the first volume. Are English chancellors really made of such stuff? Pincher will help to reconcile me to the Law lords perhaps.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Milton : Paradise Lost
'[underlined] My [end underlining] favorite passage in [underlined] Il Paradiso Perduto [end underlining] is this - When our good old grand pa', Adam, and the Angel Gabriel are discoursing over the repast Eve had set before them, Milton, to put our minds at ease as to the ill consequences of such dawdling, kindly tells us - the meal consisting wholly of fruits "No fear lest dinner cool!" - In "Paradise Regained", however, there is an address from the Devil to our Saviour worth its weight in gold - meeting him in the Wilderness, & affecting not to know him, he begins a conversation thus - "Sir, by what ill chance &c - Now that [twice underlined] Sir [end underlining] appears to me the very acme of burlesque - and sets me a shouting every time it comes into my head. - My two dear grown-ups, Miss Wilbraham, & Miss Eliza, who as well as me read [underlined] both [end underlining] Paradises last winter doat upon [twice underlined] Sir [end underlining] as much as I do: - and whenever we prate over fruit luncheons, apologise for it by saying - "No fear lest luncheon cool".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Wilbraham Print: Book
John Milton : Paradise Regained
'[underlined] My [end underlining] favorite passage in [underlined] Il Paradiso Perduto [end underlining] is this - When our good old grand pa', Adam, and the Angel Gabriel are discoursing over the repast Eve had set before them, Milton, to put our minds at ease as to the ill consequences of such dawdling, kindly tells us - the meal consisting wholly of fruits "No fear lest dinner cool!" - In "Paradise Regained", however, there is an address from the Devil to our Saviour worth its weight in gold - meeting him in the Wilderness, & affecting not to know him, he begins a conversation thus - "Sir, by what ill chance &c - Now that [twice underlined] Sir [end underlining] appears to me the very acme of burlesque - and sets me a shouting every time it comes into my head. - My two dear grown-ups, Miss Wilbraham, & Miss Eliza, who as well as me read [underlined] both [end underlining] Paradises last winter doat upon [twice underlined] Sir [end underlining] as much as I do: - and whenever we prate over fruit luncheons, apologise for it by saying - "No fear lest luncheon cool".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Wilbraham Print: Book
William Wordsworth : 'Sonnet on the Projected Kendal and Winandermere Railway'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 December 1844: 'I saw the sonnet [of Wordsworth] [...] which gave me so much offence by the prose note attached to it beginning .. "This is not mere poetry, but truth" -- or something to that effect! So unworthy of a poet, as giving in to the vulgar notion of poetry & truth being different things! Also, I saw Mon[c]kton Milnes's sonnet in reply -- very good -- but not one of his best sonnets.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
Richard Monckton Milnes : 'Projected Railways in Westmoreland. An Answer to Mr Wordsworth's Late Sonnet'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 December 1844: 'I saw the sonnet [of Wordsworth] [...] which gave me so much offence by the prose note attached to it beginning .. "This is not mere poetry, but truth" -- or something to that effect! So unworthy of a poet, as giving in to the vulgar notion of poetry & truth being different things! Also, I saw Mon[c]kton Milnes's sonnet in reply -- very good -- but not one of his best sonnets.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
Mary Wollstonecraft : A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 December 1844: 'I used to read Mary Wolstonecraft [sic], (the "Rights of woman",) .. when I was twelve years old [...] Her eloquence & her doctrine were equally dear to me at that time, when I was inconsoleable [sic] for not being born a man.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
: advertisement for Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke, The Complete Concordance to Shakespeare
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 December 1844: 'I observe an advertisement of [Charles Cowden Clarke's] wife's concordance.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Advertisement, Serial / periodical
Frederic Soulie : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 December 1844: '[Frederic Soulie] was one of the first of the new French school I ventured to approach, & he made me open my eyes very wide indeed.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Anne Marie Louise Henriette d'Orleans Duchesse de Montpensier : Memoires
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 December 1844: 'If you do not remember the memoires of "La Grande Mademoiselle" as she was called, mind to read them again. They made me laugh and cry -- [italics]at[end itaics] her & [italics]with[end italics] her.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : Le dernier Chouan
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 December 1844: 'I have just finished the "Chouans." Of a certain power, without any doubt, but very heavy in many parts, & exceedingly painful in all [goes on to comment further on this text] [...] nobody in the world could read it a second time [...] 'Also I am reading David Sechard [...] Balzac has bewitched me [...] His wonderful greatness in making the ideality, real, -- & the reality, ideal, I take to be unequalled among writers. The first volume I have not finished yet [goes on to comment further on text] [...] I delight in the book, as far as I have read! -- It is worth twenty "Chouans" to my particular taste at least.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : David Sechard, volume 1
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 December 1844: 'I have just finished the "Chouans". Of a certain power, without any doubt, but very heavy in many parts, & exceedingly painful in all [goes on to comment further on this text] [...] nobody in the world could read it a second time [...] 'Also I am reading David Sechard [...] Balzac has bewitched me [...] His wonderful greatness in making the ideality, real, -- & the reality, ideal, I take to be unequalled among writers. The first volume I have not finished yet [goes on to comment further on text] [...] I delight in the book, as far as I have read! -- It is worth twenty "Chouans" to my particular taste at least.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Charles Dickens : The Chimes
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 December 1844: 'The "Chimes" touched me very much! I thought it & still think it, one of the most beautiful of [Dickens's] works.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frederic Soulie : Confession generale
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 December 1844: 'With regard to "La Confession Generale," I am in just your case, -- having read only the first volume, & failed of the others [i.e. not been able to obtain them from library], -- there are three: & I was the more provoked because I was interested in the denouement [...] Do you know "Fernande" by Dumas? It was sent to me instead of "Un homme serieux", last night __ & I rather like the opening. But Dumas is a second-class writer.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Alexandre Dumas : Fernande
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 December 1844: 'With regard to "La Confession Generale," I am in just your case, -- having read only the first volume, & failed of the others [i.e. not been able to obtain them from library], -- there are three: & I was the more provoked because I was interested in the denouement [...] Do you know "Fernande" by Dumas? It was sent to me instead of "Un homme serieux", last night __ & I rather like the opening. But Dumas is a second-class writer.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Moulton-Barrett : letter to Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella and Henrietta Moulton-Barrett (sisters), 2 October 1846, on receiving her father and brother's responses to her marriage: 'The delay of the week in Paris brought me to the hour of my death warrant at Orleans [...] Robert brought in a great packet of letters [...] He wanted to sit by me while I read them, but I would not let him [...] I got him to go away for ten minutes, to meet the agony alone [...] And besides it was right not to let him read -- -- They were very hard letters, those from dearest Papa & dearest George'. '
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Manuscript: Letter
Arabella and Henrietta Moulton-Barrett : letter to Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella and Henrietta Moulton-Barrett (sisters), 2 October 1846, on receiving her father, brother's, and sisters' responses to her marriage: 'The delay of the week in Paris brought me to the hour of my death warrant at Orleans [...] Robert brought in a great packet of letters [...] He wanted to sit by me while I read them, but I would not let him [...] I got him to go away for ten minutes, to meet the agony alone [...] And besides it was right not to let him read -- -- They were very hard letters, those from dearest Papa & dearest George [...] 'Now I will tell you -- Robert who had been waiting at the door [...] came in & found me just able to cry from the balm of your tender words -- I put your two letters into his hands, & [italics]he[end italics], when he had read them, said with tears in his eyes, & kissing them between the words -- "I love your sisters with a deep affection -- I am inexpressibly grateful to them -- It shall be the object of my life to justify their trust as they express it here."' '
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Manuscript: Letter
: Advertisement for edition of Honore de Balzac, Comedie Humaine
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 8 February 1847: 'I see by the "Siecle" that Balzac's works are coming out in a complete edition arranged by himself under the title of "Comedie Humaine," and, with the idea, that this arrangement may be of use to you in various ways I send you a copy of it as it is printed at large in the French paper [encloses transcription of text].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Advertisement, Newspaper
Frederic Soulie : Les Aventures de Saturnin Fichet ou la Conspiration de la Rouarie
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 8 February 1847: 'The "Siecle" has for a feuilleton a new romance of Soulie's called "Saturnin Fichet," which is really not good .. & tiresome to boot. Robert & I began by each of us reading it, but after a little while he left me alone being certain that no good could come of such a work: so, of course, ever since, I have been exclaiming & exclaiming as to the wonderful improvement & increasing beauty & glory of it, .. just to justify myself, & to make him sorry for not having persevered! The truth is, however, that but for obstinacy, I should give up too. Deplorably dull, the story is, .. & there is a crowd of people each more indifferent than each'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Newspaper
: Italian grammar
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett, 16-21 May 1847: 'I went a week ago into Wilson's room & stood by the table in my lazy careless way, turning over the leaves of an old book which lay there. "Why, Wilson! you have another Italian grammar --" "Yes, I could'nt understand a word of the other, -- and the man of the house lent me this" -- I turned to the title page -- written in a large distinct hand .... [italics]James Johnstone Bevan, Milano[end italics] ...!! [...] The book was Mr Bevan's book, the landlord was Mr Bevan's landlord; & in a house of the said landlord (not this house but another) had Mr Bevan & two of his friends lived for a whole winter [goes on to note further association of Bevan with landlord] [...] Is'nt this a curious coincidence?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
: Italian grammar
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett, 16-21 May 1847: 'I went a week ago into Wilson's room & stood by the table in my lazy careless way, turning over the leaves of an old book which lay there. "Why, Wilson! you have another Italian grammar --" "Yes, I could'nt understand a word of the other, -- and the man of the house lent me this" -- I turned to the title page -- written in a large distinct hand .... [italics]James Johnstone Bevan, Milano[end italics] ...!! [...] The book was Mr Bevan's book, the landlord was Mr Bevan's landlord; & in a house of the said landlord (not this house but another) had Mr Bevan & two of his friends lived for a whole winter [goes on to note further association of Bevan with landlord] [...] Is'nt this a curious coincidence?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Wilson Print: Book
Eugene Sue : Martin (vol I)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, c.20 September 1847: 'French books I get at [in Florence], but scarcely a new one, .. which is very provoking [...] I have not read "Martin" ever since the first vol. in England.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Macdonald : [probably] Princess and Curdie, The
'Her reading as a child was voracious, although her late start in learning to read for herself left her with a cosy taste for being read to. Her governess hads read aloud to her the story of Perseus and "Jungle Jinks" and most things in between. Once she read for herself, she had a passion for George Macdonald: his Curdie was one of her heroes. She loved Baroness Orczy's "Scarlet Pimpernel", and E. Nesbit's books. She read Dickens exhaustively as a child and, as a result, could not read him as a young adult: "There is no more oxygen left, for me, anywhere in the atmosphere of his writings".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Emmuska, Baroness Orczy : Scarlet Pimpernel, The
'Her reading as a child was voracious, although her late start in learning to read for herself left her with a cosy taste for being read to. Her governess hads read aloud to her the story of Perseus and "Jungle Jinks" and most things in between. Once she read for herself, she had a passion for George Macdonald: his Curdie was one of her heroes. She loved Baroness Orczy's "Scarlet Pimpernel", and E. Nesbit's books. She read Dickens exhaustively as a child and, as a result, could not read him as a young adult: "There is no more oxygen left, for me, anywhere in the atmosphere of his writings".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Edith Nesbit : [probably] Five Children and It
'Her reading as a child was voracious, although her late start in learning to read for herself left her with a cosy taste for being read to. Her governess hads read aloud to her the story of Perseus and "Jungle Jinks" and most things in between. Once she read for herself, she had a passion for George Macdonald: his Curdie was one of her heroes. She loved Baroness Orczy's "Scarlet Pimpernel", and E. Nesbit's books. She read Dickens exhaustively as a child and, as a result, could not read him as a young adult: "There is no more oxygen left, for me, anywhere in the atmosphere of his writings".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Charles Dickens : [Works]
'Her reading as a child was voracious, although her late start in learning to read for herself left her with a cosy taste for being read to. Her governess hads read aloud to her the story of Perseus and "Jungle Jinks" and most things in between. Once she read for herself, she had a passion for George Macdonald: his Curdie was one of her heroes. She loved Baroness Orczy's "Scarlet Pimpernel", and E. Nesbit's books. She read Dickens exhaustively as a child and, as a result, could not read him as a young adult: "There is no more oxygen left, for me, anywhere in the atmosphere of his writings".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Henry Rider Haggard : She
'In a BBC talk of 1947 about the book that had most influenced her early years, she chose to talk about Rider Haggard's "She"; she came upon it at the age of twelve, "when I was finding the world too small". The descriptions of Kor, the great derelict city, caught her imagination. She "saw" Kor before she ever saw London: "Inevitably, the Thames Embankment was a disappointment".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
[unknown] : [detective stories]
'The only above-board children's stories for grown-ups, she thought, were detective stories, and those she read for pure pleasure all her life'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
[n/a] : Encyclopaedia
'Elizabeth worked hard for the lessons she liked, and instead of preparation for the ones she didn't like she read poetry, the Bible, and checked out the facts of life in the encyclopaedia'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'Elizabeth worked hard for the lessons she liked, and instead of preparation for the ones she didn't like she read poetry, the Bible, and checked out the facts of life in the encyclopaedia'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Stendhal [pseud.] : De l'amour
'In the early thirties she had read a lot of French, starting with Stendhal: and a chunk of his "De l'amour", in the French, found its way into "To the North". In 1932 she was reading for the first time Flaubert's "L'education sentimentale", and told Lady Ottoline: "What perfect writing, and what a clear powerful mind, and what a perfect picture of an enchantment he can produce. And what compass he has: this picture of colour and movement compared with the sad immobility of poor Bovary." A few months later she began translating it'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Gustave Flaubert : L'Education Sentimentale
'In the early thirties she had read a lot of French, starting with Stendhal: and a chunk of his "De l'amour", in the French, found its way into "To the North". In 1932 she was reading for the first time Flaubert's "L'education sentimentale", and told Lady Ottoline: "What perfect writing, and what a clear powerful mind, and what a perfect picture of an enchantment he can produce. And what compass he has: this picture of colour and movement compared with the sad immobility of poor Bovary." A few months later she began translating it'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Henry Millon de Montherlant : [unknown]
'In 1937 she was having "a heavenly time" reading Montherlant, and writing a piece on him for the "New Statesman".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Guy de Maupassant : 'Yvette' [and other short stories]
'Maupassant never meant as much to her as Flaubert, or as Proust. She was reading collections of Maupassant's stories in mid-winter at Bowen's Court when she wrote to Virginia Woolf: "I suppose he had sharp sense but really rather a boring mind. You soon get to know his formula, but there is always the fascination: it's like watching someone do the same card trick over and over again. I did feel the fascination so strongly that I wondered if I were getting brutalised myself. There is a particularly preposterous story called 'Yvette'...."'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Marcel Proust : [unknown]
'Maupassant never meant as much to her as Flaubert, or as Proust. She was reading collections of Maupassant's stories in mid-winter at Bowen's Court when she wrote to Virginia Woolf: "I suppose he had sharp sense but really rather a boring mind. You soon get to know his formula, but there is always the fascination: it's like watching someone do the same card trick over and over again. I did feel the fascination so strongly that I wondered if I were getting brutalised myself. There is a particularly preposterous story called 'Yvette'...."'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
E.M. Forster : Celestial Omnibus, The
'the short stories she did know, from Downe days, were Richard Middleton's colection "The Ghost Ship" and E.M. Forster's "The Celestial Omnibus".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Richard Middleton : Ghost Ship, The
'the short stories she did know, from Downe days, were Richard Middleton's colection "The Ghost Ship" and E.M. Forster's "The Celestial Omnibus".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book
Samuel Taylor Coleridge :
'I have brought Coleridge with me, & am [italics] doing [end italics] him & Wordsworth [-] [italics] fit place for the latter! [end italics]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
William Wordsworth :
'I have brought Coleridge with me, & am [italics] doing [end italics] him & Wordsworth [-] [italics] fit place for the latter! [end italics]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
George Gordon, Lord Byron :
'I have done all my [italics] composition [end italics] of Ld B -, & done Crabbe outright since you left & got up Dryden & Pope - so now I'm all clear & straight before me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
George Crabbe :
'I have done all my [italics] composition [end italics] of Ld B -, & done Crabbe outright since you left & got up Dryden & Pope - so now I'm all clear & straight before me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Alexander Pope :
'I have done all my [italics] composition [end italics] of Ld B -, & done Crabbe outright since you left & got up Dryden & Pope - so now I'm all clear & straight before me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Dryden :
'I have done all my [italics] composition [end italics] of Ld B -, & done Crabbe outright since you left & got up Dryden & Pope - so now I'm all clear & straight before me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Wiiliam Howitt :
'[She thanks them for the great pleasure two of their works had given her 'by their charming descriptions of natural scenery and the thoughts and feelings arising from the happy circumstances of rural life'.] [Editors' gloss on contents of part of this letter to William and Mary Howitt]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Holland : [Exercise book]
'We are 'here today, & gone tomorrow', as the fat scullion maid said in some extract in Holland's Exercise book.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Alfred, Lord Tennyson : 'Deserted House, The'
'I like your expression of 'an unwritten tragedy'. It quite answers to the sadness which fills my heart as I look on some of those deserrted old halls. Do they not remind you of Tennyson's 'Deserted House' - 'Life and thought are gone away', &c.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Robert Southey : Doctor, The
'All this has done me good like the word in 'The Doctor &c', which relieved the author so much.' ['all this' refers to a rhapsodic description of alpine scenery encountered on a recent trip]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
:
'After breakfast we read, sauntered in the beautiful garden, called on the Howitts, shopped (so amusing) received callers, listened to Thekla's magnificent playing-'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Harriet Martineau : Hour and the Man, The
'I have just finished Miss Martineau's new romance. Toussaint the hero is a magnificent character, - and all connected with his personal private character is very interesting, & the conversations (where we may suppose she speaks herself) are just like those in Deerbrook very interesting. The [italics] story [end italics] is too like reading a history - one knows all along how it must end, - & there's a map at the beginning [italics] like [end italics] a history.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Harriet Martineau : Deerbrook
'I have just finished Miss Martineau's new romance. Toussaint the hero is a magnificent character, - and all connected with his personal private character is very interesting, & the conversations (where we may suppose she speaks herself) are just like those in Deerbrook very interesting. The [italics] story [end italics] is too like reading a history - one knows all along how it must end, - & there's a map at the beginning [italics] like [end italics] a history.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
:
'All morng [sic] we sat with books in our hands but not reading much, only talking. After lunch (at 12) I went out with the girls - round the grounds - a good long walk; and then into the lane up to the village, which is very pretty. Then home, read loitered and talked till dinner time (6 o' clock)'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte : Jane Eyre
'Read 'Jane Eyre', it is an uncommon book. I don't know if I like or dislike it. I take the opposite side to the person I'm talking with always in order to hear some convincing arguments to clear up my opinions. Tell me what Crix thinks - everybody's opinions'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: [advertisement for 'Mary Barton' in Edinburgh Review]
'Shall you have any objection to the name of 'Stephen Berwick' as that of the author of 'Mary Barton' which I have just seen advertised in the new Edinburgh'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Catherine Crowe : Susan Hopley
'I don't think one does [italics] admire [end italics] (it is far too good a word to be used on the subject) 'Susan Hopley'; it is a series of most unnatural adventures, naturally told, in a common-place way; but some people can't even be common-place naturally. They just interest one in certain states of the mind in which one is too lazy for thought or any high feeling, and only [italics] up [end italics] to being a bit occupied by scenes passed before you without much connexion, like those unrolling views we show children. Oh dear!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: Times, The
'I envy you the "Times"; - it's very unprincipled and all that, but the most satisfactory newspaper going. Now is not that sentence unbecoming in a minister's wife?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
Walter Scott : Kenilworth
'I had the Sunday School girls here last Sunday, and Susanna came to help me, and I thought we went off gloriously, only - (everything has its only) - in repeating our subjects of conversation, I named an accidental five minutes conversation with one or two of the girls about Sir Walter Scott's novels (apropos of a picture of Queen Elizabeth, via 'Kenilworth', &c.) and Mrs J.J. Tayler is shocked at such a subject of conversation on a Sunday,- so there I am in a scrape'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Mary Barton
'In looking over the book I see numerous errors regarding the part written in the Lancashire dialect; 'gotten' should always be 'getten'; &c. - In the midst of all my deep & great annoyance, Mr Carlyle's letter has been most valuable; and has given me almost the only unmixed pleasure I have yet received from MB.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Thomas Carlyle : [letter approving 'Mary Barton']
'In looking over the book I see numerous errors regarding the part written in the Lancashire dialect; 'gotten' should always be 'getten'; &c. - In the midst of all my deep & great annoyance, Mr Carlyle's letter has been most valuable; and has given me almost the only unmixed pleasure I have yet received from MB.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
John Forster : Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, The
'Who writes the literary reviews in the Examiner? I hoped Mr Forster, because I was so much delighted with Oliver Goldsmith's life, and (long ago) with the Lives of the Statesmen &c; but people say he no longer writes the literary articles.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Forster : Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth
'Who writes the literary reviews in the Examiner? I hoped Mr Forster, because I was so much delighted with Oliver Goldsmith's life, and (long ago) with the Lives of the Statesmen &c; but people say he no longer writes the literary articles.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Forster : [review, probably in 'The Examiner' of 'Mary Barton']
'I try and find out the places where Mr Forster said I strained after common-place materials for effect, till the whole book dances before my eyes as a commonplace piece of effect'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Thomas Carlyle : [encouraging letter about 'Mary Barton']
'I had a letter from Carlyle, and when I am over-filled with thoughts arising from this book, I put it all aside, (or [italics] try [end italics] to put it aside,) and think of his last sentence - 'May you live long to write good books, or do silently good actions which in my sight is far more indispensable'.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
Thomas Carlyle : [article in 'London Examiner' on Chas Buller]
'Did you read a little piece of Carlyles on the death of Charles Buller, that appeared about a month ago in the London Examiner? I never heard of Chas Buller before; but was struck with the beautiful testimonial after his death; I think I can remember the exact words of one part - 'And in his patience with the much that he could not do, let us grant there was something very beautiful too'.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Robert Chalmers : Vestiges of the Natural HIstory of Creation
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 3 January 1845: 'I send back your "Vestiges of Creation" [...] it appears to me that I have read in my life few more melancholy books'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Las Cases : Memorial de Saint Helene
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 6-[8] January 1845: 'As to Napoleon, if he had walked less in blood, I could have given him a fuller sympathy -- but there were fine things in him [...] Las Casas [sic] I read years ago, & will read soon over again.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Noon Talfourd : Vacation Rambles and Thoughts
Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 6 January 1845: 'Have you read Mr Serjeant Talfourd's "Rambles & thoughts"? With some wordiness, & faults of taste otherwise, it is a very pleasant book & has set me on the desire of climbing to the top of Mont Blanc [...] It improves as you read.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Alexandre Dumas : Fernande
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 January 1845: 'Did I say anything to you of "Fernande" -- Dumases --? I fancy I did, during the reading of the first seven pages. Beware of it, I tell you now -- If Mr Lovejoy ordered it for his library, he will be taken to be disorderly by "prude Angleterre." As Schlegel said of the "Sad shepherdess," that it was "unchaste praise of chastity", so we might reverse the saying for "Fernande." At least -- the heroine is a courtezan [sic] by profession -- but you wd not guess it, except by her talking too much of modesty [...] for the rest, she is a Grace, a muse, a saint & martyr. No virtuous woman could have half her fascinations -- (& that's the moral of the whole!) [...] M. Dumas's "Fernande" will make some of your country gentlemen open their eyes, be certain, if Mr Lovejoy introduces her into Berkshire -- I advise you to advise against it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Paul de Kock : Mon Ami Piffard; et Chipolata
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 18 January 1845: 'Paul [de Kock] is the writer of farce, .. broad farce ..: and for impulsive gaiety, he has not his peer. I think the more of him just now, because they sent me, a few days since, by a mistake for another work, from the library, "Mon ami Piffard," which is not his best work, & yet set me laughing most cordially. It's a farce rolled out into the narrative form, -- neither more nor less-- A little nasty, of course, to mark, not exactly the [talics]hoof[end italics] of Paul, but his snout. -- But what particuarly struck me [...] was the impulse, the can't-help-myself joyousness of the book [...] I hope it isn't the indecency which I take so kindly in him'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Sam Greg : [remarks on Gaskell's 'Mary Barton']
'I have many things I should like to say to the writer of the remarks on 'Mary Barton' which Miss Mitchell has sent me, and which I conjecture were written by your husband? Those remarks and the note which accompanied have given me great and real pleasure. I have heard much about the disapproval which Mr Greg's family have felt with regard to 'M.B.', and have heard of it with so much regret that I am particularly glad that Mr Sam Greg does not participate in it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
Arthur Hugh Clough : Ambarvalia
'I send you back 'Ambarvalia' with many thanks; I am also much obliged to you for sending me Mr Espinasse's prospectus, which had before excited my attention'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Francis Espinasse : [prospectus]
'I send you back 'Ambarvalia' with many thanks; I am also much obliged to you for sending me Mr Espinasse's prospectus, which had before excited my attention'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
: [review of 'Margaret, a tale of the Real and the Ideal']
'My copy of 'Margaret' is in such demand since the review in the Athenaeum; it is pledged 3 deep'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Sylvester Judd : Margaret, a Tale of the Real and the Ideal
'My copy of 'Margaret' is in such demand since the review in the Athenaeum; it is pledged 3 deep'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Charles Dickens : David Copperfield
'I think I have behaved most abominably in never taking any notice of your great kindness in sending me David Copperfield, and your note. Oh, dear! I have been so whirled about {against} since I saw you last that I hardly know what to write. I do so like D. Copperfield; and it was a charming liberty you took in sending it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Alexander Crawford, Lord Lindsay : Lives of the Lindsays; Or, A memoir of the houses of Crawford and Balcarres
'If you want an agreeable book, read 'Lives of the Lindsays'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Henry Newman : [possibly] Discourses to Mixed Congregations
'Suffice it to say that its who can revere Mr Newman most with Mr Darbishire, the Winkworths and myself, the book is absolutely simply the utterance of the man'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte : Shirley
'Do you know Dr Epps - I think you do - ask him to tell you who wrote Jane Eyre and Shirley,- <...> Do tell me who wrote Jane Eyre'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Charles Kingsley :
'I mean to copy you out some lines of my [italics] hero [end italics], Mr Kingsley'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Geraldine Jewsbury : [unknown review]
'[italics] Is [end italics] Miss Jewsbury's review shallow? It looked to me very deep, but then I know I'm easily imposed upon in the metaphysical line, and could no more attempt to write such an article than fly'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
John Henry Newman : [Sermons]
'I am going through a course of John Henry Newman's Sermons.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Alfred, Lord Tennyson : [Poems]
''Tennyson' has arrived safe, without a shadow of damage and thanks without end for it. I have been half-opening the pretty golden leaves, and peeping here and there at old favourites since it came. But I have shut it up close again, that it may all properly stick togeher like a new bound book, before I take it to Bamford'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Maggie Bell : [MS. novel]
'Miss Maggie Bell has sent me [a] MS. novel to look over, - she is a nice person, and I know I once wanted to help sorely'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
W.C. DeVane : [review of Browning's 'Christmas Eve and Easter-Day']
'I have not read that poem of R. Brownings. I saw the review in the Examiner, (no end of thanks to you for the said,) but don't think I've fairly read it yet!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte : Shirley
'I think I told you that I disliked a good deal in the plot of Shirley, but the expression of her own thoughts in it is so true and brave, that I greatly admire her.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Caroline Emelia Stephen : Passages in the life of a Daughter at Home
'Do you know a little book written by a daughter of Sir Jas Stephens, called 'Passages in the life of a Daughter at Home'? It is very painful, and from the impression of pain which, despite its happy ending, it leaves upon one I think it must want some element of peace, but still it is very true, and [italics] very [end italics] suggestive; and a description to the life of the trials of many single women, who waken up some morning to the sudden feeling of the [italics] purposelessness [italics] (is there such a word) of their life. Do read it if it comes yr way.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Frederick Denison Maurice : [Sermon on 'Religion versus God']
'But I think you are probably seeing more of what has never fallen in my way exactly, but of what I read of in that striking and curious sermon of Mr Maurice's, entitled 'Religion versus God'. In which he spoke of the falseness of that religious spirit which led people to disregard those nearest to them, to wound or leave those whom God had placed around and about and dependent on them, in search of some new sphere of action.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
Thomas Carlyle : Sartor Resartus
'I never cd enter into Sartor Resartus, but I brought away one sentence which does capitally for a reference when I get perplexed sometimes. 'Do the duty that lies nearest to thee'.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Ruskin : Modern Painters
'After breakfast we went on the Lake; and Miss B and I agreed in thinking Mr Moseley a good goose; in liking Mr Newman's soul, - in liking Modern Painters, and the idea of the Seven Lamps'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Ruskin : Modern Painters
'I am very happy nevertheless making flannel petticoats; and reading Modern painters'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: Leader, The
'from an accidental copy of the Leader I learn that a fourth edition [of Mary Barton] is coming out'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
: Atlas, The [review of Gaskell's 'The Moorland Cottage']
'Thank you for the Atlas. The Guardian (Puseyite) has been very busy praising M[oorland] C[ottage] too. I hope the Times will be so kind as to leave it alone; for I think it would be a disgrace to be praised by the man who wrote that review of Mr Thackeray. Dr Whewell wrote that review in Fraser I believe; and I have received a very complimentary note from him as well'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
: Guardian, The [review of Gaskell's 'The Moorland Cottage']
'Thank you for the Atlas. The Guardian (Puseyite) has been very busy praising M[oorland] C[ottage] too. I hope the Times will be so kind as to leave it alone; for I think it would be a disgrace to be praised by the man who wrote that review of Mr Thackeray. Dr Whewell wrote that review in Fraser I believe; and I have received a very complimentary note from him as well'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
William Whewell : Fraser's Magazine [review of Gaskell's 'The Moorland Cottage']
'Thank you for the Atlas. The Guardian (Puseyite) has been very busy praising M[oorland] C[ottage] too. I hope the Times will be so kind as to leave it alone; for I think it would be a disgrace to be praised by the man who wrote that review of Mr Thackeray. Dr Whewell wrote that review in Fraser I believe; and I have received a very complimentary note from him as well'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
: Times, The [review of a Thackeray book, perhaps Pendennis]
'Thank you for the Atlas. The Guardian (Puseyite) has been very busy praising M[oorland] C[ottage] too. I hope the Times will be so kind as to leave it alone; for I think it would be a disgrace to be praised by the man who wrote that review of Mr Thackeray. Dr Whewell wrote that review in Fraser I believe; and I have received a very complimentary note from him as well'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
John Ruskin : Seven Lamps of Architecture, The
'She [Gaskell's daughter 'Meta' or Margaret Emily] is [italics] quite [end italics] able to appreciate any book I am reading. Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture for the last instance'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Catherine Cuthbertson : Santo Sebastiano: or, The Young Protector
'What novel did you choose (in default of one from me,) for your confinement reading. I am afraid you did not get hold of the Young Protector; it is too old a book to be met with easily'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
H. Morley : Palissy the Potter
'Wm brought me Bernard Palissy, but it so happened I had not a moment of time for reading except one day, when I got very interested in four or 5 chapters, & then the book had to go back'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: North British Review [review of Gaskell's 'Ruth']
'The "North British Review"had a [italics] delicious [end italics] review of "Ruth" in it. Who the deuce could have written it? It is so truly religious, it makes me swear with delight. I think it is one of the Christian Socialists, but I can't make out which. I must make Will find out'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
: Literary Gazette [review of Gaskell's 'Ruth']
'Spectator, Lity Gazette, Sharp's Mag; Colborn have all abused it ['Ruth'] as roundly as may be. Litery Gazette in every form of abuse 'insufferably dull' 'style offensive from affectation' 'deep regret that we and all admirers of Mary Barton must feel at the author's loss of reputation' 'Thoroughly commonplace' etc., etc. I don't know of a newspaper which has praised it but the Examiner, wh. was bound to for Chapman's sake - and that's [italics] that [end italics] and be hanged to it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
: [various periodicals: reviews of Gaskell's 'Ruth']
'Spectator, Lity Gazette, Sharp's Mag; Colborn have all abused it ['Ruth'] as roundly as may be. Litery Gazette in every form of abuse 'insufferably dull' 'style offensive from affectation' 'deep regret that we and all admirers of Mary Barton must feel at the author's loss of reputation' 'Thoroughly commonplace' etc., etc. I don't know of a newspaper which has praised it but the Examiner, wh. was bound to for Chapman's sake - and that's [italics] that [end italics] and be hanged to it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
: [letter of a 'First Hand']
'Yes! I did read that letter of 'First Hand'; - those letters inded, and I liked the whole tone and mode of expression so much that I was thoroughly glad to see how people came forwards to set her up in her scheme.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
Thomas Hood : 'Lady's Dream, The'
'Do you know that little poem of Hood's called [']the Lady's Dream'; because it is so true what he says about evil being done by [italics] want of thought [end italics].'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
Charlotte Bronte : Villette
'The difference between Miss Bronte and me is that she puts all her naughtiness into her books, and I put all my goodness. I am sure that she works off a great deal that is morbid [italics] into [end italics] her writing, and [italics] out [end italics] of her life; and my books are so far better than I am that I often feel ashamed of having written them and as if I were a hypocrite. However I was not going to write of myself but of Villette. I don't agree with you that {it is} one cannot forget that it is a 'written book'. My interpretation of it is this. I believe it to be a very correct account of one part of her life; which is very vivid & distinct in her remembrance, with all the feelings that were called out at that period, forcibly present in her mind whenever she recurs to the recollection of it. I imagine she [italics] could [end italics] not describe it {with} in the manner in which she would pass through it [italics] now [end italics], as her present self; but in looking back upon it all the passions & suffering, & deep despondency of that old time come back upon her. Some of this notion of mine is founded entirely on imagination; but some of it rests on the fact that many times over I recognized incidents of which she had told me as connected with that visit to Brussels. Whatever truth there may be in this conjecture of mine there can be no doubt that the book is wonderfully clever; that it reveals depths in her mind, aye and in her [italics] heart [end italics] too which I doubt if ever any one has fathomed.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Joseph Kay : Condition of Poor Children in English and German Towns
'I do not know Mr Joseph Kay's address or I should have written to thank him for his valuable and most interesting pamphlet on the Condition and Education of English children as compared with Germans; I believe his address was signed at the end of the preface, but this book was borrowed from me as soon as I had read it, & has not yet been returned'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
: Examiner [review of Thackeray's 'Henry Esmond']
'she [Charlotte Bronte] was very angry indeed with that part of the Examiner review of Esmond (I had forgotten it) which said his [Thackeray's] works would not live; and asked me if I knew you had written it. I wish you could have heard how I backed away from the veiled prophet, and how vehemently I disclaimed ever even having conjectured anything about any article in the Examiner'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Frederick Perthes : Memoirs of Frederick Perthes or Literary, Religious and Political Life in Germany from 1789 to 1848
'Are you inclined to see the MS of a translation from the German done by my friend Miss Winkworth ('Life of Niebuhr') and her sister. They have together translated all that is yet published of the autobiographical life of Perthes; no, I see it is not [italics] all [end italics] translated - they have stopped, when we novelists do - at the end of the adventures, & when Perthes is re-instated in his business, & in a fair way of doing well for himself. You probably know enough of his history &c to enable you in some measure to judge for yourself of the kind of book it is. A young German bourgeois, who makes his own way from nothing to a station of great wealth & influence both commercial & political: (he was a bookseller, &c) the personal story is very interesting & includes an account of the French occupation of Hamburgh &c.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
James Crossley : 'Edmund Burkke and the Annual Register'
In looking over the bound vol. of 'Notes and Queries' for the first half of 1851, I find a paper by you entitled 'Edmund Burke and the Annual Register' [Gaskell then provides James Crossley with some more information on this subject].'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Mrs Granville : [tales]
'She [a Mrs Granville, nee Wheler] had been a great friend of the Miss Porters (Jane and Anna Maria) in girlhood; and it was perhaps owing to their example that she had taken up the business of writing novels (at 10£ each) for the Minerva Press. I saw some of her tales, which were harmless enough, a weak dilution of Miss Porters in style and plot'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Tupling : Folious appearances. a consideration on our ways of lettering books
'I have thanked you (mentally) very much for Folious Appearances, the humour, strength - and even affectation of which I like exceedingly. What is the name of the man, again?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: Times, The [review of H.F. Chorley's play 'The Duchess Eleanor']
'I wanted to see the Duchess Eleanor ever since I read that review - criticism - whatever you call it in the Times, long before I had the slightest suspicion it was yours; & more than suspicion I have not had till now'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
Henry Morley : 'Brother Mieth and his Brothers'
'I have a friend who was educated at Nieuwied, - & who is just crazy about 'Brother Mieth'. First she made me write to Mr Wills, and ask who wrote it; and now, as much would ever have more, she wants me to ask you if Brother Mieth was not Brother Andrup - (Anthrup?) and if you were there at the time of his death; and if you, like her, got a piece of wood shaving out of the bed on which he lay and kept it for a relic? and if you heard his Leben read? - and - and - I don't know how many more questions, all hinging on the one supposition that Brother Mieth was Brother Andrup - It is a charming paper, I, the exoteric may say. But she will hardly allow that I [italics] can [end italics] recognise it's merits, and has gone off upon Neuwied ever since, taking the bit between her teeth. Would you be so kind as to stop her with a hair of the dog that bit her, & give us all another paper on Neuwied in some shape. That reading the Diary & the confessions of sins over the coffin must have been most striking. I don't know half enough about the Moravians.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Anna Jameson : Commonplace Book of Thoughts, A
'Here is the beautiful Commonplace book awaiting me on my return home! And I give it a great welcome you may be sure; and turn it over, & peep in, and read a sentence and shut it up to think over it's graceful suggestive wisdom in something of the 'gourmet' spirit of a child with an eatable dainty; which child, if it have the proper artistic sensuality of childhood, first looks it's cake over to appreciate the full promise of it's appearance, - next, snuffs up it's fragrance, - and gets to a fair & complete mouth-watering before it plunges into the first [italics] bite [end italics]. I do like your book. I liked it before, - I like it better now - it is like looking into deep clear water, - down below at every instant of prolonged gaze, one sees some fresh beauty or treasure of clear white pebble, or little shady nooks for fish to lurk in, or delicate water weds. Thank you for it. I do value it'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: Household Words [?]
'I was exceedingly interested and touched by that Soldier's Story. It is very 'war-music'al, & comes in beautifully just at this time.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte : Shirley
'I have looked for Mr Macarthey's character in Shirley, and I find it exactly corresponds with what you have told me of Mr Nicholls, & also with what she herself has said to me before now. Yet it shows something fine in him to have been able to appreciate her.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
William Fairbairn : [remarks on 'North and South']
'Your kind and racy critiques both give me pleasure and do me good; that is to say, your praise gives me pleasure because it is so sincere and judicious that I value it; and your fault-finding does me good because it always makes me [italics] think [end italics]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
Charlotte Bronte : [letters to Ellen Nussey]
'I have read [italics] once [end italics] over all the letters you so kindly entrusted me with, and I don't think even you, her most cherished friend, could wish the impression on me to be different from what it is, that she was one to study the path of duty well, and, having ascertained what it was right to do, to follow out her idea strictly. They gave me a very beautiful idea of her character'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
Charles Dickens : Little Dorrit
'in the 'bus I sate next to somebody, whose face I thought I knew, & then I made out it was only that he was very like Mr Hensleigh Wedgwood; however he read 'Little-Dorrit' & I read it over his shoulder. Oh Polly! he was such a slow reader, you'll sympathise, Meta won't, my impatience at his never getting to the bottom of the page so we only got to the end of the page. We only read the first two chapters, so I never found out who 'Little Dorrit' is [Gaskell then summarises what happens in these chapters] By this time we got to Knutsford, & my friend got out, & now that I saw him no longer in profile but full-faced I recognized Mr Seymour, & was sorry I had not moved'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte : [letters to W.S. Williams]
'I am extremely obliged to you for the pacquet of Miss Bronte's letters which I found here on my return home, too late for Friday's post for me to acknowledge them. I have read them hastily over and I like the tone of them very much; it is curious how much the spirit in which she writes varies according to the correspondent whom she was addressing, I imagine. I like the series of letters which you have sent better than any other excepting one that I have seen. The subjects too are very interesting; how beautifully she speaks (for instance) of her wanderings on the moor after her sister's death.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
: [book on Yorkshire]
'I am sending by the same post as this letter, the book on Yorkshire, you were so very kind as to lend me. I cannot tell you how much use it has been to me; my paper marks, which I found had not been taken out of the book, before it was packed up, will, in a small degree, show you how much I have had to refer to in it'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte : [manuscripts]
'[Having visited Haworth, Gaskell acquired MSS of 'The Professor', 'Emma'], & by far the most extraordinary of all, a packet about the size of a lady's travelling writing case, full of paper books of different sizes, from the one I enclose upwards to the full 1/2 sheet size, but all in this indescribably fine writing. - Mr Gaskell says they would make more than 50 vols of print, - but they are the wildest & most incoherent things, as far as we have examined them, [italics] all [end italics] purporting to be written, or addressed to some member of the Wellesley family. They give one the idea of creative power carried to the verge of insanity. Just lately Mr M Milnes gave me some MS. of Blake's, the painters to read, - & the two MSS (his & C.B.'s) are curiously alike. But what I want to know is if a photograph could be taken to give some idea of the finness of the writing'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: books
William Blake : [manuscripts]
'[Having visited Haworth, Gaskell acquired MSS of 'The Professor', 'Emma'], & by far the most extraordinary of all, a packet about the size of a lady's travelling writing case, full of paper books of different sizes, from the one I enclose upwards to the full 1/2 sheet size, but all in this indescribably fine writing. - Mr Gaskell says they would make more than 50 vols of print, - but they are the wildest & most incoherent things, as far as we have examined them, [italics] all [end italics] purporting to be written, or addressed to some member of the Wellesley family. They give one the idea of creative power carried to the verge of insanity. Just lately Mr M Milnes gave me some MS. of Blake's, the painters to read, - & the two MSS (his & C.B.'s) are curiously alike. But what I want to know is if a photograph could be taken to give some idea of the finness of the writing'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
Charlotte Bronte : Professor, The
'I have read the Professor, - I don't see the objections to its publication that I apprehended, - or at least only such, as the omissions of three or four short ppassages not altogether amounting to a page, - would do away with. I don't agree with Sir James that 'the publication of this book would add to her literary fame' - I think it inferior to all her published works - but I think it a very curious link in her literary history, as showing the [italics] promise [end italics] of much that was afterwards realized.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
Allan Park Paton : poem
Elizabeth Barrett to Allan Park Paton, 18 January 1845: 'I take shame to myself in the confession, that the first newspaper you sent to me, was sent in vain for the verses -- inasmuch as, being occupied at the moment, & aware of the usual worthlessness of poetical insertions in journals, I was satisfied with barely running my eye down the four sides & with coming to a hasty conclusion that the paper had been sent to me in mistake for another [...] [italics]This[end italics] time, I have read & considered!, & I may assure you that it shall never happen to me again to throw aside unread, any poem with the signature "Heather" in connection with it. -- The poem which I [italics]have[end italics] read, is, to my mind & ear, full of promise [...] there is unity in the conception [...] What I least like, in the way of [italics]execution[end italics] [...] is the burden of the whole. Where the metre changes, some sense of artifice in construction & defect in harmony seems to force itself on the ear.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
Honore de Balzac : Modeste Mignon
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20-21 January 1845: 'I put down "Modeste Mignon" to take up your letter. I read my French abomination at breakfast & dinner & tea time, .. so as to forget myself & be delighted to find that I have eaten a little more than usual in my trance (deeper than mesmeric) & happy state of physical unconsciousness [...] And your first words [in letter] [...] are still of Mignon, Mignon. It is a decided case of flint to flint -- & of electricity by coincidence. 'Well -- and I am delighted with the book just as you are [...] because charmed beyond the point of pleasure produced by mere artistic power in the writer. The truth is [...] that if I were to write my own autobiography, or rather, (much rather), if Balzac were to write it for me, he could not veritably have made it different from what he has written of Modeste. The ideal life of my youth was just [italics]that[end italics], .. line for line [goes on to comment further on text] [...] And that "satiete par la pensee."! -- [italics]There[end italics], lies the test of the morbidity -- for it is morbid -- it is dangerous! & worse romances than poor Modests's is likely to be (I have only read a third of the book) might come of it [comments further on own and Mitford's responses to text]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
unknown : article on reported cure by mesmerism of Harriet Martineau
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 January 1845: 'I have seen a page of the Lancet (which Nelly Bordman sent me), with extracts from the abominable "case". It is plain enough from the extracts printed by Mr Greenhough in a letter to the Chronicle yesterday, from H. Martineau's notes to him, that she understood & was ready to permit a [italics]partial[end italics] publication. But what she did [italics]not[end italics] expect, was an independent pamphlet filled with the most offensive details possible. Could any woman [...] have expected patiently such a disclosure, so made?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Frederic Soulie : Les Memoires du diable
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 4 February 1845: 'Do you think you cd. take courage & attempt the eight volumes of Frederic Soulie[']s Memoires du diable? eight rather thick volumes? I am in the midst & heat of them -- & though they stink in one's nostrils not infrequently & are full of the most gorgeous extravagances, the variety & power, the invention, (flash upon flash), & the vividness of life all through, render them to my mind, a most remarkable work [...] Much in it is most disgusting. But you [italics]must[end italics] be struck by the variety of power in it, -- & I cant keep back any new sight from you. Yes indeed! -- how nearer & nearer we are drawn in this "palpitating literature," as you call it so truly! palpitating is just the word! & it sets me palpitating too, whatever it may do by yourself'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : Le Pere Goriot
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 15 February 1845: 'I am not sorry you fell over "La veille Fille" [sic] at last -- & the "Physiologie" besides [...] remember that the "Fille" which is as disgusting a book as you represent it, was my "first fruits" of Balzac. I made my acquaintance with him in that iniquitous book, -- that beastly book -- for, as women, we cannot speak of it with too cogent an abhorrence. Is there any wonder that I made a vow deeply never to read a book by the writer of it any more. I did vow it. And it was a mere mistake of those librarians who are always making mistakes (but I forgive a thousand for the dear love of that one) which sent me "Le Pere Goriot" [...] I bore with him wonderfully; -- & began to sympathise so immorally besides, (as Mr Kenyon says of me) with the artistic power of the book, that I was tempted to throw my plummet down again into the depths of the artist's mind [...] I am struck just as you are, by this wonderful faculty of lifting up so high & clear above the social pollutions, which it is his delight to dabble in, images & creations most stainless & lovely. I do not say (or think) that such a faculty renders him less dangerous as a writer, -- but it is undeniably wonderful as a faculty, & proves him a poet .. minus, the sense of music.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : La vieille fille
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 15 February 1845: 'I am not sorry you fell over "La veille Fille" [sic] at last -- & the "Physiologie" besides [...] remember that the "Fille" which is as disgusting a book as you represent it, was my "first fruits" of Balzac. I made my acquaintance with him in that iniquitous book, -- that beastly book -- for, as women, we cannot speak of it with too cogent an abhorrence. Is there any wonder that I made a vow deeply never to read a book by the writer of it any more. I did vow it. And it was a mere mistake of those librarians who are always making mistakes (but I forgive a thousand for the dear love of that one) which sent me "Le Pere Goriot" [...] I bore with him wonderfully; -- & began to sympathise so immorally besides, (as Mr Kenyon says of me) with the artistic power of the book, that I was tempted to throw my plummet down again into the depths of the artist's mind [...] I am struck just as you are, by this wonderful faculty of lifting up so high & clear above the social pollutions, which it is his delight to dabble in, images & creations most stainless & lovely. I do not say (or think) that such a faculty renders him less dangerous as a writer, -- but it is undeniably wonderful as a faculty, & proves him a poet .. minus, the sense of music.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frederic Soulie : Confession generale, vols 1 and 2
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 February 1845: 'Tell me, was Soulie's "Confession Generale" never finished? Did it stop short for ever at the second volume with you as with me? Because it is interesting -- and I am suspended in the air in the case of an interesting book that wont end: it[']s a cruel punishment which Dante should have put into Hell, instead of this side the gate of it .. "that day they read no more." Perhaps he meant to hint it so -- & that the thought of the unfinished book tormented the damned lovers as one of the forms of their damnation.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Claude Francois de Meneval : Napoleon et Marie Louise: souvenirs historiques
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 February 1845: 'Do you know the "Napoleon et Marie Louise" of M. de Meneval, the secretary of the emperor? The three little volumes have interest in them -- and if you require (which you dont I hope) any further impulse towards hating the Austrian [Marie Louise], you will find it there [makes further comments] [...] Well might Napoleon shrink from speakng of her .. & from analysing the motives of her conduct! -- His [italics]silence[end italics], as Meneval describes it, strikes me as very affecting'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Anna Laetitia Barbauld : Lessons for Children, From Two to Three Years Old
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 February 1845: 'I do not know Charlotte Smith's books for children. I read myself Mrs. Barbauld's '"Come hither Charles -- Come to Mama --" 'oh! how I remember it, book & all! & Miss Edgeworth's Frank & Rosamond. They were my own classics, and those of my brothers and sisters.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Maria Edgeworth : Early Lessons
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 February 1845: 'I do not know Charlotte Smith's books for children. I read myself Mrs. Barbauld's '"Come hither Charles -- Come to Mama --" 'oh! how I remember it, book & all! & Miss Edgeworth's Frank & Rosamond. They were my own classics, and those of my brothers and sisters.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : La Femme superieur
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 5 March 1845: 'I am in the midst of "La Femme superieure." [sic] The truth of this work & the subtlety & deepness of the [italics]life[end italics] in it .. for I will not call it portraiture, .. are wonderful -- but certainly it justifies the attribute of heaviness & slowness we talked of the other day [goes on to remark, as apparently Mitford has also done, upon importance attached by Balzac to details of costume].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas De Quincey : 'Suspiria De Profundis: Being a Sequel to the Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, c.13 March 1845: 'Do you read Blackwood? & in that case, have you had deep delight in an exquisite paper by the Opium-eater, which my heart trembled through from end to end? What a poet that man is! how he vivifies words, & deepens them, & gives them profound significance'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
: [verses]
'I return to you these verses (of which I have taken a copy) with many thanks. I am always glad of your scraps of intelligence, which come, with their pleasant [italics] London-taste [end italics], most acceptably into my Manchester life. These verses in particular are extremely humorous & characteristic'.
UnknownCentury: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Charlotte Bronte : Professor, The
'I dreaded lest the Prof: should involve anything with M. Heger - I had heard her say it related to her Brussels life, - & I thought if he were again brought before the public, what would he think of me? [Gaskell goes on to say that her fears were not fulfilled] so on that ground there would be no objection to publishing it. I don't think it will add to her reputation, - the interest will arise from its being the work of so remarkable a mind. It is an autobiography of a man the English Professor at a Brussels school, - there are one or two remarkable portraits - the most charming woman she ever drew, and a glimpse of that woman as a mother - very lovely; otherwise little or no story; & disfigured by more coarseness - & profanity in quoting texts of Scripture disagreeably than in any of her other works.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
: Examiner, The
'I looked in last week's Examiner thinking there [italics] might [end italics] be an advertisement of the Professor. When do you think it will be out?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte : Professor, The
'The Professor is curious as indicating strong character & rare faculties on the part of the author; but not interesting as a story. And yet there are parts one would not lose - a lovely female character - & glimpses of home & family life in the latter portion of the tale. - But oh! I wish Mr Nicholls wd have altered more!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
William Fairbairn : [letter offering his opinion of Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte]
'I don't think you know how much good your letter did me. In the first place I was really afraid that you did not like my book, because I had never received your usual letter of criticism; and in the second, it was the one sweet little drop of honey that the postman had brought me for some time, as, on the average, I had been receiving three letters a day for above a fortnight, finding great fault with me (to use a [italics] mild [end italics] expression for the tone of their compliments) for my chapter about the Cowan Bridge School.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
E.B. Eastwick ['ed'] : Autobiography of Lutfullah, a Mohammedan gentleman : and his translations with his fellow-creatures
'I received your books last night quite safely, and plunged into 'Lutfullah' with great interest, being prepared to like it from the notice in the Athenaeum. The Bombay Q. Review looks good too, and I hit upon a lively paper describing the Overland journey, which fell in well with the direction of my curiosity'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: Bombay Quarterly Review
'I received your books last night quite safely, and plunged into 'Lutfullah' with great interest, being prepared to like it from the notice in the Athenaeum. The Bombay Q. Review looks good too, and I hit upon a lively paper describing the Overland journey, which fell in well with the direction of my curiosity'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
: Athenaeum [review of Eastwick's 'Lutfullah']
'I received your books last night quite safely, and plunged into 'Lutfullah' with great interest, being prepared to like it from the notice in the Athenaeum. The Bombay Q. Review looks good too, and I hit upon a lively paper describing the Overland journey, which fell in well with the direction of my curiosity'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Currer Bell [pseud.] : Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
'I thank you too for C.E. and A. Bell's poems (my copy has never turned up)'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: Times, The
'People say, the Times leading the van, that the news is quite as good as can be expected &c &c &c.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
John W. Kaye : [possibly] Administration of the East India Company, The
'we, as a family, are going through a whole course of Indian literature - Kaye and Malcolm to wit; but I am afraid I read it for duty's sake, without taking as much interest as I ought to do, in all the out-of-the-way names & places, none of which give me any distinct idea'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Malcolm : [possibly] Government of India, The
'we, as a family, are going through a whole course of Indian literature - Kaye and Malcolm to wit; but I am afraid I read it for duty's sake, without taking as much interest as I ought to do, in all the out-of-the-way names & places, none of which give me any distinct idea'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
: Homeward Mail, The
'I am very very much obliged to you for sending us the Homeward Mail. We read it from end to end; title page, & printer's name'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper, Serial / periodical
Francis James Child : Ballads
'Is Mr Child married? I am always wanting to write & thank him for his Ballads, which I delight in' [she then deprecates her own letter writing style and says she is put off by the thought of having to write 'properly']
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Charles Eliot Norton : [articles in the 'Atlantic Monthly' on India and an exhibition]
'I mean to read the Atlantic soon; I find 2 numbers, one from you with names of authors, for the which thank you; the second no. has no such names, - & I'll tell you what I've read & liked. Your paper on India, - but then that was not fair, because I knew it was yours, - Floyd Ireson's ride VERY much. Turkey tracts, - yes, I did, & I just defy you, if you said you didn't; and Florentine Mosaics. I cd not read the other story, - and I did not care for Carlyle. I liked yr paper in the first no. on our Exhibition - only there [italics] was [end italics] one Duccio da Siena, & you say there was not.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Thomas Carlyle : [article in the 'Atlantic Monthly']
'I mean to read the Atlantic soon; I find 2 numbers, one from you with names of authors, for the which thank you; the second no. has no such names, - & I'll tell you what I've read & liked. Your paper on India, - but then that was not fair, because I knew it was yours, - Floyd Ireson's ride VERY much. Turkey tracts, - yes, I did, & I just defy you, if you said you didn't; and Florentine Mosaics. I cd not read the other story, - and I did not care for Carlyle. I liked yr paper in the first no. on our Exhibition - only there [italics] was [end italics] one Duccio da Siena, & you say there was not.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
: Atlantic Monthly
'I mean to read the Atlantic soon; I find 2 numbers, one from you with names of authors, for the which thank you; the second no. has no such names, - & I'll tell you what I've read & liked. Your paper on India, - but then that was not fair, because I knew it was yours, - Floyd Ireson's ride VERY much. Turkey tracts, - yes, I did, & I just defy you, if you said you didn't; and Florentine Mosaics. I cd not read the other story, - and I did not care for Carlyle. I liked yr paper in the first no. on our Exhibition - only there [italics] was [end italics] one Duccio da Siena, & you say there was not.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
George Eliot [pseud.] : Scenes from Clerical Life
'Read 'Scenes of Clerical Life', published in Blackwood, for [italics] this [end italics] year, - I shd think they began as early as Janry or February - They are a discovery of my own, & I am so proud of them. [italics] Do [end italics] read them. I have not a notion who wrote them'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Richard Monckton Milnes : 'Lucknow'
'Thanks for telling me about the articles. I always like to read anything of your writing, even when it is not of such supreme interest as 'Lucknow' because your style (may I say it?) has such a great charm for me. It is such pure beautiful English. I had heard of the forthcoming article on Buckle, without knowing whom it was by. Thank you for telling me'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
: Atlantic Monthly
'Thank you very much for your list of authors. You may think how we [italics] savoured [end italics] the papers on the Catacombs. Marianne & Meta always write the names opposite the articles in the Atlantic'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical, Unknown
William Elder : Biography of Elisha Kent Kane
'I don't like American biographies. Dr Kane's life is [italics] murdered [end italics], - and why do you give us all those speeches & obsequy things at the end? it is very ungrateful of me to say this, for Mr Elder sent it me. Next - who is Mr Parton who writes biographies on your side of the water? Barnom, & Aaron Burr - the first I literally [italics] could not [end italics] read, just for the want of any moral feeling at all in it, - the last I have just read, because I wanted to get some knowledge of American society in the last centy & beginning of this, - and to know who Aaron Burr was? There is just the same, or worse, want of any idea of simply [sic] right or wrong, - but I don't come out clear as to what [italics] could [end italics] have been Aaron B's [italics] real [end italics] character'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
James Parton : Life and Times of Aaron Burr, The
'I don't like American biographies. Dr Kane's life is [italics] murdered [end italics], - and why do you give us all those speeches & obsequy things at the end? it is very ungrateful of me to say this, for Mr Elder sent it me. Next - who is Mr Parton who writes biographies on your side of the water? Barnom, & Aaron Burr - the first I literally [italics] could not [end italics] read, just for the want of any moral feeling at all in it, - the last I have just read, because I wanted to get some knowledge of American society in the last centy & beginning of this, - and to know who Aaron Burr was? There is just the same, or worse, want of any idea of simply [sic] right or wrong, - but I don't come out clear as to what [italics] could [end italics] have been Aaron B's [italics] real [end italics] character'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
James Parton : [Life of Barnum]
'I don't like American biographies. Dr Kane's life is [italics] murdered [end italics], - and why do you give us all those speeches & obsequy things at the end? it is very ungrateful of me to say this, for Mr Elder sent it me. Next - who is Mr Parton who writes biographies on your side of the water? Barnom, & Aaron Burr - the first I literally [italics] could not [end italics] read, just for the want of any moral feeling at all in it, - the last I have just read, because I wanted to get some knowledge of American society in the last centy & beginning of this, - and to know who Aaron Burr was? There is just the same, or worse, want of any idea of simply [sic] right or wrong, - but I don't come out clear as to what [italics] could [end italics] have been Aaron B's [italics] real [end italics] character'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Francis Henry Egerton : Apercu Historique et genealogique
'Can you tell me anything of a book, published or rather printed, by the late Earl of Bridgewater at his press in Paris. It was in the French language - & contained all the Egerton traditions, and papers relating to the Lord Chancellor Egerton. The Egertons of [italics] Tatton [end italics] know nothing of it. I do not know the present Lord Ellesmere well enough to ask him.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[n/a] : [advertisement for the 'Psychological' magazine]
'I see in an advertisement of the contents of a Magazine (the Psychological) of which I believe you are the Editor, a paper on Charlotte Bronte. Having a very strong interest in the subject I should particularly wish to see that number and if you would kindly direct it to be forwarded to me, I would return the publisher the amount in postage stamps.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Advertisement
Hendschel : Telegraph
[having been given a rum and peppermint liqueur for a migraine] 'We went to the Railway waiting-room, which was all quiet and nicely-lighted up; so Flossy began to read a book she had brought with her; and I got Hendschel's Telegraph (the German Bradshaw) off the table, and began to puzzle out my train to Strasbourg to meet Louy, - when, lo & behold, Flossy whispered to me, me, smelling of rum - that Mr Bosanquet had come in! I tucked my head down over my book, & told F.E. to take no notice; but he drew nearer and nearer, pretending to look at the affiches on the walls, until at last he came close, & said 'Mrs G. can I assist you in making out yr train'...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
[having been given a rum and peppermint liqueur for a migraine] 'We went to the Railway waiting-room, which was all quiet and nicely-lighted up; so Flossy began to read a book she had brought with her; and I got Hendschel's Telegraph (the German Bradshaw) off the table, and began to puzzle out my train to Strasbourg to meet Louy, - when, lo & behold, Flossy whispered to me, me, smelling of rum - that Mr Bosanquet had come in! I tucked my head down over my book, & told F.E. to take no notice; but he drew nearer and nearer, pretending to look at the affiches on the walls, until at last he came close, & said 'Mrs G. can I assist you in making out yr train'...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Elizabeth Gaskell Print: Book
Christian Karl Josias Bunsen : Lyra Germanica
'you will receive a Lyra Germanica from me the day after you get this letter, - I always wanted you to have it, & wished for your appreciation of Kate Winkworth's translation when we were at Heidelberg'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Florence Nightingale : Notes on Matters affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hosptal Administration of the British Army
'I read the [italics] Subsidiary Notes [end italics] first. It was so interesting I could not leave it. I finished it at one long morning sitting - hardly stirring between breakfast and dinner. I cannot tell you how much I like it, and for such numbers of reasons. First, because you know of a varnish that is as good or better than black-lead for grates (only I wonder what it is). Next, because of the little sentences of real deep wisdom which from their depth and true foundation may be real helps in every direction and to every person; and for the quiet continual devout references to God which make the book a holy one'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Mr Aide : Rita
'I tell [Mr Aide] my "honest opinion" of his [italics] first [end italics] volume at any rate: It introduces one just exactly into the kid of disrepuble [sic] society one keeps clear of with such scrupulous care in real life, - it is not merely [italics] one [end italics] character that is none of the best, - but every one we get a glimpse of is the same description of person. I don't think it is "corrupting" but it is disagreeable, - a sort of dragging one's peticoats through mud. I wish the little gentleman, - who really seems more than commonly good (for a man, - begging your & your son's pardon) had not written this book; because it gives one a sort of distrust of his previous life.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
George Eliot [pseud.] : Amos Barton
'I am going to make a request to you, Sir, which is of a slightly impudent nature. It is, that you will be so good as to give me a copy of "Adam Bede", - and I advance three pretexts for asking this favour from you. Firstly my delight in the book; and in the "Stories from Clerical Life", ever since the first part of "Amos Barton" in Blackwood. It almost seems presumptuous in me to express all the admiration I feel; you might be tempted to quote Dr Johnson'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
George Eliot [pseud.] : Adam Bede
'I am going to make a request to you, Sir, which is of a slightly impudent nature. It is, that you will be so good as to give me a copy of "Adam Bede", - and I advance three pretexts for asking this favour from you. Firstly my delight in the book; and in the "Stories from Clerical Life", ever since the first part of "Amos Barton" in Blackwood. It almost seems presumptuous in me to express all the admiration I feel; you might be tempted to quote Dr Johnson'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[unknown] : Blackwood's Magazine
'I'll change my tactics [from trying to persuade Blackwood to give her a copy of "Adam Bede" out of generosity] and say you owe me compensation for an article {of} under which if the wit had been a tithe equal to the wish to abuse I might have winced with pain. As it was I only felt indignant at the bad spirit in which the review of my Life of Charlotte Bronte was written, & half inclined to offer my services to Mr Aytoun the next time he wished to have an article written which should point out with something like keen and bitter perception the short-comings of my books'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
George Eliot [pseud.] : Adam Bede
'I received the copy of "Adam Bede" which you were so kind as to send me quite safely; and I am very much obliged to you for it. - I thoroughly admire this writer's works - (I do not call him Mr Elliot, because I know that such is not his real name.) I was brought up in Warwickshire, and recognize the county in every description of natural scenery. I am thoroughly obliged to you for giving it to me; it is a book that it is a real pleasure to have, and if for every article in your Magazine, abusive of me, you will only be so kind as to give me one of the works of the author of "Scenes from Clerical Life", I shall consider myself your debtor'. [Later on the same page, Gaskell says 'One of Mrs Poyser's speeches is as good as a fresh blow of sea-air; and yet {it} she is a true person, and no caricature']
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[unknown] : [American cookery books]
'Yes! I found the American cookery books here when we got home, (Decr 20th) and many many thanks. we can't understand all the words used - because, you see, [italics] we [end italics] speak English, - but we have made some capital brown bread and several other good things, by the help of them'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley : Three Introductory Lectures on the study of Ecclesiastical History
'Read Arthur Stanley's Three Introductory Lectures on the Study of Ecclesiastical History Parker Oxford - price [italics] perhaps [ed italics] 2s-6d, not more. I do so like them and so does Meta. And Dasent's Norse Tales, which are charming, & the introduction best of all and "Adam Bede" - you read Scenes from Clerical Life? did you not?)'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
G.W. Dasent : Popular Tales from the Norse
'Read Arthur Stanley's Three Introductory Lectures on the Study of Ecclesiastical History Parker Oxford - price [italics] perhaps [ed italics] 2s-6d, not more. I do so like them and so does Meta. And Dasent's Norse Tales, which are charming, & the introduction best of all and "Adam Bede" - you read Scenes from Clerical Life? did you not?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[n/a] : Times, The
'Our Times of today - well of yesterday - well, tomorrow it will be of some day in dream land, for I am past power of counting - Our Times of today has taken away my breath - Who, What, Wherefore, Why - oh! do be a woman, and give me all possible details - Never mind the House of Commons: it can keep - but my, our, curiosity CAN'T-'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
Herbert Grey : Three Paths, The
'As you ask me for my opinion I shall try and give it as truly as I can; otherwise it will be of no use [...] In the first place you say you do not call The 3 paths a novel; but the work is in the form which always assumes that name, nor do I think it is one to be quarrelled with. I suppose you mean that you used the narrative form merely to {convey} introduce certain opinions & thoughts. If so you had better have condensed them into the shape of an Essay. Those in Friends in Council &c. are admirable examples of how much may be said on both sides of any question without any {dogma} decision being finally arrived at, & certainly without any dogmatism. [Gaskell then discusses the merits of the concise essay form] But I believe in spite of yr objection to the term 'novel' you do wish to 'narrate', - and I believe you can do it if you try, - but I think you must observe what is [italics] out [end italics] of you, instead of examining what is [italics] in [end italics] you. [Gaskell explains the merits of this at length]. Just read a few pages of De Foe &c - and you will see the healthy way in which he sets [italics] objects [end italics] not [italics] feelings [end italics] before you. [She advises Grey to use what he observes through every day contact with real people] Think if you can not imagine a complication of events in their life which would form a good plot. (Your plot in The Three paths is very poor; you have not thought enough about it - simply used it as a medium. [She discusses the advantages of tight plotting and advises] Don't intrude yourself into your description. If you but think eagerly of your story till [italics] you see it in action [end italics], words, good simple strong words will come. [she then criticises his overuse of epithets, overlong conversations and allusions, concluding] You see I am very frank-spoken. But I believe you are worth it.'
UnknownCentury: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Arthur Helps : Friends in Council
'As you ask me for my opinion I shall try and give it as truly as I can; otherwise it will be of no use [...] In the first place you say you do not call The 3 paths a novel; but the work is in the form which always assumes that name, nor do I think it is one to be quarrelled with. I suppose you mean that you used the narrative form merely to {convey} introduce certain opinions & thoughts. If so you had better have condensed them into the shape of an Essay. Those in Friends in Council &c. are admirable examples of how much may be said on both sides of any question without any {dogma} decision being finally arrived at, & certainly without any dogmatism. [Gaskell then discusses the merits of the concise essay form] But I believe in spite of yr objection to the term 'novel' you do wish to 'narrate', - and I believe you can do it if you try, - but I think you must observe what is [italics] out [end italics] of you, instead of examining what is [italics] in [end italics] you. [Gaskell explains the merits of this at length]. Just read a few pages of De Foe &c - and you will see the healthy way in which he sets [italics] objects [end italics] not [italics] feelings [end italics] before you. [She advises Grey to use what he observes through every day contact with real people] Think if you can not imagine a complication of events in their life which would form a good plot. (Your plot in The Three paths is very poor; you have not thought enough about it - simply used it s a medium. [She discusses the advantages of tight plotting and advises] Don't intrude yourself into your description. If you but think eagerly of your story till [italics] you see it in action [end italics], words, good simple strong words will come. [she then criticises his overuse of epithets, overlong conversations and allusions, concluding] You see I am very frank-spoken. But I believe you are worth it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Daniel Defoe : [unknown]
'As you ask me for my opinion I shall try and give it as truly as I can; otherwise it will be of no use [...] In the first place you say you do not call The 3 paths a novel; but the work is in the form which always assumes that name, nor do I think it is one to be quarrelled with. I suppose you mean that you used the narrative form merely to {convey} introduce certain opinions & thoughts. If so you had better have condensed them into the shape of an Essay. Those in Friends in Council &c. are admirable examples of how much may be said on both sides of any question without any {dogma} decision being finally arrived at, & certainly without any dogmatism. [Gaskell then discusses the merits of the concise essay form] But I believe in spite of yr objection to the term 'novel' you do wish to 'narrate', - and I believe you can do it if you try, - but I think you must observe what is [italics] out [end italics] of you, instead of examining what is [italics] in [end italics] you. [Gaskell explains the merits of this at length]. Just read a few pages of De Foe &c - and you will see the healthy way in which he sets [italics] objects [end italics] not [italics] feelings [end italics] before you. [She advises Grey to use what he observes through every day contact with real people] Think if you can not imagine a complication of events in their life which would form a good plot. (Your plot in The Three paths is very poor; you have not thought enough about it - simply used it s a medium. [She discusses the advantages of tight plotting and advises] Don't intrude yourself into your description. If you but think eagerly of your story till [italics] you see it in action [end italics], words, good simple strong words will come. [she then criticises his overuse of epithets, overlong conversations and allusions, concluding] You see I am very frank-spoken. But I believe you are worth it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Robert Chambers : Domestic Annals of Scotland: from the reformation to the revolution
'Reading your Domestic Annals of Scotland, warms up all my old Scottish blood, - and makes me wish heartily that our four girls could see something of Scotland'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[n/a] : Times, The
'Oh Mr Bosanquet, did you see William Arnold's death in the Times? - but you did not know him, - you remember he wrote Oakfield, - and married somebody within a fortnight after first seeing her, - or some such rash proceeding'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
Henrietta Jenkin : Cousin Stella
'You never no, [italics] never [end italics] - sent a more acceptable present than Cousin Stella & The Fool of Quality, - and that irrespective of their several merits. But books are books here [they are in rural Dumfriesshire and feel cut off from the world] I am sorry to say Meta lies at this present moment fast asleep with Cousin Stella in her hand; but that is the effect of bathing and an eight mile walk; not of the book itself. I know & like the Fool of Quality of old. I was brought up by old uncles & aunts, who had all old books, and very few new ones; and I used to delight in the Fool of Quality, & have hardly read it since.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Henry Brooke : Fool of Quality, The
'You never no, [italics] never [end italics] - sent a more acceptable present than Cousin Stella & The Fool of Quality, - and that irrespective of their several merits. But books are books here [they are in rural Dumfriesshire and feel cut off from the world] I am sorry to say Meta lies at this present moment fast asleep with Cousin Stella in her hand; but that is the effect of bathing and an eight mile walk; not of the book itself. I know & like the Fool of Quality of old. I was brought up by old uncles & aunts, who had all old books, and very few new ones; and I used to delight in the Fool of Quality, & have hardly read it since.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Stuart Mill : On Liberty
'after reading the dedication of your Essay on Liberty I can understand how any word expressing a meaning only conjectured that was derogatory to your wife would wound you most deeply. And therefore I now write to express my deep regret that you received such pain through me.' [Gaskell is referring to the printing of a letter about John Stuart Mill's future wife in her Life of Charlotte Bronte, to which he had reacted angrily].
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
George Eliot [pseud.] : Adam Bede
'Please say [if Marian Evans is really the author of Adam Bede...] It is a noble grand book, whoever wrote it, - but Miss Evans' life taken at the best construction, does so jar against the beautiful book that one cannot help hoping against hope'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
William Wordsworth : Excursion, The
'I think that if you can get hold of a portable 'Excursion' it is a capital book to have with you; also that vol (1st second, [italics] or [end italics] third, I forget whh) of de Quincey's Miscellanies that relates to the Lakes, - places & people as they were in his day. Try for this last, if you don't get it elsewhere at Mrs Nicholson's circulating library at Ambleside'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Thomas de Quincey : Miscellanies
'I think that if you can get hold of a portable 'Excursion' it is a capital book to have with you; also that vol (1st second, [italics] or [end italics] third, I forget whh) of de Quincey's Miscellanies that relates to the Lakes, - places & people as they were in his day. Try for this last, if you don't get it elsewhere at Mrs Nicholson's circulating library at Ambleside'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Harriet Martineau : Complete Guide to the English Lakes
'To go back to books. H. Martineau's is, I think, the best guide book [to the Lakes].'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
William White : Travel in Northumberland and the Border
'I have been reading White's Northumberland, so I knew Carter Fell, & all your tour like old familiar names, when I met them in yr letter.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Nathaniel Hawthorne : Marble Faun, The
'Do [italics] you [end italics] know what Hawthorne's tale is about? [italics] I [end italics] do; and I think it will perplex the English public pretty considerably.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley : Historical Memorials of Canterbury
'(do you know how [italics] very [end italics] beautiful that Cathedral [at Canterbury] is, & do you know Arthur Stanley's memorials of Canterbury?)'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
George Eliot [pseud.] : Janet's Repentance
'I think I have a feeling that it is not worth while trying to write, while there are such books as Adam Bede & Scenes from Clerical Life - I set "Janet's Repentance" above all, still.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book, Serial / periodical
Ellen Raynard : Missing Link, The; or Bible Women In The Homes Of The London Poor
'Thank you very much for sending me the Missing Link, and remembering my wish to know more about "Marian" [Evans]. The book came in the middle of a storm of wind & rain on Saturday Evening, and I began to read it, and pretty nearly finished it before I went to bed. It is very interesting, - and is indeed the discovery of the "Missing Link".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
George Eliot [pseud.] : Scenes from Clerical Life
'Since I heard, from authority, that you were the author of Scenes from "Clerical Life" and "Adam Bede", I have read them again; and I must, once more, tell you how earnestly fully, and humbly I admire them. I never read anything so complete, and beautiful in fiction, in my whole life before. [She then writes a bit about the imposture of Mr Liggins as the books' author, concluding] I should not be quite true in my ending, if I did not say before I concluded that I wish you [italics] were [end italics] Mrs Lewes. However, that can't be helped, as far as I can see, and one must not judge others. Once more, thanking you most gratefully for having written all - Janet's Repentance perhaps most especially of all, - (& may I tell you how I singled out the 2nd No of Amos Barton in Blackwood, & went plodging through our Manchester Sts to get every number, as soon as it was accessible from the Portico reading table - )'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book, Serial / periodical
George Eliot [pseud.] : Adam Bede
'Since I heard, from authority, that you were the author of Scenes from "Clerical Life" and "Adam Bede", I have read them again; and I must, once more, tell you how earnestly fully, and humbly I admire them. I never read anything so complete, and beautiful in fiction, in my whole life before. [She then writes a bit about the imposture of Mr Liggins as the books' author, concluding] I should not be quite true in my ending, if I did not say before I concluded that I wish you [italics] were [end italics] Mrs Lewes. However, that can't be helped, as far as I can see, and one must not judge others. Once more, thanking you most gratefully for having written all - Janet's Repentance perhaps most especially of all, - (& may I tell you how I singled out the 2nd No of Amos Barton in Blackwood, & went plodging through our Manchester Sts to get every number, as soon as it was accessible from the Portico reading table - )'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book, Serial / periodical
George Eliot [pseud.] : 'Amos Barton'
'Since I heard, from authority, that you were the author of Scenes from 'Clerical Life' and 'Adam Bede', I have read them again; and I must, once more, tell you how earnestly fully, and humbly I admire them. I never read anything so complete, and beautiful in fiction, in my whole life before. [She then writes a bit about the imposture of Mr Liggins as the books' author, concluding] I should not be quite true in my ending, if I did not say before I concluded that I wish you [italics] were [end italics] Mrs Lewes. However, that can't be helped, as far as I can see, and one must not judge others. Once more, thanking you most gratefully for having written all - Janet's Repentance perhaps most especially of all, - (& may I tell you how I singled out the 2nd No of Amos Barton in Blackwood, & went plodging through our Manchester Sts to get every number, as soon as it was accessible from the Portico reading table - )'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Francis Mahoney : [Inaugural Ode for the Cornhill Magazine in the persona of 'Father Prout']
'thanks [...] most especially for those brilliant lines of Father Prout's; how we did delight in them, and how I should like to have written them. I think our Magazine promises to be a famous success; and I enjoy - now you know [italics] you [end italics] did, so you need not look moral - the Saturday's cutting up of 'Dead [?heart]; - oh [italics] how [end italics] stupid it was. - I don't think we shall ever be so stupid.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Francis Mahoney : [Saturday Review - review of the play 'Dead Heart']
'thanks [...] most especially for those brilliant lines of Father Prout's; how we did delight in them, and how I should like to have written them. I think our Magazine promises to be a famous success; and I enjoy - now you know [italics] you [end italics] did, so you need not look moral - the Saturday's cutting up of 'Dead[?heart]; - oh [italics] how [end italics] stupid it was. - I don't think we shall ever be so stupid.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Anthony Trollope : Framley Parsonage
'I extremely like & admire Framley Parsonage, - & the Idle Boy; and the Inaugural address. I like Lovel the Widower, only (perhaps because I am stupid,) it is a little confusing on account of its discursiveness, - and V's verses; and oh shame! I have not read the sensible & improving articles.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
William Makepeace Thackeray : Lovel the Widower
'I extremely like & admire Framley Parsonage, - & the Idle Boy; and the Inaugural address. I like Lovel the Widower, only (perhaps because I am stupid,) it is a little confusing on account of its discursiveness, - and V's verses; and oh shame! I have not read the sensible & improving articles.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
[n/a] : Cornhill Magazine
'I extremely like & admire Framley Parsonage, - & the Idle Boy; and the Inaugural address. I like Lovel the Widower, only (perhaps because I am stupid,) it is a little confusing on account of its discursiveness, - and V's verses; and oh shame! I have not read the sensible & improving articles.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Charles Dickens : All the Year Round [article]
'In last week's No of All the Year Round is a repudiation (by Mr Dickens,) of having intended Leigh Hunt by Harrold Skimpole'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Madame Mohl : [review of Mme Lenorment's 'Souvenirs et Correspondance de Madame Recamier]
'I ought to have told you that my dear Madame Mohl was the author of that Recamier article, - stay, I'll put her letter in, - I know I can trust you, - and we are just off to Church. [italics] Please [end italics] return it; it will explain that what you have is the National R. article as it was [italics] first written [end italics] - twice as long as it was when printed, - [italics] she [end italics] thinks the best part was taken out'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Henrietta Camilla Jenkin : Cousin Stella
'Mr & Mrs Clarke & Ly Coltman were all full of "Cousin Stella" & I had quite a reflected lustre from the fact that I knew & could tell them all about the authoress'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Anthony Trollope : Framley Parsonage
'I wish Mr Trollope would go on writing Framley Parsonage for ever. I don't see any reason why it should ever come to an end, and every one I know is always dreading the [italics] last [end italics] number. I hope he will make the jilting of Griselda a long while a-doing.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
[n/a] : Annual Register
'Oh! [italics] please [end italics] ask the Tutor not to trouble humself or his friends about the press-gang affair. The Annual Register has been [italics] carefully [end italics] looked over [italics] months [end italics] ago, & it is of no use going over the ground again'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
[unknown] : Melle Mori
'Do you know by whom 'Melle Mori' is written?' [Gaskell asks George Smith the same question the same day - p.605]
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Charles Eliot Norton : New Life of Dante, An Essay with Translations
'my beautiful Vita Nuova, which only came yesterday, but which was more identified with [italics] you [end italics] and Italy than anything else; & which I so wished to have of my own, & in print, ever since you let me read it in MS. Thank you so [italics] very [end italics] much for it. I do so value it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
George Eliot [pseud] : Mill on the Floss, The
'only think of having the Mill on the Floss the second day of publication, & of my very own. I think it is so kind of you, & am so greedy to read it I can scarcely be grateful enough to write this letter'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[unknown] : [anthology of laudatory sonnets]
'Now I had a vol: of poems sent me the other day, full of sonnets to Dickens, Carlyle &c &c - [italics] such [end italics] bad ones; & the parcel contains this book sent to her 'from the author', & my own dear precious sonnet.' [Gaskell then transcribes the sonnet, beginning 'Sweet Vocalist; the Nightingale of sound!', asking smith - facetiously? - if he would like it for the Cornhill]
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[unknown] : London Guardian
'I read them an account of the Ammergau Play, out of the London Guardian that Mr Maltby had lent me; & I think they will both go to one of the Septr Representations'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
[n/a] : [German/English dictionary]
'we set out on an enquiring expedition, first to yr pastry cook's, where I got a dictionary, and found my words'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[n/a] : [Manchester newspaper]
'I saw in one of our Manchester papers yesterday what I am delighted to learn, that you are the Rector of Lincoln's.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
Wilhelm Meinhold : Amber Witch, The
'I suspect that Meta has taken up either the 5th vol. of Modern Painters, or Tyndall on Glaciers, both of which books she is reading now, and Florence is probably reading the 'Amber-Witch'.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Elizabeth Gaskell Print: Book
Charles Eliot Norton : Notes of Travel and Study in Italy
'that brings me to say how very much I enjoyed during Meta's invalid days reading again & with deliberation your Art & Study in Italy, - thank you [italics] so [end italics] much for it'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Edward Wilberforce : 'Purgatory'
'do you ever see Fraser's Magazine. If you do I wish you would look back to the number for (say either) August, Sepr, or Octr, 1860 for a short poem by 'Edward Wilberforce' the young man we all used to meet in Rome; a very odd-looking, and as [italics] we [end italics] thought conceited person. But the poem tho' unpleasing from it's subject - which some people would say 'removes it from the province of art', - (and then where would Dante go?) is very strong & fine, so much more so than I should have expected from the author.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
[n/a] : Fraser's Magazine
'do you ever see Fraser's Magazine. If you do I wish you would look back to the number for (say either) August, Sepr, or Octr, 1860 for a short poem by 'Edward Wilberforce' the young man we all used to meet in Rome; a very odd-looking, and as [italics] we [end italics] thought conceited person. But the poem tho' unpleasing from it's subject - which some people would say 'removes it from the province of art', - (and then where would Dante go?) is very strong & fine, so much more so than I should have expected from the author.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Henry Vaughan : Silex Scintillans
'I do [italics] not [end italics] know all Henry Vaughan's poems, - I know well 'They are all gone into &c', and parts of Silex Scintillans.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Henry Vaughan : They are all gone into the world of light
'I do [italics] not [end italics] know all Henry Vaughan's poems, - I know well 'They are all gone into &c', and parts of Silex Scintillans.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[n/a] : [newspaper acconts of events in America in run up to Civil War]
'You will see we gain - 'we' the English generally, our information from The Times; and I know that Russell's writing is Panorama painting; but still these three particulars alluded to above (3-months' service men leaving, - major leaving with wounded colonel, - New York enthusiasm) seem generally accepted as [italics] facts [end italics] by all papers.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
Charles Eliot Norton : [paper on 'The Advantages of Defeat]
'I have been so ungrateful in never thanking you for your last - and for that [italics] beautiful] end italics] noble paper of yours on the Advantages of Defeat, - a paper which I have circulated far & wide among my friends, - and I only wish I had more of the same kind to show, - in order to make us English know you Americans better.'
UnknownCentury: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Nathaniel Hawthorne : Marble Faun, The
'['After Hawthorne's romance had come out she expresses to her friends her supposition that they will have read, as every one in England had, the "Cleopatra chapter", and assures them that she is proud of being able to say to people that she had been acquainted from the first with the statue commemmorated']' Letter reproduced in this edition from a printed source which gives this precis.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : [Letters]
'(I think what gave me the start [ on wanting to write a life of Mme de Sevigne] was the meeting with a supposed-to-be well-educated young lady who knew nothing about Madame de Sevigne, who had been like a well-known friend to me all my life.)'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Hamilton Aide : Carr of Carrlyon
'all this time I have never thanked you for Mr Aide's book. But at first I was ill (whh made the gift all the more valuable;) and then I thought I would read it first: and very pleasant it was to be carried out of murky smoky Manchester into something so purely Italian as the beginning is, - it is a regular atmosphere of Italy; I like the story much the best of any of his, don't you?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Frederick Harrison : [MS of impressions of manufacturing districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire]
'I have dipped into Mr Harrison; in fact almost read it, here & there in bits - I feel as if in one or two places I could have told him more, or set him to rights; but there is an immense deal of truth in the whole, especially considering that it was gathered by one man in the short space of 3 weeks'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
William Wetmore Story : Cleopatra
'I hope that you will not measure my gratitude to you for so kindly sending the Cleopatra-poem, by my promptitude in writing to thank you for it. Please accept now my best thanks for it. I admired it as a whole quite as much as I had expected to do from the extracts that I had seen in the reviews. Cleopatra seems to be the special means of inspiration for Mr Story, for I think he has never in sculpture equlled his marble Cleopatra; and certainly this poem is by far the finest that he has ever written. Thanking you again for the pleasure I had in reading it'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth C. Akers : Two Summers
'Thank you so much for sending us those loose sheets of newspaper extracts. Who wrote [italics] Two Summers [end italics], a poem in the September No of the Atlantic, 1862.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
[n/a] : [American newspaper extracts]
'Thank you so much for sending us those loose sheets of newspaper extracts. Who wrote [italics] Two Summers [end italics], a poem in the September No of the Atlantic, 1862.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
[n/a] : [Report of the Sanitary Commission]
'How [italics] very [end italics] interesting the report of the Sanitary Commission is? it tells one so very much one wanted to know.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
[n/a] : Atlantic Monthly
'I want you to tell me what Genl Butler really is - whether an "Our Hero" as a paper in the Atlantic called him; or an [italics] over [enditalics]-stern & violent man?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Oliver Wendell Holmes : [poem]
'I was so sorry to see that Dr Wendell Holmes called England "The Lost Leader". - I went & read the poem to Meta, who did not know it; - & we did so grieve!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
Alexander Pope : [Letters]
'You remember Stanton Harcourt - in Pope's Letters'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
John Addington Symonds : Thoughts on Xmas. In Florence, 1863
'on their wedding journey they [John Symonds and Catherine North] have been writing a paper on Christmas, - which looks to me [italics] very [end italics] clever, & Mr Symonds wants to know if it can go into the Cornhill for January'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
James Russell Lowell : Fireside Travels
'Will you ask Mr Lowell if he would [italics] give [end italics] me his Fireside Travels, with his writing inside? I was so entirely delighted with that book, and should [italics] so [end italics] like to have it [italics] from him [end italics].'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 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
Maggie Elliott : [story with title like 'Jem']
'Why don't you ask Miss (Maggie) Elliott to write you a novel? 6 Grosvenor Crescent - daughter of the Dean of Bristol - author of "Jem" (something) - the Dale Boy, in the Febry or March No of 1864 Fraser's Magazine - She would do it well.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'about "Cranford" I am so much pleased you like it. It is the only one of my own books that I can read again; - but when I am ailing or ill, I take "Cranford" and - I was going to say, [italics] enjoy [end italics] it! (but that would not be pretty!) laugh over it afresh! [...] I am so glad your mother likes it too! [Gaskell then relates an anecdote that she 'dared not' put in the book]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[n/a] : Daily News
'on Wednesday last (day before yesterday) we came home from paying calls; & found to our surprize that the Daily News had come by post - "What can Charlie have sent this paper for?" said Florence {?} and she opened it, - & read out "Assassination of President Lincoln". My heart burnt within me with indignation & grief, - we could think of nothing else'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Elizabeth Crompton Print: Newspaper
: [reviews of 'The Gayworthys' by Mrs ADT Whitney]
'are you in a generous humour, and will you give me "the Gayworthys" - I am so delighted with all the specimens I see in reviews.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
[unknown] : [book on portraits of Dante]
'[she thanks the Nortons for a photograph of Lincoln and] 'the delicious book on the portraits of Dante which it is a pleasure even to open, - it, - & the faces themselves seem to carry one so [italics] up [end italics] into a ["]purer aether, a diviner air".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
James R. Lowell : Fireside Travels
'You can't think how much I shall value Fireside Travels, (which only reached me during this past week,) now that I have got it of my "very very own" (as the children say,) and with that charming little bit of writing from you at the beginning. I don't mean that I did not delight in the book from the very first time I read a page in it; but the sense of property in it gives a double value, and the sense of successful beggary is very charming, though perhaps I ought to be ashamed. Only I am [italics] not [end italics], because I [italics] am [end italics] successful. I have known you so long! I knew serious poems of yours long ago, - twenty years or so; but my personal knowledge of you began in Rome 1857, - when (did you know it?) you and one other went about with the dear Storys, and me and mine up and down Rome [in the sense, it seems, that Charles Eliot Norton spoke much of Lowell - this is elaborated on...] Well then the Bigelow papers - I think I could stand a Civil Service Examination in them; and we had three copies of our own, till a little daughter married, and carried off one.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
James R. Lowell : [poems]
'You can't think how much I shall value Fireside Travels, (which only reached me during this past week,) now that I have got it of my "very very own" (as the children say,) and with that charming little bit of writing from you at the beginning. I don't mean that I did not delight in the book from the very first time I read a page in it; but the sense of property in it gives a double value, and the sense of successful beggary is very charming, though perhaps I ought to be ashamed. Only I am [italics] not [end italics], because I [italics] am [end italics] successful. I have known you so long! I knew serious poems of yours long ago, - twenty years or so; but my personal knowledge of you began in Rome 1857, - when (did you know it?) you and one other went about with the dear Storys, and me and mine up and down Rome [in the sense, it seems, that Charles Eliot Norton spoke much of Lowell - this is elaborated on...] Well then the Bigelow papers - I think I could stand a Civil Service Examination in them; and we had three copies of our own, till a little daughter married, and carried off one.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
James R. Lowell : Biglow Papers, The
'You can't think how much I shall value Fireside Travels, (which only reached me during this past week,) now that I have got it of my "very very own" (as the children say,) and with that charming little bit of writing from you at the beginning. I don't mean that I did not delight in the book from the very first time I read a page in it; but the sense of property in it gives a double value, and the sense of successful beggary is very charming, though perhaps I ought to be ashamed. Only I am [italics] not [end italics], because I [italics] am [end italics] successful. I have known you so long! I knew serious poems of yours long ago, - twenty years or so; but my personal knowledge of you began in Rome 1857, - when (did you know it?) you and one other went about with the dear Storys, and me and mine up and down Rome [in the sense, it seems, that Charles Eliot Norton spoke much of Lowell - this is elaborated on...] Well then the Bigelow papers - I think I could stand a Civil Service Examination in them; and we had three copies of our own, till a little daughter married, and carried off one.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[n/a] : Pall Mall Gazette
'the P.M.Gs came all safe, & right, and are such a pleasure! they come [italics] through [end italics] Paris, and [italics] are [end italics] opened; but not considered objectionable I suppose.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
William Cox Bennett : Baby May and Other Poems on Infants
'Allow me, Sir, to return you my best thanks for your Lyrical ballad, "The Triumph for Salamis", which I have just received. It [italics] looks [end italics] most tempting, and I mean to take it with me to Bolton Abbey, whither I am on the point of going. But independently of the intrinsic value of the poem, there is the great pleasure of receiving marks of approbation and sympathy from distant and unknown friends; (and such I may call you, may I not?) especially from one, first known to me through "Baby May" two or three years ago, but every poem of whose has made me feel to know and like him better and better.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
William Cox Bennett : Triumph for Salamis, the: a lyrical ballad
'Allow me, Sir, to return you my best thanks for your Lyrical ballad, "The Triumph for Salamis", which I have just received. It [italics] looks [end italics] most tempting, and I mean to take it with me to Bolton Abbey, whither I am on the point of going. But independently of the intrinsic value of the poem, there is the great pleasure of receiving marks of approbation and sympathy from distant and unknown friends; (and such I may call you, may I not?) especially from one, first known to me through "Baby May" two or three years ago, but every poem of whose has made me feel to know and like him better and better.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Julius Hare : Guesses at Truth
'I have got the "Guesses at Truth", & thank you for them darling'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[n/a] : Inquirer, The
'Can you tell who wrote the Review of Miss Martineau's letters in the (this week's) Inquirer signed I.R.'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical
[n/a] : Times, The
'All we know as yet is from the TIMES, speaking of deaths from cholera in 5th reg. "Senior Captain Duckworth dead". "Poor Capt Duckworth much lamented both by officers and men". That is all we know at present'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Newspaper
Charlotte Bronte : [letters]
'From what I can judge from the letters Mr Nicholls has entrusted me with, her [Charlotte Bronte's] very earliest way of expressing herself must have been different to common'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: NewspaperManuscript: Letter
Charlotte Bronte : [letters]
'The letters Mr Smith does send principally relate to the other Bronte's transactions with Newby, or else they are (very clever) criticism on Thackeray, man and writings.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
Ellen Nussey : [account of Anne Bronte's death]
'Mama is so terribly busy that she really cannot find time to write to you, but she has asked me to do so for her, as she cannot bear that you should remain any longer unthanked for your most interesting account of Miss Anne Bronte's death at Scarborough, which she has had much peasure in reading, and which she hopes you will allow her to make use of in the Memoir.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
Charlotte Bronte : [letters]
'She has also received a packet of letters from Mr Williams (another London publisher, I believe), which she says are almost more beautiful than any others of Miss Bronte's that she has seen.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, Lord Mahon : [unknown]
'All evening that I have been reading Lord Mahon aloud I have been thinking how I could rush home via Strasbourg & Paris to see her [Julia, her daughter, who was unwell] for myself.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[unknown] : [French]
'After dinner Meta & Flossy did their German; & I read French'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[unknown] : [letter to Marianne Gaskell]
'here is a letter for you, which I opened [italics] verily [end italics] by mistake at first. One came for Florence at the same time which I snatched up and I could not believe I should be equally unfortunate with the second, but when I saw yours it was irresistible to read it; quite by way of chaperonage of course, and not a bit for gossipry. However, there is not much news of any kind in it, as you will find.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
Julia Kavanagh : [possibly] French Women of Letters
'I am very much obliged to you for letting me see Miss Kavanagh's new work. I will take great care of it and return it before long.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Robert Chambers : Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 3 January 1845: 'I send back your "Vestiges of Creation". The writer has a certain power in tying a knot -- -- (in mating a system) -- but it is not a love-knot, & it appears to me that I have read in my life few more melancholy books -- Did the thought ever strike you of [italics]Mr. [Andrew] Crosse having anything to do with the writing[end italics]? I understand that Sir Richard Vivian [sic] denies it determinedly -- & his brother, who visits here, does it for him besides, by all manner of oaths.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Eugene Sue : Le Juif errant
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 18 March 1845: 'I have been so low, and weary, & tired of life [...] Yesterday, I went to bed at four o'clock -- & even the ninth volume of the "Juif" would not animate me as it should.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Raymond Brucker and Michel Masson : Le macon
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 18 March 1845: 'Do you know "Le macon" by Michel Raymond --? It is not as vivid as most of these books from France, -- nor as passionate, -- but it is interesting as a picture of the life of the people in Paris & I have read it with pleasure.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Hans Christian Andersen : The Improvisatore: or, Life in Italy
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 19 March 1845: 'Mind you read Andersen's "Improvisatore." I have just finished it, -- & am charmed, -- though of story, there is none, & of character, not much more. But the sense of inner life throughout it, & the exquisite visions & breathings into Italy, quite take away one's breath for pleasure. And then, there is a memoir of the author which interests one in him, for a beginning. He is a real poet, .. this Andersen, -- & worthy of being a countryman of Hamlet ... the Dane par excellence.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : Jeanne
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 25 March 1845: 'Read George Sand's "Jeanne". It is full of beauty, of profound beauty & significance, .. & is pure besides [...] though the heroine is somewhat too divinely idiotic, -- of a stupidity, a little too gross. And yet I am scarcely sure now, .. although I felt so when I was reading the book -- it is a noble & singular conception, & gives proof of what may be called an heroic imagination.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Frederic Soulie : Le Bananier
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 5 April 1845: 'A most singular book of Eugene Sue's [sic] I have read lately, the whole front of which is directed against slave-emancipation & the part which England has played in it [...] The scene is laid in a sugar plantation in the West Indies, & the book, from its very imbecility, is worth your looking into -- Very weak it is, to be sure, -- & outrageously absurd -- and you will see at once that a philanthropist & liberal who advocates the slave-trade, can scarcely be [italics]thorough[end italics] & consistently cordial in free opinions.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne and Mary Gillies : A Story Book of Country Scenes
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 5 April 1845: 'For Mr Horne's storybook, I like some of the stories & think it a pretty book. A few children of six years old might be too old for it, -- but, in general, I do not quarrel with the fitnesses [...] I remember a little book which was a favorite in our nursery, called "A visit to a farm-house [by S.W.]," with precisely the same characteristics, & a better & more interesting general construction. There are a few touches more of poetry in this book, -- owing to Mr. Horne, of course, but the defect is the absolute want of reference to Deity, as creator, which the child looks for, .. which the first instinct of the child looks out to meet. Not that I advocate the teaching of theological systems to children of that early age; but that if the sense of beauty is to be educated, the sense of God should be educated also.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Charles Bernard : Un homme serieux
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 April 1845: '[Charles Bernard] is a very worldly writer, to my mind; & really I like George Sand's wickedness better, -- it is of a higher order. Bernard's most magnificent idea of virtue is what you & I shd. call expediency -- now is'nt it? Though I was delighted with "Un homme Serieux," -- & also with "Le paravent," .. the "Aventure d'un magistrat," for instance, is in the latter, to illustrate my opinion. Did you ever read a more disgusting series of small cheateries? It almost spoilt my pleasure in the power. I had a reaction & grew "moral" [...] the "stink in one's nostrils" [Job 4:10] of all that falsehood & depravity, was so immense.' And not much better in its effect on me, was the story of the "Rose blanche" (though the pretty hoyden captivated me) where no man of honour [italics]could[end italics] have acted as the hero does'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Charles Bernard : Le Paravent
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 April 1845: '[Charles Bernard] is a very worldly writer, to my mind; & really I like George Sand's wickedness better, -- it is of a higher order. Bernard's most magnificent idea of virtue is what you & I shd. call expediency -- now is'nt it? Though I was delighted with "Un homme Serieux," -- & also with "Le paravent," .. the "Aventure d'un magistrat," for instance, is in the latter, to illustrate my opinion. Did you ever read a more disgusting series of small cheateries? It almost spoilt my pleasure in the power. I had a reaction & grew "moral" [...] the "stink in one's nostrils" [Job 4:10] of all that falsehood & depravity, was so immense.' And not much better in its effect on me, was the story of the "Rose blanche" (though the pretty hoyden captivated me) where no man of honour [italics]could[end italics] have acted as the hero does'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Charles Bernard : Une Aventure de magistrat
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 April 1845: '[Charles Bernard] is a very worldly writer, to my mind; & really I like George Sand's wickedness better, -- it is of a higher order. Bernard's most magnificent idea of virtue is what you & I shd. call expediency -- now is'nt it? Though I was delighted with "Un homme Serieux," -- & also with "Le paravent," .. the "Aventure d'un magistrat," for instance, is in the latter, to illustrate my opinion. Did you ever read a more disgusting series of small cheateries? It almost spoilt my pleasure in the power. I had a reaction & grew "moral" [...] the "stink in one's nostrils" [Job 4:10] of all that falsehood & depravity, was so immense.' And not much better in its effect on me, was the story of the "Rose blanche" (though the pretty hoyden captivated me) where no man of honour [italics]could[end italics] have acted as the hero does'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
George Sand : Rose et Blanche
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 April 1845: '[Charles Bernard] is a very worldly writer, to my mind; & really I like George Sand's wickedness better, -- it is of a higher order. Bernard's most magnificent idea of virtue is what you & I shd. call expediency -- now is'nt it? Though I was delighted with "Un homme Serieux," -- & also with "Le paravent," .. the "Aventure d'un magistrat," for instance, is in the latter, to illustrate my opinion. Did you ever read a more disgusting series of small cheateries? It almost spoilt my pleasure in the power. I had a reaction & grew "moral" [...] the "stink in one's nostrils" [Job 4:10] of all that falsehood & depravity, was so immense.' And not much better in its effect on me, was the story of the "Rose blanche" [sic] (though the pretty hoyden captivated me) where no man of honour [italics]could[end italics] have acted as the hero does'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Stendhal : Le rouge et le noir
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 April 1845: 'I must beg you to order & read "Le rouge et le noir" by a M. de Stendhal .. a "nom de guerre" I fancy. I wish I knew the names of any other books written by him. This, which I shd. not dare to name to a person in the world except you, so dark & deep is the colouring, is very striking & powerful & full of deep significance [...] It is, as to simple power, a first-class book according to my impression, -- though painful & noxious in many ways. But it is a book for you to read at all risks -- you must certainly read it for the power's sake. It has ridden me like an incubus for several days.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Henriette Etiennette Fanny Reybaud : Deux a deux
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 April 1845: 'We shall find no where on the earth, I believe, the climate of Paradise; -- not even at Hyeres. In Mdme. Charles Reybeaud's [sic] "Deux a deux," which interested me more than any book of hers I have read since, .. (I withdraw my praise of her, -- she is a weak commonplace writer, I think, --) there was some good praise of Hyeres & the orange trees.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Caroline Norton : 'The Child of the Islands' (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrett to Cornelius Mathews, 30 April 1845: 'You will see the announcement of Mrs. Norton's new poem on the "Child of the Islands", namely our little Prince of Wales, .. in which she exhorts him to all manner of righteousness & justice & proper kingliness. I have read the poem only in extracts as yet, -- but the melody of cadence & eloquence of thought & tongue seem very delectable.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Benjamin Disraeli : Vivian Grey
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 1 May 1845: 'Once I sate up all night to read Vivian Grey'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : Esther, ou les Amours d'un vieux banquier
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 May 1845: 'I have found [...] the continuation of David Sichard [novel by Balzac] [...] It is "Esther" in two volumes, & to all appearance full of life, & interest, & most atrocious wickedness, .. to judge from the first two chapters'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
John Clare : unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 May 1845: 'Thank you, thank you, for letting me see the pencilled lines by poor Clare! -- How strangely melancholy, that combination is -- of mental gifts & mental privations! Poor Clare! --'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Samuel Bamford : Passages in the Life of a Radical
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 May 1845: 'I know Bamford's "Life of a Radical," which contains some of his verses -- but there seemed to me to be more poetry in the prose. It is a vividly interesting autobiography which I shd. have mentioned to you long ago.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Allan Park Paton : 'The Road Round by Kennedy's Mill'
Elizabeth Barrett to Allan Park Paton, 28 May 1845: 'For the newspapers, or rather for your verses in them, I thank you much [...] the stanzas on Kennedy's Mill road struck & pleased me so much, that I looked about vainly for your address contained in a mislaid note of yours, in order to write to you on the subject & advise you to choose some worthier medium with the public, than a provincial journal, .. though it were but a magazine. And now you write to tell me that you think of printing a book! -- to which I wish all manner of success [goes on to offer further advice on pursuing career as professional writer]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper
Ebenezer Elliott : poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 June 1845: 'I have seen Elliott's poems but not in the form you mention -- & I always estimated him highly as a true poet, earnest & heart-sound [...] of an imagination not imperiously creative, .. but bright & alive in its sphere & place.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett
George Sand : Le Compagnon du Tour de France
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 11 July 1845: 'Have you seen the "Compagnon du tour de France" by George Sand? I sent for it, with a fancy that it might be a traveller's book .. just [italics]that[end italics] -- & it is one of her best romances, & full of curious interest of different kinds.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Robert Browning : 'Claret and Tokay'
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 15-17 July 1845: 'Yesterday you must have wondered at me for being in such a maze about the poems. It was assuredly the wine song & no other which I read of yours in Hood's [...] Do bring in all the Hood poems of your own -- inclusive of the Tokay, because I read it in such haste as to whirl up all the dust you saw, from the wheels of my chariot.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Edgar Allan Poe : 'The Raven'
Richard Hengist Horne to Edgar Allan Poe, 17 May 1845: 'Miss Barrett has read the "Raven" and says she thinks there is a fine lyrical melody in it. When I tell you that this lady "says" [...] I mean "writes" -- for although I have corresponded with Miss Barrett these 5 or 6 years, I have never seen her to this day.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Robert Browning : 'Garden Fancies: I, The Flower's Name; II, Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis'
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 21 July 1845, following remarks on Browning's reading of her published juvenile writings: 'I leave my sins & yours gladly, to get into the Hood poems which have delighted me so -- & first to the St Praxede [sic] which is of course the finest & most powerful .. & indeed full of the power of life .. & of death [...] The "angel & child," with all its beauty & significance! -- and the "Garden Fancies" [...] with that beautiful & musical use of the word "meandering," [...] It does so mate with your "[italics]simmering[end italics] quiet" in Sordello, which brings the summer air into the room as sure as you read it [...] And the Laboratory is hideous as you meant to make it: -- only I object a little to your tendency .. which is almost a habit [...] of making lines difficult for the reader to read .. see the opening lines of this poem.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Robert Browning : 'The Tomb at St. Praxed's (Rome, 15----.)'
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 21 July 1845, following remarks on Browning's reading of her published juvenile writings: 'I leave my sins & yours gladly, to get into the Hood poems which have delighted me so -- & first to the St Praxede [sic] which is of course the finest & most powerful .. & indeed full of the power of life .. & of death [...] The "angel & child," with all its beauty & significance! -- and the "Garden Fancies" [...] with that beautiful & musical use of the word "meandering," [...] It does so mate with your "[italics]simmering[end italics] quiet" in Sordello, which brings the summer air into the room as sure as you read it [...] And the Laboratory is hideous as you meant to make it: -- only I object a little to your tendency .. which is almost a habit [...] of making lines difficult for the reader to read .. see the opening lines of this poem.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Robert Browning : 'The Boy and the Angel'
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 21 July 1845, following remarks on Browning's reading of her published juvenile writings: 'I leave my sins & yours gladly, to get into the Hood poems which have delighted me so -- & first to the St Praxede [sic] which is of course the finest & most powerful .. & indeed full of the power of life .. & of death [...] The "angel & child," with all its beauty & significance! -- and the "Garden Fancies" [...] with that beautiful & musical use of the word "meandering," [...] It does so mate with your "[italics]simmering[end italics] quiet" in Sordello, which brings the summer air into the room as sure as you read it [...] And the Laboratory is hideous as you meant to make it: -- only I object a little to your tendency .. which is almost a habit [...] of making lines difficult for the reader to read .. see the opening lines of this poem.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Robert Browning : 'The Laboratory (Ancien Regime)'
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 21 July 1845, following remarks on Browning's reading of her published juvenile writings: 'I leave my sins & yours gladly, to get into the Hood poems which have delighted me so -- & first to the St Praxede [sic] which is of course the finest & most powerful .. & indeed full of the power of life .. & of death [...] The "angel & child," with all its beauty & significance! -- and the "Garden Fancies" [...] with that beautiful & musical use of the word "meandering," [...] It does so mate with your "[italics]simmering[end italics] quiet" in Sordello, which brings the summer air into the room as sure as you read it [...] And the Laboratory is hideous as you meant to make it: -- only I object a little to your tendency .. which is almost a habit [...] of making lines difficult for the reader to read .. see the opening lines of this poem.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Edgar Allan Poe : 'The Raven'
Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 6 September 1845: 'I shd. have written long since to you, if but to thank you for Edgar Poe's ballad .. of which [...] [italics]two[end italics] copies were lying by me when yours came, .. one from some anonymous American, & one from the author himself [...] For the ballad [...] I do not exactly know how to make up my mind to a conclusion about it. There is a certain power in it, no doubt, -- but if the writer had been mad .. professedly mad you know .. I shd. have appreciated the power better. It is not the madness of [italics]passion[end italics], I think .. it is as of an intellect dis[t]raught. There is a ludicrousness which tickles me through & through the melancholy. The "Sir or Madam" for instance! -- how do you bear [italics]that[end italics]?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Newspaper
Percy Bysshe Shelley : Posthumous Poems
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 19 September 1845: 'I began to write last saturday to thank you for all the delight, I had in Shelley [...] Besides the translations, some of the original poems were not in my copy & were, so, quite new to me. "Marianne's Dream" I had been curious about to no end -- I only know it now.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Percy Bysshe Shelley : 'Marianne's Dream'
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 19 September 1845: 'I began to write last saturday to thank you for all the delight, I had in Shelley [...] Besides the translations, some of the original poems were not in my copy & were, so, quite new to me. "Marianne's Dream" I had been curious about to no end -- I only know it now.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Percy Bysshe Shelley : St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance. By a Gentleman of the University of Oxford
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 1 October 1845: 'I have read to the last line of your Rosicrucian; & my scepticism grew & grew through Hume's process of doubtful doubts, & at last rose to the full stature of incredulity .. for I never could believe Shelley capable of such a book, (call it a book!) not even with a flood of boarding-school idiocy dashed in by way of dilution. Altogether it roused me to deny myself so far as to look at the date of the book, & to get up & travel to the other end of the room to confront it with other dates in the "Letters from Abroad" [...] & on comparing these dates in these two volumes before my eyes, I find that your Rosicrucian was "printed for Stockdale" in [italics]1822[end italics], & that Shelley [italics]died in the July of the same year[end italics]!! And unless the "Rosicrucian" went into more editions than one, & dates here from a latter one [...] the innocence of the great poet stands proved -- now does'nt it? For nobody will say that he published such a book in the last year of his life, in the maturity of his genius, & that Godwin's daughter helped him in it!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Robert Browning : 'Oh to be in England'
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 4 October 1845: 'Your spring-song is full of beauty as you know very well [...] so characteristic of you [...] that I was sorely tempted to ask you to write it "twice over," .. & not send the first copy to Mary Hunter notwithstanding my promise to her. And when you come to print these fragments, would it not be well if you were to stoop to the vulgarism of prefixing some word of introduction, as other people do, you know, .. a title .. a name? You perplex your readers often by casting yourself on their intelligence in these things [...] Now these fragments ... you mean to print them with a line between .. & not one word at the top of it .. now dont you? And then people will read '"Oh, to be in England" & say to themselves .. "Why who is this? .. who's out of England?" Which is an extreme case of course, -- but you will see what I mean .. & often I have observed how some of the very most beautiful of your lyrics have suffered just from your disdain of the usual tactics of writers in this one respect.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Manuscript: Sheet
Honore de Balzac : Les Paysans
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27 October 1845: 'Balzac's "Paysans" in its one volume, (for [italics]I[end italics] have only seen that one volume) is another proof of the pressure of the times towards sympathies with the people [...] he is Balzac still in "Les Paysans" -- but story there is none, & so no interest -- & no unity, as far as that first volume indicates: & I found it rather hard reading, despite the human character, & the scenic effects. As to "Le Juif" I have done with him, and am not sorry to have done. The last volumes fall off step by step.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Eugene Sue : Le Juif errant
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27 October 1845: 'Balzac's "Paysans" in its one volume, (for [italics]I[end italics] have only seen that one volume) is another proof of the pressure of the times towards sympathies with the people [...] he is Balzac still in "Les Paysans" -- but story there is none, & so no interest -- & no unity, as far as that first volume indicates: & I found it rather hard reading, despite the human character, & the scenic effects. As to "Le Juif" I have done with him, and am not sorry to have done. The last volumes fall off step by step.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Robert Browning : Luria (Act I)
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 12 November 1845: 'I read Luria's first act twice through before I slept last night, & feel just as a bullet might feel [...] shot into the air & suddenly arrested & suspended. It ("Luria") is all life [comments in detail upon specific passages and phrases] [...] I am snatched up into "Luria" & feel myself driven on to the ends of the poet, just as a reader should.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Henry Fothergill Chorley : Pomfret
Elizabeth Barrett to Henry Fothergill Chorley, ?14 November 1845: 'I have read your three volumes of "Pomfret" with interest & moral assent, & with great pleasure in various ways: -- it is a pure, true book without effort, which, in these days of gesture & rolling with the eyes, is an uncommon thing [...] The best character in the book I take to be "Rose" [...] He is so lifelike, with the world's conventional life, that you hear his footsteps when he walks'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Astolphe Louis Leonard Marquis de Custine : Le Monde comme il est
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 December 1845: 'I have been loitering over "Le monde comme il est" & think your thoughts of it. Good things, excellent things, admirable things are in it, but one cannot call it a success.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Lydia Sigourney : Scenes in my Native Land
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 20 December 1845: 'Mrs. Sigourney has just sent me, .. just this morning .. her "Scenes in my native land" -- &, peeping between the uncut leaves, I read of the poet Hillhouse, of "sublime spirit & Miltonic energy," standing in "the temple of Fame" as if it were built on purpose for him! -- I supppose he is like most of the American poets .. who are shadows of the true .. as flat as a shadow, as colourless as a shadow, as lifeless & as transitory.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : 'The Monk of Swineshead Abbey'
Elizabeth Barrett to Roberrt Browning, 4 January 1846: 'When you get Mr. Horne's book you will understand how, after reading just the first & last poems, I could not help speaking coldly a little of it [...] I did think & do, that the last was unworthy of him, & that the first might have been written by a writer of one tenth of his facility. But last night I read the "Monk of Swineshead Abby" & the "Three Knights of Camelot" & "Bedd Gelert" & found them all different stuff, better[,] stronger, more consistent, & read them with pleasure & admiration.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : 'The Three Knights of Camelott: a Fairy Tale'
Elizabeth Barrett to Roberrt Browning, 4 January 1846: 'When you get Mr. Horne's book you will understand how, after reading just the first & last poems, I could not help speaking coldly a little of it [...] I did think & do, that the last was unworthy of him, & that the first might have been written by a writer of one tenth of his facility. But last night I read the "Monk of Swineshead Abby" & the "Three Knights of Camelot" & "Bedd Gelert" & found them all different stuff, better[,] stronger, more consistent, & read them with pleasure & admiration.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne : 'Bedd Gelert'
Elizabeth Barrett to Roberrt Browning, 4 January 1846: 'When you get Mr. Horne's book you will understand how, after reading just the first & last poems, I could not help speaking coldly a little of it [...] I did think & do, that the last was unworthy of him, & that the first might have been written by a writer of one tenth of his facility. But last night I read the "Monk of Swineshead Abby" & the "Three Knights of Camelot" & "Bedd Gelert" & found them all different stuff, better[,] stronger, more consistent, & read them with pleasure & admiration.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Honore de Balzac : Les Petits Menages d'une Femme verteuse
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 6 January 1846: 'Any more news of Balzac? "Les petits maneges" I have read & thought excellent -- but it is a continuation of that odious book .. "Les amours forces" -- "Beatrix," remember.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Edward Bulwer Lytton : 'Confessions and Observations of a Water-Patient'
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 6 January 1846: 'I forgot quite to quarrel with you a little about Sir E Lytton Bulwer [sic] -- because indeed I dislike his dissertation on cold water as much as anything I have read lately. I [italics]know[end italics] the Malvern Hills, you will be reminded -- & when I think of that peculiar climate where people with delicate chests stand upon the mountain-slopes (such a beautiful country!) & breathe razors [...] I do marvel that any man of common sense can keep his countenance & recommend that situation as a substitute for Italy & Madeira to pulmonary patients [comments further on same subject].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury : Zoe: The History of Two Lives
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?7 January 1846: 'Zoe [...] I have been reading at last. An extraordinary book certainly. I should take the author to be a free-thinker, by a copious interpretation of the word. The power, & liberty of utterance, are undeniable generally -- but parts of the book are very inferior.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Paine : The Age of Reason
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 15 January 1846: 'Papa used to say .. "Dont read Gibbon's history -- it's not a proper book -- Dont read "Tom Jones" -- & none of the books on [italics]this[end italics] side, mind -- So I was very obedient & never touched the books on [italics]that[end italics] side, & only read instead, Tom Paine's Age of Reason, & Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, & Hume's Essays, & Werther, & Rousseau, & Mary Woolstonecraft [sic] .. books, which I was never suspected of looking towards, & which were not "on [italics]that[end italics] side" certainly, but which did as well.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Voltaire : Philosophical Dictionary
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 15 January 1846: 'Papa used to say .. "Dont read Gibbon's history -- it's not a proper book -- Dont read "Tom Jones" -- & none of the books on [italics]this[end italics] side, mind -- So I was very obedient & never touched the books on [italics]that[end italics] side, & only read instead, Tom Paine's Age of Reason, & Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, & Hume's Essays, & Werther, & Rousseau, & Mary Woolstonecraft [sic] .. books, which I was never suspected of looking towards, & which were not "on [italics]that[end italics] side" certainly, but which did as well.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
David Hume : Essays
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 15 January 1846: 'Papa used to say .. "Dont read Gibbon's history -- it's not a proper book -- Dont read "Tom Jones" -- & none of the books on [italics]this[end italics] side, mind -- So I was very obedient & never touched the books on [italics]that[end italics] side, & only read instead, Tom Paine's Age of Reason, & Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, & Hume's Essays, & Werther, & Rousseau, & Mary Woolstonecraft [sic] .. books, which I was never suspected of looking towards, & which were not "on [italics]that[end italics] side" certainly, but which did as well.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : The Sorrows of Young Werther
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 15 January 1846: 'Papa used to say .. "Dont read Gibbon's history -- it's not a proper book -- Dont read "Tom Jones" -- & none of the books on [italics]this[end italics] side, mind -- So I was very obedient & never touched the books on [italics]that[end italics] side, & only read instead, Tom Paine's Age of Reason, & Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, & Hume's Essays, & Werther, & Rousseau, & Mary Woolstonecraft [sic] .. books, which I was never suspected of looking towards, & which were not "on [italics]that[end italics] side" certainly, but which did as well.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Jean-Jacques Rousseau :
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 15 January 1846: 'Papa used to say .. "Dont read Gibbon's history -- it's not a proper book -- Dont read "Tom Jones" -- & none of the books on [italics]this[end italics] side, mind -- So I was very obedient & never touched the books on [italics]that[end italics] side, & only read instead, Tom Paine's Age of Reason, & Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, & Hume's Essays, & Werther, & Rousseau, & Mary Woolstonecraft [sic] .. books, which I was never suspected of looking towards, & which were not "on [italics]that[end italics] side" certainly, but which did as well.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Mary Wollstonecraft :
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 15 January 1846: 'Papa used to say .. "Dont read Gibbon's history -- it's not a proper book -- Dont read "Tom Jones" -- & none of the books on [italics]this[end italics] side, mind -- So I was very obedient & never touched the books on [italics]that[end italics] side, & only read instead, Tom Paine's Age of Reason, & Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, & Hume's Essays, & Werther, & Rousseau, & Mary Woolstonecraft [sic] .. books, which I was never suspected of looking towards, & which were not "on [italics]that[end italics] side" certainly, but which did as well.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
William King : Political and Literary Anecdotes of His Own Times
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, on childhood religious beliefs and practices, 15 January 1846: 'As to the [classical] gods and goddesses, I believed in them all quite seriously, & reconciled them to Christianity [...] As soon as I began to doubt about my goddesses, I fell into a vague sort of general scepticism, .. & though I went on saying "the Lord's prayer" at nights & mornings, & the "Bless all my kind friends" afterwards, by the childish custom .. yet I ended this liturgy with a supplication wihch I found in "King's memoirs" & which took my fancy & met my general views exactly .. "O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Burbidge and Arthur Hugh Clough : Ambarvalia (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 October 1849: 'I saw the "Amba[r]valia" reviewed somewhere -- I fancy in the Spectator -- and was not much struck by the extracts. They may however have been selected without much discriminaton [...] I am very glad that you like the Gipsey Carrol in dear Mr Kenyon's volume, because it is, & was in M.S., a great favorite [sic] of mine.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Serial / periodical
John Kenyon : 'Sacred Gipsy Carol'
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 October 1849: 'I saw the "Amba[r]valia" reviewed somewhere -- I fancy in the Spectator -- and was not much struck by the extracts. They may however have been selected without much discriminaton [...] I am very glad that you like the Gipsey Carrol [sic] in dear Mr Kenyon's volume, because it is, & was in M.S., a great favorite [sic] of mine.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Matthew Arnold : 'The Sick King in Bokhara'
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 December 1849: 'We have had the sight of Clough & Burbidge, at last. Clough has more thought, Burbidge more music .. but I am disappointed in the book as a whole. What I like infinitely better, is Clough's "Bothie of Topernafuosich" a "long-vacation pastoral" written in loose & more-than-need-be unmusical hexameters, but full of vigour & freshness, & with whole passages & indeed whole scenes of great beauty & eloquence. It seems to have been written before the other poems [...] Oh, it strikes both Robert & me as being worth twenty of the other little book, with its fragmentary, dislocated, inartistic character. Arnold's volume has two good poems in it .. "The Sick King of Bokhara" [sic] & "The deserted Merman" [sic]. I liked them both -- But none of these writers are [italics]artists[end italics] whatever they may be in future days.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
Matthew Arnold : 'The Forsaken Merman'
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 December 1849: 'We have had the sight of Clough & Burbidge, at last. Clough has more thought, Burbidge more music .. but I am disappointed in the book as a whole. What I like infinitely better, is Clough's "Bothie of Topernafuosich" a "long-vacation pastoral" written in loose & more-than-need-be unmusical hexameters, but full of vigour & freshness, & with whole passages & indeed whole scenes of great beauty & eloquence. It seems to have been written before the other poems [...] Oh, it strikes both Robert & me as being worth twenty of the other little book, with its fragmentary, dislocated, inartistic character. Arnold's volume has two good poems in it .. "The Sick King of Bokhara" [sic] & "The deserted Merman" [sic]. I liked them both -- But none of these writers are [italics]artists[end italics] whatever they may be in future days.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte : Shirley
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella Moulton-Barrett, 12 March 1850: 'Robert is reading "the Caxtons" & is much pleased with the book. [italics]I[end italics] am reading "Shirley", and am interested -- only it does not seem to me equally suggestive of power (so far) with Jane Eyre.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte : Shirley
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Anna Brownell Jameson, 2 April 1850: 'I have read Shirley lately: it is not equal to Jane Eyre in spontaneousness & earnestness: I found it heavy, I confess, though in [...] the compositional savoir faire, there is an advance. Robert has exhumed some French books, just now, from a little circulating li[brary] which we had not tried -- and we have just been making ourselves uncomfortable over Balzac's "Cousin Pons". But what a wonderful writer he is! Who could have taken such a subject, out of the lowest mud of humaity, & glorified & consecrated it?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
Alexandre Dumas (pere) : Memoires d'un medecin: Joseph Balsamo
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Isa Blagden, ?27 July 1850: 'I am finishing the "Memoires d'un medecin"'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
Catherine Maria Fanshawe : poems
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 7 November 1850: 'Miss Fanshawe is well worth your writing of [...] as one of the most witty of our wits in verse, men or women. I have only seen M.S. copies of her verses, & that years ago, but they struck me very much'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Manuscript: Unknown, copied
Alfred Tennyson : In Memoriam (extracts)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 7 November 1850: 'I have seen extracts in the Examiner from Tennyson's "In Memoriam," which seemed to me exquisitely beautiful & pathetical.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Serial / periodical
: 'German Socialism'
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Isa Blagden, ?10 November 1850:
'By the British Review, do you mean the [italics]North British[end italics]? I read a clever article in that review some months
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Serial / periodical
John Westland Marston : Review of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poems (1850)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Thomas Westwood, 12-13 December 1850: 'If you had not sent me the Athenaeum article I never should have seen it probably, for my husband only saw it in the reading room, where women dont penetrate, (because in Italy we cant read, you see) & where the periodicals are kept so strictly like Hesperian apples, by the dragons of the place, that none can be stolen away for even half an hour. So he could only wish me to catch sight of that article -- and you are good enough to send it & oblige us both accordingly.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Serial / periodical
Elizabeth Gaskell : Mary Barton
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 December 1850: 'For Mary Barton, I am a little, little disappointed, do you know. I have just done reading it. There is power & truth -- she can shape & she can pierce -- but I wish half the book away, it is so tedious every now & then, -- and besides I want more beauty, more air from the universal world -- these class-books must always be defective as works of art [...] Then the style of the book is slovenly, and given to a kind of phraseology which would be vulgar even in colloquial English. Oh -- it is a powerful book in many ways -- You are not to set me down as hypercritical. Probably the author will write herself clear of many of her faults: she has strength enough.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Unknown
Alfred Tennyson : In Memoriam
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 December 1850: 'As to "In Memoriam," I have seen it, I have read it, .. dear Mr [John] Kenyon had the goodness to send it to me [...] the book has gone to my heart & soul [...] All I wish away, is the marriage hymn at the end, & [italics]that[end italics], for every reason I wish away -- it's a discord in the music. The monotony is a part of the position -- the sea is monotonous, & so is lasting grief [...] So the effect of the book is artistic & true, I think'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
Alfred Tennyson : In Memoriam
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella Moulton-Barrett [sister], 16-19 December 1850, on 18 December: 'We have been reading together Tennyson's "In Memoriam" in the evenings. Most beautiful and pathetic. I read aloud, Robert looking over the page -- & we talked & admired & criticised every separate stanza. Now, we are going in like manner through Shelley.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
: The French Stage and the French People, as illustrated in the Memoirs of M. Fleury
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 22 May 1845: 'The "Memoires de Fleure," was made into an agreeable English book, with certain abbreviations, by Theodore Hook, -- & I read it a few years ago under the title of "The French stage," & something more, or something else'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Matthew Pilkington : [letters to her daughter]
'During my Stay in the Country, he wrote me a great many poetical Compliments, and subscrib'd himself, [italics] Amintas [end italics]: as they were really very elegant; my Mother, who always examined my Letters, exprest great Curiosity to know the Writer'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth van Lewen Manuscript: Letter
[unknown] : [unknown]
'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
William Hamilton : Blind Harry's Wallace
'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
William Shakespeare : [History Plays]
'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[unknown] : [A history of England]
'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Homer : Iliad
'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[unknown] : [scholastic divinity essays]
'[editor's words] In the evening Elizabeth had often to repeat a long elaborate task extracted from the now obsolete page of scholastic divinity, which must have been better calculated to exercise the memory than to call forth the devotional affections'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'[editor's words. A family friend having tried to shake EH's religious faith,] To terminate this state of doubt, which to her ardent temper was insupportable, she took the prompt resolution of reading the scriptures by stealth, and deciding the question from her own unbiassed judgment. The result of this examination was, a conviction of their truth; and she observed that the moral precepts connected with the doctrine of Christianity, were too pure to have been promulgated by an impostor'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[unknown] : [books chosen by Mrs Marshall]
'[editor's words] without literary pretensions, Mrs Marshall had a genuine love of reading, and when no other engagement intervened, it was one of her domestic regulations, that a book should be read aloud in the evening for general amusement; the office of reader commonly devolved on Miss Hamilton, who was thus led to remark that the best prose style was always that which could be longest read without exhausting the breath. These social studies were far from satisfying her avidity for information; and she constantly perused many books by stealth. Mrs Marshall, on discovering what had been her private occupation, expressed neither praise nor blame, but quietly advised her to avoid any display of superior knowledge by which she might be subjected to the imputation of pedantry. This admonition produced the desired effect, since, as she herself informs us, she once hid a volume of Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism under the cushion of a chair lest she should be detected in a study which prejudice and ignorance might pronounce unfeminine'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'[editor's words] without literary pretensions, Mrs Marshall had a genuine love of reading, and when no other engagement intervened, it was one of her domestic regulations, that a book should be read aloud in the evening for general amusement; the office of reader commonly devolved on Miss Hamilton, who was thus led to remark that the best prose style was always that which could be longest read without exhausting the breath. These social studies were far from satisfying her avidity for information; and she constantly perused many books by stealth. Mrs Marshall, on discovering what had been her private occupation, expressed neither praise nor blame, but quietly advised her to avoid any display of superior knowledge by which she might be subjected to the imputation of pedantry. This admonition produced the desired effect, since, as she herself informs us, she once hid a volume of Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism under the cushion of a chair lest she should be detected in a study which prejudice and ignorance might pronounce unfeminine'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism
'[editor's words] without literary pretensions, Mrs Marshall had a genuine love of reading, and when no other engagement intervened, it was one of her domestic regulations, that a book should be read aloud in the evening for general amusement; the office of reader commonly devolved on Miss Hamilton, who was thus led to remark that the best prose style was always that which could be longest read without exhausting the breath. These social studies were far from satisfying her avidity for information; and she constantly perused many books by stealth. Mrs Marshall, on discovering what had been her private occupation, expressed neither praise nor blame, but quietly advised her to avoid any display of superior knowledge by which she might be subjected to the imputation of pedantry. This admonition produced the desired effect, since, as she herself informs us, she once hid a volume of Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism under the cushion of a chair lest she should be detected in a study which prejudice and ignorance might pronounce unfeminine'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[unknown] : [Scottish history]
'[editor's words] In reading the annals of her own country, she had been touched with the hard fate of Lady Arabella Stuart; and, either to extend her knowledge, or amuse her fancy, collected much miscellaneous information respecting her, which she afterwards cast into the form of a historical novel'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[n/a] : [newspaper]
'[EH having been expecting her brother back from India] Think, then, what I felt on reading in the newspaper of that ship being seen off the Cape in great distress; at length its arrival was announced, and, on Saturday last, among the list of passengers, I saw your name; but still I was not, could not be, convinced that it was really you'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Newspaper
Samuel Johnson : Rambler, The
'Mrs Johnson, in whose judgement and taste he had great confidence, said to him, after a few numbers of "The Rambler" had come out, "I thought very well of you before; but I did not imagine you could have written anything equal to this".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Johnson Print: Serial / periodical
[unknown] : [oriental literature]
'[EDITOR's WORDS] His [her brother, Charles's ] conversation inspired her with a taste for oriental literature; and without affecting to become a Persian scholar, she spontaneously caught the idioms, as she insensibly became familiar with the customs and manners of the East'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Elizabeth Hamilton : Letters on Education
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] In composing this work [her "Letters on Education"], she accustomed herself to read a few letters to some sensible female, who had an interest in the subject; - a practice repugnant to the self-importance of literary egotism, but from which she learnt to measure the capacities of those it was her object to enlighten, and her ambition to instruct'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Hamilton : Letters on Education
'When the first proof came home, I did not like its look in print; so stopped the press, and wrote another first chapter'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: proof
[n/a] : [Classical latin works in translation]
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] The author, directed by her learned friends, was indefatigable in collecting documents and procuring materials for an authentic work. Through the medium of translation, she had been conversant with the best historians, annalists, poets, and orators of ancient Rome; and she was guided by the most esteemed modern writers on the subject of antiquities, laws, and usages'. [in writing her "Memoirs of Agrippina"]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[n/a] : [modern works on Classical subjects]
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] The author, directed by her learned friends, was indefatigable in collecting documents and procuring materials for an authentic work. Through the medium of translation, she had been conversant with the best historians, annalists, poets, and orators of ancient Rome; and she was guided by the most esteemed modern writers on the subject of antiquities, laws, and usages'. [in writing her "Memoirs of Agrippina"]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Elizabeth Hamilton : Cottagers of Glenburnie, The
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] 'On reading the first sheets [of her "Cottagers of Glenburnie"] at her own fire-side, she was encouraged by observing, that it excited mirth. This induced her to extend the plan'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Manuscript: Unknown
[unknown] : [unknown]
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] 'If no engagement intervened, the interval from seven till ten was occupied with some interesting book, which, according to her good aunt Marshall's rule, was read aloud for the benefit of the whole party'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Elizabeth Hamilton : [poem - 'Is that Auld Age']
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] She had, however, dwelt long enough on the idea [of aging] to make it the subject of a sportive poem, which she one evening read with a smiling countenance to her little family circle' [the poem is reproduced].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Manuscript: Unknown
Dugald Stewart : [unknown]
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] Although Mrs Hamilton never lost her relish for works of humour and imagination, she had, during the last six years of her life, a decided preference for compositions of a higher order. Dugald Stewart, Paley, and Allison, had long been the chosen companions of her private hours'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Archibald Allison : [unknown]
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] Although Mrs Hamilton never lost her relish for works of humour and imagination, she had, during the last six years of her life, a decided preference for compositions of a higher order. Dugald Stewart, Paley, and Allison, had long been the chosen companions of her private hours'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
William Paley : [unknown]
'[EDITOR'S WORDS] Although Mrs Hamilton never lost her relish for works of humour and imagination, she had, during the last six years of her life, a decided preference for compositions of a higher order. Dugald Stewart, Paley, and Allison, had long been the chosen companions of her private hours'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible [ Paul to the Ephesians, Ch 4]
'It now only remains for me to walk worthy of that vocation to which I am called. Let me do so in the very manner in which the Apostle, whose words I have now been reading, mentions, "With all lowliness and meekness, and with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'The superiority of the Scriptures to every composition of human genius, must appear incontestible to those who persevere in making those Scriptures their daily study. By such strict and repeated examination of any other work, how many errors and incongruities should we discover?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'In studying the prophets, with a view of particularly examining the witness they bear to the Messiah, many things have occurred to me which it would have been useful to preserve' [but she says her memory is 'unfaithful']
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Edward Gibbon : Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
'I told him, that I had been present the day before when Mrs. Montagu, the literary lady, sat to Miss Reynolds for her picture ; and that she said, "she had bound up Mr. Gibbon's 'History' without the last two offensive chapters; for that she thought the book so far good, as it gave, in an elegant manner, the substance of the bad writers medii aevi, which the late Lord Lyttleton advised her to read." [Johnson retorts that she has not read these authors]
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Montagu Print: Book
William Savery : [letter]
'I read Wm S- letter and thought upon it and religion before I got up, I think of and feel religion at times but I do not understand it always'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Manuscript: Letter
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'I often go to see poor Bob who seems to me dying and it is a good thing to attend a person in that situation. I think the more one sees of the different states of human nature the better. I read to him in the Testament, he flys to religion as his last resource, it is the only firm solid source of happiness in this world.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'After reading to poor Bob which was a cross to me because some one was present I wrote this.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament [probably]
'I slept late. Too unwell to go to meeting but have been writing and working which I disapprove of doing in general on a Sunday for I think it a bad example to servants, but I intend now to read in the Testament. I finished this day satisfactorily. I went to meeting; heard a good deal of reading and read to Nurse Norman's family.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Epictetus : [unknown]
'Altogether I think I have had a satisfactory day. I had a good lesson of French this morning and read much in Epectitus'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'in the afternoon I laid down had a very sweet nap which I did enjoy - read in the Testament ... I then went and read the Testament to Nurse Norman's family which answered remarkably well ... I have been reading to little Castleton. I sometimes feel I am not good enough to teach others until I know more myself, and am a more strictly virtuous character'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'in the afternoon I laid down had a very sweet nap which I did enjoy - read in the Testament ... I then went and read the Testament to Nurse Norman's family which answered remarkably well ... I have been reading to little Castleton. I sometimes feel I am not good enough to teach others until I know more myself, and am a more strictly virtuous character'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [unknown]
'in the afternoon I laid down had a very sweet nap which I did enjoy - read in the Testament ... I then went and read the Testament to Nurse Norman's family which answered remarkably well ... I have been reading to little Castleton. I sometimes feel I am not good enough to teach others until I know more myself, and am a more strictly virtuous character'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
John Gurney : [letter]
'I have been reading a letter from my father in which he offers me to come to London, [underline] what [end underline] a temptation, but I believe it to be much better for me to be where I am ... then I walked in and went into the study to look for a book to read, and what should I think of reading but Barclay's "Apology".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Manuscript: Letter
Robert Barclay : Apology for the True Christian Divinity
'I have been reading a letter from my father in which he offers me to come to London, [underline] what [end underline] a temptation, but I believe it to be much better for me to be where I am ... then I walked in and went into the study to look for a book to read, and what should I think of reading but Barclay's "Apology".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Matthew Lewis : The Monk
'This evening I have been reading a good deal in the "Monk". I don't know whether it hurts the mind or not, it certainly shows the passions in a very fascinating light. I think we are more apt to be impressed with that part than the morality of it. I think it loss of time and ... I should not go on reading it, but yet as I have begun it I think it better to go on.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible [most likely]
'In the afternoon ... I went to the Cathedral then I came home read to the Normans and little Castleton'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Robert Barclay : Apology for the True Christian Divinity
'I first wrote to my father then wrote a little journal, read two chapters in the Testament, had a good lesson of French, went to see Bob, read in Barclay's Apology for some hours upon Revealed Religion. The part I most disapprove of is the harsh manner in which he speaks of other sects, it seems to me want [underline] Charity [end underline] and [underline] Without Charity is nothing [end underline] - some parts that he says are beautiful, clear and capable of being understood, other parts are not so much so, and I think all might have been expressed in a more [underline] concise [end underline] manner.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'I first wrote to my father then wrote a little journal, read two chapters in the Testament, had a good lesson of French, went to see Bob, read in Barclay's Apology for some hours upon Revealed Religion.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'I have been great part of this morning with poor Bob who seems now dying. I read a long chapter in the Testament to him the one upon death and I sat with him for some time afterwards'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Robert Barclay : Apology for the True Christian Divinity
'I went to see Mrs Norman and read in Barclay's Apology'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Robert Barclay : Apology for the True Christian Divinity
'read in Barclay's Apology in the evening'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Robert Barclay : Apology for the True Christian Divinity
'read a little in Barclay'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible [Old Testament]
'This day I begin to read through the Bible. I have finished the Testament. I wish to read the Bible of a morning and the Testament of an evening I feel it a [underline] good plan [end underline]'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'I read to the old Normans'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'read to Mrs Norman'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'I have been reading a good deal in the Testament today'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'This morning Kitty came in for us to read the Testament together, which I enjoyed, I read my favourite chapter the 15th of Corinthians to them. Oh [underline] how [end underline] earnestly I hope that we may all know what truth is and follow its dictates.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'I had rather a comfortable drive here from Shrewsbury, read in the Testament and got by heart one or two verses'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'After they all went I came and wrote my journal and sat with cousin Priscilla and we read till dinner'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, possibly Bible]
'Yesterday evening I had a little choice time by myself. I read and was still in my heart.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, probably religious, Bible?]
'A most comfortable reading with my little boys and one with my family'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, probably religious, Bible?]
'A most comfortable reading with my little boys and one with my family'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'I devoted most of my morning writing to P. Hoare, writing French and reading'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Samuel Johnson : The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
'I have this day read Rasselas which is a book I like as it leads to deep affection'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'at night snug time reading after the rest of the family were in bed'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, probably religious, Bible?]
'went to Meeting - had a more comfortable reading with my boys than this day [last] week'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Isaac Watts : Logic: or, The right use of reason, in the inquiry after truth
'Since dinner I have read much logic and enjoyed it, it is interesting to me, may, I think, with attention, do me good - reading Watts impresses deeply in my mind how very careful I should be of judging'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Isaac Watts : Logic: or, The right use of reason, in the inquiry after truth
'I have been reading Watts on judgement this afternoon; it has led me into thought and particularly upon the evidence I have to believe in religion ... my mind has not been convinced by books; but what little faith I have confirmed by reading the Holy writers themselves.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Isaac Watts : Logic: or, The right use of reason, in the inquiry after truth
'read Watts' Logic'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, probably religious, Bible?]
'I had a satisfactory reading with my little boys more so than I almost remember'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
St Basil of Caesarea : [unknown]
'I read much this morning in St Basil, which is to me excellent, interesting and beautiful. He advises a constant thanksgiving for the many blessings we enjoy; and that we should not grumble at the evils we are subject to; how much more cause I have for thankfulness than sorrow'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'At ten o'clock we all met in the study and my father read to us. - I fear my mind is not sufficiently obedient to its God. After dinner I taught Danny to read and did a little logic. Since that I have been reading aloud a long homily and there I committed a fault. John asked me to let him read and I did not, which takes off the satisfaction of reading for I did not do as I would be done by.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, probably Bible?]
'Rose in pretty good time, read before breakfast, had a lesson in French, read English, wrote logic before dinner'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'Rose in pretty good time, read before breakfast, had a lesson in French, read English, wrote logic before dinner'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
William Jones : A course of lectures on the figurative language of the Holy Scripture, and the interpretation of it from Scripture itself
'wrote a little logic this afternoon and read Jones on the Figurative languages of the Scriptures'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'I first wrote in my journal, read in the Testament after breakfast'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, probably Bible?]
'I wrote and read a little before breakfast'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Joseph Butler : Analogy
'I am now reading Butler's Analogy'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Lavator : Journal
'I have read a good deal of Lavator's journal and have felt sympathy with him. I like the book as it reminds me of my duty'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Lavator : self knowledge
'I have been reading Lavator on self knowledge, and like it much. I find it difficult to confine my attention to what I am reading; books tells us to think clearly and fix our ideas to the subject before us; I wish they would tell us how to do it'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I then wrote a little journal, read a chapter away from the fire; rather as a cross to the body; but I had such a sweet time alone as to forget bodily cold, for I was inwardly warmed and cheered by feeling under the guidance and protection of the Most High; happy state!'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [French]
'I then read french and wrote it, had one or two little interruptions'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
John Mason : Self-knowledge: A Treatise
'I then read Mason on self knowledge till dinner, not with so much attention as I could wish; I seldom attend sufficiently to what I am reading, to remember at all accurately what I have been reading about'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
John Bunyan : Pilgrim's Progress
'After that Kitty made a proposition very pleasant to me, that we should sit together all the afternoon and read "Pilgrim's Progress" and work; and we sat snugly over the nursery fire, and it was interesting and pleasant to me on two accounts, as I feel interested in the Allegory of the pilgrim and it was pleasant to be so snug with Kitty who I don't like to say much about ... We then drank tea; after tea Kitty and I read a little further ... after supper I read with Kitty until bed time.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'I went to see E. Golder, and friend Bullen came in ... we read a little in the Testament and the journal of Job Scott'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Job Scott : Journal of the life, travels and Gospel labours of that faithful servant and minister of Christ, Job Scott
'I went to see E. Golder, and friend Bullen came in ... we read a little in the Testament and the journal of Job Scott'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, probably religious, Bible?]
'quite vexed to teach my children in so shabby a room as the laundry; [underline] Pride [end underline] I think it was; however, I had a very comfortable reading with them'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : [New] Testament
'Read my Testament and felt not destitute of religion'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown, probably religious, Bible?]
'I had a comfortable time with my children only I felt too anxious for uncle Joseph to see them as he was here but he did not; I am fearful I should be vain of my reading, I feel I am so now; I hope if I try to overcome it, I shall not be so'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
John Mason : Self-knowledge: A Treatise
'I had a quiet afternoon on the sofa in my room reading Mason on self knowledge, French, and Job Scott's journal, which I like vastly and found really doing me good, at least edifying me'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [French]
'I had a quiet afternoon on the sofa in my room reading Mason on self knowledge, French, and Job Scott's journal, which I like vastly and found really doing me good, at least edifying me'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
Job Scott : Journal of the life, travels and Gospel labours of that faithful servant and minister of Christ, Job Scott
'I had a quiet afternoon on the sofa in my room reading Mason on self knowledge, French, and Job Scott's journal, which I like vastly and found really doing me good, at least edifying me'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : New Testament
'12 verse. 4th chap: Paul to Timothy; this does strike my mind deeply; Let no man despite thy youth but be thou an example to the believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity. 14th verse neglect not the gift that is in thee.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown]
'I read to dear little Mary'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
: [books on the prophecies]
'Let me remember, that though I now see, in all the prophets, the most valuable testimony to the truth of the Christian faith, a few years only have elapsed since I considered that evidence to be so dark and unintelligible as to be of little avail to the defence of the Christian cause. The few works upon the prophecies which had fallen into my hands contributed to this opinion, as the writers of them appeared to me in the light of pious visionaries, all labouring to establish some favourite point; or by twisting and turning the obscure meaning of dark passages to suit their purpose to penetrate into the events of futurity'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
: [New testament]
'The parable of the talents was one of the first passages in the New Testament that attracted my serious attention'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
William Paley : Natural Theology
'The evidences of the infinite wisdom, power, and goodness of the great Creator, given by Paley in his Natural Theology, have attracted my attention to objects that might otherwise have escaped my notice'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
James Currie : Life of Robert Burns
'[letter to Mrs --] 'books, for a certain length of time, are a charming substitute for common conversation. I do not know that I ever read one from which my mind received a higher degree of pleasure than "Currie's life of Burns". To me, its charm was enhanced by a thousand pleasing recollections - a thousand associations, that gave a strong additional interest to every word. The strength of Burns's feelings, the character of his mind, had excited an enthusiastic admiration, at a period when my own enthusiastic feelings were in perfect unison with those of the poet; and in him alone did I meet with the expression of a sensibility with which I could perfectly sympathise: in his emotions there was a strength, an energy, that came home to my heart; while the tender sorrows of other poets had to me appeared mawkish and insipid. Even the strong light in which he saw the ridiculous, was, I fear, too agreeable to me. The idea I then formed of his mind has been confirmed by Dr Currie's delineation of it'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Robert Burns :
'[letter to Mrs --] 'books, for a certain length of time, are a charming substitute for common conversation. I do not know that I ever read one from which my mind received a higher degree of pleasure than "Currie's life of Burns". To me, its charm was enhanced by a thousand pleasing recollections - a thousand associations, that gave a strong additional interest to every word. The strength of Burns's feelings, the character of his mind, had excited an enthusiastic admiration, at a period when my own enthusiastic feelings were in perfect unison with those of the poet; and in him alone did I meet with the expression of a sensibility with which I could perfectly sympathise: in his emotions there was a strength, an energy, that came home to my heart; while the tender sorrows of other poets had to me appeared mawkish and insipid. Even the strong light in which he saw the ridiculous, was, I fear, too agreeable to me. The idea I then formed of his mind has been confirmed by Dr Currie's delineation of it'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Robert Burns : [poems]
'[Letter to H.M. Esq.] I have purchased your friend "Currie's Life of Burns"; which, I confess, has operated like a charm on my benumbed imagination. Never have I been more highly gratified than by the perusal of his inestimable work, which is a [italics] chef-d'oeuvre [end italics] of cultivated and discriminating taste. On reading the poems that are added to the collection, I once more tasted of all that delicious enthusiasm with which the first productions of this child of nature and genius had feasted my soul'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
James Currie : Life of Burns
'[Letter to H.M. Esq.] I have purchased your friend "Currie's Life of Burns"; which, I confess, has operated like a charm on my benumbed imagination. Never have I been more highly gratified than by the perusal of his inestimable work, which is a [italics] chef-d'oeuvre [end italics] of cultivated and discriminating taste. On reading the poems that are added to the collection, I once more tasted of all that delicious enthusiasm with which the first productions of this child of nature and genius had feasted my soul'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
: [books on metaphysics]
'[letter to H.M. esq] my poor brains have been of late so completely fused in the furnace of metaphysic, that they have become a complete [italics] calx [end italics]. I have been obliged, in pursuit of [italics] hints [end italics], to wade through volumes: keeping neither commonplace book nor memorandum, have been forced to stupify myself in search of passages which remained in my memory, while every trace of the place in which I had found them was lost'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Hector Macneil : [poems]
'[letter to Hector MacNeil - H.M.] 'it appears to me, that even in your slighter pieces, this illusion [hiding judgment under imagination] is kept up; while, in your more finished producions, it is preserved in an uncommon degree. This, my feelings tell me; and to them, in this instance, judgment delegates her authority. Had I, previously to publication, known of your intention of paying a compliment to Lord N., I should certainly have remonstrated. I confess I was revolted by the idea of your virtuous muse binding her laurels round the brow of one of the most profligate and worthless of the human race; but that single passage excepted, I found so much pleasure in the perusal of the whole, that I would not have taken a thousand pounds to have gone critically over every if and and, purposely to pick out some faults'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Hector Macneil : Harp, The
'[letter to Hector MacNeil - H.M.] [EH says she has received a note from 'Miss H.] along with your volume, of which she had begged the perusal. She is (as I am) pleased with the whole; but with the "Harp", and the "Waes o' War" , she is particularly charmed.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism
'[letter to Hector MacNeil - H.M.] Do I not well remember hiding "Kaims's Elements of Criticism", under the cover of an easy chair, whenever I heard the approach of a footstep, well knowing the ridicule to which I should have been exposed, had I been detected in the act of looking into such a book?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
Tacitus : Annals
'[letter to Dr S.] It was the perusal of Tacitus, in Murphy's translation, which first excited the idea in my mind [of writing a book of moral education based on the behaviour of eminent historical figures]'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
:
'[letter to Dr S.] My reading [on classical subjects relevant to a projected book] has not been, by any means, extensive; for the last ten years the weakness in my eyes has been a perptually occuring hindrance to study'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
: [Edinburgh] Quarterly Review
'[letter to Dr S.] If you have not yet seen the Edinburgh Quarterly Review, I beg leave to recommend it your perusal, as a striking specimen of the abilities of a party of young gentlemen, who promise to do much credit to the literary character of Scotland'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Serial / periodical
Thomas Clarkson : History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade
'[letter to Dr S.] I have just finished the perusal of a publication which plainly shows what may be accomplished by the persevering exertions of a righteous zeal. I allude to Clarkson's "History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade", which I think one of the most interesting books I have ever read'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
R.H. Cromek : Reliques of Robert Burns
'[letter to Miss J-B-] I have just been looking over the fifth volume of poor Burns. it contains much that he would have been sorry to imagine before the public eye; but his letter to Mr Erskine, and some others, are invaluable'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I feel very unworthy this morning. Though the day appeared to begin well in a few words of solemn supplication after reading. Yesterday I think I was too much off my watch ... So I felt this morning at reading unwilling to take up the cross'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'Enabled publicly after "Reading" to cast my care upon our Henry Helper'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'Yesterday I was enabled after reading to cast my care wholly and publicly upon the great helper of the helpless, in which I found peace'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
Elizabeth Fry : [Journal]
'I have been reading over an old journal book. Ah saith my soul, how has the loving kindness and tender mercy of the Almighty been manifested to me'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Manuscript: Codex
[n/a] : 2 Corinthians
'A chapter we read this morning tendered my spirit and raised it in aspirations to the God of my help. Describing by what a minister ought to prove himself a minister of God these two verses particularly took hold of me - "By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left"'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
'The 40th and 42nd Psalms spoke comfort to me this morning, and I may say they greatly expressed the language of my spirit'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Esther)
'Having poured forth my soul in prayer, and having exhorted my household to live in the love and fear of the Lord, I have attained some mental relief upon entering a New Year and finishing another. And upon opening my Bible at these words so consonant with the feelings of my heart that I quote them here - "Hear my prayer and be merciful unto thine inheritance; turn our sorrow into joy that we may live oh Lord and praise thy name"'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I told no one my state until about the time to get up. I then dressed. I felt bound to have my husband, children, my dear sister Elizabeth Gurney, Susan Pitchford as such maids as liked to join us, collected together. Doctor Sims was also with us. When after reading I poured forth my soul in [underline] fervent prayer [end underline] for my [underline] dearest Rachel [end underline] and myself, as to our time of conflict, for help spiritually, and [underline] naturally [end underline] for tender mercy'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Deuteronomy)
'Upon reading the 2nd Chap. in Deuteronomy I felt this verse so much the acknowledgement of my heart, though all the works of my hands, may not yet have appeared to be fully blessed, yet in many, may I not say [underline] most [end underline], a peculiar blessing has I think rested on them. I transcribe here, from Deuteronomy 2: verse 7 "For the Lord thy God have blessed thee in all the works of thy hand. He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness these forty years, these forty years the Lord thy God has been with thee. Thou hast lacked nothing.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Ecclesiastes)
'These words in Eccles. struck me much. Ch. II v 21 & 22: "Marvel not at the works of sinners, but trust in the Lord and abide in thy labour, for it is one easy thing in the sight of the Lord, to make a poor man rich"'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I paid a very interesting visit to two female convict ships with my dear sister E. Fry and cousin Sarah last 6th day, and met William Wilberforce and Sophie Vansittart and many others. The exercise of my mind was deep, and the trial of body not inconsiderable from the inconvenient situation that I had to read in, being below deck, surrounded by poor prisoners, and the company. What I feel on such occasions is difficult to describe. 1st that it should be done unto the Lord, and 2nd that it may be a time of edification. 3rd that none may in any way be hurt by it. 4th my natural great fear of man, and of his judgement. 5th that self may neither glory if helped, nor be unduly mortified if causes for humiliation arise. I think I was on this occasion much helped to declare Gospel Truth with some power, and to pray to my Lord; but I felt that if watchful enough and patient enough, I might have said much more to a good purpose. But it may be safer to say too little, than too much. After this was over I saw a change in the feeling of the company towards me. They were so much more loving: I believe some of their hearts were tendered. I think it was a uniting time, I trust many of the poor prisoners felt it also, many of them I believe wept in both ships.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'The first day before leaving home I must also describe if I can. It was one of the most interesting nature. In the first place I had [underline] all [end underline] the servants collected at the morning reading, and expressed very fully my desires for them'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'My sisters Catherine, Rachel, Chenda and myself had a very remarkable morning, I felt most easy to stay at home from Meeting to be with my beloved sick sister, and had a desire for some religious time with her. After she was dressed and removed into the Dressing Room on her couch, we read in the Bible, but so overcome was she from weakness and sleepiness, that she could not keep awake, however I went on reading, and then knelt down in prayer and thanksgiving for her and for us'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'On the morning of the New Year we assembled almost all our large household, and many guests, principally young ones. Before we began reading, I expressed many of the striking marks of Providential care and mercy shown us in the last year, that are mentioned here. We then read, and afterwards had a solemn time.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I then went to town, and at Newgate, where I went under feelings of rather deep concern, found unexpectedly [underline] numbers [end underline] there. A magistrate who I feared not I believe a religious man, I doubt a Christian, numbers of others, foreigners, a Jew, a clergyman, [underline] many [end underline] ladies, friends, my brother Sam, who strange to say, I stand in awe of naturally in such services, kind, dear and sympathetic as he is to me. I think I may say I asked in secret for preservation before I began to read; at least it was my earnest desire to have my eyes kept single to my God: but either the fear of man got too much hold of me, or the [underline] unction [end underline] was not with me, that I did not feel the power of truth over us, as it very often has been at such times, and I am ready to believe if I had not looked at man, but dwelt yet deeper in spirit I should have had to call upon the Lord openly, and I should have found help and power in it. But I went away humbled...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
Elizabeth Fry : Journals
'I have lately been reading some of my old journals in the year 1801. It has been very affecting to me; In what a low state I was, and how much I passed through, unbelief has been ready to say how was it such a poor young creature in a spritual sense should have been permitted such conflict in my first lying-in, after my marriage, etc.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Manuscript: Codex
[n/a] : Bible (Colossians)
'We spent a cheerful, sober evening, until a general family Reading, when several joined our interesting party. We read the principal parts of the Epistle to the Colossians; and for all I had already so much to do, I felt bound to kneel down and offer an evening sacrifice'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'Last sixth day a very interesting time at Newgate, numbers there, clergy, some nobility, a sheriff, [underline] many [end underline] ladies, gentlemen and friends. It was a solemn time, the fear of man much taken away; I had after Reading to speak to them, and pray for them'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
C.H.V. Bogatsky : Golden Treasury for the Children of God
'I felt low and naturally prone to be irritable, and from the deep feeling of the difficulties in doing my part towards my family, led me to pant for liberation from those responsibilities which at times lie very heavily upon me. In this state I opened a book with something for every day in the year and met with something applicable to my wants that I shall transcribe it - "Golden Treasury for the Children of God" is the title of the book by C.H.V. Bogatsky: "Lord preserve me calm in spirit, gentle in my commands and watchful that I speak not unadvisably with my lips; moderate in my purposes, yielding in my temper where the honour of my God is not immediately concerned and ever steadfast where needful. "Lord grant me thy protection, and may thy blessing be upon me, that I may not bring an evil report upon that good Lord. I was permitted to spy out; but walk honourably through the wilderness and pass triumphantly over Jordan into Canaan. Amen."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Corinthians)
'Our wedding day twenty nine years since we married! My texts for the morning are applicable: "Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and external weight of glory"; "We walk by faith and not by sight"'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'In the evening our dear brother Buxton dined with us, and spent the evening; and after our Reading I had to return thanks for the help granted in the day, and to pray'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'The last time I parted with those in the Ship Mary such a scene all around me, when I parted from them, probably for ever; so many tears, so much feeling, as I read, etc, and almost all present were the low, and the poor.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'My spirit is however brought low before the Lord, on behalf of some most dear - ah, the unutterable conflict that giving way to evil produces in ourselves and others. And for one I feel so inexpressibly for, I found consolation and hope in these parts of Scripture...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
'We have been favoured the last two days to have all our fifteen children around us ... After dinner we walked a little and then had tea, and after tea a number of the children sang in company some of our old Earlham songs and ended with two hymns. We were then silent and read the 103rd Psalm, and I spoke earnestly to my children impressing them with the importance, now that most of them were no longer under our restraint, that they should be conformed to the will of God'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Proverbs)
'dined at Lord Bexley's, afterwards led to many fears - worry about showing off - But a few words in the Proverbs encouraged me "Reproofs of instruction are the way of life" chap 6 v.23. I see it well to be reproved, may I profit by it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
'I returned from Brighton the day before yesterday having felt a drawing of love to visit the Friends; and to attend to the difficulties of the District Society. I went [underline] quite alone [end underline], and yet not alone because I believe my master was with me. I had amongst the Friends some weighty, close service, some very encouraging. My way appeared curiously opened in the hearts of the people and I hope and trust the valued District Society will be continued. I had about a hundred visitors to meet me, and read the 100th Psalm: and prayed for them, and the Society, and strongly pressed the importance of different Christians working together, and of unity of spirit'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
'[came home to find one of her sons drinking ale with some men with fireworks] I slept only at short intervals, up and down all night, in the morning shaken and jaded. But I had my poor wanderer in my little room, read part of the 51st Psalm; earnestly prayed for him, exhorted, reproved, but all in tender love: he was humbled, very sorry, very affectionate, entire peace was made between us'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
Elizabeth Fry : Journal
'New Years Day - fourteen children to dine with us - had meant to read them my concentrated journal of the year; but courage failed me ... Since, I have read my journal to almost all of them who are round us'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Manuscript: Codex
[n/a] : Bible
'And in the evening strength was given me with a very large party to speak a little on the subject of slavery and then finished with a short lively Scripture reading'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Isaiah)
'Last evening we had more than fifty guests, some influential persons of this world, young and old, French and English - one Spaniard, two Americans. We first had the subject of slavery brought before us, for rather more than an hour ... I finished with a Scripture reading, referring to the subject that had been brought before us; the first part of the 61st chapter of Isaiah. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me" etc and a portion in Luke where our Lord brings it forward. I felt a real unction I believe I may say from the spirit, to speak such words as I had to say, with power.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'In the evening we had many young women but hardly any men. Our great object was to stimulate them in every good word and work. We ended with a reading in the Holy Scriptures'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'We had a large meeting at one of the pasteurs at Aix en Provance the few Protestants there and their Pastor requested me to have a reading with them, which we had, but in this instance I had only my husband and Josiah to interpret which does not fully answer, but I thought we had a uniting time with them'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'At Nismes we found a large party at one of the Pasteurs, where we had some further conversation on District Societies, Prisons, etc and ended with a Scripture reading'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I also had a serious reading of the Holy Scriptures with many English, who came to see us at our hotel, and a time of prayer'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'We were sent for to visit Prince and Princess Charles and their children and paid them an agreeable and I hope not unprofitable visit. The Crown Prince and Princess sent for us again; after much conversation upon many subjects I asked them to allow me to read a portion of Holy Scriptures with them, which gave me an opportunity for weightly religious communication with them'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I had then to enter a drawing room full of company to receive numbers of foreigners, and our ambassador Lord William Russell, and many others in and out. After some went away we had a solemn time of Scripture reading and prayer'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'In the evening we had a very large party to our reading and worship. I should think nearly a hundred persons ... we had a very solemn time after our reading in the morning at Antwerp, the last reading we had of this kind'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
Richard Cumberland : [Odes]
'Cumberland had written two Odes, what says Mrs Montagu to me do you think of them? I think said I they are as like Gray's Odes as he can make them, Ay, replied She, as like as a little Thing can be to a big Thing, Why to be sure Madam said I he is not the great Mr Gray - he is only the [italics] Petit Gris [end italics].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Montagu Print: Book
Thomas Gray : [Odes]
'Cumberland had written two Odes, what says Mrs Montagu to me do you think of them? I think said I they are as like Gray's Odes as he can make them, Ay, replied She, as like as a little Thing can be to a big Thing, Why to be sure Madam said I he is not the great Mr Gray - he is only the [italics] Petit Gris [end italics].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Montagu Print: Book
Dr Dillingham : A Hymne to our Creator
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, "A Hymne to our Creator" by Dr Dillingham.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Lady Jane Grey : 'Be Constant'
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, verses by Lady Jane Grey beginning: 'be Constant be Constant Feare not for Pain'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
anon : An Hymne to our Redeemer
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, (anon) 'An Hymne to our Redeemer'. Copied in spaces between other entries in the commonplace book. Lyttelton signals the continuation of the hymn across the six pages with a series of asterisks.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Lucan : Pharsalia
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Thomas Browne's translation of Lucan, Pharsalia, IV.519-20.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Thomas Heywood (attrib.) : Upon the remoue of the body of Queen Elizabeth from Richmond where she dyed the 24 of March, 1602 the 45 year of her Raign, & seventy of her age
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, 'upon the remoue of the body of Queen Elizabeth from Richmond where she dyed the 24 of March, 1602 the 45 year of her Raign, & seventy of her age' Begins: 'The Queen was brought by water to White hall'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
anon : Distich from a monument to Elizabeth I in Allhallows the Great, Thames Street, London.
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, 'Distich from a monument to Elizabeth I in Allhallows the Great, Thames Street, London'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Juvenal : Unto the wiser Gods the care permit,
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Juvenal, 'Vnto the wiser Gods the care permit'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Edmund Elys : Inconstancy
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Edmund Elys, 'Inconstancy'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
John Norris : Beauty
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, John Norris, 'Beauty'. Lyttelton signals the continuation of the poem across three pages with a series of asterisks.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Edmund Elys : Peccatum Redivivum: Or, The Rebellion of a Conquer'd Lust
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Edmund Elys, 'Peccatum Redivivum: Or, The Rebellion of a Conquer'd Lust'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Edward Reynolds : When our Emmanuell from his Throne came down
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Edward Reynolds 'When our Emmanuell from his Throne came down'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Unknown
John Norris : Love
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, John Norris, 'Love'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Queen Elizabeth I (attrib.) : 'On the words hoc est corpus meum'
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Elizabeth I's 'On the words hoc est corpus meum', titled 'Queen Elizas answer to Bishop Gardner'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Justus Lipsius : A Discourse of Constancy
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, two couplets from Nathaniel Wanley's translation of Justus Lipsius, 'A discourse of constancy'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Edward Reynolds : A Treatise of the Passions and Facvlties of the Soule of Man
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, two couplets from Edward Reynolds, 'A Treatise of the Passions and Facvlties of the Soule of Man'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
anon : An Evening Hymn
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, an anonymous poem entitled 'An Euening Hymn' and beginning 'Now that the Sable mantle of the night....'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
John Norris : Plato's Two Cupids
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, John Norris, 'Plato's Two Cupids'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Seneca : Epistulae morales, 23, 4
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, a Meditation on Seneca's maxim 'verum gaudium res severa est' (Epistulae morales, 23, 4), headed 'sen. Res severa et verum gaudium'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
John Norris : The Refinement
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, John Norris, 'The Refinement'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Sir Philip Woodhouse : Some Essays of Morality in prozaick Ryme upon Aristotles definition of friendly Loue
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Philip Woodhouse, 'Some Essays of Morality in prozaick Ryme upon Aristotles definition of friendly Loue'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Sir Philip Woodhouse : an Essay of Morall fortetude according to Aristotle
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Philip Woodhouse, 'an Essay of Morall fortetude according to Aristotle'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Thomas Flatman : On Dr. Brown's Travels
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Thomas Flatman, 'On Dr. Brown's Travels'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Sir Philip Woodhouse : Moralistic reflections in verse
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Philip Woodhouse, 'Moralistic reflections in verse'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
anon : Moral Dialogue
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, an anonymous 'Moral dialogue'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Sir Thomas Browne : Of Consumptions
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Thomas Browne, 'Of Consumptions'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Plutarch : Lives
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Richard Knolles : The generall historie of the Turks
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Paul Rycaut : History of the Turkish Empire from the Year 1623 to the Year 1677
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Richard Baker : A Chronicle of England
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
S.J. Alvaro Semedo : The History of China
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Flavius Josephus : The History of the Jewish Wars
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
John Foxe : Book of Martyrs
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Adam Olearius : Travels of the Ambassadors sent by Frederic, Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of Muscovy and the King of Persia
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Mandelilo : Travels (unidentified)
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Taverniere : Travels (unidentified)
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Pietro della Valle : Travels in Persia
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Vincent Le Blanc : The world surveyed: or, The famous voyages & travailes of Vincent Le Blanc
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Fernão Mendes Pinto : Pilgrimage of Fernam Mendez Pinto in which is told the many and very strange things he saw and heard in the kingdom of China, in the one of Tartary, in the one of Sornau, usually called Siam, in the one of Calaminhan, in the one of Pegù...
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Thomas Gage : Travels in the New World
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Terre : Travels (unidentified)
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
anon : History of the Life of Monsieur d'Epernon
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
unknown : History of Naples
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
unknown : History of Venice
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
William Camden : Historie of the Life and Reigne of Elizabeth
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Herodian : History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Procopius of Caesarea : Secret History
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Sands : Travels (unidentified)
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Olaus Magnus : History of the Northern People
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Rudolf Jakob Camerarius : De sexu plantarum epistola
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Suetonius : De Vita Caesarum [the Twelve Caesars]
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Appian : Roman History
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Speed : Chronicle of the Life of King James
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Purchas : His Pilgrimage or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discovered from the Creation Unto This Present
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
unknown : Sermons
[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Richard Corbett : Epitaph on King James
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of 'King James his Epitaph by Bishop Corbet'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Aphra Behn : Epitaph on William Fairfax
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Aphra Behn, 'Epitaph on William Fairfax'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Walter Ralegh : Even such is time which takes in trust
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Walter Ralegh, 'Even such is time which takes in trust'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Richard Corbett : To his Son Vincent Corbett
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Richard Corbett, 'To his Son Vincent Corbett'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Richard Corbett : An Elegie upon the Death of his own Father
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Richard Corbett, 'An Elegie upon the Death of his own Father'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Sir Henry Wotton : On the Death of Sr Albertus Morton
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Henry Wotton, 'On the Death of Sr Albertus Morton.'
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
: Psalms, 56:3
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Psalm 56 v. 3.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Walter Ralegh : Like hermit poor
In Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, a paraphrase of Walter Ralegh's lines 'Like hermit poor', entitled 'A Christian paraphrase on those Verses Like Hermit poor, &c'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
John Donne : A Hymne to God the Father
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of John Donne, 'A Hymne to God the Father'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
John Foxe : Book of Martyrs
Written in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand a translation of John Foxe's 'The Epitaph upon that Blessed Martyr Walter Mill at St Andrews in Scotland.'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Thomas Carey : On his mistress going to sea
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Thomas Carey, 'On his Mistress going to Sea'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
John Taylor : There for a token I did thinke it meete
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of John Taylor, 'There for a token I did thinke it meete'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Henry Savile : To the King
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Henry Savile, 'To the King'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
William Alabaster : Verses upon Dr Reynolds & his Brother
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of William Alabaster, 'Dr Alabasters verses upon Dr Reynolds & his Brother'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Joshua Sylvester : Translation of the second day from Guillaume Du Bartas's The Second Week
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of an extract from Joshua Sylvester's translation of the second day from Guillaume Du Bartas's The Second Week (1598), ll. 663-6.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Richard Fanshawe : A Happy Life out of Martial
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Richard Fanshawe, 'A Happy Life out of Martial'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Charles Aleyn : The Battailes of Crescey and Poictiers
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of a Couplet from Charles Aleyn, 'The Battailes of Crescey and Poictiers'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Katherine Phillips : A Virgin
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Katherine Phillips, 'A Virgin'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
: The humble Addres of ye house of Commons to the Queen, March ye 7 1710
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of 'The humble Addres of ye house of Commons to the Queen, March ye 7 1710'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Sir Thomas Browne (attrib.) : Verses beginning 'the Almond florisheth ye Birch trees flowe'
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of lines attributed to Sir Thomas Browne, beginning, 'the Almond florisheth ye Birch trees flowe'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
William Scroggs : Speech by Lord Chief Justice William Scroggs at his impeachment in 1680-1
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of extracts from a speech by Lord Chief Justice William Scroggs at his impeachment in 1680-1.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
William Cartwright : To Mr. W. B. at the Birth of his first Child
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of William Cartwright, 'To Mr. W. B. at the Birth of his first Child'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Sir Thomas Browne : Fragment on meadowes
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Thomas Browne, 'Fragment on meadowes'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Sir Thomas Browne : Seignor verdero in his proper habitt,
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Thomas Browne, 'Seignor verdero in his proper habitt'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Anon : An Epitaph upon Felton, who was hang'd in Chains for murdering the Old Duke of Buckingham
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of 'An Epitaph upon Felton, who was hang'd in Chains for murdering the Old Duke of Buckingham'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Anon : A Turkish Prayer or Alhemdolilla
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of 'A Turkish Prayer or Alhemdolilla'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Richard Corbett : King James came in progres to the house of Sr Pope Knight, when his Lady was lately delivered of a daughter, which babe was Presented to the King with a Paper of verses in her hand...
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Richard Corbett, 'King James came in progres to the house of Sr Pope Knight, when his Lady was lately delivered of a daughter, which babe was Presented to the King with a Paper of verses in her hand...'
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Edward Tenison : anagrams and couplets
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Edward Tenison, a pair of anagrams on Elizabeth Lyttelton's name, and also a pair of couplets, written on the occasion of her marriage to George Lyttelton in 1680.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Manuscript: Unknown
Sir Henry Wotton : Upon the Sudden Restraint of the Earl of Somerset then falling from favour
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Henry Wotton, 'Upon the Sudden Restraint of the Earl of Somerset then falling from favour'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Sir Henry Wotton : The Character of a Happy Life
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Henry Wotton, 'The Character of a Happy Life'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
St Ignatius of Antioch : My Love is Crucified
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of St Ignatius of Antioch, 'My Love is Crucified'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
Sir Philip Woodhouse : Italian & French Proverbs rythmisd
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Philip Woodhouse, 'Italian & French Proverbs rythmisd'.
UnknownCentury: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton
John Foxe : The Prayer of Luther at his death
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of John Foxe, 'The Prayer of Luther at his death'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
John Foxe : The usuall Prayer of Docter Martyn Luther
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of John Foxe, 'The usuall Prayer of Docter Martyn Luther'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
John Foxe : Accounts of the deaths of Jan Huss and Jerome of Prague
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of John Foxe, 'Accounts of the deaths of Jan Huss and Jerome of Prague'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Philippe Quinault : Autre
Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Philippe Quinault, 'Autre'.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: libretto
[n/a] : Bible
15 Oct 1855 Meeting Minutes: Report from Elizabeth Fry Refuge - 'One of them Eliza Salmon was a Roman Catholic and has often told the Matron that until she came to this Refuge she never had opened a Bible: she now tells her in a letter that she reads the scriptures daily, and will never go to a Priest again.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Salmon Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'In the evening my father brought two friends with him and Lawrence Candler. As I was reading to my children in the laundry, my father brought them all in; when I had finished reading in the Testament we were all silent: - and soon John Kirkham knelt down in prayer and we all rose up; it was a very solemn time; my heart was not much moved, but I believe many of my dear children were affected by it'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gurney Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
'After breakfast, I believed it better to propose reading in the Bible, but I felt doing it, particularly as my brother William was here; not liking the appearance of young people, like us, appearing to profess more than they who had lived here before us. However, I put off and put off till both William and Joseph went down; I then felt uneasy under it, and when Joseph came back, I told him, as I did before, what I wished; he at last sat down, having told George Dilwyn my desire. I began to read the 46th Psalm, but was so overcome that I could hardly read, and gave it to Joseph to finish.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I again felt some difficulty at reading the Bible, however, I got through well. George Dilwyn encouraging me, by saying he thought I portioned the reading well.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'George Dilwyn said, for our encouragement this morning, that he had seen, since he had been with us, the efficacy of reading in the Bible the first thing: he thought it a good beginning for the day'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'I was up in pretty good time, dressed by eight, and after reading, settled my great housekeeping accounts'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : [unknown, possibly Bible]
'After reading a little, I went some way off to see a poor woman'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
Frederick Smith : [unknown]
'Yesterday I went to the workhouse to spend the evening with the children; a prospect I have had in view for some time... I took them things for tea: I dreaded going on many accounts, fearing I should not feel at liberty to make any remarks I might wish to the children during their reading which it was my principal object in going to attend. I did not exactly see my way, however, I thought I would (as the Friends say) make my way. I found after tea they did not read till nearly eight, and I could not remain later than a little past seven. I spoke to the governess about it and she was quite willing to alter the hour, and so was the stewardess. I proposed reading a little pamphlet that has lately come out by Frederick Smith to the children. There was a solemnity during reading it; so that Ann Withers was in tears most of the time, and some of the children were disposed that way; afterwards, when we had finished, I endeavoured to weigh up whether I really had any thing to say to them or not; I thought that I had, and therefore took up the book as if to explain it; making my own remarks which appeared to affect the children and the governess so that those who were on the point of tears really wept. Now this event has made me feel rather odd; it is marvellous to me how I got courage to do it before Ann Withers.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'In the evening, after reading at Earlham, I was greatly helped in prayer, for my brothers and sisters, who were all present'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (New Testament)
'After poor John's funeral, I wished the servants, and those who attended, and were disposed to do so, to come and read with us, believing it might afford opportunity for relief, if any thing were given me for them. The party were in all about forty, many young people, and others. We first read two chapters in Matthew; after a pause, I kelt down and had to supplicate, first for all the party; afterwards for our own household, more particularly for the servants; in all which I was helped, and a very solemn silence followed'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'Yesterday I experienced liveliness of spirit, without any apparent cause; nothing but free mercy and grace, for I think, as far as I was concerned, I was rather rebellious after reading than otherwise'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'At last I have been enabled to accomplish my desire in having the greater part of our family here, present at the Scripture reading in the morning, it has been to me a very humbling thing, and I may say trying'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (New Testament)
Dec 1816 - Fry recommences visits to Newgate prison: 'On her second visit, she was, at her own request, left alone amongst the women for some hours, and on that occasion, she read to them the parable of the Lord in the vineyard, in the 20th chapter of St Matthew; and made a few observations on the eleventh hour, and on Christ having come to save sinners, even those who might be said to have wasted the greater part of their lives estranged from Him. Some asked who Christ was; others feared that their day of salvation was passed.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
ms journal of Sophia de C-, one of the ladies of the visiting Society for Newgate, entry dated 2 May 1817: 'Rose early and visited Newgate where most of the Committee met to receive the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, several Aldermen, among whom were Sir William Curtis, Atkins and some of the Gaol Committee ... The women were assembled as usual, looking particularly clean, and Elizabeth Fry had commenced reading a Psalm, when the whole of this party entered this already crowded room. Her reading was thus interrupted for a short time. She looked calmly on the approaching gentlemen, who, soon perceiving the solemnity of her occupation, stood against the multitude; whilst Elizabeth Fry resumed her office, and the women their quietude; and in an impressive tone told them, she never permitted any trifling circumstance to interrupt the very solemn and important engagement of reading the Holy Scriptures ... The usual silence ensued after the reading, then the women withdrew. We could not help feeling particularly glad that the gentlemen were present at this reading'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
Fry explains reading to prisoners to Committee of House of Commons on the Prisons of the Metropolis, 27 Feb 1818: 'our habit is constantly to read the Scriptures to them twice a day; many of them are taught, and some of them have been enabled to read a little themselves; it has an astonishing effect: I never saw the Scriptures received in the same way, and to many of them they have been entirely new, both the great system of religion and of morality contained in them; and it has been very satisfactory to observe the effect on their minds; when I have sometimes gone and said it was my intention to read, they would flock upstairs after me, as if it were a great pleasure, I had to afford them'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'The last time that Mrs Fry was on board the Maria, whilst she lay at Deptford, was one of those solemn and interesting occasions that leave a lasting impression on the minds of those who witness them. There was a great uncertainty whether the poor convicts would see their benefactress again. She stood at the door of the cabin, attended by her friends and the Captain; the women on the quarter-deck facing them. The sailors, anxious to see what was going on, clambered into the rigging, on to the capstan, or mingled in the outskirts of the group. The silence was profound - when Mrs Fry opened her Bible, and in a clear audible voice, read a portion from it. The crews of the other vessels in the tier, attracted by the novelty of the scene, lent over the ships on either side and listened apparently with great attention; she closed the Bible, and after a short pause, knelt down on the deck, and implored a blessing on this work of Christian charity from that God, who, though one may sow and another water, can alone give the increase. Many of the women wept bitterly, all seemed touched'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Ephesians)
Extract of letter from Lady Mackintosh to E. Fry: 'I have had a note from Sir James - "I dined Saturday, June 3rd, at Devonshire House. The company consisted of the Duke of Norfolk, Lords Lansdowne, Lauderdale, Albermarle, Cowper, Hardwicke, Carnarvon, Sefton, Ossulton, Milton and Duncannon. The subject was Mrs Fry's exhortation to forty-five female convicts, at which Lord -- had been present on Friday. He could hardly refrain from tears in speaking of it. He called it the deepest tragedy he had ever witnessed. What she had read and expounded to the convicts, with almost miraculous effect, was the 4th chapter to the Ephesians.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
Recollections of Miss Young, who accompanied her father, Captain Young, to female convict ships at Woolwich: 'On board between two and three hundred women were assembled, in order to listen to the exhortation and prayers of, perhaps, the two brightest personifications of Christian philanthropy that the age could boast. Scarcely could two voices, even so distinguished for beauty and power be imagined, united in a more touching engagement: as indeed was intensified by the breathless attention, the tears and suppressed sobs of the gathered listeners. All of man's word however there heard, heart-stirring as it was at the time, has faded from my memory; but no lapse of time can ever efface the impression of the 107th Psalm, as read by Mrs Fry, with such extraordinary emphasis and intonation that it seemed to make the simple reading a commentary; and, as she passed from passage to passage, struck my youthful mind, as if the whole series of allusions may have been written by the pen of inspiration, in view of such a scene as was then before us. At an interval of twenty years, it is recalled to me as often as that Psalm is brought to my notice. Never in this world, can it be known to how many hearts its solemn appeals were that day carried home by that potent voice'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
Journal 20 Dec 1837: 'Afterwards I went to Clapham to visit a poor dying converted Jew, who had sent a letter to beg me to go and see him ... A man of pleasing countenance, greatly emaciated, was lying on a little white bed; all clean and in order, his Bible by his side, and animated almost beyond description at seeing me; he kissed my hand, the tears came into his eyes, his poor face flushed, and he was ready almost to raise himself out of his bed. I sat down, and tried to quiet him, and by degrees succeeded. We had a very interesting conversation; he had been in the practice of frequently attending my readings at Newgate, apparently with great attention; latterly I had not seen him, and was ready to suppose, that like many others his zeal was of short duration; but I lately heard that he had been ill ... I found that when he used to come so often to Newgate, he was a man of good moral character, seeking the truth ... he said that his visits to Newgate had been to him beyond going to any church; indeed I little know how much was going on in his heart. He requested me to read a Psalm that I had read one day in Newgate, the 107th. This I did, and he appeared to deeply feel it'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
Journal 20 Dec 1837: 'Afterwards I went to Clapham to visit a poor dying converted Jew, who had sent a letter to beg me to go and see him ... A man of pleasing countenance, greatly emaciated, was lying on a little white bed; all clean and in order, his Bible by his side, and animated almost beyond description at seeing me; he kissed my hand, the tears came into his eyes, his poor face flushed, and he was ready almost to raise himself out of his bed. I sat down, and tried to quiet him, and by degrees succeeded. We had a very interesting conversation; he had been in the practice of frequently attending my readings at Newgate, apparently with great attention; latterly I had not seen him, and was ready to suppose, that like many others his zeal was of short duration; but I lately heard that he had been ill ... I found that when he used to come so often to Newgate, he was a man of good moral character, seeking the truth ... he said that his visits to Newgate had been to him beyond going to any church; indeed I little know how much was going on in his heart. He requested me to read a Psalm that I had read one day in Newgate, the 107th. This I did, and he appeared to deeply feel it'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
Joseph John Gurney : Letter to a Friend on the Authority, Purpose and Effects of Chritianity
Journey into Scotland in Aug 1834 with husband and two daughters: 'At Kenmore, they enjoyed a quiet Sunday and tolerable highland accommodation. In the evening, anxious to turn the day to some good account, Mrs Fry invited the servants of the inn, to attend the reading she intended to have with her own family. Some ladies were polite enough to offer the use of their sitting room as it was more roomy; a large congregation of barefooted chambermaids, and blue-bonnetted hostlers, assembled. She read part of her brother Joseph John Gurney's letter to a Friend, on the evidences of Christianity; the people were very attentive and anxious each to possess a copy, that they might read the remainder of the book to themselves. The next day, some gamekeepers who came to the inn requested a similar gift, having heard from the people there all that had taken place.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
Journal of Miss Fraser, Newgate prison visitor, dated 29 Nov 1834: 'I spent an interesting time in Newgate, Mrs Fry and I went there together for several hours. She went with me to the cells and read to the men just sentenced to death. Amongst them, there were two brothers, convicted, I believe, for housebreaking. The youngest was drawn into the commission of the crime by the elder brother. James, the youngest, could not read; he was married to a very pleasing looking young woman, and had two children. I recollect Mrs Fry told the poor men who could not read that if they would try to learn while they were in Newgate, she would give those who succeeded, each a Bible. James took very great pains, and before he left the prison to be transported he could read tolerably. On the 7th of January following, Mrs Fry again went with me to the cells. James then read the 7th chapter of St Matthew's gospel, and received his Bible. He became a valuable servant to the gentleman to whom he was assigned in New South Wales'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : [unknown]
Visit to France, 1838, accompanied by Joseph Fry, friend Josiah Forster, and Lydia Irving. Letter to children, Abbeville, 28 Jan 1838: 'We left Boulogne yesterday morning in a very comfortable French carraige after some delay in our departure, from various difficulties with luggage, we enjoyed our reading and conversation, until we arrived at Montreuil ... After breakfast we read as usual, then Josiah Forster went out ... picture us - our feet on some fleeces that we have found, generally wrapped up in cloaks, surrounded by screens to keep off the air, the wood fire at our feet. We have just finished an interesting reading in French, in the New Testament, with the landlady, her daughters and some of the servants of the hotel; they appeared very attentive and much interested'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
Visit to France, 1838, accompanied by Joseph Fry, friend Josiah Forster, and Lydia Irving. Letter to children, Abbeville, 28 Jan 1838: 'We left Boulogne yesterday morning in a very comfortable French carraige after some delay in our departure, from various difficulties with luggage, we enjoyed our reading and conversation, until we arrived at Montreuil ... After breakfast we read as usual, then Josiah Forster went out ... picture us - our feet on some fleeces that we have found, generally wrapped up in cloaks, surrounded by screens to keep off the air, the wood fire at our feet. We have just finished an interesting reading in French, in the New Testament, with the landlady, her daughters and some of the servants of the hotel; they appeared very attentive and much interested'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (New Testament)
Visit to France, 1838, accompanied by Joseph Fry, friend Josiah Forster, and Lydia Irving. Letter to children, Abbeville, 28 Jan 1838: 'We left Boulogne yesterday morning in a very comfortable French carraige after some delay in our departure, from various difficulties with luggage, we enjoyed our reading and conversation, until we arrived at Montreuil ... After breakfast we read as usual, then Josiah Forster went out ... picture us - our feet on some fleeces that we have found, generally wrapped up in cloaks, surrounded by screens to keep off the air, the wood fire at our feet. We have just finished an interesting reading in French, in the New Testament, with the landlady, her daughters and some of the servants of the hotel; they appeared very attentive and much interested'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
Aug 1838, journey to Scotland with sister in law E. Fry, friend John Sanderson, and from 15th, William Ball, a Quaker minister. Mr Ball kept a journal during the journey. 18 Aug 1838: 'These journeys are, I trust, not lost time; we have two Scripture readings daily in the carriage, and much instructive conversation; also abundant time for that which is so important, the private reading of the Holy Scripture. This is very precious to dear Elizabeth Fry, and I have often thought it a privilege to note her reverent "marking and learning" of these sacred truths of divine inspiration. Often does she lay down the Book, close her eyes, and wait upon Him, who hath the key of David to open and seal the instruction of the sacred page. Truly it helps to explain how her "profiting appears unto all" when she is thus diligent and fervent, in "meditating upon these things", and giving herself wholly to them'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Psalms)
Aug 1838, journey to Scotland with sister in law E. Fry, friend John Sanderson, and from 15th, William Ball, a Quaker minister. Mr Ball kept a journal during the journey. 23 Aug 1838 - large meeting of ladies to form a society for visiting prisons of Aberdeen and vicinity: 'Between the formation of the association, and proceeding to select the various officers, Elizabeth Fry read a Psalm, spoke very nicely upon it to the ladies, and was then engaged in prayer'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
Aug 1838, journey to Scotland with sister in law E. Fry, friend John Sanderson, and from 15th, William Ball, a Quaker minister. Mr Ball kept a journal during the journey. 8 Sept 1838: 'Invited the landlord of our Greenock Hotel, and his wife, and servants, to our Scripture reading this morning. They came in and we were favoured with an instructive session'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
Journal, Boulogne 28 May 1843: 'The afternoon of the Sabbath I paid a distressing visit to the St Lazare Prison; such a scene of disorder and deep evil I have seldom witnessed - gambling, romping, screaming. With much difficulty we collected four Protestant prisoners, and read with them. I spoke to those poor disorderly women, who appeared attentive, and showed some feeling.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (Old Testament)
Evidence of E. Fry to parliamentary Select Committee - Fry explains that she is careful in her prison readings to have a regard to the feelings of the women. For instance, on one occasion a Jewess objected to religious instruction provided by the ladies: 'On account of our reading in the New Testament. Afterwards she came and we endeavoured to adapt the reading a little to her, we reading the Psalms and a portion of the Old Testament'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (New Testament)
Day on which E. Fry read the new rules to the female prisoners at Newgate: 'when this business was concluded, one of the visitors read aloud the 15th chapter of Luke - the parable of the barren fig tree, seeming applicable to the audience'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
Officials invited into Newgate to see the success of E. Fry's new prison routine: 'In compliance with this appointment, the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs and several of the Aldermen attended. The prisoners were assembled together, and it being requested that no alteration in their usual practice might take place, one of the ladies read a chapter in the Bibe, and then the females proceeded to their various avocations. Their attention during the time of reading; their orderly and sober deportment, their decent dress, the absence of everything like tumult, noise or contention, the obedience, and the respect shown by them, and the cheerfulness visible in their countenances and manners, conspired to excite the astonishment and admiration of their visitors'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible
'in expressing our acknowledgement of the good they have done, it is our duty to point out those parts of their proceedings which appear to us inexpedient and injudicious, and to interfere materially with the laudable objects which they themselves have in view. We think the introduction of the visitors who now attend on Fridays the readings of the women highly improper. On one occasion, when we were present, there were 23 visitors; whilst owing to the want of room thus caused, only 28 prisoners could attend the lecture. Not only were there many prisoners, who might otherwise have been present, thus deprived of this opportunity of receiving instruction, but the sight of so many strangers distracted the attention even of those who were there. We observed the absence of that strict attention which is so necessary to the profitable reception of religious instruction.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[n/a] : Bible (New Testament)
24pp pamphlet describing a reading by Mrs Fry to the female prisoners at Newgate, at which the author was present. pp.8-9: 'The silence was at length broken by that mild voice which the prisoners had often heard. Mrs Fry began to read from the Bible. She had selected the 12th and 13th chapters of the epistle to the Romans. This selection did honour to her judgement, and while, with distinct articulation, she dwelt upon the more important of the words of Holy writ, every hearer appeared affected. The convicts shewed their interest in the instruction thus afforded them by the eye fixed on the reader, and their anxiety by heads put, as it were, forward to meet the sound, while the eye had the tear quivering on the lash, or the cheek shewed that it had overflowed its bounds. When she had finished the chapters which she had read slowly, to give time to the hearers to receive the words, and to comprehend their meaning, she remained for a few seconds perfectly silent, and the silence was a silence which might be felt.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book
[unknown] : Come to Jesus
'Eliza Cooper was first visited in Newgate in the summer of 1849. She was committed for unlawfully deserting her infant ... From this time the poor prisoner earnestly longed for salvation, and received with joy the glad tidings of a Savior's love. The little tract, entitled "Come to Jesus", was blessed to her, and she read it frequently with much delight'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Cooper Print: Book, tract
Frederic Harrison : Meaning of History, The
'Mr Edminson then read a paper on Mrs Besant's autobiography. Some discussion folowed. Mr Morland gave a summary of Fairbairn's Christ in Modern Theology which also excited some remark. Mrs W.H. Smith also commented on some of the points in F. Harrison's Meaning of History in which she was joined by other members'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
William Wordsworth :
'Readings from Wordsworth were then given by Mrs Smith, Mrs Rawlings, Mrs Edminson and Miss Wallis.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
William Wordsworth :
'Readings from Wordsworth were then given by Mrs Smith, Mrs Rawlings, Mrs Edminson and Miss Wallis.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
[n/a] : [newspaper]
Witness statement in trial for bigamy: Mrs Webb: 'after she was separated from her husband, she read in the newspaper about a marriage being illegal, in consequence of a person being married in a wrong name'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Burden Print: Newspaper
[n/a] : [newspaper]
witness statement in trial for theft: Eliza Warr: 'Q. What did the prisoner do there from one o'clock till after three? A. Waiting for his boots—I was in the room, sitting, reading the newspaper, all the time he was there—I saw the watch at five minutes after three exactly'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Warr Print: Newspaper
: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
'The programme on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayham [sic] was as follows. Reading of the poem by Mrs Edminson and Mrs Rawlings Paper on the life of the poet by Mrs Smith Song from Omar by Mr Goadby Paper on Fitzgerald's Life and Omar's Philosophy by C.E. Stansfield Notes on Legalliennes Rhubaiyat [sic] by A Rawlings.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on Life of Edward Fitzgerald]
'The programme on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayham [sic] was as follows. Reading of the poem by Mrs Edminson and Mrs Rawlings Paper on the life of the poet by Mrs Smith Song from Omar by Mr Goadby Paper on Fitzgerald's Life and Omar's Philosophy by C.E. Stansfield Notes on Legalliennes Rhubaiyat [sic] by A Rawlings.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
'The programme on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayham [sic] was as follows. Reading of the poem by Mrs Edminson and Mrs Rawlings Paper on the life of the poet by Mrs Smith Song from Omar by Mr Goadby Paper on Fitzgerald's Life and Omar's Philosophy by C.E. Stansfield Notes on Legalliennes Rhubaiyat [sic] by A Rawlings.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: BookManuscript: Unknown
Robert Browning : 'May and Death'
'A programme of the works of Robert Browning arranged by the committee appointed at the previous meeting was then entered up [?] Mrs Stansfield read a paper on some characteristics of the poet. Mr Goadby read Garden Fancies & Master Hugues Of Saxe-Gotha. Mrs Rawlings read Evelyn Hope. Mr Edminson Phedippides Mrs Smith May & Death & Prospice A Rawlings One Word More.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Robert Browning : 'Prospice'
'A programme of the works of Robert Browning arranged by the committee appointed at the previous meeting was then entered up [?] Mrs Stansfield read a paper on some characteristics of the poet. Mr Goadby read Garden Fancies & Master Hugues Of Saxe-Gotha. Mrs Rawlings read Evelyn Hope. Mr Edminson Phedippides Mrs Smith May & Death & Prospice A Rawlings One Word More.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Lewis Carroll [pseud.] : 'Jabberwocky' [from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There]
'The following programme of readings from Lewis Carroll's works as arranged by the committee of arrangements was then started [?] upon. The Mad Tea Party by Mr A.L. Goadby The Hunting of the Snark " Mrs Cass The Mock Turtle's Story " Mr Stansfield The Jabberwock " Mrs Edminson The Explanation of the Jabberwock Etmyology " Mrs Goadby 41: from Sylvie and Bruno " Mrs [Miss?] Neild A poem " A Rawlings'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
William Shakespeare : Henry V
'Mr Edminson then made some interesting remarks on the subject of Shakespeare's [?? illegible] and portraits as an introduction to readings & songs from the poet's works, the programme consisting of the folowing. Song. Sigh no more Ladies Mrs Cass Reading from Cymbeline A.F.H. Rawlings " from Hamlet Mrs Stansfield Paper on Hamlet C.L. Stansfield reading from Taming of Shrew Mr and Mrs Cass " " Much Ado Miss Neild " " Henry V Mr and Mrs Edminson song Who is Sylvia Mrs Cass'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
Elizabeth Edminson : [Paper on Lecky's 'Map of Life']
'Mrs Edminson then read an interesting paper on Lecky's Map of Life'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Manuscript: Unknown
William Edward Hartpole Lecky : Map of Life
'Mrs Edminson then read an interesting paper on Lecky's Map of Life'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
William Morris : Earthly Paradise
'The consideration of the Life & work of Wm Morris was opened by the reading of a short account of the Life by Mrs Goadby in which his many activities were passed in review. After some comments Mrs Edminson read the opening verses to the Earthly Paradise the idle singer of an empty day. Miss Goadby followed with an excellent paper entitled "Some Illustrations of Wm Morris's love of nature" which showed a wide knowledge and keen appreciation of the author's works both in prose & verse. After some appreciative remarks Mrs Ridges read a paper on Wm Morris & Socialism in which it was pointed out that the socialism was the direct & logical outcome of his artistic attitude. [this argument is summarised] Some discussion folowed & was hardly concluded at ten o clock when the Chairman called upon A. Rawlings for some remarks on the art of Wm Morris. In two or three minutes a very incomplete statement of Morris's methods & aims was made & a very pleasant evening was brought to a close'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
Alfred, Lord Tennyson : poetry
'Mr Stansfield read an interesting paper on "Tennyson & his books" & in continuation of the subject readings were given by Mrs Reynolds, Mrs Edminson, Mr Cass & Mr Goadby. Mr Ridges also recited Sir Galahad and St Agnes Eve'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on Burns as song writer]
'Three papers were devoted to aspects of Burns & his works. Mrs Goadby read a biographical sketch. Mrs Smith read a paper prepared conjointly with Mrs [?]on Burns as songwriter & Fred Edminson one devoted to Burns's personality. [various songs were performed] Mrs Stansfield read To a Mouse & To a Mountain Daisy Mrs Rawlings the Cotter's Saturday Night.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
Robert Burns :
'Three papers were devoted to aspects of Burns & his works. Mrs Goadby read a biographical sketch. Mrs Smith read a paper prepared conjointly with Mrs [?]on Burns as songwriter & Fred Edminson one devoted to Burns's personality. [various songs were performed] Mrs Stansfield read To a Mouse & To a Mountain Daisy Mrs Rawlings the Cotter's Saturday Night.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Semple : 'travels through Spain'
Lady Harriet Cavendish to her sister, Lady Georgiana Morpeth, 16 December 1807: 'Lady Elizabeth is reading Semple's travels through Spain and says they are excessively interesting and entertaining. You will see a review of them in the last number of the Edinburgh Review. Let me know if I shall send them you, they are in two small volumes.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Elizabeth Foster Print: Book
Thomas Hood : Song of the Shirt
'The meeting at the Lawn on Dec 9 1901 was devoted to the life & works of Moore & Hood. F.J. Edminson read a paper on their works and Miss Goadby one entitled Reminiscences of Moore. Mr Goadby read The Demon Sleep [?] and Nellie Gray, Mrs Edminson the Song of the Shirt & Mrs Rawlings selections from Lalla Rookh.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
Elizabeth Edminson : [paper on [?] J.S. Brown]
'Mrs Edminson then read an appreciative article on the life and letters of J.S. [?] Brown which was much appreciated'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Manuscript: Unknown
Brown : [letters of [?] J.S. Brown]
'Mrs Edminson then read an appreciative article on the life and letters of J.S. [?] Brown which was much appreciated'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
John Greenleaf Whittier : Meeting, The
'A short programme of selections from American authors had been arranged but time only sufficed for the reading of The Meeting by Whittier the rendering of which by Mrs Edminson was much appreciated'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
Edmund Spenser : Faerie Queene
'C.E. Stansfield read a paper on Ed. Spenser & his times & the Faerie Queene. Readings were given by Mrs Reynolds, Mrs Edminson & H.M. Wallis'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
Geoffrey Chaucer : Prioress' Tale
'Mrs Edminson & C. E. Stansfield also read from the Canterbury Tales - The Prioress' Tale & the Rhyme of Sir Topas (Fit i) [i.e. Section 1] respectively'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
Elizabeth Ann Smith : [a biography of Keats]
'Mrs Smith then read an interesting biography of Keats which was followed by a reading of "I stood tiptoe upon a little hill" by Helen Rawlings. Howard R. Smith read from Endymion & Mrs Ridges the Ode to a Nightingale. Alfred Rawlings read a paper upon the poetry of Keats & Mrs Edminson some of the sonnets & H.M. Wallis a portion of "Isabella".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
John Keats : [sonnets]
'Mrs Smith then read an interesting biography of Keats which was followed by a reading of "I stood tiptoe upon a little hill" by Helen Rawlings. Howard R. Smith read from Endymion & Mrs Ridges the Ode to a Nightingale. Alfred Rawlings read a paper upon the poetry of Keats & Mrs Edminson some of the sonnets & H.M. Wallis a portion of "Isabella".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
Walter Savage Landor :
'Mr Binns then read a paper on W.S. Landor which was followed by a reading by Mrs Edminson, a paper by William [?] Harris & other readings by other members'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
: [Sagas]
'Mr Ridges read an interesting article on the Sagas & Mr & Mrs Edminson & W.S. Rowntree & W Binns selections from them'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
George Borrow : Bible in Spain, The
'Papers were then read by Mr Ridges on the Works of Borrow & on the Life of Borrow by R. Heelas. Readings were given by Mrs W.H. Smith from the Bible in Spain, Miss Marriage & Mr Kaye from Lavengro & H.R. Smith & W.J. Rowntree from Romany Rye'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
: [either an English ballad or text about ballads]
'The subject of the evening - 'English Ballads' - was then discussed in two papers, by F.J. Edminson & H.M. Wallis, and illustrated by readings recitations & songs. Recitations were given by Rosamund Wallis & Mrs Ridges. Readings by H.M. Wallis, Mrs Smith & Mrs Edminson'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
: [either an English ballad or text about ballads]
'The subject of the evening - 'English Ballads' - was then discussed in two papers, by F.J. Edminson & H.M. Wallis, and illustrated by readings recitations & songs. Recitations were given by Rosamund Wallis & Mrs Ridges. Readings by H.M. Wallis, Mrs Smith & Mrs Edminson'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Dante Alighieri : La Vita Nuova
'W.S. Rowntree read a paper on Dante & Florence [,] H.R. Smith explained the Vita Nuova from which Mrs W.H. Smith & Mrs Edminson read selections'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Dante Alighieri : La Vita Nuova
'W.S. Rowntree read a paper on Dante & Florence [,] H.R. Smith explained the Vita Nuova from which Mrs W.H. Smith & Mrs Edminson read selections'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book
[a member of the XII Book Club] : [essay on Browning]
'A series of more or less five minutes essays or talks on various aspects of Browning by the folowing members were then given. viz C.I. Evans, E.E. Unwin, W.S. Rowntree, E.A. Smith, H.R. Smith & A. Rawlings. Mrs Robson, E.E. Unwin, & Kathleen Rawlings contributed songs & Margery Rawlings read Evelyn Hope'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Ann Smith : [Paper on A.R. Wallace's psychical writings]
'The Meeting then considered the Life & Works of Alfred Russel Wallace. Walter S. Rowntree gave us an account of Wallace's life from the autobiography reading a number of well chosen extracts. This was followed by a paper from Henry M. Wallis on his scientific work and one from Mrs Smith on his psychical work.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
Alfred Russel Wallace : [psychical writings]
'The Meeting then considered the Life & Works of Alfred Russel Wallace. Walter S. Rowntree gave us an account of Wallace's life from the autobiography reading a number of well chosen extracts. This was followed by a paper from Henry M. Wallis on his scientific work and one from Mrs Smith on his psychical work.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair
'The evening was given over to the consideration of Thackeray. A paper by J.J. Cooper was read by Miss Marriage followed by readings from his works Charles E. Stansfield from Pendennis Charles I. Evans from Newcomes Mrs W.H. Smith from Vanity Fair H.M Wallis from Roundabout Papers H.R. Smith from Esmond'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
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: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
: [material by or about Wordsworth]
'The rest of the evning was devoted to Wordsworth, Alfred Rawlings, Mrs Rawlings, Mrs W.H. Smith, C.I. Evans, C.E. Stansfield, Mr Clough, Violet Wallis, taking part by reading papers, offering criticism or reading from the poems'.
UnknownCentury: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith
Gilbert Murray : [translations]
'Gilbert Murray & his work was the subject for the evening & a paper was read by H.M. Wallis. This afforded an interesting & useful introduction to the evening's subject & it was followed by several readings from his work. Mrs Rawlings read from 'The Rise of the Greek Epic' & H.M. Wallis later also read from the same book. Miss Marriage also read some extracts from one of his volumes of translations'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
Francis William Bain : 'In the Great God's Hair'
'The rest of the evening was devoted to Bain's Indian Stories. It is impossible for one, not steeped in Indian mythology & with no knowledge of Indian life, to do justice to these extraordinary books. That they are beautiful with the overpowering scents & colours of the East is too obvious - that the author has a wonderful power of description hardly a word out of place or a jarring note is also obvious - that they are unique in literature is very likely - but --- perhaps I had better give the programme. [all extracts from] Bubbles of the Foam by E.E. Unwin Ashes of a God " Rosamund Wallis Syrup of the Bees " Alfred Rawlings In the Great God's Hair " Miss Marriage Digit of the Moon " Mrs Reynolds The club is indebted to Alfred Rawlings for introducing us to a new type of literature and if it left some of us gasping as with asthma in its rather overscented & sensuous atmosphere so that we longed for the moors & the winds of Heaven - others, whose breathing organs can cope with this Eastern air & whose palates are tickled by The Syrup of the Bees will feel that a new star has entered their literary constellation.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on child study]
'Child- Study then claimed our attention. Three papers (or contributions) were given first of all by Mrs Smith, Mr Evans & Mr Stansfield so as to give the remaining time to discussion. Mrs Smith in reading the opening paper quoted part of an extremely interesting article from 'The Spectator' - dealing with the child's mind & what the problems were about which the young members of society thought. [the discussion on the subject and Unwin's own opinions are then given at length]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
: Spectator, The
'Child- Study then claimed our attention. Three papers (or contributions) were given first of all by Mrs Smith, Mr Evans & Mr Stansfield so as to give the remaining time to discussion. Mrs Smith in reading the opening paper quoted part of an extremely interesting article from 'The Spectator' - dealing with the child's mind & what the problems were about which the young members of society thought. [the discussion on the subject and Unwin's own opinions are then given at length]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Serial / periodical
Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on 'Mankind in the Making' by Wells]
'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: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
Herbert George Wells : Mankind in the Making
'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: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
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: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Robert Louis Stevenson : 'Christmas at Sea'
'The remainder of the evening was given over to R.L. Stevenson & his work. [the format of the evening's discussion on the question of whether Stevenson's work will live is explained] To enable us to review his work readings were given as under from the Essays - 'An Apology for Idlers' by Alfred vice Janet Rawlings Poems - 'Christmas at Sea' 'Tropic Rain' 'Vagabond' [all read by] Mrs W.H. Smith Travel Books - 'Travels with a Donkey' by E.E. Unwin Novels - 'Master of Ballantrae' by H.M. Wallis Letters - Mr & Mrs Evans. [some remarks on songs sung by various members] It is difficult for any one to sum up the results of the discussion - it was soon apparent that to some members his essays were the one & only thing worth having, to others his stories, 'Treasure Island', 'Island Nights Entertainments' & so on reveal his greatness: to others, his letters are the thing & so one might proceed'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Robert Louis Stevenson : 'Tropic Rain'
'The remainder of the evening was given over to R.L. Stevenson & his work. [the format of the evening's discussion on the question of whether Stevenson's work will live is explained] To enable us to review his work readings were given as under from the Essays - 'An Apology for Idlers' by Alfred vice Janet Rawlings Poems - 'Christmas at Sea' 'Tropic Rain' 'Vagabond' [all read by] Mrs W.H. Smith Travel Books - 'Travels with a Donkey' by E.E. Unwin Novels - 'Master of Ballantrae' by H.M. Wallis Letters - Mr & Mrs Evans. [some remarks on songs sung by various members] It is difficult for any one to sum up the results of the discussion - it was soon apparent that to some members his essays were the one & only thing worth having, to others his stories, 'Treasure Island', 'Island Nights Entertainments' & so on reveal his greatness: to others, his letters are the thing & so one might proceed'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Robert Louis Stevenson : 'Vagabond'
'The remainder of the evening was given over to R.L. Stevenson & his work. [the format of the evening's discussion on the question of whether Stevenson's work will live is explained] To enable us to review his work readings were given as under from the Essays - 'An Apology for Idlers' by Alfred vice Janet Rawlings Poems - 'Christmas at Sea' 'Tropic Rain' 'Vagabond' [all read by] Mrs W.H. Smith Travel Books - 'Travels with a Donkey' by E.E. Unwin Novels - 'Master of Ballantrae' by H.M. Wallis Letters - Mr & Mrs Evans. [some remarks on songs sung by various members] It is difficult for any one to sum up the results of the discussion - it was soon apparent that to some members his essays were the one & only thing worth having, to others his stories, 'Treasure Island', 'Island Nights Entertainments' & so on reveal his greatness: to others, his letters are the thing & so one might proceed'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on the spirit world]
'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: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on the mind and its training]
'Essays were then read. The Secretary does not feel able to do more than indicate the general nature of these essays. 1. Read by R.H. Robson. An essay written by H.M.W. about the remains of an altar stone found near Carthage. Vivid & interesting, bloodstained though the stone was, with human sacrifice. 2. Mrs Smith read a very interesting paper dealing with the mind & its training. 'My mind to me a kingdom is'. Considerable discussion followed. 3. Mr Stansfield read a fantasia (written surely by a historian. R.H.R.) relating the musings of Mendax II giving expression to a cynical prophecy of European politics if events evolved or devolved along present lines. We hope that the assassination of Ld. George by a Quaker pacifist & the suppression of L.P.S. will not be fulfilled. 4. E.E. Unwin read a paper entitled 'The Humours of Man' which consisted of a number of humorous stories lightly linked together'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
John Keats : Ode on a Grecian Urn
'The subject of the evening's programme was John Keats. R.H. Robson read an essay dealing with his life. The main influences & friendships of his short life were well brought out. H.M. Wallis folowed with an appreciation written in the delightful style of which our Friend is so great a master & a reading of the Grecian Urn ode by Miss Marriage completed the first part of the programme. On our return from physical refreshment Charles I. Evans described the Poems of 1820 and some readings were given by Mrs Evans, Mrs Robson & C.E. Stansfield.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
[a member of the XII Book Club] : [paper on Blackwood's 'The Garden of Survival']
'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: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown
Algernon Blackwood : Garden of Survival, 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: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Edmund Gosse : Two visits to Denmark
'The rest of the evening was given to Edmund Gosse. H.M. Wallis spoke about Edmund Gosse the man & his work for the public services, & the conflict of personalities as shown in 'Father & Son' & his great interest in the Scandinavian peoples. Miss Marriage gave some very interesting readings from '2 Visits to Denmark' 'The Episode of the Plum Pudding served in a Tureen' & the dear lady who remarked "It brings the dear English nation so near to one". Ed. Gosse has also done great work as a critic - one sentence which fell from H.M.W.in relation to Swinburne. "A drunken monkey who gave utterance to the songs of angels". C.I. Evans spoke upon the Poems. These belong to the period round about 1872 & are frankly of that period & makeup. Perhaps versifying would be the best term to use as they do not quite rank as poetry.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
Jean Froissart : Chronicles
'The following miscellaneous programme was then gone through. This change in the subject was caused by the imposibility of getting cheap copies of The Dynasts. 1. Pianoforte solo. Selection from Debusy [sic] Miss Bowman Smith 2. Reading. Modern Froissart Chronicles Mrs W.H. Smith 3. Reading. Migrations. Anon. Contrib. from Punch by Alfred Rawlings 4. Recitation. In a Gondola (Browning) Miss Cole 5. Song. 2 French Bergerettes. Mrs Unwin 6. Essay. 'The Pious Atrocity' R.B. Graham 7. Reading. Wedding Presents (Punch) Mrs Reynolds 8. Song. My dear Soul. Mrs Robson 9. Reading 'How the Camel got his Hump' W.H. Smith 10. Song. The Camel's hump. E.E. Unwin 11. Reading. The Man of the Evening (A.A. Milne Punch) Miss R. Wallis 12. Song. Hebrides Galley Song. Miss Bowman Smith 13. Reading. Arms of Wipplecrack S.A. Reynolds 14. Reading. Joints in the Armour. E.V. Lucas. H.M. Wallis 15. Song-Chant Folk Song [ditto] 16. Essay. 'Bad morality & bad art' R.H. Robson 17. Song. Winter. Miss Bowman Smith 18. Essay 'Etaples & the air raids' H.R. Smith 19. Recitation. These new fangled ways. E.E. Unwin 20. Song. Goodnight. Mrs Robson'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Thomas de Quincey : Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
'De Quincey was the subject before the paper & number of extracts [sic] & two papers, one read by Mrs Rawlings & one by Miss Cole, gave a very interesting introduction to De Quincey & his literary work. The contributions were as follows. Mrs Rawlings. Paper on De Quincey prepared by Miss Cole Miss Wallis Reading from Suspiria De Profundis Miss Cole Paper with an account of his episode with Ann his protectress E.E. Unwin Reading from Recollections of Charles Lamb Miss Marriage [ditto] Confessions of an Opium Eater Miss Bowman Smith & Mrs Reynolds also gave reading [sic] Mrs Robson contributed a song.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
: Battle of Otterburn, The
'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: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Unknown
Anatole France : Red Lily, The
'Miss Marriage then gave us some notes on Anatole France [sic] Life with references to some of his work & the order of their production. F.E. Pollard read an amusing account of an unconventional dinner party from "La Reine Pedauque" & A. Rawlings gave us some extracts from "The Memoirs of Abbe Coignard". After supper R.H. Robson amused us with the story of the Baptism of the penguins by the Blessed Mael "Penguin Island" & Mrs Evans gave us a glimpse of France's more sober philosophy in a series of short essays from "The Garden of Epicures". Mrs Rawlings read a charming passage on Joan of Arc and Miss Marriage read us one of the cynical passages from a novel "The Red Lily".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
Anatole France :
'Miss Marriage then gave us some notes on Anatole France [sic] Life with references to some of his work & the order of their production. F.E. Pollard read an amusing account of an unconventional dinner party from "La Reine Pedauque" & A. Rawlings gave us some extracts from "The Memoirs of Abbe Coignard". After supper R.H. Robson amused us with the story of the Baptism of the penguins by the Blessed Mael "Penguin Island" & Mrs Evans gave us a glimpse of France's more sober philosophy in a series of short essays from "The Garden of Epicures". Mrs Rawlings read a charming passage on Joan of Arc and Miss Marriage read us one of the cynical passages from a novel "The Red Lily".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
Arthur Quiller-Couch : [a short story]
'Mr Robson then gave us some short notes on Sir A.T. Quiller Couch and read us his short story "Once aboard the lugger". H.M. Wallis gave us an appreciation of 'Q's' work & read a tragic short story & poem. Mr Evans read from Couch's lecture on the Art of Writing an Interlude on Jargon. H.R. Smith read from the Mayor of Troy Mr Stansfield whose health unfortunately did not allow him to be present sent a short appreciation of Quiller Couch's novel Pho & Farrell [sic] and Miss Marriage read a short story (very sad). Perhaps the selection of his work put before us was a little one-sided for the club certainly got the impression of a writer too fond of the gloom & pain of life'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
: Morning Service
Eliza Fenwick, a touring actress, to her mother, also Eliza Fenwick, 'Barbadoes, May 2nd [1812], Morning, 10 o clock,' describing her experiences following a nearby volcanic eruption: 'At this time yesterday morning we thought ourselves on the verge of eternity, & waited in total darkness & almost uninterrupted silence the expected shock which was to destroy us [...] It began, I believe, about two o Clock on Friday morning [...] I thought it the longest night I had ever known, & was watching for some appearance of daylight that I might get up, when Margaret came into my room, & told me, in a voice of terror, that it was past 7 o Clock. It was totally dark [...] I went into the balcony & felt that it [italics]rained[end italics], as I thought, but returning into the room I found I was covered with wet sand or ashes [...] Everyone thought an Earth-quake was coming [...] Mr R[utherford]. borrowed from Mr Ford, our next neighbour, the younger Pliny's account of an irruption of Mount Vesuvius, & read it. Pliny describes a fall of dust or ashes previous to the great shock. We all, I believe, thought the shock was coming [...] After breakfast I proposed going to Church, but none but my two companions in wickedness [Miss Simms and Mr Rutherford, who had also wanted breakfast, while the rest of Fenwick's companions slept, wept, or stayed silent with fear] were willing to join me [...] My next plan of of reading prayers was not better approved of. Mrs D[yke]. preferred the more pious amusement of abusing us to her black Confidant Margaret [...] Mr R. read the bible in his own room, I the Morning Service to Miss Brailsford in mine [...] We passed an hour in this manner, & met again to wonder at the still encreasing darkness'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Fenwick junior Print: Book
Sabine Baring-Gould :
'H.R. Smith gave a brief outline of S. Baring Gould's Life following which H.M. Wallis read from "John Herring" a Dartmoor tale. He also gave us a short criticism of Baring Gould's work from which we learn that he wrote too fast for revision and his fiction was marred by many improbabilities. In short a maker of books rather than an artist. After supper Mrs Pollard read from The Broom Squire and E.A. Smith gave us an appreciation of our Author more favourable than H.M.W.'s perhaps because it dealt mainly with the archaeological side of his work. F.G. Pollard kindly took C.I. Evans' place (he had lost his voice) by reading from "Strange Survivals & Superstitions" & H.R. Smith read from "The Vicar of Morwenstow".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
William Shakespeare :
'The remainder of the evening was devoted to a series of readings & quotations from Shakespeare intended to indicate different aspects of him and these were interspersed with brief informal & sometimes penetrating discussions. We were indebted to E.A. Smith for quotations on public & private life to C.I. and K.S. Evans for a reading from King Lear R.B. Graham gave us a series on Death & after several short items C.E. Stansfield appropriately concluded with Shakespeare's description of a wet Summer in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book
Edward Morgan Forster : Passage to India, A
'The subject of Forster's "A Passage to India" was then taken Rosamund Wallis reading a notable paper on the problem of Anglo-India with citations from the book. F.E. Pollard followed giving more the Indian Attitude with a reading to explain this. After an interval for Refreshments there was an interesting discussion on these papers and on the Book and its problems. R.B. Graham read a good portion of the trial scene and Miss Marriage read a part of the last chapter bringing a most interesting evening to a conclusion leaving us more than doubtful as to how far we had fathomed the author's purpose & ideas.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book
: announcement of publication of Evelina
'In January, 1778, Mrs. Burney [Frances Burney's stepmother], who was glancing over the newspaper at the breakfast table, read aloud the advertisement of a new book, "Evelina, or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World." Thus Fanny learned that her book was out.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Burney Print: Newspaper
:
'With the accomplished and honourable family of the Kembles [Elizabeth Inchbald] was long on terms of close intimacy. While her husband painted, she and John Philip Kemble read. On Sundays, if they were not near a Catholic chapel, it was she or her husband who read Mass to their visitor [Philip Kemble], who listened with due humility.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Inchbald Print: Unknown
Jane Austen : Emma
Quoted from Mrs Maxwell Scott: 'My cousin, Baroness von Appell (grand-daughter of Sir Walter [Scott]'s brother Thomas) will be one of those most interested in these letters. Her mother was the Eliza mentioned by my great-aunt Anne in one letter, and was a most clever and delightful lady, whose reading aloud of Emma is one of the remembrances of my girlhood.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Scott Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : 'Rambler' [essay]
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 4 March 1751: 'You need not make any apologies about my Rambler [No. 100]. I had no idea when I sent it to you that it was worth a second reading [...] Having honestly told you my humility, I will now, with equal honesty, tell you my vanity, that upon the whole it pleases me better than Mr Richardson's Rambler [identified by source ed. as probably No. 97]. Do you like that Paper? and will you be angry with me for not liking it at all? I cannot see how some of his doctrines can be founded on any other supposition than that Providence designed one half of the human species for idiots and slaves. One would think the man was, in this respect, a Mahometan.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Serial / periodical
Samuel Richardson : 'Rambler' [essay]
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 24 March 1751: 'Well according to your advice I have given Mr Richardson another reading, and confess myself to have been too much prejudiced both by the opinions of those who read it before me, and from some of his own notions which I had lately seen on another subject, and that the Paper itself, if my head had not been full of those when I read it, might have appeared to much greater advantage.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Serial / periodical
Christopher Smart : On the Eternity of the Supreme Being
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 12 August 1751: 'I have not seen the Oxford and Cambridge Verses. The only late publication I have met with is Mr Smart's Prize Verses.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Unknown
Alison Cockburn : prose writing/s
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 20 August 1751: 'You tell me nothing of Mrs Cockburn. I have read but little yet, but she seems to have had a most remarkable clear understanding and an excellent heart. By what I have read of her prose, I should by no means suspect she had a genius formed for poetry, which is perhaps one reason why I have not yet looked into her play.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Unknown
: report of death of Bishop of Durham
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 23 June 1752: 'I am heartily sorry, my dear Miss Talbot, to find by to-day's Paper that your apprehensions were too well grounded. The loss of so great and good a man, in such a rank [Bishop of Durham], is a general misfortune, but I cannot help finding myself particularly interested in it, as it so immediately affects those for whose happiness I have such uncommon reason to be solicitous.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Newspaper
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 21 September 1753: 'Mr Richardson has been so good as to send me four volumes of his most charming work, and I heartily wish, for his sake as well as their own, that all the world may be as fond of it as I am [comments further].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Carlo Maria Maggi : Sonnet 'Care dell'alma stanca Albengatrici...'
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 10 July 1754: 'I am beyond description charmed with the Italian sonnet you sent me. I am afraid your opinion is too well grounded of its being absolutely untranslatable, at least into our Gothic language.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Manuscript: Letter, Transcribed by Catherine Talbot in letter of 10 June 1754.
Metastasio : 'love song' opening 'Ecco qual fiero istante'
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 10 July 1754: 'After that exquisitely beautiful sonnet [by Carlo Maria Maggi, opening 'Care dell'alma stanca Albengatrici...'] you sent me, I am quite ashamed to let you see poor Metastasio's love song [as previously promised], but the simplicity of it pleased me, and simplicity is an excellence not often to be met with in any modern compositions, except those of our own country, of which I think it is the characteristic.'
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter
Sarah Fielding : The Cry
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 14 September 1754: 'Have you ever read the "Cry?" [...] It never fell in my way till very lately, and I read it with low spirits, but upon the whole it pleased me mightily. There is sometimes rather too strong a spirit of refining in it, which I believe is the case in all Mrs Fielding's compositions, and she often puts me in mind of Tacitus. But is she not in general a most excellent writer?'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Anthony Ashley Cooper : Characterisks of Men, Manners, Times, Opinions.
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 11 January 1755: 'It is very long since I read Lord Shaftesbury, and I only remember that I was in general charmed with his imagination and language, but thought him a very bad reasoner, and was greatly offended at his levity.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: Barbarossa
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 27 January 1755: 'I read Barbarossa in a great hurry, but remember in general that I was as well pleased with it as I could be with a tragedy that has so little poetry in it.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: work on Stoic philosophy
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 5 March 1755: 'I read that part of the Bishop of Norwich's quarto which relates to the Stoic philosophy, but met with nothing there that seems of any consequence to add to the Introduction [?to her translation of Epictetus]. The turn which that author gives to the doctrine of the Stoics is a very severe one.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Plato : Republic
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 5 March 1755:] 'I am obliged to you for the account of the new books, not one of which have reached Deal, except some novels, which I had not patience to read through. My present study is Plato's Republic. I have got through as much as I can read of Fielding's Miscellanies, which I never saw before. Did you ever read them? and are they not extremely good and extremely bad?'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: [novels]
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 5 March 1755:] 'I am obliged to you for the account of the new books, not one of which have reached Deal, except some novels, which I had not patience to read through. My present study is Plato's Republic. I have got through as much as I can read of Fielding's Miscellanies, which I never saw before. Did you ever read them? and are they not extremely good and extremely bad?'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Henry Fielding : Miscellanies
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 5 March 1755:] 'I am obliged to you for the account of the new books, not one of which have reached Deal, except some novels, which I had not patience to read through. My present study is Plato's Republic. I have got through as much as I can read of Fielding's Miscellanies, which I never saw before. Did you ever read them? and are they not extremely good and extremely bad?'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Samuel Johnson : Preface to Dictionary
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 13 June 1755:] 'How do you like Mr Johnson's Dictionary? I have only seen part of the Preface, which was like himself. I have just been reading Mr Swift's account of the Dean, a book at which I am greatly scandalized. I do not remember ever to have met with so open and shameful a vindication of that species of idolatry which is the absolute ruin of all virtue, the worship of the world.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Deane Swift : Essay on the Life, &c. of Dr Swift
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 13 June 1755:] 'How do you like Mr Johnson's Dictionary? I have only seen part of the Preface, which was like himself. I have just been reading Mr Swift's account of the Dean, a book at which I am greatly scandalized. I do not remember ever to have met with so open and shameful a vindication of that species of idolatry which is the absolute ruin of all virtue, the worship of the world.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Fulke Greville : Reflections, maxims, and characters, moral, critical, and satirical [extract]
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 3 May 1756:] 'I had read an extract from that book which you say is writ by Mr Greville, and concluded it must be a translation from some French author, and I can scarcely forbear wishing my notion had been right. I believe there might be some good things in it, but, Genius of Britain, forbid that any such frippery kind of writing should grow into fashion amongst us!'
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter
Thomas Browne : Religio Medici
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 26 May 1756:] 'I have not seen Sir Thomas Browne's Christian Morals, but your recommendation of it [in letter of 7 May 1756] will set me to reading his Religio Medici again, which I have utterly forgot, except that when I read it I thought it contained many excellent things.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Françoise Langlois de Motteville : Memoirs for the History of Anne of Austria
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 16 June 1758:] 'Since I came home I have picked up [reading] at Mrs Gambieu's the Memoirs of Anne of Austria, in a vile and most unintelligible translation; yet I keep reading on, and am much inclined to love Madame Motteville a great deal better than her heroine, against whom I have just now an irreconcileable quarrel for leaving her to all the dangers and miseries of a siege.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Salomon Gessner : La Mort d'Abel
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 30 May 1761:] 'To make you amends for all the nonsense which I have collected from all the frippery shelves throughout Westminster and London, I will mention a book which, if you have not read it, it is fit you should, 'La Mort d'Abel.' It is a High Dutch poem translated into French prose. This general account of it, does not, I confess, look very promising, but I think you will be pleased with the book. I believe it may not by any means be conformable to the rules of Epic poetry, but the manner and the sentiments are charming, and to me it was extremely affecting. There are two pastorals in the same volume, by the same author, which pleased me better than almost any thing I have met with of that kind.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: 'two pastorals'
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 30 May 1761:] 'To make you amends for all the nonsense which I have collected from all the frippery shelves throughout Westminster and London, I will mention a book which, if you have not read it, it is fit you should, 'La Mort d'Abel.' It is a High Dutch poem translated into French prose. This general account of it, does not, I confess, look very promising, but I think you will be pleased with the book. I believe it may not by any means be conformable to the rules of Epic poetry, but the manner and the sentiments are charming, and to me it was extremely affecting. There are two pastorals in the same volume, by the same author, which pleased me better than almost any thing I have met with of that kind.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Jonas Hanway : 'two volumes'
[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 9 June 1761:] 'My dear Mr Hanway has published two volumes at last, which you saw, and only told me you had seen them, but for which I love and honour him (and so far as spending thirty hours upon them I believe I shall also [italics] obey [end italics] him) as much as the world, and the wits, and the critics will, I suppose, despise him [...] Not that I would have licensed [italics] every [end italics] word in his book neither, but the whole delights me.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Katherine Phillips : Letters to Sir Charles Cotterel
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 13 June 1761:] 'I never had the least doubt but Mrs Phillips's Letters to Sir Charles Cotterel were genuine; it is so long since I met with them that I remember very little what they were. All that I recollect of her poetry is, that it is very moral and sentimental; and all that I know of herself is, that her genius and character are mentioned with the highest respect, admiration, and reverence by the writers of that time. I believe her Poems are very scarce; I have two or three little pieces in a miscellany, which if you have any curiosity to see I will send you. I never saw Mr Hanway's two volumes but in an advertisement, nor do I know what they are about, but am glad they have afforded you an agreeable amusement.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Katherine Phillips : poetry
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 13 June 1761:] 'I never had the least doubt but Mrs Phillips's Letters to Sir Charles Cotterel were genuine; it is so long since I met with them that I remember very little what they were. All that I recollect of her poetry is, that it is very moral and sentimental; and all that I know of herself is, that her genius and character are mentioned with the highest respect, admiration, and reverence by the writers of that time. I believe her Poems are very scarce; I have two or three little pieces in a miscellany, which if you have any curiosity to see I will send you. I never saw Mr Hanway's two volumes but in an advertisement, nor do I know what they are about, but am glad they have afforded you an agreeable amusement.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: advertisement for work by 'Mr Hanway'
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 13 June 1761:] 'I never had the least doubt but Mrs Phillips's Letters to Sir Charles Cotterel were genuine; it is so long since I met with them that I remember very little what they were. All that I recollect of her poetry is, that it is very moral and sentimental; and all that I know of herself is, that her genius and character are mentioned with the highest respect, admiration, and reverence by the writers of that time. I believe her Poems are very scarce; I have two or three little pieces in a miscellany, which if you have any curiosity to see I will send you. I never saw Mr Hanway's two volumes but in an advertisement, nor do I know what they are about, but am glad they have afforded you an agreeable amusement.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Unknown
: report of death of Mr Chapone
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 26 September 1761:] 'I have seen an article in the newspaper which I am particularly sorry for as it will affect you -- I imagine you have heard of the melancholy situation of a very excellent friend of mine by the death of Mr Chapone.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Newspaper
Carlo Maggi : poems
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 10 May 1763:] 'Carlo Maggi is, indeed, a most excellent companion, and I agree with you in lamenting that one cannot recommend the most elegant, the most amiable, and the most useful of all the Italian poets without so many cautions and qualifications [...] I fear some of his finest pieces have often a mixture of popish wildness and absurdity. I do not particularly recollect the prologue ["to a comedy of Plautus"] you mention, and perhaps never read it, as I am apt to skip the humorous pieces, but I will look over it on your recommendation.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: 'Treatise on Gaiety'
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 4 October 1763:] 'Is your Treatise on Gaiety a poem? If it is I believe I know it -- Pray amongst your French studies have you met with a refutation of Rousseau's Emile? It is in many parts admirably well writ, and with great strength of argument; but the effect is sometimes unhappily weakened by the mixture of popish doctrines. -- Probably you have seen Rousseau's answer to the Archbishop of Paris's mandement against Emile. There are sometimes so many right things blended with Rousseau's very dangerous errors, that I suppose there are few authors whom is it so difficult to answer in a proper way.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Unknown
: 'refutation of Rousseau's Emile'
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 4 October 1763: 'Is your Treatise on Gaiety a poem? If it is I believe I know it -- Pray amongst your French studies have you met with a refutation of Rousseau's Emile? It is in many parts admirably well writ, and with great strength of argument; but the effect is sometimes unhappily weakened by the mixture of popish doctrines. -- Probably you have seen Rousseau's answer to the Archbishop of Paris's mandement against Emile. There are sometimes so many right things blended with Rousseau's very dangerous errors, that I suppose there are few authors whom is it so difficult to answer in a proper way.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Unknown
Jean-Jacques Rousseau : 'answer to the Archbishop of Paris's mandement against Emile'
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 4 October 1763:] 'Is your Treatise on Gaiety a poem? If it is I believe I know it -- Pray amongst your French studies have you met with a refutation of Rousseau's Emile? It is in many parts admirably well writ, and with great strength of argument; but the effect is sometimes unhappily weakened by the mixture of popish doctrines. -- Probably you have seen Rousseau's answer to the Archbishop of Paris's mandement against Emile. There are sometimes so many right things blended with Rousseau's very dangerous errors, that I suppose there are few authors whom is it so difficult to answer in a proper way.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Unknown
Desiderius Erasmus : 'Dialogues'
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 15 October 1763:] 'It is more from the testimony of others than from any recollection of my own, that I had formed the idea that Erasmus was in some parts of his works a very indecent writer [...] It is I believe more than thirty years since I read his dialogues, and then only those which were pointed out to me.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Catherine Macaulay : 'History' [extracts]
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 5 December 1763:] 'Have you read Mrs Macaulay's history? I have seen only some extracts from it, which seemed to be writ with strength and spirit.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Unknown
: Lloyd's Chronicle
[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 11 October 1766:] 'Fye upon you and your popish saints [...] Your whole folio [of saints' lives] is not half so well worth reading as Lloyd's Chronicle, which has often given me the comfort of seeing the archbishop [of Canterbury]'s name, and inferring because he was very busy he must be very well.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Newspaper, Serial / periodical
Carlo Maggi : Malincolia d'Alicino
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 29 April 1763:] 'I am rather scandalized that you should even ask how I like the Malincolia d'Alcindo, which is beautiful in the highest degree, and it is impossible to be unaffected by it without an absolute want of all taste and all feeling [comments further]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Oliver Goldsmith : The Vicar of Wakefield
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 6 August 1766:] 'Be so good as to tell Mrs Handcock that I do like the "Vicar of Wakefield," and likewise that I do not [...] Indeed it has admirable things in it, though mixt with provoking absurdities, at which one should not be provoked if the book in general had not great merit [comments further].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Edward Fairfax :
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 6 August 1766:] 'I thank you for your transcript from Fairfax [translator of Torquato Tasso], which is very pretty.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Manuscript: Unknown, Transcribed by Elizabeth Vesey.
Horace Walpole : ?Royal and Noble Authors
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 18 March 1768:] 'I fancy you were not greatly edified by the study of Mr Walpole's book. There is always some degree of entertainment in what he writes, but less I think in this than usual, and it is rather more peevish and flippant. It is a great pity he should ever write any thing but Castles of Otranto, in which species of composition he is so remarkably happy [comments further on Walpole as a history writer]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Horace Walpole : The Castle of Otranto
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 18 March 1768:] 'I fancy you were not greatly edified by the study of Mr Walpole's book. There is always some degree of entertainment in what he writes, but less I think in this than usual, and it is rather more peevish and flippant. It is a great pity he should ever write any thing but Castles of Otranto, in which species of composition he is so remarkably happy [comments further on Walpole as a history writer]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Thomas Gray : ?Ode for Music
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 28 July 1769:] 'I only saw the Cambridge Ode in a newspaper [...] I thought there were some fine stanzas in it: but in general it seemed to be the effort of a writer struggling under the necessity of saying something to a patron, and conscious how little could with truth be said. But perhaps this may be mere refining. Upon the whole I was vexed and fretted at such an application of Mr Gray's genius'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Newspaper
: Sermon on text 'It is well...'
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 3 December 1769:] ''If the text of the sermon you mention is [italics]It is well[end italics], &c. I have read it and thought it very original and striking.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
?Thomas Sherlock : Sermons
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 8 December 1773:] 'When I recommended Sherlock's Sermons, I believe I did it with some exception; many, indeed most of them, are very excellent. Most of those in which he defends the general truth of Christianity, and answers the cavils of unbelievers, are writ with a clearness and a spirit which are seldom equalled. But in others he is obscure and confused, and seems either not to have understood himself, or not to have wished to be understood by others. Archbishop Secker's Sermons are absolutely free from these objections, and are, I think, upon the whole the most calculated to awaken the conscience and amend the heart, of any that perhaps were ever published.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Thomas Secker : Sermons
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 8 December 1773:] 'When I recommended Sherlock's Sermons, I believe I did it with some exception; many, indeed most of them, are very excellent. Most of those in which he defends the general truth of Christianity, and answers the cavils of unbelievers, are writ with a clearness and a spirit which are seldom equalled. But in others he is obscure and confused, and seems either not to have understood himself, or not to have wished to be understood by others. Archbishop Secker's Sermons are absolutely free from these objections, and are, I think, upon the whole the most calculated to awaken the conscience and amend the heart, of any that perhaps were ever published.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Anna Laetitia Aikin : Essays [?on Various Subjects]
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 4 May 1774:] 'I do not recall any late productions in the literary way, except a little volume of very pretty Essays by Miss Aikin, and Mr Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, of which I have read one volume in quarto. It is a work of immense learning and very great ingenuity, but has to me the fault of almost all the mythological systems I ever read, the want of sufficient proof [discusses text and author further] [...] I am told that the second volume is much more satisfactory than the first. I find it is a fashionable book, from which one would infer that this is an age of most profound literature, and from the very nature of his subject it is scarcely possible to discover what he means but by the assistance of Greek and Hebrew.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Jacob Bryant : A New System, or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology (vol. I)
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 4 May 1774:] 'I do not recall any late productions in the literary way, except a little volume of very pretty Essays by Miss Aikin, and Mr Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, of which I have read one volume in quarto. It is a work of immense learning and very great ingenuity, but has to me the fault of almost all the mythological systems I ever read, the want of sufficient proof [discusses text and author further] [...] I am told that the second volume is much more satisfactory than the first. I find it is a fashionable book, from which one would infer that this is an age of most profound literature, and from the very nature of his subject it is scarcely possible to discover what he means but by the assistance of Greek and Hebrew.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters to His Son
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 29 July 1774:] 'Lord Chesterfield's Letters are, I think, the most complete system of French morality that ever disgraced the English language. A system founded neither on principles of virtue, nor sentiments of heart, but upon those selfish motives, which aim at nothing higher than mere bienseance, and which never yet, through the general course of life, procured to any character, confidence, or esteem, or love [comments further].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: A Letter to a Young Nobleman Setting out on his Travels
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 31 May 1776:] 'As you are acquainted with all possible authors, pray be so good as to tell me who is the writer of a Letter to a Young Nobleman setting out on his Travels. I found it here on my return [home], directed to me [...] I shall be much obliged to you if you will return my best thanks to the author for his favor [sic] to me, and still more for the noble and beneficial tendency of his work. Happy would it be for this nation if it was received with the attention it deserves!'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: BookManuscript: Unknown
: report of Burgoyne's actions in American War of Independence
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 2 October 1777:] 'Every body seems very impatient for important news from America; for my own part, I have so little hope of any good to the public by such a quarrel, that I chiefly wish intelligence for the sake of the poor people who are anxious for their friends. Oh that they were all safe in England! I felt for the Miss Clarkes, when I read in the papers, that General Burgoyne was going to storm a place. It is terrible to be kept in suspence [sic] about the event, till another express can cross the Atlantic.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Newspaper
Anna Laetitia Barbauld : Hymns
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 25 July 1779:] 'I do not wonder you were struck by Mrs Barbauld's Hymns. They are all excellent, but there are some passages amazingly sublime. Amongst these is the manner in which she introduces the Saviour, after the description of the devastations of death, as the restorer of life and immortality.'
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter
Elizabeth Vesey : 'Ode'
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 20 November 1779:] 'A thousand thanks to you, my dear Mrs Vesey, for your charming Ode, which breathes all the spirit of that wild unfettered genius of poetry, that transports the imagination, and touches the heart with a power unattainable by scientific rules, and cold correctness [...] [Miss Sharpe] asked, how I supposed she could think of her breakfast while she was regaling on your Ode. She desires me to tell you, with her love, that she hates you mortally, for your intention of concealing it from us [...] You will be pleased that Miss Sharpe and I agreed at being particularly struck with the same passages in your very charming poem.'
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter
?Thomas Francois ?Raynal :
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 9 January 1782:] 'Alas, my dear friend, it is not a reflection on the writings or conversation of a licentious profligate infidel like the Abbe R---- that can compose the astonished mind amidst the awful terrors of a midnight storm, such as you so nobly describe: you well know that from sources such as these no solid comfort can be derived, why then will you idly spend your time in reading what ought never to have been written? But you do it, you say, merely for amusement: 'tis dangerous amusement to a mind like yours, indeed to any mind.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Vesey Print: Book
James Cook : A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 21 August 1784:] 'Have you read Captain Cook's last voyages? I have just finished them. The description of the savage inhabitants of the southern climates is a fine eloge of a [italics]state of nature[end italics], of which one species of philosophers is fond of speaking in such rapturous terms! I was heartily glad to take my leave of those barbarians, and to find myself among the harmless gentle contented race, that dwell on the borders of the arctic circle [...] they enjoy the blessings of a mild government, and the illumination of the Christian religion. Ever since I read this account, I have felt a very high respect for the Russians, to whose humanity and instructions the inhabitants of Kamtschatka owe their inestimable advantages.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
: 'ancient account of India'
[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 11 June 1786:] 'I have just been reading, in an ancient acount of India, that the women there were remarkably chaste, unless the gallant was able to present them with an elephant; and this temptation was considered as so very irresistible, that in that case a lady might sacrifice her virtue without forfeiting her character. This sounds very ridiculous, but it seems the riding upon an elephant is in that country a mark of the highest dignity.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Unknown
Walter Scott : The Lord of the Isles
[From the diary of Elizabeth Firth, 22 January 1816:] 'Read Lord of the Isles again.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Firth Print: Book
Walter Scott : Old Mortality
[From the diary of Elizabeth Firth, 21 June 1817:] 'Read Old Mortality; did not like it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Firth Print: Book
Thomas Moore : Lalla Rookh
[From the diary of Elizabeth Firth, 22 April 1818:] 'Read Lalla Rookh.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Firth Print: Book
Edward Young : Night Thoughts
[From the diary of Elizabeth Firth, 13 May 1818:] 'Read Young's Night Thoughts.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Firth Print: Book
Henry Kirke White : The Remains of Henry Kirke White, of Nottingham
[From the diary of Elizabeth Firth, 22 May 1818:] 'Read Remains of H. K. White.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Firth Print: Book
Walter Scott : The Heart of Midlothian
[From the diary of Elizabeth Firth, 2 January 1819:] 'Read the Heart of Midlothian.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Firth Print: Book
Oliver Goldsmith : History of Rome
[From the diary of Elizabeth Firth, 6 January 1820:] 'Read Goldsmith's History of Rome.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Firth Print: Book
:
[From Ellen Nussey's account of her first visit to the home of her schoolfriend, Charlotte Bronte:] 'In summer [Elizabeth Branwell] spent part of the afternoon in reading aloud to Mr Bronte. In the winter evenings she must have enjoyed this; for she and Mr Bronte had often to finish their discussions on what she had read when we all met for tea.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Branwell Print: Unknown
: The Lady's Magazine
Charlotte Bronte to William Wordsworth (in draft response to letter from him of c.1840): 'I am sorry I did not exist, sir, fifty or sixty years ago, when the "Ladies' Magazine" was flourishing like a green bay tree. In that case, I make no doubt, my aspirations after literary fame would have met with due encouragement [...] I recollect, when I was a child, getting hold of some antiquated old volumes, and reading them by stealth with the most exquisite pleasure. You give a correct description [in letter] of the patent Grisels of those days. My aunt was one of them; and to this day she thinks the tales of the "Ladies' Magazine" infinitely superior to any trash of modern literature. So do I; for I read them in childhood, and childhood has a very strong faculty of admiration, but a very weak one of criticism'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Branwell Print: Serial / periodical
: Blackwood's Magazine
From Emily Bronte's 'diary paper' of 30 July 1841: 'It is Friday evening, near 9 o'clock -- wild rainy weather. I am seated in the dining-room alone [...] Papa is in the parlour -- aunt upstairs in her room. She has been reading Blackwood's Magazine to papa.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Branwell Print: Serial / periodical
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust
Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32
Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.
1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.
[...]
8. After adjournment for supper, the Goethe evening was begun by Mary E Robson. She sang the song "Knowst thou the land". The music is by Beethoven. In this and her other songs Mary Robson was kindly accompanied by Caroline Pollard.
9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.
10. Reginald H. Robson read a paper on the life of Goethe. If there were any who had thought of Goethe exclusively as a poet, they must have been amazed at his vesitality. Philosopher, poet, statesman, scientist, he seems to have been "everything by turns and nothing long", except indeed a lover [...].
11. We had been much intrigued with Mrs Robson's description of the Sorrows of Werther, especially when our friend warned us that those who came under the spell of this book usually commited suicide after reading it. We felt accordingly grateful to Mrs. Robson who had read it on our behalf, and flirted with death for our sakes, and not a little apprehensive when Janet Rawlings read us an extract from it. All passed off well, however. [...]
12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.
13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.
14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander
15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.
16. Finally Charles E. Stansfield gave us his paper on Goethe. He referred to the lack of the political sense in the German people of those days, & showed Goethe as quite content to acquiesce in the paternal government of his small state. He described the influence of Herde[,] Klopstock, Lessing, Shakespeare, &, quaintly enough, of Goldsmith on Goethe. In speaking of the poet's scientific interests he told us of his discovery of the intermaxillary bone & of Goethe's ceaseless efforts to acquire truth.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander Print: Book
Janet Rawlings : Uniforms
Meeting held at Oakdene, Northcourt Av, 20.3.34.
Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read and approved, in the teeth of one dissident.
[...]
5. We then proceeded to the anonymous essays and members felt on excellent terms with themselves at the prospect of hearing some attractive reading and of eluding or inflicting a good hoax or two.
The first essay opened discreetly without title on the theme of “Newcomers to Reading”, going on to a description of the neighbourhood, its beauties its quaint place names and historical associations. […]
6. Next came a paper on “Uniforms”. The writer was considered by one or two to show the observation of the masculine mind and the style of the feminine. […]
7. Then came a letter to "My dear Twelve" written with the unmistakeable touch of the practised writer. […]
8. We listened, too, with equal interest to a paper called “Canaries”, telling us something of the progress and perambulations of our latest migrant members. Moreover two or three of our number were able to follow their doings with particular appreciation, having mad much the same trip themselves. […]
9. All of us were a good deal non plussed by “Hors d’Oeuvres”, an essay not inappropriately named, for it contained a perplexing mixture of fare, and certainly stimulated our appetite. […]
10. Hardly less difficult was “Glastonbury”. Many of us had visited it, and so were able to follow closely the author’s points. But few of us knew enough of its history and legend to be sure whether or no our one professional historian had set his wits before us. So we gave up reasoning and just guessed. […]
11. Finally we heard “Spoonbill”. It was a noteworthy paper, combining the love of the naturalist for the birds he watches with the craft of the writer in the language he uses. […]
12. Here is the complete list. —
“Newcomers to Reading” by H. R. Smith, read by F. E. Pollard
“Uniforms” by Janet Rawlings, read by Elizabeth Alexander
“My dear Twelve” by H. M. Wallis, read by S. A. Reynolds
“Canaries” by C. E. Stansfield, read by Dorothy Brain
“Hors d’Oeuvres” by Dorothy Brain, read by R. H. Robson
“Glastonbury” by Mrs Goadby, read by H. R. Smith
“The Spoonbill” by W. Russell Brain, read by Mrs. Robson
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander Manuscript: Unknown
Jane Austen : Love and Friendship
Meeting held at 30 Northcourt Avenue: 21.4.37.
Ethel C. Stevens in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read & approved
[...]
6. V. W. Alexander read a paper on Jane Austen, half biographical sketch & half an appreciation of her style.
7. F. E. Pollard quoted from Lucy Harrison’s Literary Papers some telling and illuminating remarks, particularly about Fanny Price in Mansfield Park
8. Readings were then given
from Northanger Abbey by Celia Burrows
from Persuasion by Rosamund Wallis
from Sense and Sensibility by Francis & Mary Pollard
from Love and Friendship by Elizabeth Alexander
from Pride and Prejudice by Victor Alexander
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander Print: Book
Percy Bysshe Shelley : Ode to the West Wind
Meeting held at School House, L.P. :- 28. v. 37.
C. E. Stanfield in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read & approved
[...]
4. Charles Stansfield then read a biographical sketch of Shelley, followed by an estimate of Shelley’s views and character.
5. Readings were then given by the following
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty by Mary Pollard
Prometheus Unbound by Reginald Robson
Ode to the West Wind by Elizabeth Alexander
Adonaïs by Victor Alexander.
These were all discussed; and a further short reading, from William Watson’s poetry, was given by Alfred Rawlings.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander
William Fryer Harvey : Caprimulgus
'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37
Alfred Rawlings in the Chair
1. The Secretary asked permission to reserve the reading of some of the minutes until after the literary part of the programme had been taken, as these minutes would bear directly upon the discussion which would necessarily follow as to the future of the Club. This permission was given and the other minutes were then read and approved.
2. Victor Alexander then gave a brief account of the career of William Fryer Harvey, followed by an appreciation and review of “We were Seven” which he had previously written for the Bootham Magazine.
3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].
4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.
5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.
6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.
7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”
8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.
9. The Secretary then read the minutes referring to last time’s discussion on the Club’s future, and also two letters of resignation. These were from Edgar and Mignon Castle and from Dorothy Brain.
10. Discussion then followed.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander Print: Book
Halliday Sutherland : A Time to Keep
February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”
Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read and approved
[...]
4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro
5. Mary S. Stansfield read from “Lawrence by his Friends” some interesting impressions contributed by some of these friends to a book edited by Lawrence’s brother. One passage by a man who knew Lawrence as a fellow aircraftman gave us a picture of him as a thoroughly likeable and popular hero, admired for his prowess as a motorcyclist.
6. Howard L. Sikes then read from Africa View by Julian Huxley. The passage concerned the respective advantages of Indirect and Direct Rule[...]. This reading produced considerable discussion on the same questions, and spread over on to the attitude of the French and the British toward their African dependant peoples, and members found something to ask or to say about almost every corner of Africa[...].
7. Elizabeth T. Alexander followed with an entertaining reading from Halliday Sutherland’s “A time to keep”. We shall carry in our minds for some time the dramatic appearance of Red William in his nightshirt urging the ladies in evening dress to run for their lives.
8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.
9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].
10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander Print: Book
Halliday Sutherland : A Time to Keep
February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”
Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read and approved
[...]
4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro
5. Mary S. Stansfield read from “Lawrence by his Friends” some interesting impressions contributed by some of these friends to a book edited by Lawrence’s brother. One passage by a man who knew Lawrence as a fellow aircraftman gave us a picture of him as a thoroughly likeable and popular hero, admired for his prowess as a motorcyclist.
6. Howard L. Sikes then read from Africa View by Julian Huxley. The passage concerned the respective advantages of Indirect and Direct Rule[...]. This reading produced considerable discussion on the same questions, and spread over on to the attitude of the French and the British toward their African dependant peoples, and members found something to ask or to say about almost every corner of Africa[...].
7. Elizabeth T. Alexander followed with an entertaining reading from Halliday Sutherland’s “A time to keep”. We shall carry in our minds for some time the dramatic appearance of Red William in his nightshirt urging the ladies in evening dress to run for their lives.
8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.
9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].
10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.
