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

Mary Leadbetter : Cottage Dialogues Among the Irish Peasantry

'Have you seen the little book, "Cottage Dialogues", by Mrs Leadbetter? Edgeworths notes are lively and [nationally] characteristic as ever: but I own, I tired a little of the receipts to make cheap dishes. Without half so much ceremony & fuss and trouble, I had rather dine upon that cheap dish, an egg boiled in the shell - or a good mess of gruel and onions'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Hannah More : Practical Piety

'I have been frightened from taking up Hannah More's last book which fanny lent me, by the dread that it would more than ever convince me what a worthless wretch I am without giving me the courage and virtue to become better. But last night, wanting to compose my wayward spirit, I ventured to open it, and read the first Chapter on Internal Christianity - And was agreeably surprised to find myself much peased with it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Louis-Pierre Anquetil : Louis XIV, sa cour et le Regent

'I have finished all dear old Sevigne's letters, and since then read Anquetils' "Louis XIV, Sa Cour, et le Regent". - a most admirably entertaining work, in four moderate little volumes. He stells a story of Le Regent truly characteristic - He was obliged to pass a few days in the country which he hated, & the people round him perceiving his ennui, proposed une partie de chasse - "Non, je n'aime pas la chasse" - A game at billiards - "Non, je n'aime pas le billiard" - Une lecture amusante - "Non, je n'aime pas la lecture". Then what [underlined] should [end underlining] they do? - Why nothing - for to own the truth, he had no pleasure in innocent amusements. [His] words were 'Je n'aime point les plaisirs innocents!" - [The] laughable though desperate profligacy of this answer, makes me shout.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

[unknown] : [review of Pierre Jouhaud, "Paris dans le dix-neuvieme siecle"]

'A book that I am sure would amuse Barrett, and perhaps you also, very much, is [underlined] Jouhaud's Paris dans le dixneuvieme Siecle [end underlining]. The account of it made me extremely desirous to see it. There are in it descriptions of the present Parisien world - the state of Religion, of society, of amusements, of schools, fashions &c, &c - And all appears fairly done, and in a manly unaffected manner. pate le 3eme [a little hand points to an ink blot] I should like also excessively to see [underlined] Catteau's Voyage en Allemagne et Suede. [end underlining] The little I read about it, has made me so fond of the Swedes! Not the Swedish nobles, but the tiers etat; the farmers, landholders and peasantry: they resemble the Swiss at their best; but appear still more carefully educated at their provincial schools, and are quite dear things.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Serial / periodical

[unknown] : [review of Jean-Pierre-Guillaume Catteau-Calleville, Voyage en Allemagne et en Suede]

'A book that I am sure would amuse Barrett, and perhaps you also, very much, is [underlined] Jouhaud's Paris dans le dixneuvieme Siecle [end underlining]. The account of it made me extremely desirous to see it. There are in it descriptions of the present Parisien world - the state of Religion, of society, of amusements, of schools, fashions &c, &c - And all appears fairly done, and in a manly unaffected manner. pate le 3eme [a little hand points to an ink blot] I should like also excessively to see [underlined] Catteau's Voyage en Allemagne et Suede. [end underlining] The little I read about it, has made me so fond of the Swedes! Not the Swedish nobles, but the tiers etat; the farmers, landholders and peasantry: they resemble the Swiss at their best; but appear still more carefully educated at their provincial schools, and are quite dear things.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Serial / periodical

Hannah More : Practical Piety

'I am also reading with great veneration, but some degree of despondency, Practical Piety. The Chapter on "Comparatively small Faults and Virtues" merits to be written in letters of gold, and comes home to the feelings with an aptness and force not to be resisted or described. All she says on Prayer, though but a new modification of her former sentiments delivered on this subject, is touching and beautiful: - in short, the first volume, which I have just finished, edifies and charms me'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Francois de la Rochefoucauld : Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales

'Anch'io have been reading La Rochefaucould [sic] - and he has furnished me with an excellet Motto for my third Volume - And what is more to the purpose, with some entertainment of the highest & most rational kind for my breakfast hours. I can only afford time now to read at my meals. Ah pauvre humanite - I am afraid he is a [underlied] very [end underlining] little too severe against it! [...] He seldom writes as if he was hardened enough to exult in human depravity, but often as if he sadly, yet irresistibly felt its existence to be true - and such a book, it strikes me, properly considered, is calculated to produce infinite benefit'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Robert South : [unknown]

'I have, for Sunday reading, great delight in old South'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Jean-Jacques Barthelemy : Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grece

'I am reading Bartelemi's Anacharsis. which forms a sort of Appendix or rather comentary to the Grecian History I was so much taken up with last summer. Without such a previous brushing up of the memory, about those Grecian chaps, I should not have enjoyed Anacharsis at all'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine, Baronne de Stael-Holstein : De l'Allemagne

"I too am reading Mme de Staal [sic], and am such a Goth, that I catch myself yawning over it! Probably I am not formed to love "les plaisirs [underlined] dissertant [end underlining]." The book is like a long Review, and all about the same set of objects; and I tire for want of connection, and something either to interest my feelings or amuse my imagination. Yet, I have extracted some delightful, and some most wise little passages; and I read, though with fatigue, still with admiration, such a copious series of well-expressed reflections [...] I told my sister d'Arblay to-night, how glad I was that our best English writers, meaning Adison [sic], Swift, Johnson &c, had not written like Mde de Staal; for if they had, as sure as a gun, I should never have loved reading - I should never have opened a book. I have finished vol. I & shall probably read II and III, out of vanity, & just to say I have read them'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Jane Austen : Pride and Prejudice

'Yes I [underlined] have [end underlining] read the book you speak of, "Pride & Prejudice", and I could quite rave about it! How well you define one of its characterestics [sic] when you say of it, that it breaths [sic] a spirit of "careless originiality". - It is charming. - Nothing was ever better conducted than the fable; nothing can be more [underlined] piquant [end underlining] than its dialogues; more distinct than its characters. Do, I entreat, tell me by whom it is written; and tell me, if your health will allow you, [underlined] soon [end underlining]. I die to know. Some say it is by Mrs Dorset, who wrote that clever little [underlined] bijou [end underlining], "the Peacock at Home". is it so? Pray, pray tell me. I have the three vols now in the house, and know not how to part with them. I have only just finished, and could begin them all over again with pleasure'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Anne-Louise-Germaine, Baronne de Stael-Holstein : De L'Allemagne

'I am not sufficiently fond of dissertations, of eternal analysis, of eloquent bubbles, to be a warm partizan of Mde de Staal [sic]. Between friends - but don't mention it - I yawned over her Allemagne - and yet, here and there, was electrified by a flash of sublimity. Do you agree with me in thinking, that with all her brilliant varnish, she is corrupt at heart? Had Satan himself written "Pauline", one of the stories published with "Zuma", he could have produced nothing more offensive to decency, more detestably disgusting'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Anne-Louise-Germaine, Baronne de Stael-Holstein : Zulma, et trois nouvelles

'I am not sufficiently fond of dissertations, of eternal analysis, of eloquent bubbles, to be a warm partizan of Mde de Staal [sic]. Between friends - but don't mention it - I yawned over her Allemagne - and yet, here and there, was electrified by a flash of sublimity. Do you agree with me in thinking, that with all her brilliant varnish, she is corrupt at heart? Had Satan himself written "Pauline", one of the stories published with "Zuma", he could have produced nothing more offensive to decency, more detestably disgusting'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Catherine Anne Dorset : Peacock "at home", The

'Yes I [underlined] have [end underlining] read the book you speak of, "Pride & Prejudice", and I could quite rave about it! How well you define one of its characterestics [sic] when you say of it, that it breaths [sic] a spirit of "careless originiality". - It is charming. - Nothing was ever better conducted than the fable; nothing can be more [underlined] piquant [end underlining] than its dialogues; more distinct than its characters. Do, I entreat, tell me by whom it is written; and tell me, if your health will allow you, [underlined] soon [end underlining]. I die to know. Some say it is by Mrs Dorset, who wrote that clever little [underlined] bijou [end underlining], "the Peacock at Home". is it so? Pray, pray tell me. I have the three vols now in the house, and know not how to part with them. I have only just finished, and could begin them all over again with pleasure'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Maria Edgeworth : Patronage

'I hope, that considering the thickness of the Volumes, and the impossibility of reading any work of Miss Edgeworth's with the carelessness and haste a common Novel may be skimmed over with, I shall not be thought to have detained "Patronage" a [underlined] very[end underlining] unreasonabe time. I thank you most cordially for the loan. Nobody more thoroughly venerates the admirable Author than I do - And in this last work, she really has excelled herself! Every young man ought particularly to study it - but it contains many hints useful and good for all ages, conditions, and characters. She is the pride of Englsh female writers - and I do positively believe, the most useful author, whether male or female, now existing'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Walter Scott : Guy Mannering

'Have you seen Guy Mannering? I perfectly doat upon it. There is such skill in the management of the fable, & it is so eminently original in its characters and descriptions, that I think it bears the stamp of real genius'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Mary Brunton : Self Control

'"Discipline" people tell me to read, but I have no stomach to it, I believe because of the [underlined] name [end underlining], fool that I am! - But one thing is, I did not like the other book by the author, Self Control, and so I have no appetite to try the second'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Jane Austen : Emma

'Many thanks for the loan of "Emma", which, even amidst languor and depression, forced from me a smile, & afforded me much amusement'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Jane Austen : Emma

'I am [underlined] so [end underlining] glad you like what you have read of "Emma", and the dear old man's "Gentle selfishness". - Was there ever a happier expression? - I have read no story book with such glee, since the days of "Waverley" and "Mannering", and, by the same author as "Emma", my prime favourite of all modern Novels "Pride and Prejudice"'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Walter Scott : Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty years Since

'I am [underlined] so [end underlining] glad you like what you have read of "Emma", and the dear old man's "Gentle selfishness". - Was there ever a happier expression? - I have read no story book with such glee, since the days of "Waverley" and "Mannering", and, by the same author as "Emma", my prime favourite of all modern Novels "Pride and Prejudice"'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

John Scott : Visit to Paris in 1814, A

'I have read both Scott's visits, and Mrs Hulse has just lent me the life of John Sobieski, K. of poland. I have only just begun it, but it promises facility of style, & I think I shall like it. I tried Pallas's Travels in Russia lately: but there was too much about progressive improvements in agriculture, & manufactuaries amongst the grown-up Muscovite babes, & I got tired, as I easily do of all that relates to half civilised nations. Give me a whole Savage or no Savage at all.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

John Scott : Paris revisited in 1815 by way of Brussels

'I have read both Scott's visits, and Mrs Hulse has just lent me the life of John Sobieski, K. of poland. I have only just begun it, but it promises facility of style, & I think I shall like it. I tried Pallas's Travels in Russia lately: but there was too much about progressive improvements in agriculture, & manufactuaries amongst the grown-up Muscovite babes, & I got tired, as I easily do of all that relates to half civilised nations. Give me a whole Savage or no Savage at all.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Alicia Tindal Palmer : Authentic Memoirs of the Life of John Sobieski

'I have read both Scott's visits, and Mrs Hulse has just lent me the life of John Sobieski, K. of poland. I have only just begun it, but it promises facility of style, & I think I shall like it. I tried Pallas's Travels in Russia lately: but there was too much about progressive improvements in agriculture, & manufactuaries amongst the grown-up Muscovite babes, & I got tired, as I easily do of all that relates to half civilised nations. Give me a whole Savage or no Savage at all.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Pierre-Simon Pallas : Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire in 1793 and 1794

'I have read both Scott's visits, and Mrs Hulse has just lent me the life of John Sobieski, K. of poland. I have only just begun it, but it promises facility of style, & I think I shall like it. I tried Pallas's Travels in Russia lately: but there was too much about progressive improvements in agriculture, & manufactuaries amongst the grown-up Muscovite babes, & I got tired, as I easily do of all that relates to half civilised nations. Give me a whole Savage or no Savage at all.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Richard Baxter : Baxteriana

'Pray say for me many grateful & kind things to Mr Young, with thanks for his dear Baxter, which I brought here with me, & read with pleasure very frequently. My friends in the opposite parlour have lent me another abridged work of Baxter's, edited by Benjamin Fawcett, & entitled "Converse with God in Solitude". The chapter on friends taken from us by Death is worthy to be written in letters of gold; the rest, I have not yet read: but hope to like'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Richard Baxter : Of Coversing [sic] with God in Solitude

'Pray say for me many grateful & kind things to Mr Young, with thanks for his dear Baxter, which I brought here with me, & read with pleasure very frequently. My friends in the opposite parlour have lent me another abridged work of Baxter's, edited by Benjamin Fawcett, & entitled "Converse with God in Solitude". The chapter on friends taken from us by Death is worthy to be written in letters of gold; the rest, I have not yet read: but hope to like'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Catherine Hutton : Miser Married, The

'There is here a Mrs Hutton of Birmingham with whom I have struck up an acquaintance because she wrote a clever amusing little book called "The Miser Married"'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

John McLeod : Narrative of a Voyage in His Majesty's late ship the Alceste to the Yellow Sea

'Read, read, read M.Leod's Narrative of the Voyage of the Alceste to China, & her wreck in coming home. Ellis's Account of the Embassy is comparatively dull, but I had it lent me, & was glad to swap.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Henry Ellis : Journal of the proceedings of the late embassy to China

'Read, read, read M.Leod's Narrative of the Voyage of the Alceste to China, & her wreck in coming home. Ellis's Account of the Embassy is comparatively dull, but I had it lent me, & was glad to swap.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Walter Scott : Kenilworth

'Of course you have read Kenilworth Castle, and i trust, liked it. I greatly prefer it to the Monastery, & am almost as much pleased with it as with the Abbot: but not quite; the catastrophe is painful, & Elizabeth figures not so appropriately in a Romance, as her beautiful Rival; neither is the false varnish given to Leicester's character capable of making one forget his historical turpitude. The introduction of Raleigh is a delightful relief; and I wanted Sir Philip Sidney to boot; and more about several others only incidentally mentioned. It would perhaps have been too hazardous to bring in dear Shakespear: I cannot, however, but wish that he had adventured it. May be, I am a fool, and Scott's enemy for desiring it: but with his versatility of power; his happy embodyings of fictitious characters, he might surely have given form and pressure (if any man could) to the realities of Shakespear mind, and manners, & person. - At all events, Raleigh being so well delineated, I hope he will soon take some other historical personage in hand.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Walter Scott : Monastery, The

'Of course you have read Kenilworth Castle, and i trust, liked it. I greatly prefer it to the Monastery, & am almost as much pleased with it as with the Abbot: but not quite; the catastrophe is painful, & Elizabeth figures not so appropriately in a Romance, as her beautiful Rival; neither is the false varnish given to Leicester's character capable of making one forget his historical turpitude. The introduction of Raleigh is a delightful relief; and I wanted Sir Philip Sidney to boot; and more about several others only incidentally mentioned. It would perhaps have been too hazardous to bring in dear Shakespear: I cannot, however, but wish that he had adventured it. May be, I am a fool, and Scott's enemy for desiring it: but with his versatility of power; his happy embodyings of fictitious characters, he might surely have given form and pressure (if any man could) to the realities of Shakespear mind, and manners, & person. - At all events, Raleigh being so well delineated, I hope he will soon take some other historical personage in hand.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Walter Scott : Abbot, The

'Of course you have read Kenilworth Castle, and i trust, liked it. I greatly prefer it to the Monastery, & am almost as much pleased with it as with the Abbot: but not quite; the catastrophe is painful, & Elizabeth figures not so appropriately in a Romance, as her beautiful Rival; neither is the false varnish given to Leicester's character capable of making one forget his historical turpitude. The introduction of Raleigh is a delightful relief; and I wanted Sir Philip Sidney to boot; and more about several others only incidentally mentioned. It would perhaps have been too hazardous to bring in dear Shakespear: I cannot, however, but wish that he had adventured it. May be, I am a fool, and Scott's enemy for desiring it: but with his versatility of power; his happy embodyings of fictitious characters, he might surely have given form and pressure (if any man could) to the realities of Shakespear mind, and manners, & person. - At all events, Raleigh being so well delineated, I hope he will soon take some other historical personage in hand.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Giovanni Baptista Belzoni : Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs, and excavations, in Egypt and Nubia

'I have just begun Belzoni, & like his simple style very much. Miss Porter (Anna Maria) has published a new Novel, The Village of Mariendorpt, full of the most touching passages, but, as a whole, it drags. Her knowledge of military details appears to me marvellous; the period at which she makes her people act and talk, is during the Protestant War in Germany; she carries you to the dreadful siege of Magdebourg, & takes you into the camp and tent of Forstenson, Konigsmark, and I cannot tell you how many others, & seems to know more of warriors and warfare than, as a woman myself, I can at all account for'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Anna Maria Porter : Village of Mariendorpt, The

'I have just begun Belzoni, & like his simple style very much. Miss Porter (Anna Maria) has published a new Novel, The Village of Mariendorpt, full of the most touching passages, but, as a whole, it drags. Her knowledge of military details appears to me marvellous; the period at which she makes her people act and talk, is during the Protestant War in Germany; she carries you to the dreadful siege of Magdebourg, & takes you into the camp and tent of Forstenson, Konigsmark, and I cannot tell you how many others, & seems to know more of warriors and warfare than, as a woman myself, I can at all account for'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Walter Scott : Fortunes of Nigel, The

'I have read the first volume of The Fortunes of Nigel, which I like much better than the Pirate. I never could feel perfectly reconciled to having a Freebooter for a Hero, and a romantic, half crazy girl falling in love with him from mistaking him for an honest bold man'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Walter Scott : Pirate, The

'I have read the first volume of The Fortunes of Nigel, which I like much better than the Pirate. I never could feel perfectly reconciled to having a Freebooter for a Hero, and a romantic, half crazy girl falling in love with him from mistaking him for an honest bold man'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Philippe-Paul, comte de Segur : Histoire de Napoleon et de la grande armee, pendant l'annee 1812

'Of course you have read Segur, & Pepys, and with the latter are perhaps "mightily" weary now & then, but on the whole amused - There is a interesting History of the Tower of London lately published, which read when you can, for its historical anecdotes - and also (if you like Tours) read John Russel's Tour in Germany in 1820, 21, 22.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Samuel Pepys : Memoirs of Samuel Pepys

'Of course you have read Segur, & Pepys, and with the latter are perhaps "mightily" weary now & then, but on the whole amused - There is a interesting History of the Tower of London lately published, which read when you can, for its historical anecdotes - and also (if you like Tours) read John Russel's Tour in Germany in 1820, 21, 22.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

John Bayley : History and Antiquities of the Tower of London, the

'Of course you have read Segur, & Pepys, and with the latter are perhaps "mightily" weary now & then, but on the whole amused - There is a interesting History of the Tower of London lately published, which read when you can, for its historical anecdotes - and also (if you like Tours) read John Russel's Tour in Germany in 1820, 21, 22.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

John Russell : Tour in Germany, and some of the southern provinces of the Austrian Empire, in... 1820, 1821, 1822

'Of course you have read Segur, & Pepys, and with the latter are perhaps "mightily" weary now & then, but on the whole amused - There is a interesting History of the Tower of London lately published, which read when you can, for its historical anecdotes - and also (if you like Tours) read John Russell's Tour in Germany in 1820, 21, 22.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Stephanie Felicite Brulart, comtesse de Genlis : Memoires

'What paltry stuff the Memoirs of poor vain Genlis are!'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Horatio Smith : Tor Hill

'Tor Hill, I have read - and was amused to find myself [underlined] en pays de connaissance [end underlining]. Many years ago, I walked with my poor brothers James & Martin, from a little village in Somersetshire called Uphill, to Glastonbury, and thence three miles further, to visit Glastonbury Tor, on the Summit of a high hill. The local descriptions are very accurate, at least as far as I remember - and there are some interesting sketches of character - of personages who attach - but the concluding part of the story is wretchedly huddled together -the attempts at facetiousness beneath contempt - and throughout, there is a hardness of manner which gives to the book what the earliest Masters gave to their paintings, dryness, meagerness, & want of gradual light and shade. [underlined] He [end underlining] cope with the Author of Waverley! - he be hanged!'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : Spy, The

'The most spirit-stirring author, next to the Great Unknown [walter Scott], that I have met with, is the American who has written the spy, and the Last of the Mohicans, & various pothers. He copies nobody, & he has an energy, a power of developing what he has previously enveloped, and of keeping the interest upon the stretch, that is admirable.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : Last of the Mohicans, The

'The most spirit-stirring author, next to the Great Unknown [walter Scott], that I have met with, is the American who has written the spy, and the Last of the Mohicans, & various pothers. He copies nobody, & he has an energy, a power of developing what he has previously enveloped, and of keeping the interest upon the stretch, that is admirable.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

John Mason Good : Book of Nature, The

'I have bought a book lately full of general information, & written in a good spirit - that is containing a happy mixture of religious feeling with Science. Its title is "Good's Book of Nature". Have you heard of it? It is by a Dr Good, an M.D.F.R.S. who delivered Lectures at the London Institution'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Walter Scott : Life of Napoleon Buonaparte

'I have had the perseverance to read Sir W. Scotts Boney - and hackneyed as is the subject, I was lured on from page to page, with unwearied interest and entertainment. I am longing for Bishop Heber's Journal. Did you read, in one of the Quarterly's , an Article relating to him, remarkably well written, and worthy in all respects of its subject. - It must be now nearly a year ago that it appeared. I wish you could get it - and there is also a more recent article, published in the very last Review - quite excellent'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

 : [Reviews in the Quarterly Review of Bishop Heber's Journal]

'I have had the perseverance to read Sir W. Scotts Boney - and hackneyed as is the subject, I was lured on from page to page, with unwearied interest and entertainment. I am longing for Bishop Heber's Journal. Did you read, in one of the Quarterly's , an Article relating to him, remarkably well written, and worthy in all respects of its subject. - It must be now nearly a year ago that it appeared. I wish you could get it - and there is also a more recent article, published in the very last Review - quite excellent'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Serial / periodical

John Franklin : Narrative of a Second expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1825, 1826 and 1827

'I like your Capt. Franklin mainly - and his manly & respectful commendation of my poor dear James, is charming. - I am (though a little ashamed to own it) not fond, in general, of Voyages. Many women are, and I wish I were one - for the more innocent amusements we have the better. But when scientific purposes are to be answered by such voyages, I have great respect for them, and only wish I could get at their marrow, without being obliged to read about the gluttonous, dirty, lying, thieving, and brutal Savages! - To think that such creatures are really our fellow-beings, and that we might have been such as they are, but for the favour of God, is to me the most melancholy consideration in the world'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Giovanni Giraud : Commedie

'If you want light easy Italian reading, get Giraud's Commedie - They are excessively amusing - Some are farcical & some are grave, but all full of action, & with a great deal of character well delineated and well supported - Books are so cheap here, that I bought Nota's Comedies, which are in great repute & often acted, and are printed in eight duodecimo volumes for six Pauls!'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Alberto Nota : Commedie

'If you want light easy Italian reading, get Giraud's Commedie - They are excessively amusing - Some are farcical & some are grave, but all full of action, & with a great deal of character well delineated and well supported - Books are so cheap here, that I bought Nota's Comedies, which are in great repute & often acted, and are printed in eight duodecimo volumes for six Pauls!'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Niccolini : Antonio Foscarini

'I read only Italian books - and have just finished Niccolini's Foscarini, which is a fine masculine, energetic performance, & gave me much pleasure, and makes me admire and respect the Author'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Lorenzo Pignotti : Storia della Toscana sino al principato

'I really wonder at, and am sorry that our tastes differ so much that you do not like Pignotti, though I like him so very much. I have read as far as the beginning of the seventh vol: and every day my interest in the work encreases. His reflexions indeed are not very brilliant, deep, or new, but they are sagacious and just; and independently of the style, the subject is, to my thinking, highly curious, and chiefly from its extraordinary resemblance to the turbulent spirit of the little Grecian Republics, who, like the Florentines, the inhabitants of Pisa, Gennoa, and Venice, were always at daggers drawn, and yet flourishing, wealthy, and devotedy fond of the fine arts' [Burney then goes on to summarise further the content of the book]

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Lorenzo Pignotti : Storia della Toscana sino al principato

'I am much interested by Pignotti's history, which [underlined] though I bought [end underlining], I am reading, and have got into the seventh volume. The squabbles and turbulence of the little Italian Republics, puts one in mind of the Greeks, where so much of the same spirit reigned. The gradual progress to celebrity of the Medici family keeps up ones attention, and the little that is interspersed concerning the other Italian rulers, the Visconti, the Gonzagni, the Sforza family, & the great Condottieri of the day, is all very entertaining'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

 : [newspapers]

'The papers are sent to me very regularly by the kind Shuldhams, and I read them with indescribable eagerness; but they take away my spirits for the rest of the day. The affairs of Ireland - the horrors that appear to be hanging over the heads of the poor dear Poles - the Conflagrations in England, &c, &c - all these, are tremendous circumstances'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Newspaper

Joseph-Francois Michaud : Histoire des Croisades

'I am reading Michaud's Histoire des Croisades, well written and entertaining; and I have just finished Monti's fine Tragedy of Caius Gracchus. I like it much better than his Aristodemus - and I suspect I shall also prefer it to his Galeotto Manfredi, tho' the opening scene of this last is admirable. The story however is an odious one, and all the worse for being true'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Vincenzo Monti : Aristodemo

'I am reading Michaud's Histoire des Croisades, well written and entertaining; and I have just finished Monti's fine Tragedy of Caius Gracchus. I like it much better than his Aristodemus - and I suspect I shall also prefer it to his Galeotto Manfredi, tho' the opening scene of this last is admirable. The story however is an odious one, and all the worse for being true'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Vincenzo Monti : Galeotto Manfredi

'I am reading Michaud's Histoire des Croisades, well written and entertaining; and I have just finished Monti's fine Tragedy of Caius Gracchus. I like it much better than his Aristodemus - and I suspect I shall also prefer it to his Galeotto Manfredi, tho' the opening scene of this last is admirable. The story however is an odious one, and all the worse for being true'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Vincenzo Monti : Caio Gracco

'I am reading Michaud's Histoire des Croisades, well written and entertaining; and I have just finished Monti's fine Tragedy of Caius Gracchus. I like it much better than his Aristodemus - and I suspect I shall also prefer it to his Galeotto Manfredi, tho' the opening scene of this last is admirable. The story however is an odious one, and all the worse for being true'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

 : [Gospels and Psalms]

'I like - I admire the Italian translation of the Gospels & Psalms, which are what I have hitherto read. If the Prophetical books are not so well rendered, I will abide by my dear English version'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Humphry Davy : Consolations in Travel, or the Last days of a Philosopher

'Mr Layard has lent me Sir Humphry Davy's "Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher". It is a posthumous publication, & the editor says that "Had his life been prolonged, it is probable that some additions and some changes would have been made". - There are many fanciful and unwarranted ideas on the subject of the creation of this world, & the state of existence in the next: but, on the whole, it is a most interesting work, and shews a mind anxious to discern the right, and well prepared to love and glorify its Creator.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

J.H., Count de Santo Domingo : Tablettes romaines; contenant des faits, des anecdotes et des observations sure les moeurs, les usages, les ceremonies, le gouvernement de Rome

'Another book of a very different character has amused me mightily; it is entitled "Tablettes Romaines", and is full of wit and vivacity, and gives a very just and true picture of modern Rome, at least, as far as I am competent to judge. I wish you could get it. The pretended name of the Author is Santo Domingo, but, somehow, I suspect that to be a fudge. It was printed at Bruselles, for neither in Italy nor at Paris would such free opinions have been allowed to see the light - at least during the Carlists day'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Edward John Trelawney : Adventures of a Younger Son

'I have just finished Trelawney's Adventures of a Younger Brother. It is a book that excites whilst reading, and leaves behind it, many painful feelings. A true radical spirit runs thoughout it; - a contempt of all establishments, social, political, or religious; - a mad ferocity of disposition that causes the narrative to be filled with details of atrocious murders, so minutely described that ones flesh creeps upon ones bones whilst reading. Yet - to give even the devil his due, he has succeeded in drawing a female character of surpassing loveliness, purity, and tender faithfulness. He makes her an Arab however, that European women may take no pride to themselves from the favourable description he gives of her.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

James Justinian Morier : Zohrab the Hostage

'By the way, have you read Mr Morier's Hohrab, or the Hostage? And if you have, do you (as I hope) like it? And if you have not, can you tell whether others like it? I was charmed with it here in manuscript, when he kindly lent it to me. Besides, I delight in Mr Morier as a man, as well as an author'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Manuscript: Unknown

Marie de Rabutin - Chantal, marquise de Sevigne : Letters of Madame de Sevigne to her daughter and her friends

'would you like, Ma'am, to know what I have been doing all alone and at home this winter? - I have, 'an please you, for the 2d time in my life read Mde de Sevigne, 9 vols. - Histoire de la Revolution, par Thiers, 10. vols. - Botta's Storia d'Italia, continued from Guicciardini; there are ten vols: I have read only 6 yet. Memoires de l'Abbe Morellet, very entertaining. Memoires de Mde Dubarry, very naughty, but very amusing, & she the best natured of the vicious, envious, spightful Court - and sundry other vols, dotted about, & lent me by one body or other. - I hope you are edified, Sister Emma.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Louis-Adolphe Thiers : Histoire de la Revolution Francaise

'would you like, Ma'am, to know what I have been doing all alone and at home this winter? - I have, 'an please you, for the 2d time in my life read Mde de Sevigne, 9 vols. - Histoire de la Revolution, par Thiers, 10. vols. - Botta's Storia d'Italia, continued from Guicciardini; there are ten vols: I have read only 6 yet. Memoires de l'Abbe Morellet, very entertaining. Memoires de Mde Dubarry, very naughty, but very amusing, & she the best natured of the vicious, envious, spightful Court - and sundry other vols, dotted about, & lent me by one body or other. - I hope you are edified, Sister Emma.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Carlo Botta : Storia d'Italia, continuata da quella del Guicciardini

'would you like, Ma'am, to know what I have been doing all alone and at home this winter? - I have, 'an please you, for the 2d time in my life read Mde de Sevigne, 9 vols. - Histoire de la Revolution, par Thiers, 10. vols. - Botta's Storia d'Italia, continued from Guicciardini; there are ten vols: I have read only 6 yet. Memoires de l'Abbe Morellet, very entertaining. Memoires de Mde Dubarry, very naughty, but very amusing, & she the best natured of the vicious, envious, spightful Court - and sundry other vols, dotted about, & lent me by one body or other. - I hope you are edified, Sister Emma.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Andre Morellet : Memoires

'would you like, Ma'am, to know what I have been doing all alone and at home this winter? - I have, 'an please you, for the 2d time in my life read Mde de Sevigne, 9 vols. - Histoire de la Revolution, par Thiers, 10. vols. - Botta's Storia d'Italia, continued from Guicciardini; there are ten vols: I have read only 6 yet. Memoires de l'Abbe Morellet, very entertaining. Memoires de Mde Dubarry, very naughty, but very amusing, & she the best natured of the vicious, envious, spightful Court - and sundry other vols, dotted about, & lent me by one body or other. - I hope you are edified, Sister Emma.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Baron E.L. de la Mothe - Houdancourt : Memoires de Madame la comtesse de Barri

'would you like, Ma'am, to know what I have been doing all alone and at home this winter? - I have, 'an please you, for the 2d time in my life read Mde de Sevigne, 9 vols. - Histoire de la Revolution, par Thiers, 10. vols. - Botta's Storia d'Italia, continued from Guicciardini; there are ten vols: I have read only 6 yet. Memoires de l'Abbe Morellet, very entertaining. Memoires de Mde Dubarry, very naughty, but very amusing, & she the best natured of the vicious, envious, spightful Court - and sundry other vols, dotted about, & lent me by one body or other. - I hope you are edified, Sister Emma.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

William Robertson : History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V

'You talk of reading "a very old book": Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides. Why that's a [underlined] chickn [sic, underlined] compared to my present reading. I am reduced to a perusal of my own little library, and am solacing myself with Plutarch's Lives, and Robertson's History of Charles V. and vary my sport occasionally with an Historical Play of Shakespear, or a good Sunday Book.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

William Shakespeare : [History plays]

'You talk of reading "a very old book": Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides. Why that's a [underlined] chickn [sic, underlined] compared to my present reading. I am reduced to a perusal of my own little library, and am solacing myself with Plutarch's Lives, and Robertson's History of Charles V. and vary my sport occasionally with an Historical Play of Shakespear, or a good Sunday Book.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Plutarch : Lives

'You talk of reading "a very old book": Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides. Why that's a [underlined] chickn [sic, underlined] compared to my present reading. I am reduced to a perusal of my own little library, and am solacing myself with Plutarch's Lives, and Robertson's History of Charles V. and vary my sport occasionally with an Historical Play of Shakespear, or a good Sunday Book.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Carlo Botta : Storia d'Italia

'I return your Italian volumes, my dear friend, with many thanks, owning honestly, that I have never looked into them; for the thread of my interest in Botta's History having been interrupted by my leaving Florence, I could not for the life of me connect it again; and I got hold of other books - read no Italian for ages - and, at last, pounced one fine day upon a good, clear edition of Ariosto, and have been and am reading him with even more delight than when he first fell into my hands. Here and there, he is a bad boy, and as the book is my own, & I do not like indecency, I cut out whole pages that annoy me, & burn them before the Author's face, which stands at the beginning of the first volume, and I hope feels properly ashamed. Next to Ariosto, by way of something new, I treat myself now and then with a play of one Wm Shakespear, and I am reading Robertson's Charles Vth which comes in well after that part of Botta's History at which I left off - viz: just about the time of the council of Trent. And, as I love modern reading, I was glad to find myself possessed of a very tidy edition of a Biographical work you may perhaps have heard tell of - Plutarch's Lives. If you should ever meet with it, I think I might venture to say you would not dislike it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Ludovico Ariosto : [Works]

'I return your Italian volumes, my dear friend, with many thanks, owning honestly, that I have never looked into them; for the thread of my interest in Botta's History having been interrupted by my leaving Florence, I could not for the life of me connect it again; and I got hold of other books - read no Italian for ages - and, at last, pounced one fine day upon a good, clear edition of Ariosto, and have been and am reading him with even more delight than when he first fell into my hands. Here and there, he is a bad boy, and as the book is my own, & I do not like indecency, I cut out whole pages that annoy me, & burn them before the Author's face, which stands at the beginning of the first volume, and I hope feels properly ashamed. Next to Ariosto, by way of something new, I treat myself now and then with a play of one Wm Shakespear, and I am reading Robertson's Charles Vth which comes in well after that part of Botta's History at which I left off - viz: just about the time of the council of Trent. And, as I love modern reading, I was glad to find myself possessed of a very tidy edition of a Biographical work you may perhaps have heard tell of - Plutarch's Lives. If you should ever meet with it, I think I might venture to say you would not dislike it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

William Shakespeare : [plays]

'I return your Italian volumes, my dear friend, with many thanks, owning honestly, that I have never looked into them; for the thread of my interest in Botta's History having been interrupted by my leaving Florence, I could not for the life of me connect it again; and I got hold of other books - read no Italian for ages - and, at last, pounced one fine day upon a good, clear edition of Ariosto, and have been and am reading him with even more delight than when he first fell into my hands. Here and there, he is a bad boy, and as the book is my own, & I do not like indecency, I cut out whole pages that annoy me, & burn them before the Author's face, which stands at the beginning of the first volume, and I hope feels properly ashamed. Next to Ariosto, by way of something new, I treat myself now and then with a play of one Wm Shakespear, and I am reading Robertson's Charles Vth which comes in well after that part of Botta's History at which I left off - viz: just about the time of the council of Trent. And, as I love modern reading, I was glad to find myself possessed of a very tidy edition of a Biographical work you may perhaps have heard tell of - Plutarch's Lives. If you should ever meet with it, I think I might venture to say you would not dislike it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

William Robertson : History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V

'I return your Italian volumes, my dear friend, with many thanks, owning honestly, that I have never looked into them; for the thread of my interest in Botta's History having been interrupted by my leaving Florence, I could not for the life of me connect it again; and I got hold of other books - read no Italian for ages - and, at last, pounced one fine day upon a good, clear edition of Ariosto, and have been and am reading him with even more delight than when he first fell into my hands. Here and there, he is a bad boy, and as the book is my own, & I do not like indecency, I cut out whole pages that annoy me, & burn them before the Author's face, which stands at the beginning of the first volume, and I hope feels properly ashamed. Next to Ariosto, by way of something new, I treat myself now and then with a play of one Wm Shakespear, and I am reading Robertson's Charles Vth which comes in well after that part of Botta's History at which I left off - viz: just about the time of the council of Trent. And, as I love modern reading, I was glad to find myself possessed of a very tidy edition of a Biographical work you may perhaps have heard tell of - Plutarch's Lives. If you should ever meet with it, I think I might venture to say you would not dislike it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Plutarch : Lives

'I return your Italian volumes, my dear friend, with many thanks, owning honestly, that I have never looked into them; for the thread of my interest in Botta's History having been interrupted by my leaving Florence, I could not for the life of me connect it again; and I got hold of other books - read no Italian for ages - and, at last, pounced one fine day upon a good, clear edition of Ariosto, and have been and am reading him with even more delight than when he first fell into my hands. Here and there, he is a bad boy, and as the book is my own, & I do not like indecency, I cut out whole pages that annoy me, & burn them before the Author's face, which stands at the beginning of the first volume, and I hope feels properly ashamed. Next to Ariosto, by way of something new, I treat myself now and then with a play of one Wm Shakespear, and I am reading Robertson's Charles Vth which comes in well after that part of Botta's History at which I left off - viz: just about the time of the council of Trent. And, as I love modern reading, I was glad to find myself possessed of a very tidy edition of a Biographical work you may perhaps have heard tell of - Plutarch's Lives. If you should ever meet with it, I think I might venture to say you would not dislike it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Alexander Keith : Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion, derived from the literal fulfilment of prophecy

'Amongst others, I have had Keith on the Evidences of Prophecy put into my hands, and a most masterly and striking performance it is. Totally dissimilar from Newton on the Prophecies, an excellent book, but not in any degree equal in force or in ability to the work in question, which has already gone through thirteen editions'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Thomas Newton : Dissertations on the Prophecies, which have remarkably been fulfilled, and at this time are fulfilling in the world

'Amongst others, I have had Keith on the Evidences of Prophecy put into my hands, and a most masterly and striking performance it is. Totally dissimilar from Newton on the Prophecies, an excellent book, but not in any degree equal in force or in ability to the work in question, which has already gone through thirteen editions'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Louis-Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne : Memoires

'Have you read Bourrienne's Memoirs? Sick as I thought myself of Buonaparte and all that related to his tremendous though short-lived success (I always consider him as a permitted scourge), Bourrienne's book caught fast hold of me, & I was really sorry when I had finished it. Yet, I could only get it in English: but the translation is not very bad'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Charles Lamb : Letters of Charles Lamb, with a sketch of his Life

'All I can say at all likely to give you any pleasure is, that I read poor dear Charles Lamb's Memoirs and Letters with the utmost delight; & not the less so for seeing such continual allusions to one "H.C. Robinson". Do you know such a person? And my dear brother James too, and kind-hearted Martin - these reminiscences were very pleasant to me. But of Lamb himself - what an affectionate disposition - what originality, what true wit, & what a singular, and I must say, melancholy combination of the truest & warmest piety, with the most extraordinary and irreverent profaneness. I cannot understand the union of two such opposites: but I believe there have been many other instances of it. Amongst fools who may take up the work, the oaths and the levity might do harm, & therefore I regret their insertion: but those who knew him, can only regret, & love him [underlined] notwithstanding [ end underlining].'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Edward William Lane : Account of the manners and customs of the Modern Egyptians

'Dr Nott has lent me a Work that I find very interesting, & which comes well after reading Wilkinson's Manners & Customs of the Ancient Egyptians; - It is, Lane's Manners & Customs of the Modern Egyptians: both works are full of Wood cuts in illustration of the subjects they describe, and in Wilkinson's work I found an ancient Egyptian Car, & a wooden pillow hollowed out for the head, which I immediately remembered having seen at Professor Roselini's Egyptian Museum at Florence'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

John Gardner Wilkinson : Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians

'Dr Nott has lent me a Work that I find very interesting, & which comes well after reading Wilkinson's Manners & Customs of the Ancient Egyptians; - It is, Lane's Manners & Customs of the Modern Egyptians: both works are full of Wood cuts in illustration of the subjects they describe, and in Wilkinson's work I found an ancient Egyptian Car, & a wooden pillow hollowed out for the head, which I immediately remembered having seen at Professor Roselini's Egyptian Museum at Florence'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Charles Dickens : Sketches by 'Boz'

'When you have time & spirits for it, pray read "Sketches by Boz" with Cruikshank's designs. Except ones daily Scripture reading, I like no books that do not make me laugh, provided the laugh is not provoked by anything bordering upon indecency. - A little innocent vulgarity or even coarseness, I do not mind, if accompanied by wit & humour. Dickens has edited a delightful Life of poor dear Grimaldi. Have you seen Benson Earl Hill's "Recollections of an Artillery Officer"? I was much amused by it.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Charles Dickens : Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi

'When you have time & spirits for it, pray read "Sketches by Boz" with Cruikshank's designs. Except ones daily Scripture reading, I like no books that do not make me laugh, provided the laugh is not provoked by anything bordering upon indecency. - A little innocent vulgarity or even coarseness, I do not mind, if accompanied by wit & humour. Dickens has edited a delightful Life of poor dear Grimaldi. Have you seen Benson Earl Hill's "Recollections of an Artillery Officer"? I was much amused by it.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Benson Earle Hill : Recollections of an Artillery Officer including scenes and adventures in Ireland, America, Flanders and France

'When you have time & spirits for it, pray read "Sketches by Boz" with Cruikshank's designs. Except ones daily Scripture reading, I like no books that do not make me laugh, provided the laugh is not provoked by anything bordering upon indecency. - A little innocent vulgarity or even coarseness, I do not mind, if accompanied by wit & humour. Dickens has edited a delightful Life of poor dear Grimaldi. Have you seen Benson Earl Hill's "Recollections of an Artillery Officer"? I was much amused by it.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Charles Dickens : Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi

'Pray do you now and then read modern Biography? I have been highly entertained, & even interested by the Memoirs of Mathews, edited & mostly written by his wife. Well, and another lively amusing book of the same class is the Life of Grimaldi, by Dickens. Both Mathews & Grimaldi, though considered as Buffoons, were full of good feeling, & excellent private characters. I arose from the perusal of each work, with respect & love for both men; and since the publication of Crabb's Memoirs, and Campbell's Life of Mrs Siddons, I have read no Biography I like half so well'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Anne Mathews : Memoirs of Charles Mathews, comedian

'Pray do you now and then read modern Biography? I have been highly entertained, & even interested by the Memoirs of Mathews, edited & mostly written by his wife. Well, and another lively amusing book of the same class is the Life of Grimaldi, by Dickens. Both Mathews & Grimaldi, though considered as Buffoons, were full of good feeling, & excellent private characters. I arose from the perusal of each work, with respect & love for both men; and since the publication of Crabb's Memoirs, and Campbell's Life of Mrs Siddons, I have read no Biography I like half so well'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

George Crabbe : Poetical Works of the Rev. George Crabbe

'Pray do you now and then read modern Biography? I have been highly entertained, & even interested by the Memoirs of Mathews, edited & mostly written by his wife. Well, and another lively amusing book of the same class is the Life of Grimaldi, by Dickens. Both Mathews & Grimaldi, though considered as Buffoons, were full of good feeling, & excellent private characters. I arose from the perusal of each work, with respect & love for both men; and since the publication of Crabb's Memoirs, and Campbell's Life of Mrs Siddons, I have read no Biography I like half so well'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Thomas Campbell : Life of Mrs Siddons

'Pray do you now and then read modern Biography? I have been highly entertained, & even interested by the Memoirs of Mathews, edited & mostly written by his wife. Well, and another lively amusing book of the same class is the Life of Grimaldi, by Dickens. Both Mathews & Grimaldi, though considered as Buffoons, were full of good feeling, & excellent private characters. I arose from the perusal of each work, with respect & love for both men; and since the publication of Crabb's Memoirs, and Campbell's Life of Mrs Siddons, I have read no Biography I like half so well'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Frances (Burney) d'Arblay : Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay

'Have you seen the Journal & letters of my dear Sister? & Charlotte Barrett's pretty Introduction. I earnestly hope the work will be liked; and I think it stands a very fair chance, so many celebrated people will be brought forward. - This is a very tolerable place for getting books (English [underlined] s'entend [end underlining]) but my copy is a present, & will have a fine gauntlet to run, I promise it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Frances (Burney) d'Arblay : Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay

'Am charmed to find "The Diary" is approved by the General. The third vol: I think must be universally interesting - the [underlined] first [end underlining], to own the truth, contained too much about the early appearance of Evelina, to please me. - But it went down well with many people, & has caused a fresh demand for Evelina & Cecilia at every Library in Cheltenham'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Frances (Burney) d'Arblay : Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay

'You want to know what I think of the "Diary". I wil tell you fairly & impartially. after wading with pain and sorrow through the tautology and vanity of the first volume, I began to be amused by the second, and every suceeding volume has, to my thinking, encreased in power to interest & entertain. That there is still considerable vanity I cannot deny. In her life, she bottled it all up, & looked and generally spoke with the most refined modesty, & seemed ready to drop if ever her works were alluded to. But what was kept back, and scarcely suspected in society, wanting a safety valve, found its way to her private journal. Thence, had Mrs Barrett been judicious, she would have trundled it out, by half quires, and even whole quires at a time'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Susan Ferrier : Inheritance, The

'The "Inheritance" is excellent, & perhaps, Miss Ferrier's best - at least, it has left the best taste in my mouth: but I quite, & always did, prefer Miss Austen'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : [Review of Madame d'Arblay's "Diary and Letters" in the "Edinburgh Review"]

'I think I said in one of myy recent scrawls all I had to say concerning Mr Macauley's Review: every part of which I like mainly, except his severe mention of the Royal Family, and his unnecessary critique of my Sister's Life of Dr Burney. Surely Croker had cut that up quite bitterly enough; - I cannot see why it need have been brought forward again'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Serial / periodical

Anne, Lady Vavasour : My Last Tour and First Work; or, a Visit to the Baths of Wildbad and Rippoldsau

'read Lady Vavasour's "Last Tour, and First Work, or a visit to the Baths of Wildbad, & Rippoldsau". - It is only one Volume, & is very entertaining and often clever, & lively, with considerable general information. Campbell's Editorship of the "Life of Frederick the Great" has also amused me much'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Frederick Shoberl : Frederick the Great, His Court and Times

'Read Lady Vavasour's "Last Tour, and First Work, or a visit to the Baths of Wildbad, & Rippoldsau". - It is only one Volume, & is very entertaining and often clever, & lively, with considerable general information. Campbell's Editorship of the "Life of Frederick the Great" has also amused me much'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

Frederick Shoberl : Frederick the Great, His Court and Times

'Now I will quit these dreary subjects, and tell you of a few nice books for you to read & like - The 1st Vol. of Campbell's life of Frederic the Great. The others [underlined] I [end underlining] did not enjoy so much. They are chiefly about the seven year's [sic] war: but there are parts even of that, which interested me very much. - Then "Stevenson's Central South America". That is not the full title, but I forget exactly how the book is called. - I suppose you know the Life of Lord Howe. I was delighted with it; and it is only in one volume. There, if you chuse to try any of the above, I think I have cut you out work enough to last a good while'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

W.B. Stevenson : Historical and Descriptive Narrative of Twety Years' Residence in South America

'Now I will quit these dreary subjects, and tell you of a few nice books for you to read & like - The 1st Vol. of Campbell's life of Frederic the Great. The others [underlined] I [end underlining] did not enjoy so much. They are chiefly about the seven year's [sic] war: but there are parts even of that, which interested me very much. - Then "Stevenson's Central South America". That is not the full title, but I forget exactly how the book is called. - I suppose you know the Life of Lord Howe. I was delighted with it; and it is only in one volume. There, if you chuse to try any of the above, I think I have cut you out work enough to last a good while'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book

John Barrow : Life of Richard Earl Howe, K.G., Admiral of the Fleet, and General of Marines

'Now I will quit these dreary subjects, and tell you of a few nice books for you to read & like - The 1st Vol. of Campbell's life of Frederic the Great. The others [underlined] I [end underlining] did not enjoy so much. They are chiefly about the seven year's [sic] war: but there are parts even of that, which interested me very much. - Then "Stevenson's Central South America". That is not the full title, but I forget exactly how the book is called. - I suppose you know the Life of Lord Howe. I was delighted with it; and it is only in one volume. There, if you chuse to try any of the above, I think I have cut you out work enough to last a good while'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney      Print: Book