Listings for Reader:
Sir William Elford
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Gilbert White : Selborne
'A fortnight ago, having employed myself in reading White's "Selborne", and being extremely fond of natural history, and, of course, highly delighted with that book, I was seized with an insuperable desire to see that village which Mr. White has, in the eye of a naturalist, made classic ground...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Elford Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford : The Sisters
'I have just finished your poem of "The Sisters", and tell you truly and fairly that I read it with an interest and delight which I cannot express. I like it better than anything you have done (am I right or wrong?) and you have contrived to mix up poetical imagery and expression with such a great degree of interest as I have never before found in any poem.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Elford Print: Book
Maria Edgeworth : Tales of Fashionable Life
'I have been, and am now, in the midst of reading Miss Edgeworth's 4th, 5th, and 6th vols of "Tales of Fashionable Life". I don't enter into disquisitions about whether they come up to or fall short of her other works, but I am most highly entertained with them. Such admirable delineation of character and such excellent tendencies one seldom sees, and her stories are interesting, not from intricacy of plot, but from exact representations of Nature...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Elford Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady
'By the way, I am in the train of reading the "History of Clarissa", who affords a notable example that fear is not the effectual mode. Pray did you ever go through that work? There is, indeed, tautology of sense - the same thing said ten thousand times over. I should be glad to hear your thoughts of that work.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Elford Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady
'I am doubtful whether the opinion of the world is so much in favour of Richardson's talents as formerly. It appears to me that there is not one character in the whole work that has any natural train in it, or any marks of distinction, which it required any considerable talents to depict....' [extensive criticism of "Clarissa" follows]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Elford Print: Book
Sir H. Englefield : Verses on Waltzing
'I am happy that you think with me about waltzing. Have you seen Sir H. Englefield's verses? They appear to me perfect as far as touching forcibly the proper points. They are supposed to be indignantly addressed to the man who is found waltzing with the poet's mistress: What! The girl I adore by another embraced! What! The bakm of her breath shall another man taste? [etc] Is it not excellent? Before I had seen this I had written something to render the waltz odious, which I sent to a friend in town to get inserted in some newspaper.'
