Listings for Reader:
Louisa, Lady Stuart
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Walter Scott : Field of Waterloo, The
'Of his poem Waterloo she writes: "These are my honest opinions, just as I should give them to any third person: and let me fairly add that I by no means expected to be so much pleased. Whatever subject draws universal attention, sets 'every goose cackling', every newspaper declaiming, descanting, admiring, lamenting, exaggerating, it is harder for a poet to handle than Swift's broomstick itself, and I protest, I thought Waterloo such a hopeless one that I was almost vexed at your undertaking it. But you have wonderfully avoided the commonplace".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Unknown
[unknown] : [novels]
'Like most of those capable of appreciating real literature, Lady Louisa enjoyed novels of almost any description; admitting her taste with unusual frankness: "I did not read novels when very young, and possibly I like them all the better afterwards; they are like wine to a person not used to them, but I fear I have been a downright dram-drinker, so long have they lost their effect".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
William Shakespeare : [unknown]
'She comments, with discrimination, on Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Rousseau and Cervantes, "Tom Jones", "Emma", "A Man of Feeling", Coleridge, Mrs Shelley, and Crabbe'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Ben Jonson : [unknown]
'She comments, with discrimination, on Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Rousseau and Cervantes, "Tom Jones", "Emma", "A Man of Feeling", Coleridge, Mrs Shelley, and Crabbe'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Henry Mackenzie : Man of Feeling, The
'She comments, with discrimination, on Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Rousseau and Cervantes, "Tom Jones", "Emma", "A Man of Feeling", Coleridge, Mrs Shelley, and Crabbe'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Samuel Taylor Coleridge : [unknown]
'She comments, with discrimination, on Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Rousseau and Cervantes, "Tom Jones", "Emma", "A Man of Feeling", Coleridge, Mrs Shelley, and Crabbe'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
George Crabbe : [unknown]
'She comments, with discrimination, on Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Rousseau and Cervantes, "Tom Jones", "Emma", "A Man of Feeling", Coleridge, Mrs Shelley, and Crabbe'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison
'"Flimsy novel language disgusts" her; and she "perceives a difference between 'Sir Charles Grandison' and the common novels one now meets with, like that between roast beef and whipt syllabub".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Jane Austen : Emma
'Did you ever read "Emma", a novel of Miss Austen's? I have seen three or four [italics] Harriet Smiths [end italics] taken up and let down again, and you not being a [italics] Harriet Smith [end italics], your [italics] good genius [end italics] would rather you were not of the number. The present inmate is, I acknowledge, rather of the [italics] Miss Jane Fairfax [end italics] class, and the first I have known so favoured... Oh! how I wish (and have long wished) for the [italics] Mr Knightly [sic, end italics] to come and take the government on his own shoulders, then everything would go on as it ought... which proves me to be something like a romantic old fool.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Caroline Dawson : [journal]
'You need not be at all afraid that I should think your journal an odd composition. I am so much charmed with it that I long for the second part, and want to see the characters you have painted in action; but I pity you for being forced to spend so much of your time visiting and playing at cards by daylight'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Manuscript: Unknown
[n/a] : [newspapers]
'We hear of nothing but the Prince of Wales, but as we get no other account in our letters but what is to be seen in the newspapers I will not repeat anything here.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Newspaper
[unknown] : [history books]
'Some of his pictures are good, and as his family is very noble and greatly allied, one sees many faces one has read of both in English and Scotch history, which I always think amusing'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Marmion
'Mr Scott must have thought me very ungrateful in returning no acknowledgements for being [italics] entrusted [end italics] with "Marmion", but I was prisoner with so severe a cold the last week I stayed at Dalkeith that I could not attempt writing. Lady Dalkeith undertook the care of the parcel, which I hope has been safely restored; but now my head is clear enough, I must tell you how much pleasure it gave me, and that this pleasure rose still higher on reading it over and over again. Like the "Lay", it carries one on, and one cannot lay it down. It is, I feel, a great piece of presumption in me either to commend or criticise; but one passage, I confess, strikes me as more feeble than the rest, though by itself, or in a less spirited poem, I should never have affix'd to it that epithet. What I mean is that part of the introduction to the third Canto where you begin to give Mr Erskine your reasons for not adopting his advice; it immediately follows the compliment to Miss Baillie. Yet even in this the picture of the old Highland drover is beautiful. What ensues upon Smailhome Tower, etc., I was particularly charmed with, but I shall not pretend to point out all the beauties in this note'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Manuscript: Unknown
Walter Scott : Lay of the Last Minstrel, The
'Mr Scott must have thought me very ungrateful in returning no acknowledgements for being [italics] entrusted [end italics] with "Marmion", but I was prisoner with so severe a cold the last week I stayed at Dalkeith that I could not attempt writing. Lady Dalkeith undertook the care of the parcel, which I hope has been safely restored; but now my head is clear enough, I must tell you how much pleasure it gave me, and that this pleasure rose still higher on reading it over and over again. Like the "Lay", it carries one on, and one cannot lay it down. It is, I feel, a great piece of presumption in me either to commend or criticise; but one passage, I confess, strikes me as more feeble than the rest, though by itself, or in a less spirited poem, I should never have affix'd to it that epithet. What I mean is that part of the introduction to the third Canto where you begin to give Mr Erskine your reasons for not adopting his advice; it immediately follows the compliment to Miss Baillie. Yet even in this the picture of the old Highland drover is beautiful. What ensues upon Smailhome Tower, etc., I was particularly charmed with, but I shall not pretend to point out all the beauties in this note'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Waverley
'In general the coterie here are disposed to think it not by the same author as "Waverley", etc., and to think it superior to all three. I myself place it above Guy and Monkbarns, but "Waverley" being my first love, I canot give him up. [italics] as a whole [end italics], however, I believe it does bear the palm, and it surprises me by not sinking into flatness, after the return of Morton from abroad; which was a very slippery place for [italics] you [end italics], who profess never knowing what you are going to write.... I must mention a remark Mrs Weddell has repeatedly made: "this has the [italics] nature [end italics] of Daniel Defoe's novels, tho' with a higher style of writing. I can hardly forbear fancying every word of it true". And we are all agreed that instead of perverting history, it elucidates it, and would give a person partially acquainted with it the desire to be more so'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Guy Mannering
'In general the coterie here are disposed to think it not by the same author as "Waverley", etc., and to think it superior to all three. I myself place it above Guy and Monkbarns, but "Waverley" being my first love, I canot give him up. [italics] as a whole [end italics], however, I believe it does bear the palm, and it surprises me by not sinking into flatness, after the return of Morton from abroad; which was a very slippery place for [italics] you [end italics], who profess never knowing what you are going to write.... I must mention a remark Mrs Weddell has repeatedly made: "this has the [italics] nature [end italics] of Daniel Defoe's novels, tho' with a higher style of writing. I can hardly forbear fancying every word of it true". And we are all agreed that instead of perverting history, it elucidates it, and would give a person partially acquainted with it the desire to be more so'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Tales of my Landlord
'In general the coterie here are disposed to think it not by the same author as "Waverley", etc., and to think it superior to all three. I myself place it above Guy and Monkbarns, but "Waverley" being my first love, I canot give him up. [italics] as a whole [end italics], however, I believe it does bear the palm, and it surprises me by not sinking into flatness, after the return of Morton from abroad; which was a very slippery place for [italics] you [end italics], who profess never knowing what you are going to write.... I must mention a remark Mrs Weddell has repeatedly made: "this has the [italics] nature [end italics] of Daniel Defoe's novels, tho' with a higher style of writing. I can hardly forbear fancying every word of it true". And we are all agreed that instead of perverting history, it elucidates it, and would give a person partially acquainted with it the desire to be more so'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Antiquary, The
'In general the coterie here are disposed to think it not by the same author as "Waverley", etc., and to think it superior to all three. I myself place it above Guy and Monkbarns, but "Waverley" being my first love, I canot give him up. [italics] as a whole [end italics], however, I believe it does bear the palm, and it surprises me by not sinking into flatness, after the return of Morton from abroad; which was a very slippery place for [italics] you [end italics], who profess never knowing what you are going to write.... I must mention a remark Mrs Weddell has repeatedly made: "this has the [italics] nature [end italics] of Daniel Defoe's novels, tho' with a higher style of writing. I can hardly forbear fancying every word of it true". And we are all agreed that instead of perverting history, it elucidates it, and would give a person partially acquainted with it the desire to be more so'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Mr Morritt : [account of Hampton Court, Herefordshire]
'By the bye, I think I read your Mr Morritt's account of Hampton Court in Herefordshire, one of the oldest baronial seats in the kingdom, lately purchased by Sir -- Arkwright, son of the cotton-mill inventor. I can now tell you the fate of Newstead Abbey'.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart
Walter Scott : Bride of Lammermoor, The
'Do not suppose, however, that I am at present reading the ["Bride of Lammermoor" and "Legend of Montrose"] for the first time. I have had it by heart these five weeks. It possesses the same power of captivating the attention as its predecessors; one may find this or that fault but who does not read on? The Master of Ravenscroft is perhaps the best [italics] lover [end italics] the author ever drew; and oh! how glad I was to hear the true notes of the old lyre in Annot Lyle's matin song!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : [Works]
'I believe most people would say of the four-and-twenty volumes, what I have known parents of large families do of their children: "you may think them a great many, yet there is not one we could spare". For my own part I acknowledge I am not a fair judge; all these writings, all the author's works confessed and unconfessed, are so much associated in my mind with, not the earliest, but the pleasantest, part of my life, that they awaken in me many feelings I could hardly explain to another. They are to me less like books, than like the letters one treasures up, "pleasant yet mournful to the soul", and I cannot open one of them without a thousand recollections that as time rolls on, grow precious, although they are often painful. Independent of this, how many hours of mine have they soothed and softened! and still do soothe and soften, for I can read them over and over again'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Legend of Montrose, A
'Do not suppose, however, that I am at present reading the ["Bride of Lammermoor" and "Legend of Montrose"] for the first time. I have had it by heart these five weeks. It possesses the same power of captivating the attention as its predecessors; one may find this or that fault but who does not read on? The Master of Ravenscroft is perhaps the best [italics] lover [end italics] the author ever drew; and oh! how glad I was to hear the true notes of the old lyre in Annot Lyle's matin song!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Thomas Gray : [Letters]
'Pray tell Lady Louisa that I have been reading the last "Quarterly Review" (No. XLII) more steadily than I could do at Sheffield Place, and quite agree with her in liking the article upon our statute laws, which is very clear and convincing, and pleases me better than anything else in it, though I think it is on the whole an amusing number. Mr Humboldt and his ([italics] crodo, crodo [end italics] ) crocodiles entertained me; the account of Hayti was interesting; the first dissertation (on Aristophanes) and the last. Yet I am no convert to Messrs Whistlecraft & Co., I cannot like slipshod verse or be convinced that it is not as easily written as read; the burlesque of one country can hardly ever be well copied in the language of another. As for Plato and Xenophon, it revolts all my old prejudices to hear them discussed as if they were members of the Alfred, or the French Academy - to be told that Plato had delicacy of [italics] tact [end italics] taught him at the [italics] court [end italics] of Dionysius. It puts me in mind of Gray's simile about some book upon antiquity which he says was like an antique statue dressed in a negligee made by a Yorkshire mantua-maker'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
[n/a] : Quarterly Review
'Pray tell Lady Louisa that I have been reading the last "Quarterly Review" (No. XLII) more steadily than I could do at Sheffield Place, and quite agree with her in liking the article upon our statute laws, which is very clear and convincing, and pleases me better than anything else in it, though I think it is on the whole an amusing number. Mr Humboldt and his ([italics] crodo, crodo [end italics] ) crocodiles entertained me; the account of Hayti was interesting; the first dissertation (on Aristophanes) and the last. Yet I am no convert to Messrs Whistlecraft & Co., I cannot like slipshod verse or be convinced that it is not as easily written as read; the burlesque of one country can hardly ever be well copied in the language of another. As for Plato and Xenophon, it revolts all my old prejudices to hear them discussed as if they were members of the Alfred, or the French Academy - to be told that Plato had delicacy of [italics] tact [end italics] taught him at the [italics] court [end italics] of Dionysius. It puts me in mind of Gray's simile about some book upon antiquity which he says was like an antique statue dressed in a negligee made by a Yorkshire mantua-maker'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Serial / periodical
: Quarterly Review [articles on classics]
'Pray tell Lady Louisa that I have been reading the last "Quarterly Review" (No. XLII) more steadily than I could do at Sheffield Place, and quite agree with her in liking the article upon our statute laws, which is very clear and convincing, and pleases me better than anything else in it, though I think it is on the whole an amusing number. Mr Humboldt and his ([italics] crodo, crodo [end italics] ) crocodiles entertained me; the account of Hayti was interesting; the first dissertation (on Aristophanes) and the last. Yet I am no convert to Messrs Whistlecraft & Co., I cannot like slipshod verse or be convinced that it is not as easily written as read; the burlesque of one country can hardly ever be well copied in the language of another. As for Plato and Xenophon, it revolts all my old prejudices to hear them discussed as if they were members of the Alfred, or the French Academy - to be told that Plato had delicacy of [italics] tact [end italics] taught him at the [italics] court [end italics] of Dionysius. It puts me in mind of Gray's simile about some book upon antiquity which he says was like an antique statue dressed in a negligee made by a Yorkshire mantua-maker'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Serial / periodical
[unknown] : Quarterly Review [article about Alexander von Humboldt]
'Pray tell Lady Louisa that I have been reading the last "Quarterly Review" (No. XLII) more steadily than I could do at Sheffield Place, and quite agree with her in liking the article upon our statute laws, which is very clear and convincing, and pleases me better than anything else in it, though I think it is on the whole an amusing number. Mr Humboldt and his ([italics] crodo, crodo [end italics] ) crocodiles entertained me; the account of Hayti was interesting; the first dissertation (on Aristophanes) and the last. Yet I am no convert to Messrs Whistlecraft & Co., I cannot like slipshod verse or be convinced that it is not as easily written as read; the burlesque of one country can hardly ever be well copied in the language of another. As for Plato and Xenophon, it revolts all my old prejudices to hear them discussed as if they were members of the Alfred, or the French Academy - to be told that Plato had delicacy of [italics] tact [end italics] taught him at the [italics] court [end italics] of Dionysius. It puts me in mind of Gray's simile about some book upon antiquity which he says was like an antique statue dressed in a negligee made by a Yorkshire mantua-maker'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Serial / periodical
John Hookham Frere : Quarterly Review [burlesque poetry]
'Pray tell Lady Louisa that I have been reading the last "Quarterly Review" (No. XLII) more steadily than I could do at Sheffield Place, and quite agree with her in liking the article upon our statute laws, which is very clear and convincing, and pleases me better than anything else in it, though I think it is on the whole an amusing number. Mr Humboldt and his ([italics] crodo, crodo [end italics] ) crocodiles entertained me; the account of Hayti was interesting; the first dissertation (on Aristophanes) and the last. Yet I am no convert to Messrs Whistlecraft & Co., I cannot like slipshod verse or be convinced that it is not as easily written as read; the burlesque of one country can hardly ever be well copied in the language of another. As for Plato and Xenophon, it revolts all my old prejudices to hear them discussed as if they were members of the Alfred, or the French Academy - to be told that Plato had delicacy of [italics] tact [end italics] taught him at the [italics] court [end italics] of Dionysius. It puts me in mind of Gray's simile about some book upon antiquity which he says was like an antique statue dressed in a negligee made by a Yorkshire mantua-maker'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Serial / periodical
Sydney, Lady Morgan : Woman: or, Ida of Athens
'Plato and tact sounds like Plato and puppy, an incongruous mixture of ancient and modern, such as only suits the language of second-rate novels. Lady Morgan, I suppose, talked of tact in her "Ida of Athens".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
[unknown] : [description of the Court of Haiti]
'I am very glad you have enjoyed the court of Hayti, much the best part of the book in my opinion. I only barred your reading it out of propriety and for fear the other Lady Louisa should be scandalized; pray tell her so. My own notions are that comical books rarely do harm, unless when they try to throw ridicule on sacred subjects; and, I am tempted to say, "Have fixed principles deeply rooted, and then read what you please". I agree with her that Tardif de Courtrac, tho' always clever, is sometimes very tedious, especially in America, from one's indifference respecting the subject. For "Ivanhoe", make yourself easy, I am its sincere partisan and Rebecca's devoted admirer. I would rather the templar had burst a blood vessel, because that is really often the effect of a conflict of violent passions and tho' they may bring on an apoplexy also , it is not apt to ensue so immediately'. [LS then discusses several characters in Ivanhoe at length]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Ivanhoe
'I am very glad you have enjoyed the court of Hayti, much the best part of the book in my opinion. I only barred your reading it out of propriety and for fear the other Lady Louisa should be scandalized; pray tell her so. My own notions are that comical books rarely do harm, unless when they try to throw ridicule on sacred subjects; and, I am tempted to say, "Have fixed principles deeply rooted, and then read what you please". I agree with her that Tardif de Courtrac, tho' always clever, is sometimes very tedious, especially in America, from one's indifference respecting the subject. For "Ivanhoe", make yourself easy, I am its sincere partisan and Rebecca's devoted admirer. I would rather the templar had burst a blood vessel, because that it really often the effect of a conflict of violent passions and tho' they may bring on an apoplexy also , it is not apt to ensue so immediately'. [LS then discusses several characters in Ivanhoe at length]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
[unknown] : [unknown - French? -text featuring travels in america]
'I am very glad you have enjoyed the court of Hayti, much the best part of the book in my opinion. I only barred your reading it out of propriety and for fear the other Lady Louisa should be scandalized; pray tell her so. My own notions are that comical books rarely do harm, unless when they try to throw ridicule on sacred subjects; and, I am tempted to say, "Have fixed principles deeply rooted, and then read what you please". I agree with her that Tardif de Courtrac, tho' always clever, is sometimes very tedious, especially in America, from one's indifference respecting the subject. For "Ivanhoe", make yourself easy, I am its sincere partisan and Rebecca's devoted admirer. I would rather the templar had burst a blood vessel, because that it really often the effect of a conflict of violent passions and tho' they may bring on an apoplexy also , it is not apt to ensue so immediately'. [LS then discusses several characters in Ivanhoe at length]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Unknown
[n/a] : [newspaper]
'If the paper today speaks truth about the King's sending for the Duke of Sussex, he begins as he should do, for no one's behaviour can have been worse. But they (the newspapers) make me absolutely sick with the stuff they insert about his poor father, sometimes absolutely false, sometimes stories caught by the tail, twisted and blundered, till the original teller could not know them again'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Newspaper
Walter Scott : [Waverley Novels]
'Your observation on the Waverley novels is perfectly just; instead of misleading one concerning the true history, or giving one a distaste for it, they make one relish it the better. Whereas Mrs Radcliffe's, for example, always abound with the most disgusting species of anachronism, the polished manners and sentimental cant of modern times put in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The enlightened philosophy likewise! young ladies arguing with their maids against their belief in ghosts and witches, when a judge durst not have expressed his doubts of either upon the bench. This [italics] palavering [end italics] style has crept into history through Miss Aitken, the language of whose memoirs of Elizabeth is so suited to modern notions that Mrs Scott has said it reminded her of Puddingfield's newspaper in the Anti-Jacobin German play. "Magna Charta was signed on Friday three weeks, and their Majesties, after partaking of a cold collation, returned to Windsor".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Anne Racliffe : [Novels]
'Your observation on the Waverley novels is perfectly just; instead of misleading one concerning the true history, or giving one a distaste for it, they make one relish it the better. Whereas Mrs Radcliffe's, for example, always abound with the most disgusting species of anachronism, the polished manners and sentimental cant of modern times put in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The enlightened philosophy likewise! young ladies arguing with their maids against their belief in ghosts and witches, when a judge durst not have expressed his doubts of either upon the bench. This [italics] palavering [end italics] style has crept into history through Miss Aitken, the language of whose memoirs of Elizabeth is so suited to modern notions that Mrs Scott has said it reminded her of Puddingfield's newspaper in the Anti-Jacobin German play. "Magna Charta was signed on Friday three weeks, and their Majesties, after partaking of a cold collation, returned to Windsor".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Lucy Aikin : Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth
'Your observation on the Waverley novels is perfectly just; instead of misleading one concerning the true history, or giving one a distaste for it, they make one relish it the better. Whereas Mrs Radcliffe's, for example, always abound with the most disgusting species of anachronism, the polished manners and sentimental cant of modern times put in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The enlightened philosophy likewise! young ladies arguing with their maids against their belief in ghosts and witches, when a judge durst not have expressed his doubts of either upon the bench. This [italics] palavering [end italics] style has crept into history through Miss Aitken, the language of whose memoirs of Elizabeth is so suited to modern notions that Mrs Scott has said it reminded her of Puddingfield's newspaper in the Anti-Jacobin German play. "Magna Charta was signed on Friday three weeks, and their Majesties, after partaking of a cold collation, returned to Windsor".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
John Stanley : [a speech]
'a thousand thanks for [your letter], and for Sir John Stanley's speech, which I like very much, though I own I think he gives a little into commonplace towards the end, when he says the French Revolution would never have happened if so and so - forgetting that the unfortunate sovereign under whom it did happen was religious, moral, and virtuous to the highest degree, solely attached to his own wife, - and it was an old observation that a wife, a Queen's having any influence over her husband was a thing the French at no time could bear' [LS critiques various other points of the speech at length]
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart
John Stanley : [a speech]
'There is a part of Sir John's speech I think quite beautiful, that which describes the sensation of vacancy; and his waiving any observations of a political nature is extremely judicious.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart
Walter Scott : Ivanhoe
'This [talking about feuds between families] reminds me of "Ivanhoe". I take the introduction of Scripture phrases to be neither intentional profaneness in the author nor carelessness, but adherence to the strict letter of the time he describes. It was their constant language. They had few books to read, and they quoted [italics] a tort et a travers [end italics] the one they knew, just as in the 17th century they did the Classics. Even Jeremy Taylor cannot bid us do as we would be done by without bringing in a passage from Plato or Homer'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Jeremy Taylor : Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, The
'This [talking about feuds between families] reminds me of "Ivanhoe". I take the introduction of Scripture phrases to be neither intentional profaneness in the author nor carelessness, but adherence to the strict letter of the time he describes. It was their constant language. They had few books to read, and they quoted [italics] a tort et a travers [end italics] the one they knew, just as in the 17th century they did the Classics. Even Jeremy Taylor cannot bid us do as we would be done by without bringing in a passage from Plato or Homer'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : [Letters]
'The former [apparently a letter from Louisa Clinton, praising LS -or someone else? - extravagantly] discomposed me, trenching upon all the old forbidden ground. Even Madame de Sevigne's reiterated encomiums on her daughter and extreme professions of fondness, have in some degree this effect. And you may depend upon it, dear Lou, that exaggerated praise of any person, nay, of anything, is sure to leave on the mind of every hearer an impression rather unfavourable to that person or thing'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
William Congreve : Way of the World, The
'Louis 14 certainly never fell into the error Mrs Millamant cautioned her intended husband against in a clever wicked old play that you never read: "Good Mirabel, do not let us be familiar and fond before folks, like my Lady Faddle and Sir Francis". Whereas now it is my Lady Faddle and Sir Francis in Westminster Abbey and St Patrick's Cathedral'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
John Galt : Ayrshire Legatees, The
'Mrs Scott (here) is as thorough-paced a lover of those books [The Waverley Novels] as either of us. I have been looking over the Ayrshire Legatees, which I do not like at all. Mme de Stael's "Dix Annees d'Exil" is here, but a lord of the creation has got possession of it and reads so slowly that I have no chance of it while I stay'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Henry Hart Milman : Martyr of Antioch, The
'Have you read the "Martyr of Antioch"? I read it (aloud) at Ditton, and did not like it much - heavy and dragging, I think.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
[unknown] : Memoires de l'Europe sous Napoleon
'As for reading, I have much to say of the "Memoires de l'Europe sous Napoleon", but not time for it till quiet in my own house. I piously believe them genuine; they have the [italics] sceau [end italics] of his genius and of his profound art. I am also reading "Journal de Las Cases". I shut one book where he himself details the precautions taken to secure personal liberty under his government, the strict laws for the purpose, no person could be kept in prison a day without so, and so, and so, judges, privy council, and I know not what. I opened the other where Las Cases says that on looking over papers at St Helena, the Emperor was himself surprised to see the number of books prohibited and of [italics] persons arrested by the police [end italics], whom he had never heard of and knew nothing about'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Emmanuel Las Cases : Memorial de Sainte Helene: Journal of the Private Life and Conversations o the Emperor Napoleon at Saint Helena
'As for reading, I have much to say of the "Memoires de l'Europe sous Napoleon", but not time for it till quiet in my own house. I piously believe them genuine; they have the [italics] sceau [end italics] of his genius and of his profound art. I am also reading "Journal de Las Cases". I shut one book where he himself details the precautions taken to secure personal liberty under his government, the strict laws for the purpose, no person could be kept in prison a day without so, and so, and so, judges, privy council, and I know not what. I opened the other where Las Cases says that on looking over papers at St Helena, the Emperor was himself surprised to see the number of books prohibited and of [italics] persons arrested by the police [end italics], whom he had never heard of and knew nothing about'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
John Galt : Entail, The, or The Lairds Of Grippy
'Pray, if you love laughing, read "the [italics] Entail [end italics] or the Lairds of Grippy". It is admirable for that purpose, tho' far more broadly Scotch than I can understand; but besides the patois, the old lady has a slip-slop of her own quite incomparable - [italics] concos montes [end italics] for [italics] compos mentis [end italics], etc. - and the author [Galt] this time is so wise as to keep quite out of good company, avoid lords and ladies, and only describe the people he has seen'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Redgauntlet
'I ought to have thanked you for "Redgauntlet" a fortnight ago, but I stayed to read it, and then to read it again. It has taken my fancy very particularly, though (not to flatter you) I could almost wonder why: for there is no story in it, no love, no hero - unless Redgauntlet himself, who would be such a one as the Devil in Milton; yet in spite of all these wants, the interest is so strong one cannot lay it down, and I prophesy for it a great deal of mauling and abuse, and a second edition before the maulers know where they are'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Walter Scott : Wandering Willie's Tale
'I read her [Miss Murray] the legend of Steenie Steenson the other night, and we agreed it was in the author's very best manner. I felt disappointed, though, at Wandering Willie's not coming forward more effectually after that very interesting scene of using old times as a sort of telegraph. I thought he was to be a prime agent, and then I heard no more of him; that is to say, the aforesaid author grew tired and flung the cards into the bag as fast as he could. I know his provoking ways.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
[n/a] : Quarterly Review
'Another thing pleases me, the general approbation of the last "Quarterly Review", Mr Lockhart's first, I believe, and one in which your cloven foot is visible. It had something to set it off, however; for I think verily the temporary editor of the work during the [italics] interregnum [end italics] must have been bribed into his extreme degree of dullness'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Serial / periodical
[n/a] : Quarterly Review
'Another thing pleases me, the general approbation of the last "Quarterly Review", Mr Lockhart's first, I believe, and one in which your cloven foot is visible. It had something to set it off, however; for I think verily the temporary editor of the work during the [italics] interregnum [end italics] must have been bribed into his extreme degree of dullness'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Serial / periodical
Mary Shelley : Last Man, The
'I have lately had a long bad cold, such as reduces one to trash and slops, novels and barley water, and amongst the books my friends kindly sent me to while away time was the first volume of one puffed in the newspaper, "The Last Man", by the authoress of "Frankenstein". I would not trouble them for any more of it, but really there were sentences in it so far exceeding those Don Quixote ran mad in trying to comprehend, that I could not help copying out a few of them; they would have turned Feliciano de Silva's own brains. [LS then quotes passages beginning "Her eyes were impenetrably deep" and "The overflowing warmth of her heart"...] Since the wonderful improvement that somebody who shall be nameless, together with Miss Edgeworth and one or two more, have made in novels, I imagined such stuff as this had not ventured to show its head, though I remember plenty of it in the days of my youth. So for old acquaintance-sake I give it welcome. But if the boys and girls begin afresh to take it for sublime and beautiful, it ought to get a rap and be put down'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Maria Edgeworth : [Novels]
'I have lately had a long bad cold, such as reduces one to trash and slops, novels and barley water, and amongst the books my friends kindly sent me to while away time was the first volume of one puffed in the newspaper, "The Last Man", by the authoress of "Frankenstein". I would not trouble them for any more of it, but really there were sentences in it so far exceeding those Don Quixote ran mad in trying to comprehend, that I could not help copying out a few of them; they would have turned Feliciano de Silva's own brains. [LS then quotes passages beginning "Her eyes were impenetrably deep" and "The overflowing warmth of her heart"...] Since the wonderful improvement that somebody who shall be nameless, together with Miss Edgeworth and one or two more, have made in novels, I imagined such stuff as this had not ventured to show its head, though I remember plenty of it in the days of my youth. So for old acquaintance-sake I give it welcome. But if the boys and girls begin afresh to take it for sublime and beautiful, it ought to get a rap and be put down'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Susan Ferrier : Inheritance, The
'Are not Maria and Anny a thousand times preferable to the Miss in "Inheritance", who describes the Lakes of Cumberland?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Gilbert White : Natural History of Selborne, The
'draw her [Harriet, a girl LC is teaching] to such books as White's "Natural History of Selborne", but do not bother and (though I hate the word) [italics] bore [end italics] her with what she has no relish for'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Joseph Addison : Spectator, The
'My mind was early formed (or half formed) by the old exploded "Spectator", and Addison's assertion that he had seen "A woman's face break out into heats as she was railing against a great man she never saw in her life" hindered my ever being a female politician, even when I became an old maid, though the two characters are as congenial as those of barber and newsmonger'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book, Serial / periodical
[n/a] : Morning Post
'Wellesley Long has thought fit to produce before Chancery his letters to his children, and like everything else they have found their way into the newspapers. I did not read them with much attention, but saw that in the main they contained better advice than might have been expected from such a father, amongst other subjects, a strong censure passed on [italics] cunning [end italics], and, what was odd enough (addressed to a little boy), instances given in the characters of public men, particularly Sheridan and Tierney. Then followed, in the "Courier" and "Morning Post", two or three lines of ::: *** dots, stars, or whatever you call them. By chance seeing another paper, I found the dots held the place of an admonition to take warning by what had happened to Mr C.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Newspaper
[n/a] : Courier, The
'Wellesley Long has thought fit to produce before Chancery his letters to his children, and like everything else they have found their way into the newspapers. I did not read them with much attention, but saw that in the main they contained better advice than might have been expected from such a father, amongst other subjects, a strong censure passed on [italics] cunning [end italics], and, what was odd enough (addressed to a little boy), instances given in the characters of public men, particularly Sheridan and Tierney. Then followed, in the "Courier" and "Morning Post", two or three lines of ::: *** dots, stars, or whatever you call them. By chance seeing another paper, I found the dots held the place of an admonition to take warning by what had happened to Mr C.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Newspaper
[n/a] : [Unknown newspaper - article on Wellesley Long Chancery Case]
'Wellesley Long has thought fit to produce before Chancery his letters to his children, and like everything else they have found their way into the newspapers. I did not read them with much attention, but saw that in the main they contained better advice than might have been expected from such a father, amongst other subjects, a strong censure passed on [italics] cunning [end italics], and, what was odd enough (addressed to a little boy), instances given in the characters of public men, particularly Sheridan and Tierney. Then followed, in the "Courier" and "Morning Post", two or three lines of ::: *** dots, stars, or whatever you call them. By chance seeing another paper, I found the dots held the place of an admonition to take warning by what had happened to Mr C.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Newspaper
[n/a] : [newspapers]
'Do tell me what more you have heard about the poor Fans. [Fanshawes]. Is it to such an extent as is rumoured? the newspapers said £19,000 or £29,000. Ten thousand makes some difference, but even the smaller sum would be tremedous.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Newspaper
[n/a] : [newspaper]
'Did you see in the newspaper that W.S. has avowed himself the author of "Waverley" etc.? He said at a public meeting that the secret had been remarkably well kept, considering above twenty people knew it, [italics] one [end italics] of whom, to say truth, is now writing to you'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Newspaper
Walter Scott : Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
'I have been feasting upon the Demonology and Witchcraft; yet some stories freshly rung in my ears, and I am sure fully equal to any of those you tell, give me a longing to attack you for civilly supposing the present [italics] enlightened age [end italics] rejects the superstitions of our forefathers because they were absurd' [LS then talks about the vogue for 'Animal Magnetism', saying superstitions are a matter of fashion]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
[n/a] : Quarterly Review [advertisements for forthcoming works by Scott]
'In the bushel of advertisements tacked to the "Quarterly Review", I spy two from Cadell that I am very glad to see - "New Tales of a Grandfather" and "Robert of Paris". By the bye, it has struck me that the review of Southey's "John Bunyan" bears some tokens of coming from that quarter.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Advertisement, Serial / periodical
[n/a] : Quarterly Review [Review of Southey's "John Bunyan"]
'In the bushel of advertisements tacked to the "Quarterly Review", I spy two from Cadell that I am very glad to see - "New Tales of a Grandfather" and "Robert of Paris". By the bye, it has struck me that the review of Southey's "John Bunyan" bears some tokens of coming from that quarter.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Serial / periodical
A.K. : [fragments, including something in French]
'I take this opportunity of returning you A.K.'s fragments. I do believe it has been of material service... as for A.K.'s French pasage, you will be surprised at the impression it makes on my mind - as neither more nor less than [italics] commonplace [end italics] Perhaps she has not, but I have read so many descriptions of concentrated feelings, boiling passion under [italics] un froid exterieur [end italics], dark and gloomy minds, that this strikes me as only what I have seen fifty times before [LS then critiques 'The school of Sentiment'] By her further description I should pronounce it [italics] unwholesome [italics] reading. The smallest grain of [italics] amour physique [end italics] poisons the whole, renders it literally and positively [italics] beastly [end italics], for it is describing the sensations of a brute animal. And here lies the difference between even [italics] bad [end italics] English books and the French ones, which everyone reads without blushing. Mrs Bellamy and Mrs Baddeley, two women of the town, whom I remember as actresses, wrote their Memoirs. They painted their first false steaps either as the effect of seduction, they were victims to the arts employed to ruin them, or else they had been led away by their [italics] affections [end italics]; they had conceived a violent passion for such and such a man, whom they took pains to paint as formed to captivate the [italics] heart [end italics]. Madame Roland, one of the heroines of the French Revolution, a [italics] virtuous [end italics] woman, so far as chastity goes, writes her Memoirs and tells you what were her [italics] sensations towards the opposite sex in general [end italics] (without any particular object) at 14 or 15 years old!!! And young ladies were taught to read and admire this who would not have been allowed to open "Tom Jones", where Fielding does describe [italics] l'amour physique [end italics] between Tom and Molly Seagrim, but I daresay would as soon have given Sophia an inclination to commit murder as hinted that she ever had Madame Roland's [italics] sensations[end italics], or even that Tom had them towards her'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Manuscript: Unknown
George Anne Bellamy : Memoirs of George Anne Bellamy
'I take this opportunity of returning you A.K.'s fragments. I do believe it has been of material service... as for A.K.'s French pasage, you will be surprised at the impression it makes on my mind - as neither more nor less than [italics] commonplace [end italics] Perhaps she has not, but I have read so many descriptions of concentrated feelings, boiling passion under [italics] un froid exterieur [end italics], dark and gloomy minds, that this strikes me as only what I have seen fifty times before [LS then critiques 'The school of Sentiment'] By her further description I should pronounce it [italics] unwholesome [italics] reading. The smallest grain of [italics] amour physique [end italics] poisons the whole, renders it literally and positively [italics] beastly [end italics], for it is describing the sensations of a brute animal. And here lies the difference between even [italics] bad [end italics] English books and the French ones, which everyone reads without blushing. Mrs Bellamy and Mrs Baddeley, two women of the town, whom I remember as actresses, wrote their Memoirs. They painted their first false steaps either as the effect of seduction, they were victims to the arts employed to ruin them, or else they had been led away by their [italics] affections [end italics]; they had conceived a violent passion for such and such a man, whom they took pains to paint as formed to captivate the [italics] heart [end italics]. Madame Roland, one of the heroines of the French Revolution, a [italics] virtuous [end italics] woman, so far as chastity goes, writes her Memoirs and tells you what were her [italics] sensations towards the opposite sex in general [end italics] (without any particular object) at 14 or 15 years old!!! And young ladies were taught to read and admire this who would not have been allowed to open "Tom Jones", where Fielding does describe [italics] l'amour physique [end italics] between Tom and Molly Seagrim, but I daresay would as soon have given Sophia an inclination to commit murder as hinted that she ever had Madame Roland's [italics] sensations[end italics], or even that Tom had them towards her'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Sophia Baddeley : Memoirs of Mrs Sophia Baddeley
'I take this opportunity of returning you A.K.'s fragments. I do believe it has been of material service... as for A.K.'s French pasage, you will be surprised at the impression it makes on my mind - as neither more nor less than [italics] commonplace [end italics] Perhaps she has not, but I have read so many descriptions of concentrated feelings, boiling passion under [italics] un froid exterieur [end italics], dark and gloomy minds, that this strikes me as only what I have seen fifty times before [LS then critiques 'The school of Sentiment'] By her further description I should pronounce it [italics] unwholesome [italics] reading. The smallest grain of [italics] amour physique [end italics] poisons the whole, renders it literally and positively [italics] beastly [end italics], for it is describing the sensations of a brute animal. And here lies the difference between even [italics] bad [end italics] English books and the French ones, which everyone reads without blushing. Mrs Bellamy and Mrs Baddeley, two women of the town, whom I remember as actresses, wrote their Memoirs. They painted their first false steaps either as the effect of seduction, they were victims to the arts employed to ruin them, or else they had been led away by their [italics] affections [end italics]; they had conceived a violent passion for such and such a man, whom they took pains to paint as formed to captivate the [italics] heart [end italics]. Madame Roland, one of the heroines of the French Revolution, a [italics] virtuous [end italics] woman, so far as chastity goes, writes her Memoirs and tells you what were her [italics] sensations towards the opposite sex in general [end italics] (without any particular object) at 14 or 15 years old!!! And young ladies were taught to read and admire this who would not have been allowed to open "Tom Jones", where Fielding does describe [italics] l'amour physique [end italics] between Tom and Molly Seagrim, but I daresay would as soon have given Sophia an inclination to commit murder as hinted that she ever had Madame Roland's [italics] sensations[end italics], or even that Tom had them towards her'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Marie-Jeanne Roland : Memoirs of Madame Roland
'I take this opportunity of returning you A.K.'s fragments. I do believe it has been of material service... as for A.K.'s French pasage, you will be surprised at the impression it makes on my mind - as neither more nor less than [italics] commonplace [end italics] Perhaps she has not, but I have read so many descriptions of concentrated feelings, boiling passion under [italics] un froid exterieur [end italics], dark and gloomy minds, that this strikes me as only what I have seen fifty times before [LS then critiques 'The school of Sentiment'] By her further description I should pronounce it [italics] unwholesome [italics] reading. The smallest grain of [italics] amour physique [end italics] poisons the whole, renders it literally and positively [italics] beastly [end italics], for it is describing the sensations of a brute animal. And here lies the difference between even [italics] bad [end italics] English books and the French ones, which everyone reads without blushing. Mrs Bellamy and Mrs Baddeley, two women of the town, whom I remember as actresses, wrote their Memoirs. They painted their first false steaps either as the effect of seduction, they were victims to the arts employed to ruin them, or else they had been led away by their [italics] affections [end italics]; they had conceived a violent passion for such and such a man, whom they took pains to paint as formed to captivate the [italics] heart [end italics]. Madame Roland, one of the heroines of the French Revolution, a [italics] virtuous [end italics] woman, so far as chastity goes, writes her Memoirs and tells you what were her [italics] sensations towards the opposite sex in general [end italics] (without any particular object) at 14 or 15 years old!!! And young ladies were taught to read and admire this who would not have been allowed to open "Tom Jones", where Fielding does describe [italics] l'amour physique [end italics] between Tom and Molly Seagrim, but I daresay would as soon have given Sophia an inclination to commit murder as hinted that she ever had Madame Roland's [italics] sensations[end italics], or even that Tom had them towards her'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Henry Fielding : History of Tom Jones, A Foundling
'I take this opportunity of returning you A.K.'s fragments. I do believe it has been of material service... as for A.K.'s French pasage, you will be surprised at the impression it makes on my mind - as neither more nor less than [italics] commonplace [end italics] Perhaps she has not, but I have read so many descriptions of concentrated feelings, boiling passion under [italics] un froid exterieur [end italics], dark and gloomy minds, that this strikes me as only what I have seen fifty times before [LS then critiques 'The school of Sentiment'] By her further description I should pronounce it [italics] unwholesome [italics] reading. The smallest grain of [italics] amour physique [end italics] poisons the whole, renders it literally and positively [italics] beastly [end italics], for it is describing the sensations of a brute animal. And here lies the difference between even [italics] bad [end italics] English books and the French ones, which everyone reads without blushing. Mrs Bellamy and Mrs Baddeley, two women of the town, whom I remember as actresses, wrote their Memoirs. They painted their first false steaps either as the effect of seduction, they were victims to the arts employed to ruin them, or else they had been led away by their [italics] affections [end italics]; they had conceived a violent passion for such and such a man, whom they took pains to paint as formed to captivate the [italics] heart [end italics]. Madame Roland, one of the heroines of the French Revolution, a [italics] virtuous [end italics] woman, so far as chastity goes, writes her Memoirs and tells you what were her [italics] sensations towards the opposite sex in general [end italics] (without any particular object) at 14 or 15 years old!!! And young ladies were taught to read and admire this who would not have been allowed to open "Tom Jones", where Fielding does describe [italics] l'amour physique [end italics] between Tom and Molly Seagrim, but I daresay would as soon have given Sophia an inclination to commit murder as hinted that she ever had Madame Roland's [italics] sensations[end italics], or even that Tom had them towards her'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
[n/a] : [newspaper advertisements for "Trevelyan"]
'Bentley's puffs in the newspaper (for Jane Scott's "Trevelyan") quite sicken me, all admirable and charming alike, written by his [italics] literary adviser [end italics] you may be sure, just in the same spirit as the puffs of Warren's blacking and Rowland's kalydor. Oh dear! it is a degradation I cannot bear'. [LS is arguing that aristocrats ought not admit to publishing books]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Newspaper
Jane Scott : Trevelyan
'To return to "Trevelyan". I long to know what you will hear of it from Mary. I think Lady Augusta admirably drawn, her letters are real life, and what a striking little trait her being less fond of St Ives than of the other boy because he had seen Theresa. But [italics] entre nous [end italics], sacredly, I do think she has too much excuse for standing out about the latter, and A.K. made the observation too. [LS then comments on the character of Theresa and her actions.] But interest, interest, interest, as Mrs Williams says, is the first, second, and third perfection in a novel, and that never fails or slackens, nor does one hardly know such a hero as Tevelyan. Mrs Williams will have it that Theresa is not worthy of him, nor likely to have attracted such a man, and caused such a lasting passion; she is not intellectual enough; a mere boarding-school-girl uninformed, etc. etc. Pshoh! I am not over sure that such men like much [italics] mind [end italics] in a woman. I am very sure they can do without it - and at any rate Theresa has capabilities, is what a superior man might train and make something of. However, there is but one voice as (to) thinking it a most interesting book - what nobody can lay down'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Jane Austen : Emma
'I had a letter from Ly. -- on Tuesday that gave me great content, for I, like you, felt a little afraid that the Lady Augusta might give offence. However, her withers are altogether unwrung, and she speaks of "Trevelyan" just as I could wish, enumerating all her bothers and businesses, but saying she cannot resist taking it up at odd times, "it is so very, very interesting!!" She has not yet come to the end; however, this has quite dispelled my fears. For that matter, when we all read "Emma" together at poor Bothwell - the duchess one - we could not help laughing a little more at the devotion of father and daughter to their respective apothecaries, and all the coddling that ensued from it, but we did not find that it struck the devotees in existence. People are so used to themselves! One of Foote's most comical farces represented to the life a certain Mr. Ap. Rees, whom, as old people told me, it did not in the least exaggerate. They swore to having heard him utter the very things the farce put in his mouth. But he himself never found it out. He was intimate with Foote, read the play, told him it was d- stupid and would not suceed, wondered it did, yet went to it and laughed for company, till some good-natured friend informed him he was the person ridiculed; then he went in a rage to the Lord Chamberlain and desired it might be suppressed'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
[n/a] : [newspaper advertisements for Jane Scott's Trevelyan and other books]
'The newspapers having transferred their puffs from "Trevelyan" to something more recent I am tranquillized again, and almost regret my sincerity in taking notice of them to [italics] her [end italics] lest she should be hurt; for I cannot help saying what I think just [italics] as [end italics] I think it'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Advertisement, Newspaper
Ellis Cornelia Knight : Sir Guy de Lusignan. A tale of Italy
'I wish you would like my poor friend Miss Knight's "Guy de Lusignan" a little better: the style is very good, the descriptions very exact, the history very exact; but, alas! it is not "Trevelyan".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
Francois Rene de Chateaubriand : Moïse
'I always thought Chateaubriand had a great deal of the mountebank in him. I bought the play [which she also watched] so you will see it. In his preface he talks of Racine's sacred dramas, but, after all, the histories of Esther and Athalie, though in the Bible, are [italics] mere history [end italics; this is significant because LS is objecting to Chateaubriand representing Moses on stage - implicitly a different thing from what Racine did - this is elaborated on] When I got the book I could scarcely follow the actors, who ate half their words and bellowed the other half.'
