Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 March 1844: 'Really, [Paul de Kock] is very bad -- he is very [italics]nasty[end italics] -- he splashes the dirt about him, like a child in a guttter [...] Twice I tried books of his, & sent them back again, .. feeling them to be to bad to read. The third time, they sent me a book of his in mistake for another which I had asked for -- & I went through with it, -- & saw so much (getting used to the filth) to like & recognise for picture & faculty, .. that I took courage, -- & have read most of his forty or fifty volumes, I do believe [goes on to discuss author further]'.