Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Anna Brownell Jameson, 21 November 1846: 'We have seen your professor once since you left us [...] when he came in one evening & caught us reading, sighing, yawning over Nicolo de' Lapi [sic], a romance by the son in law of Manzoni. Before we could speak, he called it "excellent, tres beau," one of their very best romances .. upon which, of course dear Robert could not bear to offend his literary & national sensibilities by a doubt even. [italics]I[end italics], not being so humane, thought that any suffering reader would be justified (under the rack-wheel) in crying out against such a book, as the dullest, heaviest, stupidest, lengthiest. Did you ever read it? If not, [italics]dont[end italics] [...] Robert in his zeal for Italy [...] tried to persuade me at first [...] that "really Ba, it was'n't so bad" [...] but after two or three chapters, the dulness grew too strong, for even his benevolence, & the yawning catastrophe overthrew him as completely as it ever did me, though we both resolved to hold on by the stirrup to the end of the two volumes.'