Evidence: |
Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 14-18 October 1793: 'In the interim you shall have the remarks that occurrd upon reading Sir Launcelot Greaves on the road. Broad coarse humour seems to be the chief excellence of Smollet incidents almost too gross to please & too strange to be probable happen at every inn his heroes stop at & we are sure to find the sailors dialect & the clowns broad Scotch or broad Yorkshire in the place of humour. When he gets upon those subjects which perhaps none but Rousseau knew how to treat he rhapsodizes about charms angels & Hymens & thinks passion & nonsense mean the same. Some strange discovery of birth comes in at the end & all the dramatis personæ are tacked together at the altar. Yet with all these faults you are not soon tired of Smollets novels. They insensibly lead you on & if they do not come near the heart certainly play round the head. Humphrey Clinker strikes me as his best — the characters are less outrè & of course more natural. perhaps the epistolary form of it kept him in some bounds.'
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Century: |
1700-1799 |
Date: |
Until: 18 Oct 1793 |
Country: |
England |
Time: |
n/a |
Place: |
other location: on the road |
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|
Type of Experience (Reader): |
silent |
aloud |
unknown |
solitary |
in company |
unknown |
single |
serial |
unknown |
|
Type of Experience (Listener): |
solitary |
in company |
unknown |
single |
serial |
unknown |
|