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Edgar Allan Poe :

'At sixteen I discovered the work of Edgar Allan Poe. I happened to read first his biography, and the sadness of his life made a great impression on me. I felt an enormous pity for him, because in spite of his talent he had never been happy.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Hitchcock Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Funeral Ode

'That time Lord Tennyson was delightful - kind and friendly and full of stories, talking a great deal, and in the best of humours. He read the Funeral Ode to us afterwards, and one or two shorter poems (Blow, Bugles, Blow); and I was so glad and thankful that Cecco should see him so, and have such a bright recollection of him to carry through his life.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred, Lord Tennyson Print: Book

Alexander William Kinglake : Eothen

'Pray tell him [Mr Kinglake] that I have been an admirer of his for - Heaven knows how long! - since the days when I was shocked and delighted by "Eothen." I remember being very much amused by the opening out of two old neighbours of mine at Ealing, after a discussion of his first volume. In the enthusiasm created by it one of them, an old Peninsular officer, instructed me carefully how to make a pontoon bridge and get my (!) troops over it; while the other, Admiral Collinson, burst forth into naval experiences.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book

Regina Maria Roche : [novels]

'Austen read especially novels by women, including Mary Brunton, Frances and Sarah Harriet Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Charlotte Lennox, Lady Morgan, Ann Radcliffe, Regina Maria Roche, Charlotte Smith, Jane West, Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins and Hannah More. She also, apparently, read the fiction of the Lady's Magazine, deriving names, Willoughby, Brandon, Knightley, from it, but correcting its "monological" discourse'.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Laetitia Matilda Hawkins : [novels]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [poems]

'Princess Charlotte wrote of reading as a "great passion"; in a poignant attempt to construct bourgeois domestic intimacy in the dysfunctional household of the divorced Prince Regent she discussed and exchanged books with her friend Margaret Mercer Elphinstone, including memoirs and recent history, Byron's poems, and novels including Gothic fiction and works by Anne Plumptre and Jane Austen. (The perceptive Charlotte especially enjoyed "Sense and Sensibility" because she discerned in herself"the same imprudence" as Marianne's).'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Charlotte Print: Book

Alain Rene Le Sage : Gil Blas

'Weeton's reading becomes important in communication with friends, but also a point of conflict: when she visits her brother and his wife, they complain that she spends all her time reading, though she insists that she read very little ("only... Gil Blas, now and then a newspaper, two or three of Lady M. W. Montagu's letters, and few pages in a magazine'), and only because her hosts rose so late. Since her literacy is important as a sign of status, she repeatedly presents herself not as a reader of low status texts like novels but of travels, education works, memoirs and letters, including Boswell's "Tour of the Hebrides", the Travels of Mungo Park, and Mme de Genlis' work. She approves some novels, like Hamilton's "The Cottagers of Glenburnie", but generally finds them a "dangerous, facinating kind of amusement" which "destroy all relish for useful, instructive studies'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

William Henry Davies : 'Love's Silent Hour' and three other poems

'Yesterday my Elizabeth and I went to the most remarkable poets' Reading I have ever attended. It was held at Lord Byron's beautiful house in Piccadilly... I was moved by Mr de la Mare reading five poems of great beauty. Elizabeth was thrilled at seeing for the first time W.H. Davies, a strange tiny poet. He read "Love's Silent Hour" and three others. Hilary [Hilaire Belloc] read "The Poor of London" and "the Dons". He got a big reception'.

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Davies

William Collins Collins : 'Odes' [Appears to be a volume of Odes by various authors]

'Read some of the Odes of Collins think them superior to Grays [...] I cannot describe the pleasure I feel in reading them [...] I find in the same Vol Odes by a poet of the name of Oglivie [...] they appear to me to be bold intruders to claim company with Gray and Collins'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Clare Print: Book

John Hamilton Reynolds : The Garden of Florence

'Began to read again the 'Garden of Florence' by Reynolds it is a beautiful simple tale' [describes other poems in vol].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Clare Print: Book

follower of Joanna Southcott :

'Proselytised by a follower of the mystic Joanna Southcott, he read some of his propaganda but found "Some things that did not Correspond with the bible and also that it was a trick to get money so I declined his religion and bid him adue".''

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Mayett Print: Unknown

Felicia Dorothea Hemans : Coeur De Lion At The Bier Of His Father

'coeurde lion at the bier of his father / new monthly magazine' [includes prose note] [transcription of poem]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom Print: Serial / periodical

Laetitia Elizabeth Landon : The Emerald Ring

'the emerald ring' 'it is agem which [...]' [transcribes poem] 'le landon'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan

Miss Elizabeth Smith : Fragments of prose and verse: by a young lady

'happiness is a very common plant...' 'e. smith's fragments' 'greenock'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan

Miss Elizabeth Smith : Fragments of prose and verse: by a young lady

'the christain life may be compared...' 'e. smith's fragments'. followed by extract ascribed to 'hannah more' 'those who are rendered unhappy by frivolous troubles seek comfort in frivolous enjoyments...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan

Miss Elizabeth Smith : Fragments of prose and verse: by a young lady

'the cause of all sin...' 'e.smith's fragments'. signed 'e.d.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan

Paul Louis Courier : Le Simple Discours

[Marginalia] 'A most powerful piece of rhetoric as ever I read.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay

Paul Louis Courier : Le Simple Discours

'He used to read Courier aloud to his sister at Calcutta of a June afternoon, - in the darkened upstairs chamber, with the punkah swinging overhead, with as much enjoyment as ever Charles James Fox read the romances of Voltaire to his wife in the garden at St. Anne's Hill, though with a less irreproachable accent.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay

Laetitia Elizabeth Landon : 'Change'

'Change' 'We say that people ... [transcribes text]'LEL'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Dugdale

F. D. Hemans : The Graves of a Household

'Graves of a Household' [transcript of text]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Bowly

Robert Hartley Cromek : Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song: with histo

'My Ain Fire Side' 'O I hae seen great ones...'[transcript of text] 'from the Nithsdale and Galloway Songs'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Bowly Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Monody on the Death of the Right Honourable R.B. Sheridan

'Extract from Byron's Monody on the death of Sheridan' [transcript of text]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Bowly

Lord George Gordon Byron : 'Sonnet on Chillon'

'Sonnet on Chillon' [transcript of text]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Bowly

Henry Kirke White : On Disapointment

'Ode on Disapointment' 'Come, Disapointment, come! /...' [No author given]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Rev. John Moultrie : Forget Thee?

'"Forget Thee?" By the Rev John Moultrie [transcript of poem].

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Felicia Dorothea Hemans : Fairy Favours

'Fairy Favours' [transcript of poem] 'Mrs Hemans'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Alaric A. Watts : Sketch From Real Life

'Sketch from Real Life / Alaric A. Watts' [transcript of poem]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

William Robert Spencer : To The Lady Anne Hamilton

'Verses / Spencer' 'Too late I staid, forgive the crime; /...' [transcript of poem]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Thomas James Mathias : The Pursuits of Literature; A Satirical Poem

Engaged in a 2nd perusal of the Pursuits of Literature and the Monthly Magazine

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: I.G. Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : Tales Arabesque and Grotesque

'When I came home from the office where I worked, I went straight to my room, took out the cheap edition of "Tales Grotesque and Arabesque", and began to read.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Hitchcock Print: Book

Baroness Anne Loiuse Germaine De Stael-Holstein : Germany

Read with much delight and instruction the Baroness De Stael's Germany

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: I.G. Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : The Murders in the Rue Morgue

'I still remember my feelings when I finished "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". I was afraid, but this fear made me discover something I've never forgotten since: fear, you see, is an emotion people like to feel when they know they are safe.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Hitchcock Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

'Our parents had accumulated a large number of books, which we were allowed to browse in as much as we liked.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Charles and Mary Lamb :

'Our parents had accumulated a large number of books, which we were allowed to browse in as much as we liked.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

George Gordon Noel, Lord Byron :

'Our parents had accumulated a large number of books, which we were allowed to browse in as much as we liked.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge :

'Our parents had accumulated a large number of books, which we were allowed to browse in as much as we liked.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

'Our parents had accumulated a large number of books, which we were allowed to browse in as much as we liked.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Daniel (Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham) Finch : The Answer of the Earl of Nottingham to Mr Whiston

I find by the news papers this morning that dr wild and you are deputed by the clergy assembled at the late visitation at Beaconsfield to wait upon my lord Nottingham [to give] their thanks for his book agst Mr Whiston. Which book i do also much approve of and accordingly Did return my own thanks to his lordship in the House of Lords as soon as it was published

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Lincoln Print: Book

Hans Christian Anderson :

'Charles was reading Hans Andersen: I wanted the book, asked for it, fussed for it, and finally broke into tears.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Thomas Print: Book

Eliza Fowler Haywood : The Perplex'd Dutchess: Or, Treachery Rewarded...

Sup'd alone. Read 'The Perplex'd Duches' a novell. Bed 11.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Andrew Michael Ramsay : Travels of Cyrus

Mary read to me a little before dinner, (which she does tolerable); 'Cyrus' a Romance. I wound silk.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

Andrew Michael Ramsay : ['Cyrus'] OR Travels of Cyrus

Lay till near 11. Mary read 'cyrus', I winding silk.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

(Sir) John Denham : The Sophy OR Poems and Translations

Sup'd alone. Read 'The Sophy', a play of Sir J Deham's.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Andrew Michael Ramsay : The Travels of Cyrus

Read 'The travells of Cyrus' after supper.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

(Sir) John Vanbrugh : A Journey to London, being part of a comedy...

Din'd in own room alone... Read 'A Journy to London', Sir J Vanburg's -part of what is made 'The Provoked Husband' by Cibber, vastly mended by him I think.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Andrew Michael Ramsay : The Travels of Cyrus

Home past 9. Supper alone, Read 'Cyrus', Bed 12.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Andrew Michael Ramsay : The Travels of Cyrus

Rise at 10. Mary read 'Cyrus'. Knited [knitted] till 7.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

Andrew Michael Ramsay : The Travels of Cyrus

Took Phisick. Rise at 10. Mary read Cyrus.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

Andrew Michael Ramsay : The Travels of Cyrus

Took phisick. Mary read Cyrus.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

(Sir) Richard Steele : The Conscious Lovers. A Comedy.

Went into the park...Back to our dinner at 2. Spent the afternoon walking and sitting, and I read 3 Acts of 'The Conscious Lovers'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

'B.L' OR 'A Lady' : Two Letters: one from a Lady to a friend who had m

Afternoon read Lady's Letter to a Popish Gentleman etc.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Samuel Clarke Clarke : A Paraphrase on the Four Evangelists

Afternoon went to the chaple. Home. Coffee. Read Clarke's 'Parraphras on the Evangellists'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Madame de Gomez : La Belle Assemblee: or, The Adventures of Six Days

Read 'The Adventures of Six Days'. 1 hour. Bed 11.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Madame de Gomez : La Belle Assemblee: or, The Adventures of Six Days

Read 'Six Days Adventures' after supper. Bed 11.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Madame de Gomez : La Belle Assemblee: or, The Adventures of Six Days

'Adventures of Six Days' 1 hour after supper. Bed 11.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Madame de Gomez : La Belle Assemblee: or, The Adventures of Six Days

Read 'Adventures of Six Days'. Bed 1.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Anon OR 'Ma. A' [Madame A] : The Prude. A Novel... By a Young Lady.

Home near 9. Read 'The Prude' comfortably by a fire.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Anon OR 'M. A.' [Madame A] : The Prude. A Novel... By a Young Lady.

Read 'The Prude'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Anon OR 'Ma. A' [Madame A] : The Prude. A Novel... By a Young Lady.

Tent till dark. Read the 3rd part of 'The Prude', and the 'The Beautifull Pyrate'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Jean Regnauld de Segrais : Three Novels; viz I. The Beautiful Pyrate.... OR F

Read... "The Beautifull Pyrate".

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Jean Regnauld de Segrais : Three Novels; viz I. The Beautiful Pyrate.... OR F

Tent all day light. Read Ugania [?] and Bajesett. Bed past 11.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

'Young Nobleman' : Nunnery Tales, Written by a Young Nobleman, and Tr

Tent till Dark. Read 'Nunnery Tales'. What a Stuped Life is my lott!...

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

'Young Nobleman' : Nunnery Tales, Written by a Young Nobleman, and Tr

Sat humdrum some time. Read a storry out of 'Nunnery Tales'. At 5 to Mrs Drydens...

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Eliza Fowler Haywood : The City Widow; or, Love in a Butt. A Novel.

After supper read 'The City Widow' and part of the 'Adventures of Abdella' - 2 new books got tonight. Bed past 12.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Alain Rene Le Sage : The History and Adventures of Gil Blas...

Home past 9 almost starv'd to death...Read 'Gill Blas'. Bed 12.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Alain Rene Le Sage : The History and Adventures of Gil Blas...

Home near 11. 'Gil Blass'. Bed past 12.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Eliza Fowler Haywood : The Perplex'd Dutchess; or, Treachery Rewarded...A

News. Writt. After supper read 'The Perplex'd Dutches'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Alain Rene Le Sage : The History and Adventures of Gil Blas...

Made an end of 'Gil Blas'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

George (Duke of Buckingham) Villiers : The Rehearsal

Read 4 acts of 'The Rehearsall'. Bed 11.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

George (Duke of Buckingham) Villiers : The Rehearsal

Read an act of 'The Rehearsall' and one of 'All for Love'. Bed 12.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Andrew Michael Ramsay : The Travels of Cyrus

Read 'travells of Cyrus' alone 2 1/2 hours. A fine book. Bed near 12.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Marie-Emilie, Comtesse de Flahaut Adelaide : Eugenie et Mathilde

Let us talk of Eugenie and Mathilde. It saddened but did not make me cry. I foresaw it would end like a Turk, nay I am not sure I did not peep, for I cannot bear to be graduallyworked up into an agony by these dismal stories... I shall not desire to look into it again...

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Hester Lynch Piozzi : Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson

I wanted to have sent you a translation of the Epigram Flahaut has introduced in her book. It is Johnson's, and inserted in Piozzi's anecdotes - but my father has lent, & lost (often synomymous terms) his copy of that work, & I cannot immediately think of anybody to apply to. There are no bookish people here - on the contrary, they seem to me to look with an evil eye on every reader of every production save a newspaper.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Marquis of Chatele, Paul Hay : The Politics of France

Volume annotated in Dawson's own hand. Includes correction to Preface and a contents list.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Dawson Print: Book

Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert : Allgemeine Naturgeschichte

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling : Zeitschrift fur speculative Physik

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert : Ansichten von der Nachtseite der Naturwissenschaft

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Novels and Tales of the Author of Waverley

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Historical Romances of the Author of Waverley

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert : Die Symbolik des Traumes

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Novels and Romances of the Author of Waverley

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Henry Augustus Zwick : Calmuc Tartary

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

John and Michael Banim : Tales by the O'Hara Family

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Herder : Verstand und Erfahrung

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee : The Life and Opinions of Sir Richard Maltravers, a

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee : The Life and Opinions of Sir Richard Maltravers

[Marginalia]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Ludwig Tieck : Phantasus

[Marginalia]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Holty : Gedichte

[Marginalia]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Edward Thomas Stanley Hornby : Childhood (?)

[Marginalia]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Paul de Rapin-Thoyras : The History of England

[Marginalia]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Henry Peter Brougham : A Speech on the Present State of the Law of the Country

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Einleitung in das Neue Testament

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Einleitung in das Neue Testament

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Commentarius in Apocalypsin Joannis

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Commentarius in Apocalypsin Joannis

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Charles Bowker Ash : Adbaston: or Days of Youth

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter : Palingenesien von Jean Paul

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter : Museum von Jean Paul

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Christoph Friedrich Nicolai : Ueber meine gelehrte Bildung

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus : Ueber die Grunde der menschlichen Erkentniss und der nat?rlichen Religion

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann : Geschichte der Philosophie

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Kasper Lodewijk Valckenaer : Diatribe de Aristobulo Judaeo

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Henry Vane the Younger : A Healing Question Propounded and Resolved

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Walter Raleigh : The History of the World

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire : A Treatise on Toleration

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Gerardus Joannes Vossius : Poeticarum Institutionum, libri tres

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Edward Gibbon Wakefield : A letter from Sydney, the principal town of Australia

[Marginalia]

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

John Benn Walsh : On the Present Balance of Parties in the State

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

John Benn Walsh : Popular Opinions on Parliamentary Reform

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter : Jean Pauls Geist oder Chrestomathie der vorzuglich

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter : Das Kampaner Thal oder uber die Unsterblichkeit de

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Carl Von Savigny : Of the Vocation of our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : Darlegung des wahren Verhaltnisses der Naturphilosphe

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Comische Erzahlungen

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : Denkmal der Schrift von den gottlichen Dingen

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : Einleitung zu seinem Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : Ideen zu einer Philosophie der Natur

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : Philosophie und Religion

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Karl Leonhard Reinhold : Versuch einer neueren Theorie des menschlichen Vorstellungsverm?

[Marginalia]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Wielands Neueste Gedichte

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Publius Virgilius Maro : Georgica Publii Virgilii Maronis Hexaglotta

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

August Wilhelm Rehberg : Ueber das Verhaltniss der Metaphysik zu der Religion

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Caspar Suicerus : Joh. Caspari Suiceri...Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Giuseppe Luca Pasini : Vocabolario Italiano-Latino per uso degli studiosi

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Christian Franz Paullini : Christiani Francisci Paullini disquisitio curiosa

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Alaric Alexander Watts : Poetical Sketches

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Lord Alfred Tennyson : Poems, Chiefly Lyrical

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Saint Teresa : Works

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Nicolaus Tetens : Philosophische Versuche

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Jean de Thevenot : The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir John Pringle : Observations on the Diseases of the Army

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Ludwig Tieck : The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Bryan Waller Procter : Dramatic Scenes and Other Poems

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Aulus Persius Flaccus : Auli Persi Flacci Satirarum liber

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

St John Chrysostom : Commentary on the Ephesians

I read some of Chrysostom's commentary on the Ephesians. I am getting tired of this commentary. Such underground dark passages before you get at anything worth standing to look at! Very eloquent sometimes: but such a monotony & lengthiness! Sunday is not a reading day with me. Driving to church, driving back again, driving to chapel, driving back again - & prayers three times at home besides! All that fills up the day, except the few interstices between the intersections.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

William Lisle Bowles : Fourteen Sonnets

'At some point after 1828, W[ordsworth] told Alexander Dyce that he read Bowles's Fourteen Sonnets on publication: "When Bowles's Sonnets first appeared, - a thin 4to pamphlet, entitled Fourteen Sonnets, - I bought them in a walk through London with my dear brother, who was afterwards drowned at sea."'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : Tales

[Permitted Sunday reading for the children of the family].

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Revolt of Islam

Read some passages from Shelley?s Revolt of Islam before I was up. He is a great poet; but we acknowledge him to be a great poet as we acknowledge Spenser to be so, & do not love him for it. He resembles Spenser in one thing, & one thing only, that his poetry is too immaterial for our sympathies to enclasp it firmly. It reverses the lot of human plants: its roots are in the air, not earth! ? But as I read him on, I may reverse this opinion.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Harris Barham : The Ingoldsby Legends

'After tea...[on a Sunday, my father]...liked to read aloud to us from books that sounded quite well, but afforded some chance of frivolity.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Molly Vivian Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

'After tea...[on a Sunday, my father]...liked to read aloud to us from books that sounded quite well, but afforded some chance of frivolity.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book, Unknown

Aunt Lizzie : Persons for Whom our Prayers are Requested

'Charles...seized the list [of prayers for the redemption of sinners] hopefully, and hooted with delight when he found: "For a family of four boys and one girl [namely his own family]."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Thomas Print: Serial / periodical, Religious magazine with blank pages for individual prayers

Robert Michael Ballantyne : The Iron Horse

'Surely no book was ever read and re-read and talked over as that first new volume, although we went on to buy many more.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

1"Vanity Fair" I read without the faintest suspicion of the intent of the note in the bouquet, or of Rawdon's reason for knocking down Lord Steyne.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]

'Shakespeare incited his appetitie for poetry: Cowper, Pope, Dryden, Goldsmith, Thomson, Byron. Not only were they more interesting than the fifty volumes of Wesley's Christian Library: eventually Barker realised that "the reason why I could not understand them was, that there was nothing to be understood - that the books were made up of words, and commonplace errors and mystical and nonsensical expressions, and that there was no light or truth in them". When his superintendent searched his lodgings and found Shakespeare and Byron there, Barker was hauled before a disciplinary committee'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Barker Print: Book

George Gordon Byron :

'Byron had intoxicated him "with the freedom of his style of writing, with the fervour or passionateness of his feelings and with the dark and terrible pictures which he seemed to take pleasure in painting". The general effect of reading Milton, Hobbes, Locke and Newton had been "to make me resolve to be free. I saw that it was impossible for the soul of man to answer the end for which it was created, while tramelled by human authority, or fettered with human creeds. I saw that if I was to do justice to truth, to God, or to my own soul, I must break loose from all creeds and laws of men's devising, and live in full and unrestricted liberty..."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Barker Print: Book

Farell Lee Bevan : Peep of Day

'Farell Lee Bevan's Peep of Day (759,000 copies in print by 1888) supplied him with the frame of a totalistic religious ideology: "It was from these pages that I got my first idea of the moral foundations of the universe, was handed the first key with which to unlock the mysteries of the world in which I found myself. These little books served the purpose of an index or filing system; a framework of iron dogma, if you like, providing an orderly arrangement of the world and its history for the young mind, under two main categories, Good and Evil". But Jones also attended a board school, where he found "salvation" in an old cupboard of books presented by the local MP. They were mainly volumes of voyages and natural history, "which took a Rhymney boy away into the realms of wonder over the seas to the Malay Archipelago, to Abyssinia, to the sources of the Nile and the Albert Nyanza, to the curiosities of natural history, piloted by James Bruce, Samuel Baker and Frank Buckland".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Jones Print: Book

Thomas Babington MacAulay :

'While he read little but the Bible and religious periodicals, his son was working his way through the Rhymney Workmen's Institute Library and Cassell's National Library of 3d paperbacks. MacAulay's essays, Goldsmith's History of England, Far from the Madding Crowd, Self-Help, Josephus, Plutarch, Shakespeare, Pepys, Johnson's Lives of the Poets, and The Sorrows of Young Werther were among the books Jones read, often on his employer's time. (He hid them under the ledger at the Rhymney Iron Works, where he worked a thirteen hour day as a timekeeper for 9s. a week.)'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Jones Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : The Sorrows of Young Werther

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Jones Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : Principles of Political Economy

'The Primitive Methodists may have been the most anti-intellectual of the Wesleyans, yet miners' MP John Johnson "found their teaching the strongest possible incentive to trying to improve myself, not only morally, but mentally, and towards the latter end I took to serious and systematic study." He read deeply in history and philosophy, as well as such this-worldly tracts as The Wealth of Nations, John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy, and Alfred Marshall's Principles of Economics'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Johnson Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [poems]

'As a circuit preacher Pyke introduced farm people to Milton, Carlyle, Ruskin and Tolstoy. His own reading ranged from Shakespeare and Boswell to Shelley's poems and George Henry Lewes's History of Philosophy. He was even prepared to acknowledge the "genius" of Jude the Obscure, though he would have preferred a happy ending'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Pyke Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : History of Philosophy

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Pyke Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : [poetry]

'The propaganda of Robert Owen alone did not convert printer Thomas Frost... to socialism: "The poetry of Coleridge and Shelley was stirring within me and making me 'a Chartist and something more'". Frost had been an omnivorous reader since childhood, when he read his grandmother's volumes of The Spectator and The Persian Letters. Most subversive of all were the letters of the second Lord Lyttelton: "The attraction which this book had for me consisted, I believe, in the tinge of scepticism to be found in several of the letters, and in the metaphysical questions argued, lightly and cleverly, in others. I was beginning to assert for myself freedom of thought, and to rebel against custom and convention; and there was naturally much in common between the writer and the reader",'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Frost Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [poetry]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Frost Print: Book

Alain Rene Le Sage : Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane

"Of my earliest days at school I have little to say, but that they were very happy ones, chiefly because I was left at liberty, and in the vacations, to read whatever books I liked ... I read all Fielding's works, Don Quixote, Gil Blas, and any part of Swift that I liked." (Wordsworth, Prose Works vol. 3 p.372).

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Osorio

"In June 1797, D[orothy] W[ordsworth] wrote to Mary Hutchinson, telling her that, as soon as [S. T.] C[oleridge] arrived at Racedown Lodge, 'he repeated to us two acts and a half of his tragedy Osorio.'"

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Manuscript: Unknown

Enrico Caterina Davila : Historia delle Guerre Civili di Francia ... nella quale si contegnono le operationi di quattro re, Francesco II., Carlo IX., Henrico III. e Henrico IV. cognominato il Grande

"On 21 March 1796, [Wordsworth] told [William] Mathews that D[orothy] W[ordsworth] 'has already gone through half of Davila.'"

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book, Serial / periodical

John Bernard Farish :

"W[ordsworth]'s note to Guilt and Sorrow 81 acknowledges a borrowing 'From a short MS. poem read to me when an under-graduate, by my schoolfellow and friend Charles Farish, long since deceased. The verses were by a brother of his [John Bernard Farish], a man of promising genius, who died young.'"

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Manuscript: Unknown

John Bernard Farish :

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Farish Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe :

"On 27 Feb. 1799, W[ordsworth] told [S. T.] C[oleridge] that 'My internal prejudge[ments con]cerning Wieland and Goethe ... were ... the result of no negligent perusal of the different fragments which I had seen in England.'"

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Manuscript: Unknown

[the great poets] :

'Milton established a habit of serious reading, which brought Bamford to Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, the great poets, classic histories and voyages, and ultimately William Cobbett's Political Register'.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Bamford Print: Unknown

Desiderius Erasmus Rotterdamus :

'In 1926 [Catherine McMullen] was herself a workhouse laundress, struggling to improve her mind by reading T.P. and Cassell's Weekly. The magazine was full of literary gossip that made her aspire to be a writer, but she had no idea which books to read until she came across Elinor Glyn's The Career of Catherine Bush. In this story of a romance between a duke and a secretary, the secretary is advised to read the Letters of Lord Chesterfield to his Son. Catherine McMullen visited a public library for the first time in her life and borrowed the book: "And here began my education. With Lord Chesterfield I read my first mythology. I learned my first history and geography. With Lord Chesterfield I went travelling the world. I would fall asleep reading the letters and awake around three o'clock in the morning my mind deep in the fascination of this new world, where people conversed, not just talked..." ... He launched her into a lifetime course of reading, beginning with Chaucer in Middle English, moving on to Erasmus, Donne, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and even Finnegan's Wake.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine McMullen Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

'Garratt escaped [from factory life] to an evening course in English literature, where he felt "like a child that becomes ecstatic with a fireworks display". Keats, Shelley, and Tennyson "swamped the trivialities of life and gave my ego a fulness and strength in the lustre of which noble conceptions were born and flourished'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: V.W. Garratt Print: Book

Francis Turner Palgrave (ed.) : The Golden Treasury

'[Garratt] spent his free evenings in Birmingham's Central Free Library reading Homer, Epitectus, Longius and Plato's Dialogues, a classical education which further undemined his confidence in the status quo: "I began to wonder in what way we had advanced from the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome". In the First World War, he took Palgrave's Golden Treasury with him to France and wrote his own verses in the trenches'..

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: V.W. Garratt Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson :

'by age twenty [Mary Smith] had read and understood George Payne's Elements of Mental and Moral Science, Thomas Brown's Moral Philosophy, and Richard Whateley's Logic. But two authors in paticular offered magnificent revelations. First there was Emerson on Nature; and later, as a governess for a Scotby leatherworks owner, she discovered Thomas Carlyle: "Emerson and he henceforth became my two great masters of thought for the rest of my life. Carlyle's gospel of Work and exposure of Shams, and his universal onslaught on the nothings and appearances of society, gave strength and life to my vague but true enthusiasm. They proved a new Bible of blessedness to my eager soul, as they did thousands beside, who had become weary of much of the vapid literature of the time".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Smith Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte :

'like the great man [Carlyle] himself, [Mary Smith] studied Fichte, Schiller and Goethe'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Smith Print: Book

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller :

'like the great man [Carlyle] himself, [Mary Smith] studied Fichte, Schiller and Goethe'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Smith Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe :

'like the great man [Carlyle] himself, [Mary Smith] studied Fichte, Schiller and Goethe'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Smith Print: Book

Sir John Fielding :

Witness statement in trial for highway robbery: William Masters: "some time on the 26th of December, we received a handbill from Sir John Fielding, describing this watch to have been stolen by a single highwayman on the 24th, with a reward of ten guineas over and above the reward allowed by act of parliament; between four and five that afternoon my apprentice came to me in the parlour, and brought me this watch and the handbill..."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Masters Print: Handbill

Sir John Fielding :

Witness statement in trial for highway robbery: John Brooks: "the handbill came from Sir John Fielding's on the 26th of December; I saw it in the shop between three and four, and the prisoner came in the evening... he told me he wanted ten guineas upon this watch... I seeing it answered the description in the handbill, I took that and the bill into the parlour to my master..."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Brooks Print: Handbill

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock : [odes]

"On 21 Sept 1798, Klopstock read to W[ordsworth] and C[oleridge] 'some passages from his odes in which he has adopted the latin measures' (Wordsworth, Prose Works vol. 1, p.91).

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

Marie Jeanne Roland de la Platiere : An Appeal to Impartial Posterity, by Citizeness Roland

"[Thomas] Poole read the Appeal in March 1796; writing to Henrietta Warwick on 2 April, he revealed that 'I have lately perused with much delight La Citoyenne Roland.'"

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Poole Print: Book

Marie Jeanne Roland de la Platiere : An Appeal to Impartial Posterity, by Citizeness Roland

" ... in March 1796 D[orothy] W[ordsworth] reported that 'I have also read lately Madame Roland's Memoirs, Louvet and some other french things - very entertaining.'"

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller : The Robbers

"[S. T.] C[oleridge] stayed up until one o'clock in the morning to read Tytler's translation of The Robbers ... "

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Thomas Dunham Whitaker : History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, The

'I cannot express how much pleasure my Brother has already received from Dr. Whitaker's Books, though they have been only two days in his possession - Almost the whole time he has been greedily devouring the History of Craven ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Thomas Dunham Whitaker : History of the Original Parish of Whalley, and Honour of Clitheroe, The

' ... I have lately read Dr. Whitaker's history of ... Whalley both with profit and pleasure.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

[Italian deputies] Anon : [address to Buonaparte]

William Wordsworth to Thomas De Quincey, regarding editing of The Convention of Cintra: 'I have alluded to the blasphemous address to Buonaparte made by some Italian deputies, which you remember we read at Grasmere some time ago, and his answer; I should like to have referred to the very words in the Appendix ... If ... you could find it in the file of Couriers at the office, I should exceedingly like such parts as you might approve of ... to be inserted ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth and Thomas De Quincey Print: Serial / periodical

Don Pedro Cevallos : Exposition of the Arts and Machinations which led to the Usurpation of the Crown of Spain ...

'I have read Cevallos; also I have read Miss Smith's Translation of Klopstock's and Mrs. K's letters [goes on to express preference for Mrs Klopstock's letters over those of her husband].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Christabel

'I ... found Miss [Sara] Hutchinson reading Coleridge's Christabel to Johnny [Wordsworth] - She was tired, so I read the greater part of it: he was excessively interested especially with the first part ... '

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sara Hutchinson and Dorothy Wordsworth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Christabel

'Mr. Wilson came to us on Saturday morning and stayed till Sunday afternoon - William [Wordsworth] read the White Doe; and Coleridge's Christabel to him, with both of which he was much delighted.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth

Arthur Penryn Stanley : Life of Thomas Arnold D.D, Headmaster of Rugby

As I have no people to tell you of, so have I very few books, and know nothing of what is stirring in the literary world. I have read the Life of Arnold of Rugby, who was a noble fellow; and the letters of Burke, which do not add to, or detract from, what I knew and liked in him before. I am meditating to begin Thucydides one day; perhaps this winter. . .

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Fitzgerald Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Henry Mayhew interviews a 'vagrant' of 18 years of age: "Of a night ...we'd read stories about Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin, and all through that set. They were large thick books, borrowed from the library. They told how they used to break open the houses, and get out of Newgate, and how Dick got away to York. We used to think Jack and them very fine fellows. I wished I could be like Jack (I did then), about the blankets in his escape, and that old house in West-street -it is a ruin still."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Rookwood

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Windsor Castle

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book, Serial / periodical, unsure if penny numbers or book

William Harrison Ainsworth : The Tower of London

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book, Serial / periodical, unsure if penny numbers or book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 17, an inmate of a London workhouse: "I've read 'Jack Sheppard' through, in three volumes; and I used to tell stories out of that sometimes."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Henry Mayhew interviews a 'London sneak or common thief': "On Sunday evenings the only books read were such as 'Jack Sheppard', 'Dick Turpin' and the 'Newgate Calendar', they got out of the neighbouring libraries by depositing 1s. These were read with much interest; the lodgers would sooner have these than any other books."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Rookwood

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

George Jacob Holyoake :

Henry Mayhew interviews a former London pickpocket, turned patterer; grew up in Shropshire, father a Wesleyan minister: "...I have read Paine, and Valney, and Holyoake, those infidel writers, and have also read the works of Bulwer, Dickens and numbers of others..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : 'Ode to the West Wind'

'[Muir's] account of his reading material as a young man in Glasgow points to an involvement with poems of the Romantic and post-Romantic periods which were concerned both with visionary experience and with the need to transcend human suffering. He tells us: I was enchanted by The Solitary Reaper, the Ode to a Nightingale, the Ode to the West Wind, The Lotus Eaters, and the chorus from Atalanta in Calydon'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Unknown

Algernon Charles Swinburne : 'Atalanta in Calydon'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Unknown

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Henry Mayhew holds meeting with a group of the lowest class of male juvenile thieves and vagabonds; during the meeting they tell him what they have read/ read regularly and Mayhew records this: "Respecting their education, according to the popular meaning of the term, 63 of the 150 were able to read and write, and they were principally thieves. Fifty of this number said they had read 'Jack Sheppard' and the lines of Dick Turpin, Claude du Val, and all the other popular thieves' novels, as well as the Newgate Calendar and Lives of Robbers and Pirates. Those who could not read themselves, said they'd had 'Jack Sheppard' read to them at the lodging houses. Numbers avowed that they had been induced to resort to an abandoned course of life from reading the lives of notorious thieves and novels about highway robbers."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book, Serial / periodical, either in penny numbers or as volume

William Harrison Ainsworth : Rookwood

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book, Serial / periodical, either in penny numbers or as volume

C. Maurice Bowra : The Heritage of Symbolism

'[Muir] wrote to Stephen Spender in the summer of 1944 that Bowra's book had made him realise that he had been writing symbolist poetry himself for years without realising it. He added: "He inspired me to write one deliberately, which I enclose".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: group of London thieves Print: Book, Serial / periodical, either as penny numbers or in volume

The Bible :

'[Muir] recalls... that his father conducted a little service in the farmhouse each week: "Every Sunday night he gathered us together to read a chapter of the Bible and kneel down in prayer. These Sunday nights are among my happiest memories; there was a feeling of complete security and union among us as we sat reading about David and Elijah".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : [Essays]

'Philip Inman conveyed a ... specific sense of the uses of literacy for an early Labour MP. The son of a widowed charwoman, he bought up all the cheap reprints he could afford and kept notes on fifty-eight of them... There were Emerson's essays, Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Lamb's Essays of Elia, classic biogaphies (Boswell on Johnson, Lockhart on Scott, Carlyle on Sterling), several Waverley novels, Wuthering Heights, Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, The Imitation of Christ, Shakespeare's sonnets, Tennyson, Browning, William Morris and Palgrave's Golden Treasury.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book

John Gibson Lockhart : The Life of Scott

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book

Thomas a Kempis : The Imitation of Christ

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book

Francis Turner Palgrave : Golden Treasury (ed.)

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

'When asked how books had shaped him, Labour M.P. F.W. Jowett ranged widely: Ivanhoe made him want to read, Unto this Last made him a socialist, Past and Present made him think, Vanity Fair and Les Miserables taught him human sympathy, and Wuthering Heights taught him respect for man and nature.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: F.W. Jowett Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Queen Mab

'Percy Wall, jailed for defying draft notices in the First World War, was inspired in part by a copy of Queen Mab owned by his father, a Marxist railway worker. But neither father nor son applied ideological tests to literature. In the prison library - with some guidance from a fellow conscientious objector who happened to be an important publishing executive - Percy discovered Emerson, Macaulay, Bacon, Shakespeare and Lambb. It was their style rather than their politics he found liberating: from them "I learned self-expression and acquired or strengthened standards of literature".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Unknown

Ralph Waldo Emerson :

'Percy Wall, jailed for defying draft notices in the First World War, was inspired in part by a copy of Queen Mab owned by his father, a Marxist railway worker. But neither father nor son applied ideological tests to literature. In the prison library - with some guidance from a fellow conscientious objector who happened to be an important publishing executive - Percy discovered Emerson, Macaulay, Bacon, Shakespeare and Lamb. It was their style rather than their politics he found liberating: from them "I learned self-expression and acquired or strengthened standards of literature".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay :

'Percy Wall, jailed for defying draft notices in the First World War, was inspired in part by a copy of Queen Mab owned by his father, a Marxist railway worker. But neither father nor son applied ideological tests to literature. In the prison library - with some guidance from a fellow conscientious objector who happened to be an important publishing executive - Percy discovered Emerson, Macaulay, Bacon, Shakespeare and Lamb. It was their style rather than their politics he found liberating: from them "I learned self-expression and acquired or strengthened standards of literature".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

'Emrys Daniel Hughes, [an] imprisoned CO and son of a Tonypandy miner, learned that the authorities were not unaware of the subversive potential of great literature. Following a Home Office directive to examine prisoners' books, the chaplain confiscated a volume of Shelley, though not before Hughes had a chance to read and discuss it. The padre also apparently removed Tristram Shandy from the prison library: Hughes found it whilst cleaning the chaplain's rookm and had read it on the sly... In More's Utopia he discovered a radical rethinking of criume and punishment. The World Set Free, in which HG Wells predicted the devastation of nuclear war, naturally spoke to his antiwar activism, and he was greatly impressed by the Quaker idealism in George Fox's journal, a biography of William Penn and Walt Whitman's poems.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Emrys Daniel Hughes Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : The World Set Free

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Emrys Daniel Hughes Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay :

'[Emrys Hughes] read the social history of Macaulay, Froude, and J.R. Green; Thorold Rogers's Six Centuries of Work and Wages particularly appealed to him because it offered "not the history of kings and queens, but of the way ordinary people ha struggled to live throughout the centuries..." Hughes was one of those agitators who found a virtual Marxism in Thomas Carlyle. The French Revolution inspired the hope that a popular revolt somewhere would end the war...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Emrys Daniel Hughes Print: Book

James Anthony Froude :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Emrys Daniel Hughes Print: Book

John Richard Green :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Emrys Daniel Hughes Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Oberon

'"I am translating the Oberon of Wieland," C[oleridge] told [Thomas] Poole, 20 Nov 1797.'

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Friend, A Literary, Moral and Political Weekly Paper

Dorothy Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont, 28 February [1810], on departure of Sara Hutchinson after four years with Wordsworths: 'Coleridge most of all will miss her, as she has transcribed almost every Paper of the Friend for the press.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sara Hutchinson Manuscript: Unknown

Thomas Babington Macaulay :

'The historical classics "came as a revelation"- Macaulay, J.R. Green, Gibbon, Motley's Dutch Republic, Prescott on Peru and Mexico and The French Revolution. Academic critics today might discern ideologies in all of the above, but that was not Lawson's reading of them. "Of politics I knew nothing and cared less", he recalled, yet his purely literary readings had helped him form "some very definite opinions on the right and wrong of things social..."'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Jack Lawson Print: Book

John Richard Green :

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Jack Lawson Print: Book

John Lothrop Motley : The Rise of the Dutch Republic

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Jack Lawson Print: Book

William Hickling Prescott : The Conquest of Mexico

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Jack Lawson Print: Book

William Hickling Prescott : The Conquest of Peru

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Jack Lawson Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Hiawatha

[Alice Foley] read some Morris and less Marx, but for her a liberal education for the proletariat was not merely a means of achieving socialism: it was socialism in fact. At night school she staged a personal revolution by writing a paper on Romeo and Juliet and thriling to the "new romantic world" of Jane Eyre. She joined a Socialist Sunday School where 'Hiawatha' was recited for its "prophetic idealism", and a foundry hammerman intoned Keats's 'Eve of St Agnes and 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alice Foley Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Man and Superman

'Even before [Chaim Lewis] discovered the English novelists, he was introduced to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Pushkin by a Russian revolutionary rag merchant who studied Dickens in the Whitechapel Public Library and read aloud from Man and Superman. Another friend - the son of a widowed mother, who left school at fourteen - exposed him to Egyptology, Greek architecture, Scott, Smollett, the British Musuem and Prescott's History of the Conquest of Peru'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Chaim Lewis Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

'In a Sunday school library set up by a cotton mill fire-beater, [Thomas Thompson] read Dickens, Thackeray, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Marcus Aurelius'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Thompson Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes :

'In a Sunday school library set up by a cotton mill fire-beater, [Thomas Thompson] read Dickens, Thackeray, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Marcus Aurelius'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Thompson Print: Book

Charles Monroe Sheldon : The Crucifixion of Philip Strong

'George Gregory offers a case study in the importance of Self-Help. His father was an illiterate Somerset miner, his mother a servant who read nothing but the Bible... Gregory only had a few school prizes - Jack and the Ostrich, a children's story; The Crucifixion of Philip Strong, a gripping tale of labor unrest; and the verses of Cornish poet, John Harries - and the family read a weekly serial, Strongdold the Gladiator. Having left school at twelve to work in the mines, Gregory had no access to serious reading matter until mid-adolescence, when a clerk introduced him to Self-Help. That book, he recalled in old age, "has lived with me, and in me, for more than sixty years... I was impressed by its quality for I had never touched a book of such high quality; and the impression deepened and became vivid as I took it home, read the stories of men who had helped themselves, struggled against enormous difficulties, suffered privations...but went on to rise phoenix-like from the ruins of their plans... I realised that my lack of education was not decisive of what I might become, so I commenced to reach out into the future".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gregory Print: Book

Captain Charles Pasley : An Essay on the Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire

William Wordsworth to Captain Charles Pasley, 28 March 1811: 'Now for your book. I had expected it with great impatience, and desired a Friend to send it down to me immediately on its appearance, which he neglected to do. On this account, I did not see it till a few days ago. I have read it through twice, with great care, and many parts three or four times over.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

R. P. Gillies : Egbert, or, The Suicide

William Wordsworth to R. P.Gillies, 23 November 1814: 'I have to thank you ... for Egbert, which is pleasingly and vigorously written, and proves that with a due sacrifice of exertion, you will be capable of performing things that will have a strong claim on the regards of posterity. But keep, I pray you, to the great models; there is in some parts of this tale, particuarly page fourth, too much of a bad writer - Lord Byron ... towards the conclusion, the intervention of the peasant is not only unnecessary, but injurious to the tale ... '

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth

R. P. Gillies : Ruminator, The

William Wordsworth to R. P.Gillies, 23 November 1814: 'I have peeped into the Ruminator, and turned to your first letter, which is well executed, and seizes the attention very agreeably. Your longer poem I have barely looked into ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

R. P. Gillies : Childe Alarique, a poet's reverie with other poems

William Wordsworth to R. P.Gillies, 23 November 1814: 'Your longer poem I have barely looked into ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

R. P. Gillies : Exile, The

William Wordsworth to R. P. Gillies, 22 December 1814: 'When your Letter arrived I was in the act of reading to Mrs W[ordsworth] your Exile, which pleased me more, I think, than anything that I have read of yours ... I was particularly charmed with the seventeenth stanza, first part ... which I shall often repeat to myself ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

R. P. Gillies : The Ruminator

William Wordsworth to R. P. Gillies, 22 December 1814: 'I have read the Ruminator, and I fear that I do not like it quite as much as you would wish. It wants depth and strength, yet it is pleasingly and elegantly written, and contains everywhere the sentiments of a liberal spirit.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Anna Maria Porter : Recluse of Norway, The

Dorothy Wordsworth to Sara Hutchinson, 18 February 1815: 'Mary is deep in the 2nd volume of the "Recluse of Norway" by Miss Porter - there is a wonderful cleverness in this book, and notwithstanding the badness of the style the 1st vol is very interesting. I began the 2nd last night but could do no more than skim it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wordsworth Print: Book

Anna Maria Porter : Recluse of Norway, The

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

Johann Joachim Winkelman : Reflections concerning the imitation of the Grecian Artists in Painting and Sculpture, in a series of Letters'

William Wordsworth to B. R. Haydon, 21 December 1815: 'Have you read the works of the Abbe [Johann Joachim] Winkelman on the study of the Antique, in Painting and Sculpture ... His Works are unknown to me, except a short treatise entitled Reflections concerning the imitation of the Grecian Artists in Painting and Sculpture, in a series of Letters. A translation of this is all I have read having met with it the other day upon a Stal[l] at Penrith ... This Book of mine was printed at Glasgow 1766.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

R. P. Gillies : Illustrations of a Poetical Character, in six Tales, with other Poems

William Wordsworth to R. P. Gillies (postmarked 9 April 1816): 'Your obliging Present [new book of poems] reached me yesterday ... I read the volume through immediately: and paid particular attention to the parts that were new to me.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

R. P. Gillies : Rinaldo, a desultory Poem

William Wordsworth to R. P. Gillies: " ... your poem [Rinaldo] I have read with considerable attention."

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of a juvenile offender: "I have been twice in prison. I was only in Liverpool two days. I came from Manchester to the races; I had no work. I have been at all the theatres... I have robbed my parents to satisfy my desire to go to the theatres; ...I have seen 'Jack Sheppard' performed; I think it will be the means of inducing boys to copy his tricks. I have read his life; many boys have it."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: H.T. Print: Book, Serial / periodical, read as numbers or volume?

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of a juvenile offender: "I have been five times in prison. I have been as the Sanspareil and at all the theatres... I am sure had I never known the theatres I should have been quite a different character at this day. I have heard 'Jack Sheppard' performed; I was very fond of it; I had his life, but some boy took it from me; most boys have his life."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: T.A Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of a juvenile offender: "I came from Manchester to the races. I was taken into custody when I had only been in Liverpool two days. I was taken up for attempting to pick pockets... Theatres are very exciting. I never saw 'Jack Sheppard' performed; I have read his history; I have seen many boys buy his history; I borrowed mine from another boy."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G.G. Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of a juvenile offender: "I have been three times in prison and once discharged. I have been at the Sanspareil and Amphitheatre; I have also been at the penny hop... I am sure the theatres would bring any youngster to ruin: they don't care where they get their money, so that they do but get it to join their companions. I was very fond of seeing 'Jack Sheppard' performed. I have read his life; I bought it."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: J.M. Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of a juvenile offender: "I was never in prison before. I have been twice discharged, and am now waiting for trial... I have heard the 'Life of Jack Sheppard' read; it did not lead me to think of anything good, but I am sure it would lead young folks to do everything bad. The man I heard read it lived in a house in Gore-street, and sold penny-beer, asnd other things: it is a house where men and boys meet"

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of a juvenile offender: "I have been nine times in prison and once discharged, and am now waiting trial... I never saw 'Jack Sheppard' performed. I have read his life and heard a great deal about him. I think that those who read his life are not likely to reap any good, or those that see the play performed, I am sure will get no good."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: T.E. Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of juvenile offender: "I have been six times in prison and four times discharged, and am now waiting trial... I have been to all the theatres... I never saw 'Jack Sheppard' performed. I have often heard and read about him: they all seem to say he was a great man and a great prison breaker; and when he was at liberty like a gentleman."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: M.F. Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of juvenile offender: "I have been twice in prison and am now waiting trial... I have seen 'Jack Sheppard' performed; have read part of his life; I thought the play was very interesting; I am sure it did not create in me any bad thoughts, nor increase my desire to follow bad pratices..."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: A.L. Print: Book, Serial / periodical, not sure if penny parts or volume

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of juvenile offender: "I have been six times in prison, and four times discharged... Never saw 'Jack Sheppard' performed; have read his life and often heard speak of him; he was very clever."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: J.F. Print: Book, Serial / periodical, not sure if penny parts or volume

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of juvenile offender: "I have been four times in prison and twice discharged... I never saw Jack Sheppard performed; I have heard boys talk of him, and have heard my father read his life"

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book, Serial / periodical, not sure if penny parts or volume

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of juvenile offender: "I never was in prison before. I have been at the Sanspareil, and at all the other theatres, except the Queen's. I never saw 'Jack Sheppard' performed. I have heard the prisoners speak about it many times: some would speak well of the play, others would say it was most of it false. I have read his Life; I think myself it is mostly false; there may have been such a man, but I think he could not go through all the exploits that is spoken of."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: E.B. Print: Book, Serial / periodical, not sure if penny parts or volume

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of juvenile offender: "I never was in prison before. I was taken into custody for attempting to rob my master... I never saw 'Jack Sheppard' performed; I have read part of his life; I think he was a clever man; I don't know that reading his life created any difference in my mind."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: J.H. Print: Book, Serial / periodical, not sure if penny parts or volume

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of juvenile offender: "I thought this 'Jack Sheppard' was a clever fellow for making his escape and robbing his master. If I could get out of gaol I think I should be as clever as him; but after all his exploits he got done at last. I have had the book out of a library at Dale Field. I paid 2d a book for three volumes. I also got 'Richard Turpin' in two volumes and paid the same."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: J.L. Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Statement of juvenile offender: "When I left school I went to Mr Banks, bookseller, two years. I had good opportunities of reading then, voyages and such; read the Life of Jack Sheppard. I borrowed it from another boy... I read 'Jack Sheppard' about five months before I began the robberies."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: J.H. Print: Book

R. P. Gillies : Oswald, A Metrical Tale

'I have read your Poem. I like it better than any of the preceding ones.'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

J. G. Crump :

Dorothy Wordsworth to Joanna Hutchinson, 5 September 1819: 'We have been very comfortable and without the least bustle until last night when before the Gentlemen had left the dining room our loquacious Friend Mr Myers arrived half tipsy. He produced a letter he had received from Mr Crump and his own answer to it, four sides of a folio sheet which he deputed Mr Monkhouse to read to the gentlemen, and his own comments upon it were loud and long, with stamping and gestures ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Monkhouse Manuscript: Letter, Sheet

[A Westmorland Inhabitant and Freeholder] Anon : unknown

William Wordsworth to Viscount Lowther, 31 December 1819: 'In the last Kendal Chronicle appeared a most malignant misrepresentation of the words you used upon the searching for arms Bill ... I was requested to animadvert upon this Letter, which indeed I had felt some disposition to do when I first read it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Newspaper

Helen Maria Williams : The Charter; addressed to my nephew Athanase C. L. Coquerel, on his wedding day, 1819

William Wordsworth (visiting Paris) to Helen Maria Williams, [15 October 1820], 'I had the honour of receiving your letter yesterday Evening, together with the several copies of your tender and beautiful Verses ... Allow me this opportunity of expressing the pleasure I shall have in possessing this little tribute from yourself - as also, the gratification which the perusal of both the Poems [including 'The Charter'] has afforded me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Manuscript: Unknown

John Lanne Buchanan : Travels in the Western Hebrides, 1782 to 1790

'W[ordsworth] copied a set of extracts from Buchanan into the Wordsworth Commonplace Book [Dove Cottage MS 26] ... probably between mid-March and 10 June 1807.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

'De Quincey ... in a letter to the Wordsworths of 27 May 1809 said that he had read ... [Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers] "some weeks - or perhaps months - ago: but it is so deplorably dull and silly that I never thought of mentioning it before.'''

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas De Quincey Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage I and II

'On 17-18 May 1812 W[ordsworth] wrote to M[ary] W[ordsworth]: "Yesterday I dined alone with Lady B. - and we read Lord Byron's new poem whch is not destitute of merit; though ill-planned, and often unpleasing in the sentiments, and almost always perplexed in the construction."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage I and II

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Beaumont Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Lara

'Writing to D[orothy] W[ordsworth] on 19 Aug. 1814, W[ordsworth] describes an incident in a Perth bookshop: "I stepped yesterday evening into a Bookseller's shop with a sneaking hope that I might hear something about the Excursion ... on the contrary, inquiry of the Bookseller what a poetical parcel he was then opening consisted of, he said that it was a new Poem, called Lara ... supposed to be written by Lord Byron ... I took the book in my hand, and saw Jacqueline in the same column with Lara ... "'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Guillaume de Saluste Dubartas : Dubartas his Second Weeke: Babylon. The Second Part of the Second Day of the II. Weeke

'C[oleridge]was ... reading ... [Dubartas his Second Weeke] in 1807.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Guillaume de Saluste Dubartas : Dubartas his Second Weeke: Babylon. The Second Part of the Second Day of the II. Weeke

'Southey had certainly read Dubartas by 2 March 1815 ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Jeanne Marie Bouvieres de la Motte Guyon : Life of Lady Guion, The

'[Mark L.] Reed judges that W[ordsworth] and D[orothy] W[ordsworth] copied extracts from the Life [of Lady Guion] into the Wordsworth Commonplace Book ... by 29 Sept 1800.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Wordsworth Family Print: Book

Mary Anne Lamb : Dialogue Between a Mother and Child

'Charles Lamb copied ... [Mary Anne Lamb, Dialogue Between a Mother and Child] for D[orothy] W[ordsworth] in a letter of 2 June 1804.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

Mary Anne Lamb : Lady Blanch, regardless of her lovers' fears

'Charles Lamb copied ... [Mary Anne Lamb, The Lady Blanch, regardless of her lovers' fears] for D[orothy] W[ordsworth] in a letter of 2 June 1804.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

Mary Anne Lamb : Virgin and Child

'Charles Lamb copied ... [Mary Anne Lamb, "Virgin and Child"] for D[orothy] W[ordsworth] in a letter of 2 June 1804.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

Mary Anne Lamb : On the Same (Virgin and Child)

'Charles Lamb copied ... [Mary Anne Lamb, "On the Same" ("Virgin and Child")] for D[orothy] W[ordsworth] in a letter of 2 June 1804.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

Walter Savage Landor : Simoneida

Wordsworth to Walter Savage Landor, 20 April 1822: 'In your Simoneida, which I saw some years ago at Mr Southey's, I was pleased to find rather an out-of-the-way image, in which the present hour is compared to the shade on the dial.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Alain Rene Le Sage : Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, The

'On 19 Aug. 1810, D[orothy] W[ordsworth] told W[ordsworth] that she was "reading Malkin's Gil Blas - and it is a beautiful Book as to printing etc but I think the Translation vulgar."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

M. G. Lewis : Felon, The

'In a letter to D[orothy] W[ordsworth] of 10 March 1801, J[ohn] W[ordsworth] added that "Mr Lewis's poem [The Felon] is the most funny one I ever read ... "'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Wordsworth Manuscript: Unknown

Thomas Robert Malthus : Essay on the Principle of Population, An

'C[oleridge] had read the Essay [on the Principle of Population] shortly after its first appearance in 1798.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu : Letters

'"In reading Lady Mary W Montagu's letters, whi[ch] we have had lately, I continually felt a want - I had not the least affection for her" D[orothy] W[ordsworth] to Lady Beaumont, 11 April 1805).'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

'In 1898 Armstrong organised the Ashington Debating and Literary Improvement Society, and his reading broadened out to Shakespeare, Burns, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Byron, Whitman, Wordsworth, Scott, Robert Browning, Darwin and T.H. Huxley. Robertson Nicoll's British Weekly had introduced him to a more liberal Nonconformity that was hospitable to contemporary literature. The difficulty was that the traditional Nonconformist commitment to freedom of conscience was propelling him beyond the confines of Primitive Methodism, as far as Unitarianism, the Rationalist Press Association and the Independent Labour Party. His tastes in literature evolved apace: Ibsen, Zola. Meredith, and Wilde by the 1890s; then on to Shaw, Wells, and Bennett; and ultimately Marxist economics and Brave New World'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book

Thomas Henry Huxley :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book

Henrik Johan Ibsen :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book

Herbert George Wells :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Chester Armstrong Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Don Juan

[According to Flora Thompson], "Modern writers who speak of the booklessness of the poor at that time must mean books as possessions...there were always books to borrow"... One could borrow Pamela and the Waverley novels from a neighbour, Christies Old Organ from the Sunday School library. Her uncle, a shoemaker, had once carted home from a country-house auction a large collection of books that no-one would buy: novels, poetry, sermons, histories, dictionaries. She read him Cranford while he worked in his shop... Later she could borrow from her employer (the village postmistress) Shakespeare and Byron's Don Juan, as well as Jane Austen, Dickens and Trollope from the Mechanics' Institute library.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Book

Sir Joshua Reynolds : The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds

"On 20 July 1804 W[ordsworth] wrote to Sir George Beaumont: "'A few days ago I received from Mr Southey your very acceptable present of Sir Joshua Reynolds works, which with the life I have nearly read through. Several of the discourses I had read before though never regularly together: they have very much added to the high opinion which I before entertained of Sir Joshua Reynolds.' "W[ordsworth's first comprehensive reading of Reynolds' works can be dated to four or five days in the middle of July 1804."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Sir Joshua Reynolds : Discourses

"On 20 July 1804 W[ordsworth] wrote to Sir George Beaumont: "'A few days ago I received from Mr Southey your very acceptable present of Sir Joshua Reynolds works, which with the life I have nearly read through. Several of the discourses I had read before though never regularly together: they have very much added to the high opinion which I before entertained of Sir Joshua Reynolds.' "W[ordsworth]'s first comprehensive reading of Reynolds' works can be dated to four or five days in the middle of July 1804. He had, of course, referred to the Discourses in the 1798 Advertisement to Lyrical Ballads."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller : The Death of Wallenstein

'On 16 March 1840 W[ordsworth] told [Henry Crabb] Robinson that "C[oleridge]. translated the 2nd part of Wallenstein under my roof at Grasmere from MSS ..."'

Unknown

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Constantin Francois de Chasseboeuf comte de Volney : Travels through Syria and Egypt, in the years 1783, 1784, and 1785

Wu notes extracts from vol 1 of Volney, "Travels Through Syria and Egypt", in Dove Cottage MS 28.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Wordsworth Family Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Poems on Various Occasions

Byron to William J. Bankes, on having received 'two Critical opinions, from Edinburgh' (of Lord Woodhouselee and Henry Mackenzie) in praise of his Poems on Various Occasions: 'I am not personally acquainted with either of these Gentlemen ... their praise is voluntary, and transmitted through the Medium, of a Friend, at whose house, they read the productions.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Poems on Various Occasions

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Mackenzie Print: Book

Robert Charles Dallas : unknown

Byron to Robert Charles Dallas, 21 January 1808: 'Whenever Leisure and Inclination permit me the pleasure of a visit, I shall feel truly gratified in a personal acquaintance with one, whose mind has long been known to me in his Writings.'

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

William Makepeace Thackeray : Barry Lyndon

'"I made no distinction between Thackeray's Barry Lyndon and Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel - or between Pilgrim's Progress and Sexton Blake", recalled upholsterer's son Herbert Hodge. "All four were simply exciting stories".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Herbert Hodge Print: Book

Sir William Drummond : Aedipus Judaicus

Byron to Francis Hodgson, 8 December 1811: 'I have gotten a book by Sir William Drummond (printed, but not published), entitled Oedipus Judaicus, in which he attempts to prove the greater part of the Old Testament an allegory, particularly Genesis and Joshua. He professes himself a theist in the preface, and handles the literal interpretation very roughly. I wish I could see it. Mr Ward has lent it me, and I confess it is worth fifty Watsons.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

Sir William Drummond : Aedipus Judaicus

Byron to John Cam Hobhouse, 15 December 1811: 'I have been living quietly, reading Sir W. Drummond's book on the bible ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

Edward Daniel Clarke : Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa (vol 2)

Byron to Edward Daniel Clarke, 26 June 1812: 'My dear Sir, - Will you accept my very sincere congratulations on your second volume wherein I have retraced some of my old paths adorned by you so beautifully that they give me double delight. The part which pleases me best is the preface ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

James and Horace Smith : Horace in London; consisting of Imitations of the First Two Books of the Odes of Horace

Byron to John Murray, 20 January 1813; 'In "Horace in London" I perceive some stanzas on Ld. E[lgin] - in which ... I heartily concur. - I wish I had the pleasure of Mr. S[mith]'s acquaintance ... What I have read of this work seems admirably done ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

A. L. Castellan : Moeurs, usages costumes des Othomans, et abrege de leur histoire

Byron to Thomas Moore, 28 August 1813: 'If you want any more books [on the Orient], there is "Castellan's Moeurs des Ottomans," the best compendium of the kind I ever met with, in six small tomes.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

Madame Germaine de Stael-Holstein : De l'Allemagne

In postscript to letter written by Byron to John Murray, 3 am [29 November 1813]: 'I have got out of my bed (in which however I could not sleep ... ) & so Good Morning - I am trying whether De L'Allemagne will act as an opiate - but I doubt it.-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

Madame Germaine de Stael-Holstein : De L'Allemagne

Byron to Madame de Stael, 30 November 1813, in praise of her De L'Allemagne: 'few days have passed since its publication without my perusal of many of its pages ... I should be sorry for my own sake to fix the period when I should not recur to it with pleasure.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

Friedrich Melchoir Grimm : Correspondance Litteraire

Byron to Thomas Moore, 8 December 1813: 'I have met with an odd reflection in Grimm ... "Many people have the reputation of being wicked, with whom we should be too happy to pass our lives." I need not add it is a woman's saying - a Mademoisele de Sommery's.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : unknown

In Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814): 'I never in my life read a composition [of his own], save to Hodgson, as he pays me in kind. It is a horrible thing to do too frequently ... '

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron

Madame Germaine de Stael-Holstein : unknown

In Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814): '... [Madame de Stael] writes octavos, and talks folios. I have read her books - like most of them, and delight in the last ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

Tobias George Smollett :

...a desire for information which was by no means whollly neglected even whilst I was an apprentice, I always found some time for reading, and I almost always found the means to procure books, useful books, not Novels. My reading was of course devoid of method, and very desultory. I had read in English the only language in which I could read, the histories of Greece and Rome, and some translated works of Greek and Roman writers. Hume, Smollett, Fieldings novels and Robertsons works, some of Humes Essays, some Translations from french writers, and much on geography -some books on Anatomy and Surgery, some relating to Science and the Arts, and many Magazines. I had worked all the Problems in the Introduction to Guthries Geography, and had made some small progress in Geometry.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Place Print: Book

Sir Egerton Brydges : The Ruminator: containing a series of moral, critical and sentimental Essays

In Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814), 23 November 1813: "Redde the Ruminator - a collection of Essays, by a strange, but able, old man (Sir E[gerton] B[rydges], and a half-wild young one, author of a Poem on the Highlands, called Childe Alarique. The word 'sensibility' (always my aversion) occurs a thousand times in these Essays ... This young man can know nothing of life ... "

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster : letter with poem

In Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814), 26 November 1813: "Two letters, one from **** [Lady Frances Webster] ... **** [Lady Frances]'s contained also a very pretty lyric on 'concealed griefs' - of not her own, then very like her."

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Letter

George Frederick Cooke : Memoirs of George Frederick Cooke, late of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden

In Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814), 5 December 1813, on pleasure at learning of his works' popularity in the USA: "The greatest pleasure I ever derived, of this kind, was from an extract, in Cooke the actor's life, from his journal, saying that in the reading-room of Albany, near Washington, he perused English Bards and Scotch Reviewers."

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Frederick Cooke Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

In extract from journal of George Frederick Cooke in W. Dunlap, Memoirs of George Frederick Cooke: "Read English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, by Lord Byron. It is well written, His Lordship is rather severe ... on Walter Scott ... "

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Frederick Cooke Print: Book

Madame Germaine de Stael-Holstein : unknown

Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814), 5 December 1813, on Madame De Stael: 'I read her again and again ... I cannot be mistaken (except in taste) in a book I read and lay down, and take up again ... '

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Matthew Gregory Lewis : The Monk

Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814), 6 December 1813: "Redde a good deal, but desultorily ... It is odd that when I do read, I can only bear the chicken broth of - any thing but Novels. It is many a year since I looked into one, (though they are sometimes ordered, by way of experiment, but never taken) till I looked yesterday at the worst parts of the Monk. These descriptions .. are forced - the philtred ideas of a jaded voluptuary."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Johann Christoph von Schiller : The Robbers

Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814), 20 February 1814: ' ... redde the Robbers.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Leonard Simonde de Sismondi : unknown

Byron's Journal (14 November 1813-19 April 1814), 20 March 1814: 'Redde Machiavel, parts of Chardin, and Sismondi, and Bandello - by starts.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

John Herman Merivale : Orlando in Roncesvalles

Byron to John Herman Merivale, [January 1814]: 'I have redde Roncesvaux with very great pleasure ... You have written a very noble poem ... your measure is uncommonly well chosen & wielded [goes on to advise March publication].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Unknown

Robert Charles Dallas [?] : [poem]

Byron to unknown female correspondent (mother of author of poem sent for Byron's consideration), 17 August 1814: 'The poem from which you have done me the honour to enlose some extracts --I saw in M.S. last year at the hands of Mr. Murray and expressed my wonder that he did not publish it ...'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lara; Jacqueline

Byron to Thomas Moore, 15 September 1814: 'I believe I told you of Larry and Jacquy [ie Lara and Jacqueline, poems by Byron and Samuel Rogers respectively, published together]. A friend of mine was reading -- or at least a friend of his was reading -- said Larry and Jacquy in a Brighton coach. A passenger took up the book and queried as to the author. The proprietor said "there were two" -- to which the answer of the unknown was, "Ay, ay, a joint concern, I suppose, summot like Sternhold and Hopkins [publishers in 1547 of versified Psalms, which went into many editions]." 'Is not this excellent?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

John Cam Hobhouse : [packet]

Byron to John Cam Hobhouse, 26 January 1815: 'Your packet hath been perused ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Letter

Sir John Trevor : [untitled]

His words were not manie, yet he read all he sayd to us, a thing very unbecoming the chaire, and which I never before did see.

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir John Trevor Manuscript: Sheet

Sir Nicholas Hyde : [untitled]

as I find reported by Sir Nicholas Hyde, the Lord Justice of the K.B., which I with my hand transcribed, and have by me

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: John Bramston Manuscript: Sheet

Henry De Vere Stacpoole : The Blue Lagoon

When we were at the Grammar School, the English master's daughter, who was in the same class as Sheila, told us that her father had read 'The Blue Lagoon' and thought it very beautiful. We were greatly impressed. It seemed the height of sophistication to get beyond the excitement of reading a description of sexual intercourse -this we knew was the point of the ban, though Betty Martin informed us that it only said 'locked in each other's arms' -and to be able to use the calm Olympian word 'beautiful'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Henry De Vere Stacpoole : The Blue Lagoon

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Betty Martin Print: Book

Charles Robert Maturin : Bertram

Byron to the Rev. Charles Robert Maturin, 21 December 1815, regarding submission of MS [Bertram] to Drury Lane Theatre: 'Sir -- Mr. Lamb -- (one of my colleagues in the S[ub] Committee) & myself have read your tragedy: -- he agrees with me in thinking it a very extraordinary production ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Unknown

Charles Robert Maturin : Bertram

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

Baroness Emmuska Orczy : The Scarlet Pimpernel

in 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' there was the key line, 'That demmed elusive Pimpernel'; and, of course, 'demmed' would never do, so Mother substituted 'awful'. I think she deliberately chose a word which did not scan and which obviously was not the original one... 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', incidentally, was another great favourite of Mother's...

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Beer Print: Book

Lady Caroline Lamb : Glenarvon

Byron to Samuel Rogers, 29 July 1816: 'I have read "Glenarvon" ... & have also seen Ben. Constant's Adolphe ... a work which leaves an unpleasant impression ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Johann Christoph von Schiller : unknown

Byron to Augusta Leigh, 20 September 1816 ("Alpine Journal"), on evening arrival at inn: 'nine o clock -- going to bed ... women gabbling below -- read a French translation of Schiller ...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Canto III

'Murray had written to Byron on September 12 [1816] that he had carried the manuscript of the third canto of Childe Harold to [William] Gifford [his literary advisor]... Although Gifford was suffering from jaundice, he sat up until he had finished the whole of it ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gifford Manuscript: Unknown

H. Gally Knight : Ilderim: A Syrian Tale

Byron to John Murray, 5 October 1816: 'I have read the last E[dinburgh] R[eview] they are very severe on the Germans -- and their idol Goethe -- I have also read Wedderburne Webster -- and Ilderim -- and the Pamphleteer. -- --'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

Cardinal; Lucretia Bembo; de Borgia : letters

Byron to Thomas Moore, 6 November 1816: 'Among many things at Milan, one pleased me particularly, viz. the correspondence ... of Lucretia Borgia wth Cardinal Bembo ... I ... wished sorely to get a copy of one or two of the letters, but is was prohibited ... so I only got some of them by heart. They are kept in the Ambrosian Library, which I often visited to look them over ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Letter, Unknown

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : The Duenna

During this Spring read Shakspeare [sic] regularly through, and studied the characters of Hamlet, Douglas, Osman in 'Zara', Sir Charles Racket &c and purchased & read a great number of pieces of dramatic biography, and theatrical criticisms.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cole Print: Book

Lady Caroline Lamb : Glenarvon

Byron to Thomas Moore, 17 November 1816: 'By the way, I suppose you have seen "Glenarvon". Madame de Stael lent it to me to read from Copet last autumn. It seems to me that if the authoress had written the truth ... the romance would not only have been more romantic, but more entertaining.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : travel journal

Byron to Thomas Moore, 25 March 1817, on Alpine travels in 1816: 'I kept a journal of the whole for my sister Augusta, which she copied and let Murray see.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Augusta Leigh Manuscript: Codex

George Gordon Lord Byron : travel journal

Byron to Thomas Moore, 25 March 1817, on Alpine travels in 1816: 'I kept a journal of the whole for my sister Augusta, which she copied and let Murray see.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Murray Manuscript: Codex

St. Paul : Epistles to Corinthians

Byron to Thomas Moore, 31 March 1817: 'Did I tell you that I have translated two Epistles? -- a correspondence between St. Paul and the Corinthians, not to be found in our version, but the Armenian -- but which seems to me very orthodox, and I have done it into scriptural prose English.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Johan Christoph von Schiller : Geisterseher

Byron to John Murray, 2 April 1817, having observed upon preservation of black veil over Falieri's picture, and the staircase on which he was beheaded at the Doge's Palace, Venice: 'This was the thing that first struck my imagination in Venice ... more ... than Schiller's "Armenian" -- a novel which took great hold of me when a boy -- it is also called the "Ghost Seer" ..."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Prisoner of Chillon

Byron to John Murray, 9 April 1817: 'I will tell you something about [The Prisoner of] Chillon. -- A Mr. De Luc ninety years old -- a Swiss -- had it read to him & is pleased with it -- so my Sister writes. -- He said that he was with Rousseau at Chillon -- & that the description is perfectly correct ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Andre de Luc Print: Book

Charles Robert Maturin : Manuel

Byron to John Murray, 15 July 1817: 'I lent [M. G.] Lewis who is at Venice ... your extracts from Lalla Rookh -- & Manuel -- out of contradiction it may be -- he likes the last -- & is not much taken with the first of these performances.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Matthew Gregory Lewis

George Gordon Lord Byron : [poems]

Byron to John Murray, 15 September 1817, on what he perceives to be inferiority of contemporary authors to Pope: 'I am the more confirmed in this - by having lately gone over some of our Classics - particularly Pope ... I took Moore's poems & my own & some others - & went over them side by side with Pope's - and I was really astonished ... and mortified - at the ineffable distance in point of sense - harmony - effect - & even Imagination Passion - & Invention - between the little Queen Anne's Man - & us of the lower Empire ...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Biographia Literaria

Byron to John Murray, 12 October 1817: 'In Coleridge's life I perceive an attack upon the then Committee of D[rury] L[ane] Theatre - for acting Bertram ... this is not very grateful nor graceful of the worthy auto-biographer [whom Byron had championed] ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

Byron to John Murray, 12 October 1817: 'I heard Mr. Lewis translate verbally some scenes of Goethe's Faust ... last Summer ...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Matthew Gregory Lewis

Richard Belgrave Hoppner : Elegy

Byron to Richard Belgrave Hoppner, 15 December 1817: 'I think your Elegy a remarkably good one ... I do not know whether you wished me to retain the copy, but I shall retain it till you tell me otherwise; and am very much obliged by the perusal.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Unknown

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

Either at school or at home I read all the classics considered necessary for children: 'Treasure Island', 'Kidnapped', 'Little Women', 'David Copperfield', 'Ivanhoe', 'Robinson Crusoe'. I suppose I enjoyed them; I certainly did not resent or avoid them. Very occasionally some incident would seem to connect with my own life: the doings of the Spanish Inquisition in 'Westward Ho!' for example, fitted in exactly with what I had heard about Roman Catholics. But on the whole the themes appeared completely abstract and impersonal, even when the author intended a message to strike home. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' did not cause me a moment's concern for the plight of Negro slaves in America, and neither did 'The Water Babies' for the sufferings of the child chimney-sweeps, not because these situations had been done away with, but because no book stirred me in that way...

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Kidnapped

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer Print: Book

Louisa May Alcott : Little Women

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer Print: Book

Hans Christian Anderson : The Little Mermaid

Once or twice some description of physical pain broke through my detachment: the detailed account of the binding of a young girl's feet in a missionary book about China, or the evocation of the agony, like walking on a thousand knives, endured by the mermaid who was given human legs. The story of 'The Little Mermaid' was in fact one which did make me feel and understand. The hopelessness of a relationship between two people born in different elements was somehow an emotion which I could grasp to the point of distress and one which came back to me in adult life with a sense of complete continuity. But this understanding was almost an aberration.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer Print: Book

Hans Christian Anderson : The Ugly Duckling

In 'The Ugly Duckling' the meaning was something that in my own way I thought about much of the time: I was destined for a higher sphere and would be appreciated when I achieved it; and yet I did not see it in the story or make the connection at all. In fact I interpretted it in the most banal and inaccurate fashion as saying that the plain would become pretty.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer Print: Book

Mrs O.F. Walton : Christie's Old Organ; or, Home Sweet Home

Upon the age of ten or eleven I moved in a world evoked by a series of volumes published by the Religious Tract Society in the Edwardian period. The outstanding authors on the Society's list were Hesba Stretton, Mrs O.F. Walton and Amy Le Feuvre. I knew nearly all their books, but three of them stood out, and I remember them most vividly to this day: 'Little Meg's Children', 'Jessica's First Prayer', and Christie's Old Organ'. Most of the titles, incidentally, were phrased possessively.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer Print: Book

Rev. William Beloe : The Sexagenarian, or Recollections of a Literary Life

Byron to John Murray, 20 February 1818, thanking him for parcel of books: 'The books I have read, or rather am reading -- pray who may be the Sexagenarian -- whose gossip is very amusing ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

William Stewart Rose : The Court and Parliament of Beasts, freely translated from the Animali Parlanti of Casti

Byron to John Murray, 25 March 1818: 'Rose's Animali I never saw till a few days ago ...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

John Cam Hobhouse : Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold

Byron to John Cam Hobhouse, 30 September 1818: "' saw the other day by accident your "Historical &c." -- the Essay [on Italian literature, actually by Ugo Foscolo] is perfect ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Charles Robert Maturin : Bertram

Byron to Charles, 8th Lord Kinnaird, 15 May 1819: 'Three years & some months ago when you were reding [sic] "Bertram" at your brother's -- on my exclaiming in the words of Parson Adams to his Son -- "Lege Dick -- Lege" (on occasion of some interruption ... ) ... you replied ... "my name is not Richard -- my Lord" ... This was a hint to me to address you in future with all Aristocratical decorum ...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles 8th Lord Kinnaird

Count Vittorio Alfieri : [marginalia]

Byron to John Cam Hobhouse, 3 June 1819, from Ferrara: 'In looking over the M.S. of Ariosto today -- I found at the bottom of the page after the last stanza of Canto 44, Orlando Furioso ending with the line "Mi serbo a farsi udie ne l'altro Canto" the follow[ing] autograph in pencil of Alfieri's "Vittorio Alfieri vide e venero" / 8 Giugno 1783. --'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Unknown, marginal note in MS of Ariosto, Orlando Furioso

Madame Germaine de Stael-Holstein : Corinne

Byron to Countess Teresa Guiccioli, 23 August 1819, about her copy of Italian translation of Corinne: 'I have read this book in your garden ... you were absent -- or I could not have read it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Lays of Ancient Rome

'I quite agree with you about Leonidas &c. I have greatly enjoyed finding myself a child again over Macaulay's 'Lays'. Castor & Pollux really took away my breath. How beautiful those Lays are!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Anna Laetitia Barbauld : Hymns in Prose for Children

'I suppose you shared the benefit, so common, thank God! in our generation, - of an early, & thorough familiarity with Mrs Barbauld's Prose Hymns. I know no book influence (out of the bible) at all to be compared to the hallowing & ripening influence of that little book.[...] I know of no woman's intellect like Mrs. Barbauld's.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second

'[Balzac's] short works although not new are exquisite - La Recherche de L'Absolu- Eugenie Grandet- Modeste Mignon- The last good cheap English books that I remember were the holy verses by Dr. Kitto, & Duffy's Irish Songs & Ballads- For my own part I have been reading 21 volumes of Mirabeau & about as long of Memoires of that great statesman... What a story- & what a man! If you never read Lucas Montigny's Memoires from Mirabeau sa famille & ses ecrits. Do I conjure you. It is the most graphic book in that language of graphic memoires...Macaulay's book is very able- but one wished to find a greater sympathy especially with misfortune - He really likes nobody except that odious Dutchman.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book

Robert Michael Ballantyne : [novels]

'"The words I didn't understand I just skipped over, yet managed to get a good idea of what the story was about", wrote James Murray, the son of a Scottish shoemaker. "By the time I was ten or eleven years old I did not need to skip any words in any books because by then I had a good grounding in roots and derivations". Crusoe so aroused his appetite for literature that, when his schoolteacher asked the class to list all the books they had read, Murray rattled off titles by Ballantyne, Kingston and Dickens until "I realised the eyes of everyone in the room were on me..."'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Murray Print: Book

William Henry Giles Kingston : [novels]

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Murray Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

'As a boy V.S. Pritchett read Oliver Twist "in a state of hot horror, It seized me because it was about London and the fears of the London streets. There were big boys at school who could grow up to be the Artful Dodger; many of us could have been Oliver...". Pritchett read Thackeray for escape, "a taste of the gentler life of better-off people", but in Dickens "I saw myself and my life in London".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

'During these early years [Daphne du Maurier] filled her head with tales of adventure, romances, histories and popular novels, including such books as Treasure Island, The Snow Queen, The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Old St Paul's, The Tower of London, Nicholas Nickleby, Mr Midshipman Easy, Bleak House, Robinson Crusoe, The Mill on the Floss, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. The seeds of her own novels were planted during these intensive, sometimes acted-out, reading sessions. The fascination with the sea, the importance of an historical sense of place, the theme of the dual personality, are all reflected in her reading during these formative years'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Daphne du Maurier Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Daphne du Maurier Print: Book

Hans Christian Anderson : The Snow Queen

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Daphne du Maurier Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Old St Paul's

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Daphne du Maurier Print: Book

St Augustine : St. Augustines Meditations

About the same time also he read over St. Augustines Meditations, which so affected him, that he wept often in the reading of them.

Unknown

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: James Usher

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

'Robert White... had somewhat more progressive tastes [than Robert Story], which extended to Shelley, Keats, Childe Harold, and The Lady of the Lake. But his reading stopped short at the Romantics. In 1873 he confessed that he could not stomach avant-garde poets like Tennyson. "As for our modern novel-writers - Dickens, Thackeray and others I do not care to read them, since Smollett, Fielding and Scott especially are all I desire".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert White Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert White Print: Book

Countess Teresa Guiccioli : [letter]

Byron to Countess Teresa Guiccioli, '[After Feb 7, 1820?]' (translated from Italian) : 'I have read the "few lines" of your note with all due attention ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Letter

[probably William] Robertson :

'[Hugh Miller's] literary style was out of date: in 1834 he alluded to "my having kept company with the older English writers - the Addisons, Popes and Robertsons of the last century at a time when I had no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the authors of the present time". Growing up in Cromarty, Miller had access to the substantial personal libraries of a carpenter and a retired clerk, as well as his father (sixty volumes), his uncles (150 volumes) and a cabinet-maker poet (upwards of 100 volumes). These collections offered a broad selection of English essayists and poets - of the Queen Anne period.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hugh Miller Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

Byron to John Murray, 7 June 1820: '[Goethe's] Faust I never read -- for I don't know German -- but Matthew Monk Lewis in 1816 at Coligny translated most of it to me viva voce ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Matthew Gregory Lewis Print: Book

Pierre Antoine Daru : unknown

Byron to John Murray, 17 July 1820, on books used in research for Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice: 'I have consulted Sanuto -- Sandi -- Navagero -- & an anonymous Siege of Zara -- besides the histories of Laugier Daru -- Sismondi &c.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Jean Charles Sismondi : History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Hans Christian Anderson : The Little Match Girl

'In the 1920s Janet Hitchman acquired her literary education among the derelict bookshlves of an orphanage, which included a huge collection of "drunken father deathbed conversion" stories (Christie's Old Organ, 'The Little Match Girl', A Peep behind the Scenes), as well as everything by Dickens, old volumes of Punch and the Spectator and The Life of Ruskin. "My undigested reading made me look at the world with mid-Victorian eyes", she recalled'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Janet Hitchman Print: Book

Count Giulio Perticari : Dell'amor patrio di Dante

Byron to Countess Teresa Guiccioli, 7 August 1820 (translated from Italian): 'I am reading the second volume of the proposal of that classical cuckold Perticari ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan :

[due to the fact that books in working class communities were generally cheap out of copyright reprints, not new works] Welsh collier Joseph Keating was able to immerse himself in Swift, Pope, Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Goldsmith, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Dickens and Greek philosophy, as well as the John Dicks edition of Vanity Fair in weekly installments. The common denominator among these authors was that they were all dead. "Volumes by living authors were too high-priced for me", Keating explained. "Our schoolbooks never mentioned living writers; and the impression in my mind was that an author, to be a living author, must be dead and that his work was all the better if he died of neglect and starvation".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron :

[due to the fact that books in working class communities were generally cheap out of copyright reprints, not new works] 'Welsh collier Joseph Keating was able to immerse himself in Swift, Pope, Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Dickens and Greek philosophy, as well as the John Dicks edition of Vanity Fair in weekly installments. The common denominator among these authors was that they were all dead. "Volumes by living authors were too high-priced for me", Keating explained. "Our schoolbooks never mentioned living writers; and the impression in my mind was that an author, to be a living author, must be dead and that his work was all the better if he died of neglect and starvation".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

[due to the fact that books in working class communities were generally cheap out of copyright reprints, not new works] Welsh collier Joseph Keating was able to immerse himself in Swift, Pope, Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Dickens and Greek philosophy, as well as the John Dicks edition of Vanity Fair in weekly installments. The common denominator among these authors was that they were all dead. "Volumes by living authors were too high-priced for me", Keating explained. "Our schoolbooks never mentioned living writers; and the impression in my mind was that an author, to be a living author, must be dead and that his work was all the better if he died of neglect and starvation".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

[due to the fact that books in working class communities were generally cheap out of copyright reprints, not new works] Welsh collier Joseph Keating was able to immerse himself in Swift, Pope, Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Dickens and Greek philosophy, as well as the John Dicks edition of Vanity Fair in weekly installments. The common denominator among these authors was that they were all dead. "Volumes by living authors were too high-priced for me", Keating explained. "Our schoolbooks never mentioned living writers; and the impression in my mind was that an author, to be a living author, must be dead and that his work was all the better if he died of neglect and starvation".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Serial / periodical

John Cam Hobhouse : [speeches]

Byron to Douglas Kinnaird, 26 October 1820: 'I have read lately several speeches of Hobhouse in taverns -- his Eloquence is better than his company.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

Jerome K. Jerome : Three Men in a Boat

'[Joseph Keating's] initiation into modern literature came when his brother introduced him to Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat: "I had thought that only Smollett and Dickens could make a reader laugh; and I was surprised to find that a man who was actually living could write in such a genuinely humorous way'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Serial / periodical

Percy Bysshe Shelley : unknown

'As one participant recalled, "Many exceptional debates come back to mind on such subjects as Jane Austen, Charles Lamb, Victorian Novelists, George Eliot, Meredith, Pepys and the Navy, Frederick the Great, Wordsworth, Shelley, Napoleon, where the speaking was of high level and the debating power considerable."'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ladies' Edinburgh Debating Society Print: Book

George T Chesney : Battle of Dorking

'The manager here Mr. Simpson hearing what I said of it [George Chesney's "The Battle of Dorking"] took a proof home at night and while he was still wrapt up in it was startled by his mother a most acute old lady (who had picked up the sheets as he let them fall) exclaiming "Surely George the Germans never were in England"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: [?George] Simpson Manuscript: Sheet, Proofs of aricle

George T Chesney : Battle of Dorking

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Old Mrs Simpson Manuscript: Sheet, Proofs of article

George T Chesney : Battle of Dorking

'I am much mistaken if the appearance of the article 'The Battle of Dorking' does not mark an epoch in the history of the Magazine. Nothing so good has appeared for years. In your place, I should print it as a pamphlet, and circulate it everywhere.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: G.C. Swayne Print: Serial / periodical

George T Chesney : Battle of Dorking

'My dear Blackwood, I have just read the opening article of Maga, and I cannot go to sleep, or make an attempt thereat, till I write to tell you how deeply the article has impressed me, - I feel the picture will be with me day & night for a good while to come. The country owes you thanks: but we won't take warning, & may go down any day like Carthage & Venice. I presume the article is by Hamley. Compared with the momentousness of the theme & the noble spirit in which it is treated, I can hardly bring myself to speak of its exceeding excellence as a literary work, - but in truth, I don't think even De Foe could have beat it.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: R.H. Patterson Print: Serial / periodical

George T Chesney : Battle of Dorking

'My dear Willie, I am glad the Pall Mall has noticed the article & I approve of the Advert... We dined at Mount Melville last night. Col. Moncrieff & his wife - He was raving about the Battle of Dorking & never read anything in his life so good or like the reality...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Colonel Moncrieff Print: Serial / periodical

George T Chesney : Battle of Dorking

'I went down & saw Old Gleig who was on the same subject [the success of the "Battle of Dorking"]. He said too he had been reading lately the Review of Lothair & did not know which to admire most the review or the review of the reviewers. The reperusal [sic] had nearly put him into fits.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: "Old" Gleig Print: Serial / periodical

George T Chesney : Battle of Dorking

'My dear Sir, I have just read "The Battle of Dorking". It is undeniably clever - but mischievous. [...] Panic assays a great mistake [...]'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Brougham Print: Serial / periodical

George T Chesney : Battle of Dorking

'"The Battle of Dorking" is written so well that I wd. gladly have written it, supposing that I had the knowledge. This I scarcely ever feel about anything I see in print.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Doddridge Blackmore Print: Serial / periodical

George T Chesney : The Private Secretary

'My dear Blackwood [...] "The Private Secretary" picks itself up this month. I thought one or two of the recent numbers even scarcely up to mark."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Theodore Martin Print: Serial / periodical

Pierre Louis Ginguene : Histoire Litteraire de l'Italie

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 6 January 1821: 'Turned to a passage in Guinguene [sic] -- ditto in Lord Holland's Lope de Vega.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

George T Chesney : The Private Secretary

'Gentlemen. I am the fourth generation of my family that have taken in Blackwood's Magazine; the back numbers bound form a handsome library of themselves. I regret most sincerely that in consequence of the story called "The Private Secretary" I am compelled to give it up. I never read such disgusting filth before, and am very sorry that such a high class (formerly) Magazine should have admitted such garbage into its columns.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Philips Print: Serial / periodical

George T Chesney : The Private Secretary

'As for the Private Secretary, I can sympathize with both you & Chesney. As Editor, I should have [?] to print it as it is; as Author, - if I had written it, - I am shy of writing anything in that style - I should have been very proud of it. The fact is, though risque it is devilish well done; & the merit & the objections to it are that it is so sensuously suggestive as to be [??] than far harder language.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alex Innes Shand Print: Serial / periodical

George T Chesney : The Private Secretary

We have been much interested all along in The Private Secretary.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emily Laszowska Print: Serial / periodical

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : unknown

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 12 January 1821: 'I have read ... much less of Goethe, and Schiller, and Wieland, than I could wish. I only know them through the medium of English, French, and Italian translations.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Richard Lovell and Maria Edgeworth : Memoirs

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 19 January 1821: 'I have been reading the Life, by himself and daughter, of Mr. R. L. Edgeworth, the father of the Miss Edgeworth.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Friedrich Melchior Grimm : Correspondence Litteraire

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 20 January 1821: 'Rode -- fired pistols. Read from Grimm's Correspondence. Dined ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Friedrich Melchior Grimm : Correspondence Litteraire

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 21 January 1821: 'Dined -- visited -- came home -- read. Remarked on an anecdote in Grimm's Correspondence ... [reproduces part of text of vol. VI]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel : History of Literature

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 28 January 1821 entry: 'Past Midnight. One o' the clock. I have been reading W[ilhelm]. F[riedrich]. S[chlegel] ... till now, and I can make out nothing ... [two paragraphs later] Continuing to read Mr. F[rederick] S[chlegel]. He is not such a fool as I took him for ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel : History of Literature

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 29 January 1821 entry: 'Read S[chlegel].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Friedrich Melchior Grimm : Correspondence Litteraire

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 31 January 1821 entry: 'Midnight. I have been reading Grimm's Correspondence.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Richard Lovell and Maria Edgeworth : Memoirs

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 2 February 1821, on tendency to attacks of thirst: 'I read in Edgeworth's Memoirs of something similar ... in the case of Sir F. B. Delaval ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

William Lisle Bowles : various

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 5 February 1821: 'Read some of Bowles's dispute about Pope, with all the replies and rejoinders. Perceive that my name has been lugged into the controversy ...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Serial / periodical

Friedrich Melchior Grimm : Correspondence Litteraire

Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 18 February 1821: 'In turning over Grimm's Correspondence to-day, I found a thought of Tom Moore's in a song of Maupertuis to a female Laplander ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

John Wilson Croker : review of John Keats, Endymion

Byron to P. B. Shelley, 26 April 1821, on death of Keats after adverse reviews: 'I read the review of "Endymion" in the Quarterly. It was severe. -- but surely not so severe as many reviews in that and other journals upon others.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Serial / periodical

Percy Bysshe Shelley : The Cenci

Byron to P. B. Shelley, 26 April 1821: 'I read [The] Cenci ...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

J. G. Lockhart : John Bull's Letter to Lord Byron

Byron to John Murray, 29 June 1821: 'I have just read "John Bull's letter" -- it is diabolically well written -- & full of fun and ferocity' [goes on to speculate as to who author might be.]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

[N. N. A.] anon : [private letter]

Byron to Thomas Moore, 5 July 1821: 'I have had a curious letter to-day from a girl in England ... It is signed simply N. N. A. ... She simply says that she is dying, and that as I had contributed so highly to her existing pleasure, she thought that she might say so ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Letter

George Gordon Lord Byron : Don Juan (Cantos I and II)

Byron to John Murray, 6 July 1821: 'At the particular request of the Countess G[uiccioli] I have promised not to continue Don Juan ... She had read the two first [cantos] in the French translation -- & never ceased beseeching me to write no more of it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Countess Teresa Guiccioli Print: BookManuscript: Letter

Ford Madox Ford : English Review

Our first lessons were from Ford Madox Ford's 'English Review' which was publishing some of the best young writers of the time. We discussed Bridges and Masefield... For myself the suger-bag blue of the 'English Review' was decisive. One had thought literature was in books written by dead people who had been oppressively over-educated. Here was writing by people who were alive and probably writing at this moment...

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book, Serial / periodical

James Russell Lowell : The Vision of Sir Launfal

Bartlett dug out one of James Russell Lowell's poems, 'The Vision of Sir Launfal', though why he chose that dim poem I do not know: we went on to Tennyson, never learning by heart.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book

A. A. Watts : series of five articles alleging plagiarism in Byron's works

Byron to Thomas Moore, 2 August 1821: 'You may probably have seen all sorts of attacks upon me in some gazettes in England some months ago. I only saw them, by Murray's bounty, the other day.'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Serial / periodicalManuscript: Letter

John Wilson Croker : Adverse review of John Keats, Endymion

Byron to John Murray, 7 August 1821: 'I have just been turning over the homicide review of J. Keats ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Serial / periodicalManuscript: Letter

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : Monody on Garrick

Byron's "Detached Thoughts" (15 October 1821-18 May 1822), on R. B. Sheridan, 15 October 1821: 'One day I saw him take up his own "Monody on Garrick". -- He lighted upon the dedication to the Dowager Lady Spencer -- on seeing it he flew into a rage -- exclaimed "that it must be a forgery -- that he had never dedicated anything of his to such a d-- --d canting b-- --h &c. &c. &c." and so went on for half an hour ...'

Unknown

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Brinsley Sheridan

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

Byron to John Murray, 24 November 1821, regarding his MS Memoirs: 'Is there anything in the M.S.S. that could be personally obnoxious to himself [John Cam Hobhouse]? ... Mr. Kinnaird & others had read them at Paris and noticed none such.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Douglas Kinnaird Manuscript: Unknown

John Cam Hobhouse :

Byron to John Murray, 24 November 1821, regarding John Cam Hobhouse's offence at his MS Memoirs: "Is there anything in the M.S.S. that could be personally obnoxious to himself [John Cam Hobhouse]? ... If there were any ... even that would not sanction the tone of his letter, which I showed to one or two English & Irish friends of mine here -- who were perfectly astonished ..."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: friends of Byron Manuscript: Letter

Antoine Francois Sergent-Marceau : Notices Historiques sur le General Marceau

Byron to Madame Sergent-Marceau, 5 May 1823 (translated from Italian): 'no present you might give me would be more welcome than the short work in which the actions of your Brother [General Marceau], whose memory I revere, are so well described. I have read this work with the greatest pleasure ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : unknown

Byron to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 22 July 1823, thanking him for 'lines' forwarded by Charles Sterling and received at Leghorn: ' ... [I] arrived here ... this morning ... here ... I found your lines ... and I could not have had a more favourable Omen or more agreeable surprise than a word from Goethe written by his own hand.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Letter

Ann Fraser Tytler : Leila: or, The Island

'Rose Macaulay's inner life was fostered from the start by parents who made her earliest years rich with stories and make-believe. "read much aloud to the children", Grace Macaulay records in her diary of 19 November 1887... "(all 5 listening in rapt atention), 'Rosamond and the Purple Jar', 'Leila or the Island' and 'The Wave and the Battlefield' - also 'Holiday House'."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Mary Louisa Molesworth : The Cuckoo Clock

'In September and October [Grace Macaulay] is reading aloud to Margaret (ill with scarlet fever) Mrs Molesworth's The Cuckoo Clock and Charlotte M. Yonge's Chaplet of Pearls and The Heir of Redclyffe'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Chaplet of Pearls

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Heir of Redclyffe

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Rose... remembers her father reading to them - Dickens, Scott, Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Meredith, Tom Jones, The Three Musketeers, Don Quixote, and, curiously, The Origin of Species'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Robert Michael Ballantyne : Coral Island

'When old enough to read for herself, Rose Macaulay entered into other realms of fictitious brave adventure. She devoured Masterman Ready, Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Coral Island, Treasure Island, A Tale of Two Cities, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Prince and the Page

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Charlotte Mary Yonge : The Prince and the Page

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Johann David Wyss : Swiss Family Robinson

'[Rose Macaulay] relished such island shipwreck stories as Swiss Family Robinson'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Prometheus Unbound

'Daughter of the editor father, [Rose Macaulay] was given a copy of the complete works of Tennyson when she was eight and remembers knowing it "practically by heart"... Shelley, too, she found "an intoxicant". A complete works of Shelley joined her Tennyson a year later, starting a fascination with the poet which she remembers in a letter to Gilbert Murray in January 1945: "I, like you, read Shelley's Prometheus very young... I was entirely carried away by it; as I was, indeed, by all Shelley... Of course, I didn't understand all Prometheus; but enough to be fascinated".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Lady Geraldine

'Nearly the best thing she has written is L[ady] Geraldine.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Caroline Clive Print: Book

John Cam Hobhouse : Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold

Byron to Scrope Berdmore Davies, 7 December 1818: 'We have all here been very much pleased with Hobhouse's book on Italy -- some part of it the best he ever wrote ... '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : probably 'On Liberty'

'She read Renan's Life of Jesus, which had proved so critical to George Eliot's subsitution of Duty for God. As a corollary text, Rose discovered the rousing, hopeful words of Mill, who argued for the sacredness of her larger duty to herself'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Henry Gally Knight : Alashtar, an Arabian Tale

Byron to Henry Gally Knight, 4 April 1815: 'Dear Knight -- I have read "Alashtar" with attention and great pleasure.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Unknown

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

'Working class readers continued to enjoy Macaulay's drama and accessibility long after professional historians had declared him obsolete. Kathleen Woodward read Gibbon's Decline and Fall and Macaulay's History of England twice through over factory work, with such absorption she once injured a finger, leaving "an honourable scar".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Kathleen Woodward Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Leslie A. Marchand notes regarding 1812 letter in which Byron mentions sending a book (possibly Childe Harold's Pilgrimage) to Lady Caroline Lamb 'which [she] is not to look at till Mr. Lamb has first gone through it for there is one passage which I have doubts whether it would be proper for ladies to see': '... according to Caroline she had read a copy [of Childe Harold], loaned by [Samuel] Rogers, before she met Byron.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb

William Makepeace Thackeray :

'[Philip Ballard] had no exposure to contemporary writers until the 1890s: "I gained a nodding acquaintance with the life and letters of Ancient Greece and Rome, and... I had read most of Dickens, much of Thackeray and some of Scott; but I had never read a line of Henry James, of Meredith or of Hardy".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Ballard Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw :

'In the Star [Philip] Ballard read the music criticism of Bernard Shaw, and Richard le Gallienne on books... He pressed on to Meredith and Walter Pater'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Ballard Print: Serial / periodical, Unknown

William Makepeace Thackeray :

'"Thinking back, I am amazed at the amount of English literature we absorbed in those four years", recalled Ethel Clark, a Gloucester railway worker's daughter, "and I pay tribute to the man who made it possible... Scott, Thackeray, Shakespeare, Longfellow, Dickens, Matthew Arnold, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Rudyard Kipling were but a few authors we had at our fingertips. How he made the people live again for us!".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel Clark Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel Clark Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel Clark Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Rookwood

'"In my childhood, I never met another who could not read", [H.M. Tomlinson] recalled. "Some of them could be so excited by the printed page that they passed on the fun they had found, and thus... I was introduced to Mayne Reid, and again to Harrison Ainsworth, with "The Headless Horseman" and "Rookwood"".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: H.M. Tomlinson Print: Book

Thomas Mayne Reid : "The Headless Horseman"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: H.M. Tomlinson Print: Book

James George Frazer : "The Golden Bough"

'T.A. Jackson credited his Board school teachers with starting him on his career as a Marxist philosopher. They introduced him to Greek mythology, "which in time brought me to Frazer and the immensities and infinitudes of "The Golden Bough", and all that that implies".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas A. Jackson Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe :

'"One advantage of leaving school at an early age is that one can study subjects of your own choice", wrote Frank Argent, son of a Camberwell labourer. Taking advantage of the public library and early Penguins, he ranged all over the intellectual landscape: Freudian psychology, industrial administration, English literature, political history, Blake, Goethe, Mill, Nietzsche, The Webbs, Bertrand Russell's Essays in Scepticism, and Spengler's "The Decline of the West".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Argent Print: Book

John Stuart Mill :

'"One advantage of leaving school at an early age is that one can study subjects of your own choice", wrote Frank Argent, son of a Camberwell labourer. Taking advantage of the public library and early Penguins, he ranged all over the intellectual landscape: Freudian psychology, industrial administration, English literature, political history, Blake, Goethe, Mill,Nietzsche, The Webbs, Bertrand Russell's Essays in Scepticism, and Spengler's "The Decline of the West".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Argent Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche :

'"One advantage of leaving school at an early age is that one can study subjects of your own choice", wrote Frank Argent, son of a Camberwell labourer. Taking advantage of the public library and early Penguins, he ranged all over the intellectual landscape: Freudian psychology, industrial administration, English literature, political history, Blake, Goethe, Mill,Nietzsche, The Webbs, Bertrand Russell's Essays in Scepticism, and Spengler's "The Decline of the West".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Argent Print: Book

Beatrice and Sidney Webb :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Argent Print: Book

Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler : The Decline of the West

'"One advantage of leaving school at an early age is that one can study subjects of your own choice", wrote Frank Argent, son of a Camberwell labourer. Taking advantage of the public library and early Penguins, he ranged all over the intellectual landscape: Freudian psychology, industrial administration, English literature, political history, Blake, Goethe, Mill,Nietzsche, The Webbs, Bertrand Russell's Essays in Scepticism, and Spengler's The Decline of the West'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Argent Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn... proceeded to an evening institute course in English literature and by the rhythm of the looms she memorised all of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Milton's Lycidas, and Gray's Elegy. She discovered the ancient Greeks at the home of a neighbour, a self-educated classicist with six children, and a Sunday school teacher introduced her to the plays of Bernard Shaw. While attending her looms she silently analysed the character of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, "sometimes to the detriment of my weaving".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Ode to the West Wind

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : [plays]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Blackburn Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Christabel

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Sunday 31 August 1800: 'At 11 o'clock [pm] Coleridge came ... We sate and chatted till 1/2-past three, W[illiam]. in his dressing-gown. Coleridge read us a part of Christabel.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Manuscript: Sheet

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Christabel

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Sunday 5 October 1800: 'Coleridge read a 2nd time Christabel; we had increasing pleasure. A delicious morning.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Manuscript: Sheet

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Christabel

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Wednesday 22 October 1800: 'Wm. read after supper, Ruth etc.; Coleridge Christabel.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Manuscript: Sheet

Bishop Joseph Hall : unknown

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Sunday 15 November 1801: 'We sate by the fire and read Chaucer (Thomson, Mary read) and Bishop Hall.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Wordsworth Family Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Fables

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Saturday 6 February, 1802: '... wrote ... after tea, and translated two or three of Lessing's Fables.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : unknown

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Monday 8 February, 1802: 'It was very windy ... all the morning ... I read a little in Lessing and the grammar.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Fable

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Tuesday 9 February, 1802: 'We did a little of Lessing. I attempted a fable, but my head ached ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

Bishop Joseph Hall : unknown

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Tuesday 23 February, 1802: 'Darkish when we reached home [from walk] ... William now reading in Bishop Hall ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Essay

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Thursday 25 February, 1802: 'I reached home [from walk] just before dark ... got tea, and fell to work at German. I read a good deal of Lessing's Essay.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : unknown

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Friday 12 March 1802: ' ... I read the remainder of Lessing.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : verses

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, Tuesday 4 May 1802, describing excursion to local river and waterfall: 'We [Dorothy and William Wordsworth, and S. T. Coleridge] ... rested upon a moss-covered rock, rising out of the bed of the river. There we lay ... and stayed there till about 4 o'clock. William and C[oleridge]. repeated and read verses.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Manuscript: Sheet

Jean Jaques Rousseau : Confessions

'From 7.40 to 9 1/2 reading aloud to myself from p.42 to 50 (very carefully) vol.I Rousseau's Confessions. I READ this work so attentively for the style's sake. Besides this is a singularly unique display of character.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

Jean Jaques Rousseau : Confessions

' Came up to bed at 9.50. Read from pp55 to 65 Vol.I Rousseau's Confessions.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

Jean Jaques Rousseau : Julie: ou Nouvelle Heloise

' Could not resist unpacking my books from Paris...About ten [servant] came and curled my hair. Stood musing. Peeped into some of my books. Vol.I Nouvelle Heloise.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

Jean Jaques Rousseau : Julie: ou Nouvelle Heloise

' Reading from pp 22 to 32, II, Nouvelle Heloise.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

Mme Marie-Sophie Cottin : Amelie Mansfield

' At 2.30 went out to the library [..]Subscribed for a month [...] Came up to bed at 9.35. Sat up reading the first 79pp and several pages at the end of Amelie Mansfield. The story interesting. How poor the language after that of Rousseau.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

J. B. Bernard : Theory of the Constitution Compared with its Pract

[Letter dated Monday 15 January 1838] Have you seen that book of Bernard's on the Constitution? Not fit for every eye. On electing monarchy and state religion he seems a visionary and a madman, but he is strong and clever against democracy. A person like Lady Stuart de Rothesay, or such as she has taught me to believe Lady Hardwicke [to be] might read this book, cull out the good, and be interested and instructed. ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

Colonel Francis Hall : Travels in France in 1818

Before breakfast + afterwards, from 11 to 1, making minutes + extracts from Hall's travels in France (it must go to the library today...He is an arrant republican in politics + would perhaps, style himself a philosopher in religion. Consequently, his sentiments + mine on these subjects who as a limited monarchist + a ProtestantChristian according to the established Church of England, are opposite almost as the poles. However, there is some information useful to a tourist.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Newspaper

Sir Walter Scott : The Monastery. A romance

I was on the amoroso till M- made me read aloud the first 126pp, vol 2, of Sir walter Scott's(he has just been made a baronet) last novel The Monastery, in 3 vols, 12 mo stupid enough. Tea at 7:30.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister

August Fredrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue : Leontine de Blondheim

from 1 to 3, read the first 100pp. vol 3 Leontine de Blondheim...It is altogether a very interesting thing +have read it with a sort of melancholy feeling, the very germ of which I thought had died for ever. I cried a good deal over the second + more over the third this morning, + as soon as I was alone during supper.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown, poetry]

'The son of a barely literate Derbyshire collier recalled a sister, a worker in a hosiery factory, who was steeped in the poetry of Byron, Shelley, Keats and D.H. Lawrence. Their mother's reading "would astonish the modern candidate for honours in English at any university", he claimed. "Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgeniev, Dumas, Hugo, Thackeray, Meredith, Scott, Dickens, all the classics, poetry etc., all these gave her immense joy".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [unknown, poetry]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : [unknown, poetry]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Anthony Todd Thomson : A Conspectus of the pharmacopeias of the London [e

'Dr Scudamore, recommended and has just sent me to look at Thomsons Conspectus of the Pharmacopeias, a nice little 42mo. Price 5/-, 5th edition.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

Rev. Richard H. Barham : The Ingoldsby Legends

'Frances Stevenson, born in 1888, recollected [in The years that Are Past, 1967] that she "read greedily [pre-1914] ... I formed an early acquaintance with Dickens, weeping copiously over Little Dorrit and Little Nell, and I knew by heart many of the passages in the Ingoldsby Legends, a volume that had been given me ... when I was ten years old! ... I lost myself in a magical world while reading the poems of Scott. I think I read them all one summer holiday, in a special spot in our garden ..."'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Stevenson Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : poems

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Stevenson Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Four Georges

'[Max] Beerbohm ... [declared] to Will Rothenstein that he had read ... only Thackeray's The Four Georges (1860) and Lear's Book of Nonsense (1846), though lately he had sampled Wilde's Intentions (1891).'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Max Beerbohm Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : unknown

Geraldine Hodgson, The Life of James Elroy Flecker (1925), 'Reading aloud in the family circle was an established custom [in 1880s-90s] ... by a very early age, Roy had listened to large parts of Dickens, Longfellow, and Tennyson, and to much of Thackeray, George Eliot, Carlyle, and Browning.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Elroy Flecker Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Elroy Flecker Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : unknown

'[William Robertson] Nicoll's boyhood reading included Scott, Disraeli, the Brontes, Bulwer Lytton, Shelley, Johnson, Addison, Steele, Goldsmith, Emerson, Lowell, Longfellow ...' [Nicoll's father a Scottish clergyman who amassed library of 17,000 volumes.]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Robertson Nicoll Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Robertson Nicoll Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Robertson Nicoll Print: Book

James Russell Lowell : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Robertson Nicoll Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Robertson Nicoll Print: Book

Mrs Henry Wood : [unknown]

'In A Young Man's Passage (1950), Mark Tellar recalls "confessing to his prep-school teacher that during the holidays he had read Conway's 'Called Back', together with Fergus Hume's 'The Mystery of the Hansom Cab' (1887), and stories by Miss M. E. Braddon, Mrs Henry Wood, and Ouida."'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mark Tellar Print: Unknown

Charlotte, Anne, Emily Bronte : novels

"Robert Blatchford, growing up in Halifax in the 1860s, read from the penny library there Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Southey's Life of Nelson, Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, and novels by Captain Marryat, the Brontes, and Miss M. E. Braddon."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Blatchford Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : novels

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Blatchford Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : unknown

"The son of a shipwright, [Hall] Caine had been largely dependent upon public sources [in particuarly the Free Library, Liverpool] to satisfy his appetite for knowledge ... in this way he encountered Coleridge, a formative influence."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hall Caine Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : unknown

Philip Gibbs in The Pageant of the Years (1946), on work as writer of series of articles under name "Self-Help" in early 1900s: "'All the reading I had done as a boy, all my youthful enthusiasm for Shakespeare, Milton, Scott, Thackeray, Dickens, George Eliot, and Hardy ... was a great source of supply now when I sat down to write aout great books ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Gibbs Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Gibbs Print: Book

J. M. Robertson : unknown

Neville Cardus, on devising cultural self-improvement scheme, in Autobiography (1947): "'I came upon the works of J. M. Robertson, also once a poor boy who had made himself informed ... he was stimulating, and his books served as my encyclopedia ...'"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Neville Cardus Print: Book

David Henry Urquhart : Commentaries on classical learning

I shall turn for a while to Urquhart's comentaries on classical learning. O books! books! I owe you much. Ye are my spirits oil without which, its own friction against itself would wear out.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Confessions

"The heart knows its own bitterness + it is enough. Je sens moncover, et je connais les hommes. Je ne suis fait comme [...] Rousseau's confessions, volume and page, first"

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

By the author of valerius and Reginald Dalton : Some passages in the life of Mr Adam Blair

Came upstairs at 10 1/2 [...] musing melancholily over the fire till 11. From then till 3.10, read the whole of (M-sen t it to me Saturday 15 November) some passages in the life of Mr Adam Blair, Minister of the Gospel at Cross-Meikle-Wm Blackwood, Edinburgh + London, 1822.[...]It is a singularly interesting pathetic story, doubly so because told as truth + not improbable [...] I read and roared over this thing till my head ached [...]

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

George Gordon Byron : Childe Harold

At 3 1/4 down the old bank to the library. Miss Maria Browne there. Came up to me to say her sister had so bad a cold [...] she could not possibly stir out today [...] I walked slowly up Royston Rd [...] went up, found Miss Browne, not perhaps quite so unwell as I expected, sitting on the sopha reading the last canto of Childe Harold. Would not let her send for her mother till I had sat 40 minutes tete-a-tete with herself.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Browne Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold

'finished my morning's work a few minutes before 2. Made an extract or 2 from Lord Byron's Childe Harold + the lyrics at the end of the book in readiness to take it back. Set off down the old bank a little before 4. Staid at the library above an hour looking out a couple of books with proper prints for the children to copy at Pye Nest.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

Anthony Todd Thomson : A conspectus of the pharmacopeias of the London

Dr Scudamore, recommended and has just sent me to look at Thomsons Conspectus of the Pharmacopeias, a nice little 42 mo. Price 5/-, 5th edition

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book

John Gibson Lockhart : Life of Scott

' ... in 1917-18, when he was 90, Sir Edward Fry asked his wife and daughters to read Lockhart's "Life of Scott" to him to take his mind off the Great War, which, as a Quaker, he abhorred -- "and for many hours every day ... to all ten volumes ... he listened in the last winter of his life."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Edward Fry Print: Book

John Gibson Lockhart : Life of Scott

' ... in 1917-18, when he was 90, Sir Edward Fry asked his wife and daughters to read Lockhart's Life of Scott to him to take his mind off the Great War, which, as a Quaker, he abhorred -- "and for many hours every day ... to all ten volumes ... he listened in the last winter of his life."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mariabella Fry Print: Book

Hester Ann Rogers : Spiritual Letters Or A Short Account of the Experi

I read Mrs Rogers' Life and Letters with great profit. ... The life and letters of Mrs Rogers here made a great blessing to me, also conversation with a person who enjoyed that blessing...

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lutton Print: Book

Johann David Wyss : The Swiss Family Robinson

On 8 September 1854 Christiana Thompson noted in her diary that her children Elizabeth and Alice (later Alice Meynell) were 'reading every day with their Pa Swiss Family Robinson.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thompson Family Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : novels

June Badeni on readings by 13-year-old Alice Thompson, as recorded in her notebook: 'She has been reading more of Scott and Dickens, is plunging through the novels of George Eliot... has sampled Bulwer Lytton, Thackeray, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alice Thompson Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : unknown

Alice Meynell recalls childhood reading: 'In quite early childhood I lived upon Wordsworth ... When I was about twelve I fell in love with Tennyson, and cared for nothing else until, at fifteen, I discovered Keats and then Shelley.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alice Thompson

Percy Bysshe Shelley : unknown

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alice Thompson

Robert Michael Ballantyne : [unknown]

[A Sheffield Survey organised by Arnold Freeman in 1918, assessing 816 manual workers, gives the following case:] 'Private in an infantry regiment, formerly a skilled painter, age eighteen. Spends evenings painting, reading, working on model airplanes. Has attended art school....Patronizes Free Library. Has read The Pickwick Papers, The Old Curiosity Shop, David Copperfield, Bulwer Lytton, Ballantyne, Henty, Robinson Crusoe, Quentin Dirward, Ivanhoe, Waverley, Kidnapped, Treasure Island and Two Years before the Mast, as well as the travels of David Livingstone, Fridtjof Nansen, Matthew Peary and Scott of the Antarctic'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Alfred Henty : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Kidnapped

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Richard Henry Dana : Two Years Before the Mast

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Robert Falcon Scott : [Travels in the Antarctic]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

[A Sheffield Survey organised by Arnold Freeman in 1918, assessing 816 manual workers, gives the following case:] 'Engine tenter, age twenty-seven...Often attends operas...Methodically building up a personal library following the guidelines of Arnold Bennett's Literary Taste. Has read the Bible, Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Much Ado about Nothing), Pope, Tennyson, Masefield, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Emerson, William Morris, most of Ruskin, Dickens (Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Carol), The Cloister and the Hearth, GK Chesterton, Bernard Shaw (Major Barbara, John Bull's Other Island, The Doctor's Dilemma, Man and Superman, The Shewing up of Blanco Posnet, The Devil's Disciple, You Never Can Tell, Socialism and Superior Brains, Fabian Essays, An Unsocial Socialist, The Irrational Knot), John Galsworthy, about a dozen books by H.G. Wells and perhaps twenty by Bennett, Sidney and Beatrice Webb's Industrial Democracy and other books on trade unionism, Sir Oliver Lodge, Edward Carpenter's Towards Democracy and The Intermediate Sex, J.A. Hobson and Alfred Marshall on Economics and Plato's Republic'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Gilbert Keith Chesterton : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Major Barbara

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : John Bull's Other Island

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : The Doctor's Dilemma

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Man and Superman

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : The Shewing up of Blanco Posnet

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : The Devil's Disciple

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : You Never Can Tell

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Socialism and Superior Brains

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Fabian Essays

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : An Unsocial Socialist

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : The Irrational Knot

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Enoch Arnold Bennett : [unknown]

[A Sheffield Survey organised by Arnold Freeman in 1918, assessing 816 manual workers, gives the following case:] 'Engine tenter, age twenty-seven...Often attends operas...Methodically building up a personal library following the guidelines of Arnold Bennett's Literary Taste. Has read the Bible, Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Much Ado about Nothing), Pope, Tennyson, Masefield, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Emerson, William Morris,, most of Ruskin, Dickens (Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, The OLd Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Carol), The Cloister and the Hearth, GK Chesterton, Bernard Shaw (Major Barbara, John Bull's Other Island, The Doctor's Dilemma, Man and Superman, The Shewing up of Blanco Posnet, The Devil's Disciple, You Never Can Tell, Socialism and Superor Brains, Fabian Essays, An Unsocial Socialist, The Irrational Knot), John Galsworthy, about a dozen books by H.G. Wells and perhaps twenty by Bennett, Sidney and Beatrice Webb's Industrial Democracy and other books on trade unionism, Sir Oliver Lodge, Edward Carpenter's Towards Democracy and The Intermediate Sex, J.A. Hobson and Alfred Marshall on Economics and Plato's Republic'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Sidney and Beatrice Webb : Industrial Democracy

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Oliver Joseph Lodge : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

John Atkinson Hobson : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree : Poverty, A Study of Town Life

[analysis of a female respondent in Arnold Freeman's 1918 Sheffield Survey] 'Munitions worker, age eighteen... Has read Seebohm Rowntree's "Poverty" and a basic economics textbook, as well as "Little Women".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Louisa May Alcott : Little Women

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : [unknown]

[analysis of a female respondent in Arnold Freeman's 1918 Sheffield Survey] 'Machinist in a shell factory, age twenty-four... Has read Shakespeare, Burns, Keats, Scott, Tennyson, Dickens, Vanity Fair, The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, biography and history'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Ella Wheeler Wilcox : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Emmusska, Baroness Orczy : The Scarlet Pimpernel

[analysis of a female respondent in Arnold Freeman's 1918 Sheffield Survey] 'Machine file cutter, age twenty-five... Has read The Old Curiosity Shop, Innocents Abroad, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and the Bible'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Richard Doddridge Blackmore : Lorna Doone

[analysis of a female respondent in Arnold Freeman's 1918 Sheffield Survey] 'Housewife, age twenty-eight... Has read "David Copperfield", "The Old Curiosity Shop", "Lorna Doone", Louisa May Alcott and the travels of Livingstone and Darwin'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Louisa May Alcott : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : [unknown]

[analysis of a female respondent in Arnold Freeman's 1918 Sheffield Survey] 'Cutlery worker, age seventy-two...Fond of Longfellow, Stevenson, Ruskin, William Morris and Charles Dickens'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : [unknown]

[analysis of a female respondent in Arnold Freeman's 1918 Sheffield Survey] 'Cutlery worker, age seventy-two...Fond of Longfellow, Stevenson, Ruskin, William Morris and Charles Dickens'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: questionaire respondent Print: Book

Francis Turner Palgrave : Golden Treasury of English Song and Lyrics

'In 1955 Manny Shinwell - who read all of Palgrave's Golden Treasury to his children, and had consoled himself in prison with Keats and Tennyson - regretted that that poetic heritage had been surrendered to the cinema and radio: "In the early days of the [socialist] movement it was common practice of speakers to recite poetry...".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Emmanuel (Manny) Shinwell Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Emmanuel (Manny) Shinwell, later Baron Shinwell Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

Bartlett's picture of the Hispaniola lying beached in the Caribbean, on the clean-swept sand, its poop, round house, mainsails and fore-tops easily identified, had grown out of the flat print words of Treasure Island. Bartlett was a good painter in water-colour. When we read Kidnapped he made us paint the Scottish moors. We laughed over Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Kidnapped

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book

William Cullen Bryant : Thanatopsis

I had a look at 'In tune with the infinite'. I moved on to my father's single volume, India paper edition of 'Shakespeare's Complete Works' and started at the beginning with the 'Rape of Lucrece' and the sonnets and continued slowly through the plays during the coming year. For relief I took up Marie Corelli's 'Master Christian' which I found more moving than Shakespeare and more intelligible than 'Thanatopsis'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Trine : In Tune with the Infinite

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book

Jas (James) Hastie : Journal

'By leave of the Colonial Office I have obtained copies of a MS journal, never published or edited, kept by Jas Hastie, the Civil Agent of Governor Farquhar at the court of Radama I. from 1817-1828. The authorities of the Record office have detained the copy a few days in order to authorize them. & I think the Journal would make (with editing) a good book.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: S.P. Oliver Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Letters

'Reading Mrs Browning's published letters in 1900, Wilfrid Blunt was reminded of how much he admired her and her husband's poetry ...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfrid Blunt Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

'Theodore Watts-Dunton remembers Algernon Swinburne's fondness for reading aloud during his last years at Watts-Dunton's home: "... he would read for the hour together from Dickens, Lamb, Charles Reade and Thackeray."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Algernon Swinburne Print: Unknown

Sir Edwin Arnold : The Light of Asia

'"Stilted prose" was the rapid and unhesitating reply to whether ... [George Meredith] reckoned "The Light of Asia" a very fine poem, to the dismay of his questioner, who had "read and re-read it with the greatest possible pleasure" ...'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Unknown

Thomas Dunham Whitaker : Galt's Life of Cardinal Wolsey

'Sir, I have heard with great regret that you are the author of that gross personal libel which appeared in the Quarterly Review, in the form of criticism on my Life of Cardinal Wolsey. I say with regret because it has been my settled determination from the moment I read the article to make the author sensible that in accusing me of being activated by the most obnoxious principles, he had laid himself open to be suspected of obeying them himself.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Galt Print: Serial / periodical

Louisa May Alcott : Little Women

'Constance Smedley's favourite childhood reading was ... Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868-9)'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Constance Smedley Print: Book

Lord John Russell :

Letter, 25/11/1860 - 'The opening of the note enclosed from Mrs Browning refers to my having spoken of Lord John's last dispatch as giving me courage to write to her about Italy.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Newspaper

Sir Walter Scott :

Letter 16/8/1863 - Following a description of rural walk - "it was just like the beginning of a new novel of Sir Walter's. - Do you see what the French call him now: - (so truly! - the epithet being one of praise or contempt according to the feeling of the speaker) - 'l'enfantin Sir Walter'!"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Horace Benedict de Saussure : Voyages dans les Alpes

Letter W 38 - Chamouni, 3/10/1863 - "I can't make out the run of some coal slates of the Col de Balme at their junction with what Saussure calls the 'poudingues de Valorsins'. Such a scramble as I've had after them today!"

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Locksley Hall

'Occasionally the discussions became acrimonious. My eldest brother was one day making disparaging remarks about Tennyson, and my mother, all agitated in defence of her idol, fetched his poems from the shelf, and with a "Listen now, children" began to declaim "Locksley Hall". When she reached "I to herd with narroe foreheads" she burst out, flinging down the book, "What awful rubbish this is!"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Hughes Print: Book

Henry David Thoreau : unknown

Constance Smedley on readings in American literature: 'Thoreau ... opened the door to a philosophy of life when I was about fifteen ... in his train came Emerson and Lowell ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Constance Smedley Print: Unknown

Ralph Waldo Emerson : unknown

Constance Smedley on readings in American literature: 'Thoreau ... opened the door to a philosophy of life when I was about fifteen ... in his train came Emerson and Lowell ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Constance Smedley Print: Book

James Russell Lowell :

Constance Smedley on readings in American literature: "'Thoreau ... opened the door to a philosophy of life when I was about fifteen ... in his train came Emerson and Lowell ...'"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Constance Smedley Print: Unknown

Jean Jacques Rousseau :

" reading Rousseau to my Sally."

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Eleanor Butler

Jean Jacques Rousseau :

" From one till three reading Rousseau to the joy of my Life."

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Eleanor Butler

Mrs Humphrey Ward : Canadian Born

"When ... [Mrs Humphrey Ward] read aloud from Canadian Born (1910) to the assembled guests at Lord Stanley's part at Alderley Park, the verdict was that 'it was terribly boring' [as Venetia Stanley wrote to Violet Asquith, 12 October 1910]."

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Humphrey Ward

Jean Jacques Rousseau :

" From five till Ten read Rousseau (finished the 7th tome) to my Sally.

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Eleanor Butler

Madame de Maintenon : Les Memoires de Madame de Maintenon

" Began Les Memoires de Madame Maintenon. I doubt whether the vulgarity of stile (sic), absurd anecdotes and impertinent reflections will permit me to read it."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Eleanor Butler Print: Book

Madame de Maintenon : Les Memoires de Madame de Maintenon

" Nine till twelve in the Dressing room reading-finished Les Memoires de Maintenon. Began her letters"

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Eleanor Butler Print: Book

Madame de Metterniche : Memoires

Listed under "Books read since April the first 1789"

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Eleanor Butler Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere :

Listed under "Books read since April the first 1789"

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Eleanor Butler Print: Book

H. Rider Haggard : She

"'More even than with the contemptible inexpressiveness of the whole thing,' Henry James wrote after reading She ... 'I am struck with the beastly bloodiness of it ...'"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Mrs Henry Wood : East Lynne

'Lady Cynthia Asquith's diary recorded about one January Sunday in 1917, "Stayed in bed until dinner. I read 'East Lynne' till my eyes ached."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Cynthia Asquith Print: Book

Mrs Henry Wood : East Lynne

'Annie Swan [from Leith] ... vividly recalled the occasion when her mother "surprised us all by retiring to her room for a whole day, abandoning everything. The mystery was explained by a copy of East Lynne, which had been brought surreptitiously into the [strictly Evangelical] house, and in which she became so engrossed that she ceased to care a han, as we expressed it, for anything or anybody".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Swan Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : unknown

"Mr. Gladstone left aside the cares of state by reading ... [Mary Elizabeth Braddon]."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : Lady Audley's Secret

'[George] Moore pinpointed his ... awakening interest in fiction to overhearing his parents discussing whether Lady Audley murdered her husband. Then aged 11, Moore "took the first opportunity of stealing the novel in question [Lady Audley' s Secret]. I read it eagerly, passionately, vehemently," afterwards progressing to the rest of Braddon's fiction, including The Doctor's Wife, about "a lady who loved Shelley and Byron", which in turn led him to take up those poets ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Moore Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : The Doctor's Wife

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Moore Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Moore Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Moore Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : unknown

'Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer ... liked to get away from political anxieties by devouring what he called "shilling shockers": adventure stories, American westerns, and thrillers, though he would occasionally leaven the mixture by rereading Dickens and what he considered the erotic passages of Byron, Milton and Burns. He did latch on to some best-sellers, such as Jeffrey Farnol's The Amateur Gentleman (1913), which he read "over and over again" ...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lloyd George Print: Book

Florence L. Barclay : The Rosary

' ... at Stanway in 1916 for her sister's twenty-first birthday, Lady Cynthia [Asquith] entertained family and guests after dinner by [mockingly] reading from The Rosary [by Florence L. Barclay] ...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Cynthia Asquith Print: Book

Dante Gabriel Rossetti : The King's Tragedy

On visit to 50-year-old Dante Gabriel Rossetti, '[Hall] Caine, half his age, was treated to a reading of "The King's Tragedy" ...'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Matthew Gregory Lewis : [unknown]

'On learning that [Hall] Caine was to present twenty-four lectures in Liverpool on "Prose Fiction" ... [D. G. Rossetti] insisted that he read the works [of English novelists] aloud to him; hence "I read Fielding and Smollett, Richardson, Radcliffe, 'Monk' Lewis, Thackeray and Dickens, under a running fire of comment and criticism from Rossetti".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hall Caine Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hall Caine Print: Book

Aubrey Thomas de Vere :

Letter B 23 - Postmark 15/10/1858 - "Cease reading my books for the present - there are a thousand as good - and many better. Read Aubrey de Vere's if you like - there's plenty of enthusiasm in them of the kind you like."

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin

Elizabeth Barrett Browining : Aurora Leigh

Letter B 28 - Postmark 27/10/1858 - "The fit you took about the slavery arose not only owing to Aurora Leigh, but from your not understanding the proper use of the word."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browining : Aurora Leigh

Letter B 28 - Postmark 27/10/1858 - "The fit you took about the slavery arose not only owing to Aurora Leigh, but from your not understanding the proper use of the word."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Blunden Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : Fairy legends and Tales

Letter H53, January 1857 "But I think if you read Anderson carefully, you will feel how pointed, neat and concise he is in comparison. How unexpected also are most of his turns. The conceit of the different personages is nearly all that is amusing here" (referring to one of Miss Heaton's tales)"and you will find Anderson has worked that point thoroughly in the 'darning needle' and the hen and the can in the ugly duck &c."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Destruction of Sennacherib

Letter H. 39 - (12/10/1856) - "I don't know when I read a poem, since a boy I first read "The Assyrian came down" - which has given me such intense pleasure as the "Burden of Nineveh" in No. 8 of Oxford & Cambridge."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Dante Gabriel Rossetti : The Burden of Nineveh

Letter H. 39 - 12/10/1856 - "-I don't know when I read a poem, since as a boy I first read "The Assyrian came down" - which has given me such intense pleasure as the "Burden of Nineveh" in No. 8 of Oxford & Cambridge - Pleasure of course - of a different kind but I am quite wild about it - That profound last stanza - the infinite power and ease of all!!!"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Serial / periodical

Oliver Wendell Holmes :

"I took in Mr Holmes' humorous poems & Davidson (a very jolly little friend of mine) another light work & we sat together with Romer in the furthest corner enjoying literature mixed with 'light conversation' after your style."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

W Hepworth Dixon : New America

"I have hardly read a book except for strictly professional purposes for 3 months & more. One of the few I have read is Dixon's New America. I should like to know what you think of it. It has been a great success here having already passed six editions & being undeniably amusing. My own opinion about it is perhaps coloured by my opinion of Dixon, wh. I further believe to be almost the universal opinion? I think him an offensive snob. ? I think that his book is flashy & written entirely for effect & would probably give to most people a highly incorrect notion. Especially I fancy that he absurdly exaggerates the numbers & importance of Shakers, Junkers, &c&c &c even of Mormons ? but most of all the Spiritualists. Also, though his facts may be right, I should guess the colouring to be wrong. You may tell me what you think if you take the trouble to read the book; but I believe it will give to most English readers the impression that nearly all Americans believe in Spirittrapping, that most of them are either disbelievers in matrimony & hell ? or practisers of polygamy and that a large number live in queer phalansteries or other Socialist contrivances.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

John Addington Symonds : Life of Symonds

'I have been reading the life of Mr Symonds, and it makes me almost laugh (though little laughing is in my heart) to think of the strange difference between this prosaic little narrative, all about the facts of a life so simple as mine, and his elaborate self-discussions'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book

William Edmonstoune Ayton : The Execution of Montrose

'Suddenly he [William Edmonstoune Ayton] burst forth without any warning with "Come hither Evan Cameron" - and repeated the poem to us.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Edmonstoune Ayton Print: Serial / periodical

George Barnett Smith : The Works of Thackeray

"I think that Miss Thackeray and my wife have expressed to you their great pleasure in your article on their father."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Stephen Print: Serial / periodical

George Barnett Smith : The Works of Thackeray

"I think that Miss Thackeray and my wife have expressed to you their great pleasure in your article on their father."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Ann Thackeray Print: Serial / periodical

James Russell Lowell : Agassiz

"I read with satisfaction Lowell's poem wh. you sent me. The only fault I find with him is that he occasionally lets his criticism get mixed up in his poetry, but it is thoroughly good solid work - 'solid' is not a happy epithet for poetry but I mean weighty & not finicking."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical

Robert Louis Stevenson : Ordered South

"I have read with great interest your article on Victor Hugo & also that which appeared in the last number of Macmillan."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical

Frederick Denison Maurice :

"By an accidental combination of circumstances I only saw your article on my 'secularism' this afternoon. I have no complaints to make of it & no wish to carry on the controversy. But I do wish (for I value highly your good opinion on moral character & respect all your opinions) to acquit myself from one or two charges of unfairness to Mr Maurice."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Frederick Denison Maurice :

"Excuse all this; but though you may not easily give me credit I really admired Mr Maurice; I attended his lectures as a boy; I studied his books carefully & I should be sorry that you think of my errors as caused by carelessness or undue superciliousness. They are at least the outcome of a good deal of as conscientious thinking as I can give."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

"In 1905 [Andrew] Lang ... recalled: 'The first book that ever made me cry, of which feat I was horribly ashamed, was 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', with the death of Eva ...'"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Andrew Lang Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Dred: A Tale of the Dismal Swamp

'The Queen [Victoria] ... read the sequel [to "Uncle Tom's Cabin"], "Dred: A Tale of the Dismal Swamp" (1856), and considered it as good ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Queen Victoria Print: Book

Edward Bliss Foote : Plain Home Talk and Cyclopaedia

'"This book [Dr Foote's Plain Home Talk and Cyclopaedia) made a great impression on me", wrote Glasgow foundryworker Thomas Bell "And I handed it round my workmates until it was as black as coal and the batters torn".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Bell Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : The New Machiavelli

'Jude the Obscure, Edward Carpenter's Love's Coming of Age, Grant Allen's The Woman Who Did, H.G. Well's The New Machiavelli and Ann Veronica, as well as the examples of Mary Wollstonecraft and George Eliot all made Eva [Slawson] think furiously about free love.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Eva Slawson Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : Ann Veronica

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Eva Slawson Print: Book

Honore de Balzac :

[Bennett] '. . .reread Balzac and de Maupassant and wondered whether he would be acccused of plagiarism.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Aurora Leigh

Letter H 49 (late November 1856) ?Mrs Brownings poem is the finest in the English language ? poem I mean ? (not drama) ? but it is a noble drama too ? ?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Aurora Leigh

From the editor?s footnote to a letter sent in November 1856: ?In a letter to Miss Heaton, Rossetti was no less enthusiastic: ?No doubt you are revelling, as I am, in Aurora Leigh ? by far the greatest work of its author surely, and almost beyond anything for exhaustless poetic resource.? (Heaton collection: letters written to Ellen Heaton; sold in 1969; whereabouts unknown.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Dante Gabriel Rossetti Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Poems before Congress

Letter H 85 (Latter half of March 1860) ?Mrs Browning?s verse is capital, but would have been better in prose. It is spoiled for rhyme?s sake.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Poems before Congress

Letter H88 (?Mid-April 1860) ?Mrs B. is entirely good. In fact Magnificent (except her rhyme to Modena ? needlessly offensive and ?band plays?) ? Finest moral poetry ever written.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

William Ernest Henley : Miss Grant

"Payn showed me yesterday an article of yours upon a Miss Grant of whom I confess, I have heard for the first time; but I thought the whole really well written & feel that you will be able to command a market for such wares & in better periodicals (if I may say so) than London."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical

James Russell Lowell : Pictures from Appledore

"I go off tomorrow to Cumberland where I shall climb the British Mt Blanc & forget for a short time that there are such things as books to be written. I take 2 or 3 to read for alas I can't now quite reduce myself to the animal state as I used to in former days. I looked at something of Lowell's the other day & was amused to find that you have got a Saddleback and a great Haystack in America as well as in Cumberland."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson :

'... King Kalakava [of Hawaii] ... was an avid reader of [R. L.] Stevenson's romances ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: King Kalakava Print: Unknown

Rudyard and C. R. L. Kipling and Fletcher : A School History of England

'In 1911 E. M. Forster read "with mingled joy and disgust" "A School History of England", which Kipling and C. R. L. Fletcher had just published ...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

H. G. Wells : God the Invisible King

'The sculptress Kathleen Bruce, widow of the Arctic explorer Captain Scott ... became positively scornful when she read [H. G.] Wells's "God the Invisible King" in 1917 ...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Kathleen Bruce Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : Sons and Lovers

'... reading "Sons and Lovers", [W. H. Hudson] judged it "a very good book indeed except in that portion where he relapses into the old sty -- the neck-sucking and wallowing-in-sweating-flesh".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: W. H. Hudson Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Heir of Redclyffe

" ... tears filled ... [D. G. Rossetti's] eyes as he read about Guy Morville's death in The Heir of Redclyffe."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Dante Gabriel Rossetti Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : Heartsease

" ... Charles Kingsley ... told ... [its] publisher that ... [Heartsease] was 'the most delightful and wholesome novel I ever read ... I found myself wiping my eyes a dozen times before I got through it'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kingsley Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Heir of Redclyffe

"The Prime Minister's daughter Violet Asquith read ... [The Heir of Redclyffe] seven times 'from cover to cover -- never failing to cry at the end' ..."

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Violet Asquith Print: Book

John Henry Newman : Loss and Gain

'When Wilfrid Blunt ... reread "Loss and Gain" he was struck how "Newman's mind ... seems never to have faced the real issues of belief and unbelief, those which have to be fought out with materialism ..."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfrid Scawen Blunt Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : Robert Elsmere

'The retired Governor of Madras Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, to whom Mrs [Humphry] Ward read extracts from "Robert Elsmere "before it was published, was arrested by the novel's passages of "extraordinary power"...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Humphry Ward

J. Henry Shorthouse : John Inglesant

'One of the privately printed copies [of "John Inglesant" was] ... read by Mrs Humphry Ward and her advocacy persuaded Macmillan's to give it general release.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward

J. Henry Shorthouse : John Inglesant

'Writing her memoirs in 1926, Janet Courtney went back to what she was like at 15, "when "John Inglesant" was published, spending the long summer holidays in the quiet of Barton, and for those six summer weeks of 1881 I lived in the book ..."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Janet Courtney Print: Book

Mrs Humphry Ward : The History of David Grieve

' ... [Gladstone] was disappointed by ... "The History of David Grieve" (1892), though he read it all ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Mrs Humphry Ward :

' ... [Virginia Woolf] was liable to blame Mrs [Humphry] Ward for her own periods of sterility as a writer: "How I dislike writing straight after reading Mrs H. Ward! -- she is as great a menace to health of mind as influenza to the body".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

W E Gladstone : Ritualism and Ritual

"And that reminds me that the last Contemporary is worth looking at, not only for Gladstone's twaddle about Ritualism, wh. has sold ten editions of the number, twaddle though it is, but for an article of Mat Arnold's wh. amuses me."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical

Sir Oliver Wendell Holmes : The Poet at the Breakfast Table

We have all read, by the way, The Poet at the breakfast table & sent him our sincere compliments on his performance."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve :

"S[ain]te Beuve & Mat. Arnold (in a smaller way) are the only modern critics wh. seem to me worth reading - perhaps, too, Lowell."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

William Ernest Henley : Hospital Sonnets

"I may tell you that, although your Hospital Sonnets did not seem to attract much notice at the time, as, indeed, I always thought them rather wasted on a Magazine - yet I have heard them noticed since by more than one person in a way that would please you. A friend who called here two days ago appeared to have them by heart - at least he quoted the one about the two boys with great readiness of feeling."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical

William Ernest Henley : Children: Private Ward

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : [poems]

" But, if I chose to walk six or seven miles along the coast... I might spend as pocket-money the railway fare I thus saved. Such considerable sums I fostered in order to buy with them editions of the poets. These were not in those days, as they are now, at the beck and call of every purse, and the attainment of each little masterpiece was a separate triumph. In particular I shall never forget the excitement of teaching at last the exorbitant price the bookseller asked for the only, although imperfect, edition of the poems of S.T.Coleridge. At last I could meet his demand, and my friend and I went down to consummate the solemn purchase. Comimg away with our treasure, we read aloud from the oranged-coloured volume, in turns, as we strolled along, until at last we sat down on the bulging foot of an elm-tree in a secluded lane. Here we stayed, in a sort of poetical nirvana, reading, forgetting the passage of time, until the hour of our neglected mid-day meal was! a long while past, and we had to hurry home to bread and chees and a scolding."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Queen Mab

"But I read with unchecked voracity, and in several curious directions...I made aquaintance...with Shelley, whose 'Queen Mab' at first repelled me from the threshold of his ediface."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

[a thief] : [comic poem]

"The inn was shut up; but Mr Walker's friend (I suppose) had just looked in to see after his property & was quite amiable & showed me a newspaper cutting with a comic poem by a thief, which seemed to amuse him greatly."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Newspaper

E. E. Hale : James Russell Lowell and his friends

"Besides wh. I have been looking at Hale's book 'Lowell & his friends'; wh. is not, I think, very much of a book but which told some things of interest to me."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Richard Watson Gilder : [poem]

'Now for yesterday. The proceedings were the 'exercises' of the P.B.K. society wh. = simply a gathering of old students of all ages. They begin by some distinguished person reading an 'oration' & another a poem in the theatre. After that there is a dinner - a 'cold collation' we should call it & a set of speeches intended to be witty & with no reporters present. The poet was a little man called Gilder, editor of the Century. His poem was good of its kind & he was a bright amiable little man with whom I talked about Magazine editing.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen

G. B. Smith : The Brontes

'The hero seems to me superior to the Rochester or the Louis Moore type, who are all rather lay-figures. Nor do I admire the sister?s work [Wuthering Heights] so much as you do. I see in it more violence than real strength & more rant than genuine passion. However all this is a matter of taste. I will remark, by the way, that I think there is some excuse for the charge of coarseness, as, e.g., the scene where Jane Eyre is half inclined to go to Rochester?s bedroom. I don?t mean coarseness in the sense of prurience; for I fully agree that Miss Bronte writes as a thoroughly pureminded woman; but she is more close to the physical side of passion than young ladies are expected to be?There is also some coarseness in the artistic sense in Jane Eyre. The mad wife is I fancy, unnecessarily bestial? I don?t think justice is generally done to C Bronte now & I shall be glad for that reason to insert your eloquent article.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Manuscript: article

John Henry Newman : An essay in aid of a grammar of assent

'I finished old Newman?s book coming down & as the book is too metaphysical to give you pleasure I will tell you what it comes to, it is an elaborate apology for the morality of persuading yourself that a thing is absolutely certain when you really know that it is not certain at all? Why shouldn?t I say that such a creature is a liar & that I despise him? I do most heartily.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

F. W. Maitland : History of English Law

?I have read two books lately wh. interested me. One for wh. you will not care is a history of English law down to the time of Edward I by F. W. Maitland? It is a wonderful piece of work as far as I can judge; & I should ask you to recommend it to some of your law professors, only that, as I take it, they will know about it already.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

James Russell Lowell : Democracy and other addresses

?Meanwhile I have a book from you, wh. I ought to have acknowledged. I guess that Julia did my duty & I did it better than I should. But, though late, I will say thank you now. I admire your faculty of addressing but I should like an argument or two upon minor points.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Anne Isabella Ritchie : 'Mrs Browning' (life for the DNB)

"I think you have done Mrs B[rowning] very well. I have read it & put in some savage criticism, marking, however, what I really think should be omitted in a dictionary."

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen

James A. Froude : Thomas Carlyle: A History of his Life in London 1834-1881

?I finished poor old Carlyle last night. Froude?s case is curious. He expresses & I think, really feels, veneration & so forth; but there is something curiously complicated about the man wh. I have not yet found a name for. I think that he is rather a coward & likes snarling from behind Carlyle?s back. Luckily I have not to review him!?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Sir Alfred Lyall : Eastern Studies, The

'Do you know his [Sir Alfred Lyall's] books? The "Eastern Studies" is, I think, the most interesting work of the kind that I have ever read. It explains from actual observation how gods are born in India at the present day; how they get promotion, if they have luck in the miraculous line of business & so forth.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Sir Alfred Lyall : Verses written in India

?His [Sir Alfred Lyall] little volume of poems too is very good in its way. When I came back from America last time, I made a reputation on board by reciting one of the poems ? Theology in Extremis ? at a sort of penny reading? I have never been the object of so many attentions before or since and gave my autograph to a dozen ladies. Independent of that, Lyall is a man worth knowing & unluckily so popular in society that I don?t often get a chance of seeing him.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Sir Alfred Lyall : Verses written in India

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

A. J. Balfour : Foundations of Belief

?I have read two books lately wh. interested me. One for wh. you will not care is a history of English law down to the time of Edward I by F. W. Maitland?. The other book is A. J. Balfour?s Foundations of Belief, wh. are, I think about the very oddest foundations that any man ever tried to lay ? being chiefly reasons for believing nothing. I preached a kind of sermon about it to the Ethical Society here; taking his arguments & working out their proper result. It will, I believe, appear in the Fortnightly for June; but it is not worth taking the trouble to read.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

?Another book, by the way, worth a glance is a collection of old S. T. Coleridge?s letters. I have had to write the beggar?s life & have a rather morbid familiarity with his history wh. makes me appreciate better than some people his amazing wriggling & self-reproaches & astonishing pouring out of unctuous twaddlings. After all Carlyle?s portrait of him has done the thing unsurpassably well & it is impossible to add much to it. But there are some delicious bits in this.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

F W Maitland : History of English Law

?I have read your history; and when I say ?read? I mean that I have turned over the pages and read all such parts as were apparently on a level with my comprehension?I found a great deal that interested me very much. ?I could only read, as a rule, in all humility accompanied by constant admiration.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

John Robert Seeley : Ecce Homo: a survey of the life and work of Jesus Christ

?In your last ? letter you spoke very highly of Ecce Homo. To say the truth I don?t agree in your estimate ? partly because the book seemed to me to be feeble rhetorically, but partly, it may be, from another cause. I cannot look upon theological dogmas with the same kind of indifference that you do. ? Now ?Ecce Homo? may be amiable & enthusiastic & all that; but in a theological point of view, it is to me hateful. It is a feeble attempt to make sentimental oratory do the work of logic, & to supersede all criticism by a sort of a priori gush of enthusiasm.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : article on Victor Hugo

?I have read with great interest your article on Victor Hugo & also that which appeared in the last number of Macmillan. I shall be happy to accept Hugo & if I have been rather long in answering you, it is only because I wished to give a second reading to the article? I think very highly of the promise shown in your writing & therefore think it worth while to write more fully than I often do to contributors.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical

Sir William Jones : Asiatic Miscellany. pieces and extracts from various publications consisting of translations, fugitive pieces

then pitied me [my father] for the ten-mile stage I had to go alone, but I did not pity myself, for I had Sir William Jones's and Sir William Chambers's Asiatic Miscellany. the metaphysical poetry of India, however, it is not to my taste."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : English Bards and Scotch Reviwers: a satire

'I do not like Lord Byron's English Bards and Scotch reviewers, though, as my father says, the lines are very strong and worthy of Pope and the Dunciad! But I was so much prejudiced against the whole by the first lines I opened upon about the 'paralytic muse' of the man who had been his guardian and is his relation and to whom he had dedicated his first poems, that I could not relish his wit. He may have great talents, but I am sure he has neither a great not good mind; and I feel dislike and disgust for his Lordship.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book

Richard Lalor Sheil : The Apostate: a tragedy in five acts

?Upon the whole, this play with the powerful assistance of eminent actors and scenical illusion and burning palaces, and processions with towers of the Inquisition in perspective and Moors who preach the Gospel to Christians just as they are going to be burnt for not believing it and half mad, half poisoned heroines who visit their lovers in dungeons with wreaths of flowers on their heads, may produce an effect on the stage ? but what effect will it produce in the closet??

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Maturin Print: Book

Matthew Gregory Lewis : The Monk

?The most extraordinary production of this period was the powerful and wicked romance of The Monk.?

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Maturin Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

?But Lord Byron ? he must write with great ease and rapidity.? ?That I don?t know. I could never finish the perusal of any of his long poems. There is something in them excessively at variance with my notions of poetry. He is too fond of the obsolete? It is a sort of a mixed mode, neither old nor new, but incessantly hovering between both.? ?What do you think of Childe Harold?? ?I do not know what to think of it; nor can I give you definitely my reasons for disliking his poems generally.?

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Maturin Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Christabel and Other Poems

??Coleridge, who, en parenthesis, he disliked for a merciless attack on his tragedy. Which the ill success of the ?Remorse? had incited; and he had prepared a retaliation in the pages of ?Colburn?s Magazine? which I read in manuscript ? a review of ?Christabel?, but which I do not remember to have seen published.?

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Maturin Print: Book

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne : Essays

The seventeenth-century waterman-poet John Taylor had read More's Utopia, Plato's Republic, Montaigne, and Cervantes in translation, but he never mastered a foreign language and he relentlessly satirised latinate prose: I ne'er used Accidence so much as now, Nor all these Latin words here interlaced I do not know if they with sense are placed, I in the book did find them".'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: John Taylor Print: Book

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel : Riddle of the Universe

In the public library [Manny Shinwell] doggedly tackled volumes "whose contents I usually failed to understand": Paley's Evidences of Christianity, Haeckel's Riddle of the Universe, Herbert Spencer's Sociology, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Shinwell's whole intellectual career was an exciting but laborious exercise in decoding. All his life he used a dictionary to correct his pronunciation'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Emmanuel Shinwell (later Baron Shinwell) Print: Book

James Sheridan Knowles : Virginius

?In May 1820 Sheridan Knowles produced ?Virginius?. The extraordinary success of that play naturally excited Maturin?s curiosity, and he was impatient to read it. ? When ?Virginius? was first published, a friend of Maturin?s purchased a copy, with which he was so pleased that it always lay on his table and he constantly devoted hours of relaxation to its perusal.?

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Robert Maturin Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : complete works to 1820

?Of Sir Walter Scott I have heard Maturin speak in terms of rapture. He considered his extraordinary productions the greatest efforts of human genius, and often said that in the poetry of universal nature he considered him equal to Shakespeare. So sensibly imbued was he with the characteristics of those magic fictions, that he apprehended the publication of an intentional imitation of Ivanhoe. I believe the public however never perceived any imitation beyond that into which every novelist falls who happens to write after Sir Walter.?

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Robert Maturin Print: Book

Alfred Edward Housman :

'While his widowed mother... worked a market stall, Ralph Finn scrambled up the scholarship ladder to Oxford University. He credited his success largely to his English master at Davenant Foundation School: "When I was an East End boy searching for beauty, hardly knowing what I was searching for, fighting against all sorts of bad beginnings and unrewarding examples, he more than anyone taught me to love our tremndous heritage of English language and literature". And Finnn never doubted that it was HIS heritage: "My friends and companions Tennyson, Browning, Keats, Shakespeare, Francis Thompson, Donne, Housman, the Rosettis. All as alive to me as thought they had been members of my family". After all, as he was surprised and pleased to discover, F.T. Palgrave (whose Golden Treasury he knew thoroughly) was part-Jewish'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ralph Finn Print: Book

Dante Gabriel Rossetti :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ralph Finn Print: Book

Francis Turner Palgrave : Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ralph Finn Print: Book

Henry David Thoreau :

[Bill Naughton was hurt that when he applied for conscientious objector status the tribunal was suspicious of his elevated vocabulary] '"I couldn't help feeling hurt", Naughton recalled, "that they should deny one the right to use the English language". That hit both ethnic and class nerves: he had been born in County Mayo of peasant stock. At any rate, he was using the language to read Locke, Nietzsche, Thoreau, Schopenhauer, Marx and The Faerie Queene. They were not easy to decipher at first, but as he pieced together an understanding of what he was reading, he became more critical and less deferential...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Bill Naughton Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : The History of England from the Accession of James II

[D.R. Davies was inspired by his school teacher] 'to read Macaulay's History of England before his twelfth birthday'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: D.R. Davies Print: Book

John Stuart Mill :

'[Davies said] "Before I was twelve I had developed an appreciation of good prose, and the Bible created in me a zest for literature", propelling him directly to Lamb, Hazlitt's Essays and Ruskin's The Crown of Wild Olives. Later... he joined the library committee of the Miners' Institute in Maesteg, made friends with the librarian, and advised him on acquisitions. Thus he could read all the books he wanted: Marx, Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Marshall, economic and trade union history, Fabian Essays, Thomas Hardy, Meredith, Kipling and Dickens'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: D.R. Davies Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Fabian Essays

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: D.R. Davies Print: Book

Charles Robert Dallas : History of the Maroons, from their origin to the establishment of their chief tribe at Sierra Leone...

?I have some idea of writing in the intervals of my severer studies for professional education, a comedy for my father?s birthday, but I shall do it up in my own room, and shall not produce it until it is finished. I found the first hint of it in the strangest place that anybody could invent, for it was in Dallas?s History of the Maroons, and you may read the book to find out, and ten to one you miss it. ? pray read the book, for it is extremely interesting and entertaining.?

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book

Maxmillian de Bethune Sully : Memoirs

?Now I do not know what you imagined in reading Sully?s Memoirs, but I always imagined the Arsenal was one large building, with a fa?ade to it like a very large hotel or a palace, and I fancied it was somewhere in the middle of Paris. On the contrary, it is quite in the suburbs.?

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book

Stephanie Felicite de Genlis (Comtesse) : Mademoiselle de Clermont

?We saw today the residence of the Prince de Cond? - and of a long line of princes famous for virtue and talents ? the celebrated palace of Chantilly, made still more interesting to us by having just read the beautiful tale by Madame de Genlis ?Mademoiselle de Clermont?; it would delight my dear Aunt Mary, it is to be had in the first volume of the Petits Romans??

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book

Marie-Jeanne Philipon Roland de la Platiere : Memoirs

'You do not mention Madame Roland, therefore I am not sure whether you have read her; if you have only read her in the translation which talks of her uncle Bimont's dying of a fit of the gout translated to his chest, you have done her injustice. We think some of her Memoirs beautifully written and like Rousseau; she was a great woman and died heroically. I think if I had been Mons Roland I should not have shot myself for her sake.'

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book

M R Milford :

8/1/1827 ? ?Finished M. R. Milford?s pretty book, and write out my new fable.?

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Amelia Opie Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan :

'As a collier [Joseph Keating]... heard a co-worker sigh, "Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate". Keating was stunned: "You are quoting Pope". "Ayh", replied his companion, "me and Pope do agree very well". Keating had himself been reading Pope, Fielding, Smollett, Goldsmith and Richardson in poorly printed paperbacks. Later he was reassigned to a less demanding job at a riverside colliery pumping station, which allowed him time to tackle Swift, Sheridan, Byron, Keats, Shelley and Thackeray'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]

'As a collier [Joseph Keating]... heard a co-worker sigh, "Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate". Keating was stunned: "You are quoting Pope". "Ayh", replied his companion, "me and Pope do agree very well". Keating had himself been reading Pope, Fielding, Smollett, Goldsmith and Richarson in poorly printed paperbacks. Later he was reassigned to a less demanding job at a riverside colliery pumping station, which allowed him time to tackle Swift, Sheridan, Byron, Keats, Shelley and Thackeray'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book

Louise Philippe Segur : Memoirs and Recollections

21/8/1829 ? 'The General gave us an account of the early years of the [French] revolution, the other gentlemen assisting. The evening ended only too soon, but I read in my own room the M?moirs of S?gur, and with a curious feeling lay down, knowing I should see Lafayette next day!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Amelia Opie Print: Book

Algernon Charles Swinburne :

'Wil John Edwards...pursued Gibbon, Hardy, Swinburne and Meredith. His reading was suggested by the literary pages of the Clarion, the librarian at the Miners' Institute (who directed him to Don Quixote) and [guidance from fellow pit workers].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wil John Edwards Print: Book

Herbert George Wells :

'Percy Wall described his [colliery] institute as a "blatantly utilitarian" building with a "square cemented front" and a "drab, poorly lit" reading room, but it offered a wonderful escape from a dull Welsh village: "I could view the future through the words of H.G. Wells, participate in the elucidation of mysteries with Sherlock Holmes,... or penetrate darkest Africa with Rider Haggard as my guide. I could laugh at the comic frustrations of coaster seaman or bargee at the call of W.A. Jacobs. What a gloriously rich age it was for the storyteller!... When the stories palled there was always the illustrated weeklies with their pictures of people and conditions remote from my personal experience... I could laugh with Punch or Truth, although some of the humour was much too subtle for my limited education. Above all I could study the Review of Reviews and learn therein the complexities of foreign affairs.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Book

Arthur Conan Doyle : [Sherlock Holmes Stories]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Book

Henry Rider Haggard : [African stories]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Book

William Wymark Jacobs :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw :

'[During the Great Depression] "Thousands used the Public Library for the first time", recalled itinerant labourer John Brown, who read Shaw, Marx, Engels, and classic literature until he exhausted his South Shields library.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Brown Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau :

'[Jack Ashley] was less prepared for Ruskin [College] than most of the students, having read only two books since leaving school: Jack London's The Iron Heel and the regulations of the Widnes Town Council. But principal Lionel Elvin "appreciated the profound dificulties facing working class students": "When I stumbled through the intricacies of the political theories of Marx, Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke and T.H. Green, he marked my work frankly yet gave encouragement... He was an excellent teacher, genuinely interested in discussing ideas and persuading students to express their own"

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Jack Ashley Print: Book

Thomas Hill Green :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Jack Ashley Print: Book

John Maynard Keynes :

'Attending Oxford on a Cassel scholarship, John Allaway found that his WEA training, far from fitting him into a university mold, enabled him to criticize the conventional curriculum. Assigned the orthodox economics texts of Alfred Marshall, he read them "with deep suspicion" and made a point of going beyond the set books to study J.A. Hobson, Henry George, Hugh Dalton, and John Maynard Keynes'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Allaway Print: Book

Mme de Genlis :

?At home, she read with her mother, from Madame de Genlis and from William Hayley.?

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Amelia Opie Print: Book

Robert and Charlotte Southey and Bronte : letters

Charlotte Bronte to Charles Cuthbert Southey, 26 August 1850, regarding possible publication of letters between herself and Robert Southey: 'I have now read them and feel that -- truly wise and kind as they are -- they ought to be published ...'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Manuscript: Letter

Edgar Allan Poe :

'Next to Robinson Crusoe, Rider liked the Arabian Nights, The Three Musketeers and the poems of Edgar Allan Poe and Macaulay. His two favourite novels were Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities and The Coming Race, a fantasy novel by Bulwer Lytton (the uncle of Sir Henry Bulwer, a Norfolk neighbour and friend of Squire Haggard who was to play a decisive part in Rider's life).'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Rider Haggard Print: Book

Edward George Earl Bulwer Lytton : The Coming Race

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Rider Haggard Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Rider Haggard Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw :

'[Helen Crawfurd] derived lessons in socialism and feminism from Carlyle, Shaw, Wells, Galsworthy, Arnold Bennett, Ibsen's Ghosts and A Doll's House, Dickens, Disraeli's Sybil, Mary Barton, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Under the Greenwood Tree, Tennyson's The Princess, Longfellow, Whitman, Burns, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, George Sand, the Brontes, Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Crawfurd Print: Book

Herbert George Wells :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Crawfurd Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Crawfurd Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Crawfurd Print: Book

George (Amantine Lucille Aurore) Sand (Dupin) :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Crawfurd Print: Book

Charlotte /Emily/ Anne Bronte :

'[Helen Crawfurd] derived lessons in socialism and feminism from Carlyle, Shaw, Wells, Galsworthy, Arnold Bennett, Ibsen's Ghosts and A Doll's House, Dickens, Disraeli's Sybil, Mary Barton, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Under the Greenwood Tree, Tennyson's The Princess, Longfellow, Whitman, Burns, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, George SAnd, the Brontes, Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Crawfurd Print: Book

Wililam Makepeace Thackeray :

Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 11 December 1847: 'Mr Thackeray is a keen, ruthless satirist -- I have never perused his writings but with blended feelings of admiration and indignation ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : letter

Charlotte Bronte to G. H. Lewes, 12 January 1848: 'What induced you to say that you would rather have written "Pride & Prejudice" or "Tom Jones" than any of the Waverley novels? I had not seen "Pride & Prejudice" till I read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book and studied it. And what did I find? An accurate daguerrotyped portrait of a common-place face ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Manuscript: Letter

Eliza Lynn Linton : story in New Monthly Magazine

Charlotte Bronte to G. H. Lewes, 18 January 1848: 'I have not read "Azeth", but I did read or begin to read a tale in the "New Monthly" from the same pen, and ... must cordially avow that I thought it both turgid and feeble ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Serial / periodical

George Henry Lewes : Review of Charlotte Bronte, Shirley

Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 10 January 1850: 'I have received and perused the "Edinburgh Review" [containing negative review of "Shirley" by her friend G. H. Lewes] -- it is very brutal and savage. I am not angry with Lewes -- but I wish in future he would let me alone -- and not write again what makes me feel so cold and sick as I am feeling just now --'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Serial / periodical

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley : Life of Dr Arnold

Charlotte Bronte to James Taylor, 6 November 1850: 'I have just finished reading the "Life of Dr Arnold", but now when I wish -- in accordance with your request -- to express what I think of it -- I do not find the task very easy -- proper terms seem wanting ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book

Harriet and H. G. Martineau and Atkinson : Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development

Charlotte Bronte to James Taylor, 1 February 1851: 'Have you yet read Miss Martineau's and Mr Atkinson's new work "Letters on the Nature and Development of Man?" ... It is the first exposition of avowed Atheism and Materialism I have ever read ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The History of Henry Esmond (volume I)

Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 14 February 1852, after having been lent the first volume of W. M. Thackeray, "Henry Esmond", in manuscript by her publishers: 'It has been a great delight to me to read Mr Thackeray's manuscript ... you must permit me ... to thank you for a pleasure so rare and special ... In the first half of the work what chiefly struck me was the wonderful manner in which the author throws himself into the spirit and letter of the times wherof he treats ... As usual -- he is unjust to women ...Many other things I noticed that -- for my part -- grieved and esxasperated me as I read -- but then again came passages so deeply thought -- so tenderly felt -- one could not help forgiving and admiring.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Manuscript: Unknown

William Makepeace Thackeray : Lectures

Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, May 1853: 'The "Lectures" arrived safely; I have read them through twice. They must be studied to be appreciated ... I was present at the Fielding lecture ... That Thackeray was wrong in his way of treating Fielding's character and vices -- my conscience told me. After reading that lecture -- I trebly feel that he was wrong ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book

Talbot Baines Reed : The Fifth Form at St Dominic's

'After Dennis Marsden won an exhibition to St Catherine's College, Cambridge his parents, solid Labour supporters, "found supreme happiness sitting on the Backs looking over the river and towards King's College. For my father, Lord Maulever (of Billy Bunter and the Magnet) might have walked that lawn; Tom Brown must have been there, and the Fifth Form from St Dominic's. He had read The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green at Oxford, and saw that I had a "gyp" (as Verdant Green had a "scout"). He imagined how my gyp would shakes his head and say (as Verdant Green's scout always said), "College Gents will do anything". All I could say... couldn't convince my parents that that powerful Cambridge image of my father's schoolboy reading wasn't my Cambridge".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse : [short school story]

'Walter Citrine won, as a Sunday School prize, a volume of school stories from the Captain, including one by P.G. Wodehouse. "The lady who gave this prize awakened in me a thirst for good literature", eventually leading to the works of Karl Marx and his followers'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Citrine Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : [unknown]

'George Scott left school and the boys' weeklies behind at fifteen: in barely a year he had absorbed enough Shaw, Wells, Dos Passos and (secondhand) Marx to lecture his parents on the evils of capitalism'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Scott Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Scott Print: Book

John Rodrigo Dos Passos : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Scott Print: Book

Talbot Baines Reed : [school stories]

'Hymie Fagan, an East End Jewish Communist, picked up public school ethics from the Gem, the Magnet and the stories of Talbot Baines Reed. He once declined to run in an athletics event because "It seemed to me, under the influence of the boys' books I had read, that it was dishonourable to run for money".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hymie Fagan Print: Book

George Alfred Henty : [novels]

'As a boy Percy Wall adored the "Magnet", the "Boy's Own Paper", and G.A. Henty novels... [Later] While he read Henty for enjoyment, he studied the "Clarion", the "Freethinker", "The Struggle of the Bulgarians for Independence" and "The Philippine Martyrs" for their politics, and did not allow one body of literature to affect the other'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (pen name? in any case, not the 18th c playwright) : The Filipino Martyrs

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall Print: Book

Elizabeth and Richard Griffith : A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances

'In 1768, Burney read in rapid succession Elizabeth and Richard Griffith's "A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances" (1757) ... Oliver Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766); and Samuel Johnson's "Rasselas" (1759).'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney Print: Book

H. Rider Haggard : [unknown]

'It is equally possible for the same reader to adopt different frames for the same story, relishing it on one level while seeing through the claptrap on another. In his youth Aneurin Bevan enjoyed the Magnet and Gem surreptitiously (his father forbade them) and devoured H. Rider Haggard at the Tredegar Workmen's Institute Library. But during the 'Phoney War' he lambasted the government's stupidly optimistic predictions in precisely the same terms: "Immediately on the outbreak of war, England was given over to the mental level of the Boys' Own Paper and the Magnet..." In 1944 Bevan freely admitted that "William le Queux, John Buchan and Phillips Oppenheim have always been favourites of ours in our off-moments. Part of their charm lies in their juvenile attitude".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Aneurin Bevan Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [unknown]

'No national commentator sympathised with working-class culture so well as Wilfred Pickles, BBC newsreader and stonemason's son. But even he admitted that the hours he spent in the public library, reading Shelley, Keats, Shaw and Galsworthy, represented a desperate breakout from the stultifying provincialism of his native Halifax.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Pickles Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Pickles Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : [unknown]

'James Hanley's workmates laughed when he taught himself French by reading the Mercure de France...Working the night shift at a railway station, Hanley withdrew into the work of Moliere, Hauptmann, Calderon, Sudermann, Ibsen, Lie and Strindberg until he grew quite cozy in his literary shell. His parents were appalled that he had no friends. But I've hundreds of friends he protested. "Bazarov and Rudin and Liza and Sancho Panza and Eugenie Grandet". His father countered with Squeers, Nickleby, Snodgrass and Little Nell: "And they're a healthy lot I might say, whereas all your friends have either got consumption, or are always in the dumps".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hanley Print: Book

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev : Fathers and Sons

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hanley Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Belzoni : Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia, &c.

'Flora Thompson's village school had no geography books and no formal instruction in geography or history, other than readers offering stock tales about King Alfred and the cakes and King Canute ordering the tide to retreat... her Royal Reader offered thrilling depictions of the Himalayas, the Andes, Greenland, the Amazon, Hudson's Bay and the South Pacific, as well as scenes from Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper. She also remembered borrowing a decrepit copy of Belzoni's Travels and enjoying intensely the excursion through Egyptian archaeology. But she was an unusually self-motivated reader: her less-educated neighbours were only hazily aware of the existence of Oxford, just nineteen miles away.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Book

Frederick W. Farrar : [St Winifred's School Stories]

[Harry Burton recalled' "we wallowed in Eric and St Winifred's and other school stories, especially Talbot Baines Reed's"...[Burton] like other working class children preferred Frank Richards to Empire Day, simply because the former was a more reliable guide to the reality he knew'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Harry Burton Print: Book

Talbot Baines Reed : [School Stories]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Harry Burton Print: Book

Joris Karl Huysmans : Les Soeurs Vatards

'A more recent influence was Huysmans' "Les Soeurs Vatards", a novel about artisan life in a lace-maker's atelier in Paris, which he read with great admiration in March 1907, and which he admired for its uncompromising realism . . .'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Ann Veronica

'Bennett had read "Ann Veronica", which Wells had sent him that October with an inscription "The Young Mistress's Tale, to Arnold B. with love from his nephew H.G.": he hadn't been over-impressed with it, surprisingly, perhaps.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan :

'Pupils at Queen's College remembered the puritanical standards imposed by Owen Breen, English and Elocution Professor there in the 1890s. L. V. Hodson notes that when reading Sheridan in his classes, they first had to take a pencil and cross out all the expletives ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: English class, Queen's College Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Essays

'Girls in the top forms [at Roedean] were allowed to read ... in a small school library ... but ... [Margaret Cole] forfeited that privilege when a sub-prefect reported her for reading Macaulay's "Essays" during preparation time ...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Cole Print: Book

Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler : The Farringdons

'[In The Saturday Review, 19 November 1904], "A Mother" records the books consumed since July by her sixteen-year-old daughter ... [who is] on the point of going in for the "Senior Cambridge" ... : "Old Mortality", "The Farringdons", "By Mutual Consent" (L. T. Meade), "To Call Her Mine", "Kathrine Regina", and "Self or Bearer" (Besant); "Christmas Carol", "The Cricket on the Hearth", "Hypatia", "Concerning Isabel Carnaby", "The Virginians", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Head of the House" (E. Everett-Green), "A Double Thread", "The Heir-Presumptive and the Heir-Apparent", "Sesame and Lilies", "A Tale of Two Cities".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

L. T. Meade : By Mutual Consent

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler : Concerning Isabel Carnaby

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Virginians

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : Fairy Tales

'One of the daughters of Florence Barclay, a writer of popular fiction ... recounts how her mother used, in the 1880s, to read aloud to them a great deal: Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales, children's books like "Little Lord Fauntleroy" and "The Little Duke" [as well as Scott] ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Barclay Print: Book

Frances Hodgson Burnett : Little Lord Fauntleroy

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Barclay Print: Book

Charlotte Mary Yonge : The Little Duke

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Barclay Print: Book

William B Carpenter : Principles of Mental Physiology

'Lillian Faithfull (b. c.1860) recalls her mother reading widely and thoroughly, making careful annotations, no day being considered satisfactory without its quota of what was known as "solid reading". Carpenter's "Mental Physiology", H. T. Buckle's "History of Civilisation", and John Seeley's "Ecce Homo" remained in Faithfull's memory as beng among the books with which they battled together ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lillian Faithfull and mother Print: Book

H. T. Buckle : History of Civilisation

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lillian Faithfull and mother Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :

'Lucy Cavendish's diary, kept both before and after her marriage, provides one of the fullest accounts we have of the day-to-day reading of a Victorian girl and woman. It ranges from gift books ... bowdlerized Shakespeare, Longfellow, and Scott when she was still in the schoolroom, to the combination of religious debate, historical studies, and modern novels which characterised the literary consumption of her adult life.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Lyttelton Print: Unknown

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Aurora Leigh

'A letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabel Barrett tells of a sixty-year-old woman who believed that her morals had been injured by reading "Aurora Leigh" ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

' ...[Lady Frances Balfour] was forbidden to read the second volume of ... [Uncle Tom's Cabin] "but human nature cannot be denied, and of course I read it" ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Frances Balfour Print: Book

Dante Gabriel Rossetti : poems including Jenny

"Forbidden David Copperfield, Bleak House, The Heart of Midlothian, and The Vicar of Wakefield ... [H. M. Swanwick] read them none the less ... When she was lent Dante Gabriel Rosetti's poems by a friend, 'Jenny' ... came as a welcome antidote [to Dickens's and Scott's treatments of fallen women]."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: H. M. Swanwick Print: Book

Edgar Allen Poe :

"Laura Knight, in 1899, was mystified by being forbidden Foxe's Books of Martyrs ... having been used to enjoying Edgar Allen Poe, the more gruesome parts of the Ingoldsby Legends, and the Boys' Own Paper, bought with her weekly penny for helping with the housework."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Laura Knight Print: Book

H. G. Wells : New Machiavelli, The

'In January he had read Wells's 'The New Machieavelli' . . .[sic]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : Autobiography

Deborah Epstein Nord, The Apprenticeship of Beatrice Webb (1985) noted as "especially interesting ... in its discussion of Webb's ... reading of autobiographies (such as John Stuart Mill's Autobiography, Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, George Sand's Histoire de ma vie, and Wordsworth's Prelude ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Beatrice Webb Print: Book

Sir William Jones : Institutes of Menu

"... [the young Frances Power Cobbe] ... read, in what translations were ... accessible, in Eastern sacred philosophy, such as Anquetil du Perron's Zend Avesta, and Sir William Jones's Institutes of Menu, and found out as much as she could about the Greek and Alexandrian philosophers from Diogenes Laertius and the old translators, as well as from a large Biographical Dictionary."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Power Cobbe Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

"... by August [1840] ... [Anne Jemima Clough admits in journal] doing 'one bad thing' (which turns out to be reading Byron's 'The Corsair') ..."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Jemima Clough Print: Book

J. A. Froude : History of England

"At home, after leaving school in 1857 ... [Louisa Martindale's] reading was, at first, chiefly the Bible. On 16 September she started to take Fraser's Magazine, and her diary becomes full of references to this, and to articles in the Times on subjects as diverse as Fortification and The War in New Zealand. She read, and was charmed by, Symington on architecture, sculpture, and painting ... Further books which she read included Froude's History of England ... The Bible and Modern Thought, Butler's Analogy, Memorials of Fox, Bancroft's American Revolution, Rollin's Ancient History, Waddington's Church History, the Works of Paley, Locke on the Human Understanding, and Mrs Jameson's Characteristics of Women."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa Martindale Print: Book

Sir James George Frazer : The Golden Bough

Early reading of Joan Evans noted as having included Salomon Reinach, Orpheus: A History of Religions; Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion; Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, and Frazer, The Golden Bough.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joan Evans Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron :

" ... Elizabeth Sewell's consumption of 'modern' works in the late 1820s and 1830s, she records [in her autobiography], specifically mentioning Scott and Byron, led to worry and 'hysteria' based on the feeling that it would be pleasant to have someone caring for her. She had not yet learnt, she claims, the joy that comes through caring for others."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book

J. A. Hobson : The Science of Wealth

'... [Margaret Cole's] reading at Girton in the early twentieth century influenced her development as a Socialist ... she was shocked by a comment in J. A. Hobson's "The Science of Wealth" to the effect that a certain number of wageless unemployed was a necessary condition of capitalist industry ... "In this mood of altruistic indignation I picked up H. G. Wells's "New Worlds for Old" -- under the misapprehension that it was another scientific romance like "The First Men in the Moon", which had fascinated me years before -- and tumbled straight into Socialism overnight".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Cole Print: Book

H. G. Wells : New Worlds for Old

"... [Margaret Cole's] reading at Girton in the early twentieth century influenced her development as a Socialist ... she was shocked by a comment in J. A. Hobson's The Science of Wealth to the effect that a certain number of wageless unemployed was a necessary condition of capitalist industry ... 'In this mood of altruistic indignation I picked up H. G. Wells's New Worlds for Old -- under the misapprehension that it was another scientific romance like The First Men in the Moon, which had fascinated me years before -- and tumbled straight into Socialism overnight'."

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Cole Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The First Men in the Moon

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Cole Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw :

"[in her autobiography Growing up Into Revolution (1949), Margaret Cole] conveys the combination of amusement and delight she and her companions experienced reading Shaw ..."

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Cole and Girton contemporaries Print: Unknown

T. H. Huxley :

"Ellen Wilkinson, brought up in Ardwick, Manchester, went with her father to lectures on theological and evolutionary subjects, and by the time she was fourteen was reading Haeckel, Huxley and Darwin with him."

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Wilkinson and father Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

"Emmeline Pankhurst (b. 1858) emphasized the value of her childhood reading in forming her guiding principles. Uncle Tom's Cabin fused with talk of bazaars, relief funds, and subscriptions in her Manchester home to awaken first an admiration for fighting spirit and heroic sacrifice, and then an appreciation of a gentler, restorative spirit ... other favourite childhood books which remained a lifelong source of inspiration ... [were]: Pilgrim's Progress and The Holy War, the Odyssey, and Carlyle's French Revolution. Her interest in politics she traced to reading the paper aloud to her father."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emmeline Pankhurst Print: Book

Dr John Gregory : A Father's Legacy to his Daughters

"Doctor Gregory's Book was published at Edin [r] just two Days before I left that Place...I read it, tho butin the hurried Way which the Eve of Journey allowed of...I also think that the Publication of it, when one considers that the young Ladies to whom it is address'd are alive & unmarried, is liable to Objection..."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Mackenzie Print: Book

William M. Thayer : From Log Cabin to White House

'The celebrated singer Sir Harry Lauder, when he was still a mineworker, acquired a fair knowledge of American history: "George Washington and Abraham Lincoln ranked second only in my estimation to Robert Burns and Walter Scott. One of his ...favourite books was a popular biography of James Garfield, From Log Cabin to White House.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harry Lauder Print: Book

Louisa May Alcott : Little Women

'Mary Lakeman, a Cornish fisherman's daughter, confirmed what George Orwell had written in "Riding Down from Bangor": "Little Women", "Good Wives", "What Katy Did", "Avonlea", "Tom Sawyer", "Huckleberry Finn", and "The Last of the Mohicans" all created a romantic childhood vision of unlimited freedom and open space. "For me Jo, Beth and Laurie are right at the heart of a permanent unalterable American scene", she wrote, "and I can turn on Louisa M. Alcott and others so powerfully that Nixon and Watergate are completely blacked out"'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Lakeman Print: Book

Louisa May Alcott : Good Wives

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Lakeman Print: Book

Susan M. Coolidge : What Katy Did

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Lakeman Print: Book

Lucy Maud Montgomery : Anne of Avonlea

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Lakeman Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : The Last of the Mohicans

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Lakeman Print: Book

Anne Louise Stael-Holstein : Corinna, or Italy

[review of the novel. Noted but not reproduced by the editor]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope : Letters written by the Late Right Honourable Phili

'Books lately read' Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his son, 4 vols. It has been said of these letters... The first and 2nd vols appear to me unexceptionable. Of the others, I cannot say so much, there is a degree of libertinism expressed...

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

By the Editor of the Letters of Maria : Windermere. A Novel

Windermere: A Novel in 2 vols This is below Mediocrity; the title [title is underlined]induced me to read it; and with the title I am satisfied-and disappointed.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

Stephanie de Genlis Brulart : Lessons of a Governess to Her Pupils

Lessons of a Governess to her Pupils by Madame de Silery- Brulart (formerly Countess de Genlis) 3 vols. For further remarks see page 11th.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

Anna Maria Porter : Lake of Killarney

Lake of Killarney, by A.M. Porter. 3 vols. Rose de Blaguere, a foundling, is the heroine of the tale. Mr Clermont the hero. Mr O'Neil and his maiden sister bring up Rose, whom they found left at their door and who eventually proves to be the daughter of the haughty Countess Dunallen by a first and private marriage... [Editor has not reproduced the rest].

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

Miss Elizabeth Hamilton : The Cottagers of Glenburnie: A Tale for the Farmer

The Cottagers of Glenburnie. 1 vol. by Miss Hamilton. A little tale tending to shew the folly of adhering to old customs merely because they have been habitual for many generations, particularlythe scottish tenacity, indolence, and want of cleanliness in their houses and about their farms. The tale is told in such a manner as scarcely to offend even a scotchman, and may very probably have some influence in effecting a reformation.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw :

'"[Penny dreadfuls] were thrilling, absolutely without sex interest, and of a high moral standard", explained London hatmaker Frederick Willis. "No boy would be any the worse for reading them and in many cases they encouraged and developed a love of reading that led him onwards and upwards on the fascinating path of literature. It was the beloved 'bloods' that first stimulated my love of reading, and from them I set out on the road to Shaw and Wells, Thackeray and Dickens, Fielding, Shakespeare and Chaucer".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick Willis Print: Book

Herbert George Wells :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick Willis Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick Willis Print: Book

John Lothrop Motley : The Rise of the Dutch Republic

'Barber John Paton remembered that the "Boys' Friend" "ran a serial which was an enormously exciting tale of Alba's oppression of the Netherlands, and gave as its source, 'Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic'". He borrowed it from the public library and, with guidance from a helpful adult, also read J.R. Green, Macaulay, Prescott, Grote, and even Mommsen's multi-volume History of Rome by age fourteen. "There must have been, of course, enormous gaps in my understanding of what I poured into the rag bag that was my mind, particularly from the bigger works," he conceded, "but at least I sensed the important thing, the immense sweep and variety and the continuity of the historical process".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Paton Print: Book

John Richard Green : [history]

'Barber John Paton remembered that the "Boys' Friend" "ran a serial which was an enormously exciting tale of Alba's oppression of the Netherlands, and gave as its source, Motley's 'Rise of the Dutch Republic'". He borrowed it from the public library and, with guidance from a helpful adult, also read J.R. Green, Macaulay, Prescott, Grote, and even Mommsen's multi-volume History of Rome by age fourteen. "There must have been, of course, enormous gaps in my understanding of what I poured into the rag bag that was my mind, particularly from the bigger works," he conceded, "but at least I sensed the important thing, the immense sweep and variety and the continuity of the historical process".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Paton Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : [probably The History of England from the Accession of James II]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Paton Print: Book

William Hickling Prescott : [Spanish history]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Paton Print: Book

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen : History of Rome

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Paton Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : The Last of the Mohicans

'East End socialist Walter Southgate remembered that Dick Turpin and Buffalo Bill stories "were condemned by our teachers (all from middle class backgrounds) who would confiscate them", but he appreciated the generic similarities to "Robinson Crusoe", the Waverley novels and "The Last of the Mohicans".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Southgate Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

'As a boy George Acorn [an] East Londoner, read "all sorts and conditions of books from 'Penny Bloods' to George Eliot" with "some appreciation of style", enough to recognise the affinities of high and low literature. Thus he discerningly characterised "Treasure Island" as "the usual penny blood sort of story, with the halo of greatness about it".'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Acorn Print: Book

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller :

'Weaver-novelist William Holt extolled the standard greats ("Noble Carlyle; virtuous Tolstoi; wise Bacon; jolly Rabelais; towering Plato...") and, having taught himself German, memorized Schiller while working at the looms. But he did not limit himself to classics: "I read omnivorously, greedily, promiscuously", from dime novels and G.A. Henty to Hardy and Conrad. Holt disparaged popular authors such as Ethel M. Dell and Elinor Glyn for "peddling vulgar narcotics", yet he was closely attuned to the mass reading public. His own autobiography sold a quarter of a million copes and he once owned a fleet of bookmobiles. He reconciled taste with populism through this logic: though most readers consume a certain amount of junk, it does them no harm because they recognize it as junk'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Holt Print: Book

George Alfred Henty :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Holt Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron :

'Lancashire millworker Ben Brierley read penny fairy tales and horror stories as a boy, but they did not contribute to his work as a dialect poet: "I must confess that my soul did not feel much lifted by the only class of reading then within my reach. It was not until I joined the companionship of Burns and Byron that I felt 'the god within me'".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ben Brierley Print: Book

Edward George, Earl Bulwer Lytton : [unknown]

'[Edwin] Whitlock... borrowed books from a schoolmaster and from neighbours: "Most of them would now be considered very heavy literature for a boy of fourteen or fifteen, but I didn't know that, for I had no light literature for comparison. I read most of the novels of Dickens, Scott, Lytton and Mrs Henry Wood, 'The Pilgrim's Progress' and 'The Holy War' - an illustrated guide to Biblical Palestine, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', several bound volumes of religious magazines, 'The Adventures of a Penny', and sundry similar classics". With few books competing for his attention, he could freely concentrate on his favorite reading, "A set of twelve thick volumes of Cassell's 'History of England'".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Whitlock Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Whitlock Print: Book

Edgar Rice Burroughs : Tarzan and the Jewels of Ophir

'Growing up in Clapton during the Depression, Michael Stapleton needed a signature from his father (an Irish navvy) for a public library card, "but I asked him on the wrong evening and he merely shouted at me... So I... started examining every book in the house, ransacking forgotten cupboards and the hole under the stairs. I read everything I could understand, and begged twopenny bloods quite shamelessly from the boys at school who were fortunate enough to enjoy such things. I absorbed an immense amount of useless information, but occasionally a treasure came my way and I would strain my eyes under the twenty-watt bulb which lighted our kitchen. A month-old copy of the 'Wizard' would be succeeded by a handbook for vegetarians, and this in turn would be followed by 'Jane Eyre'. 'Tarzan and the Jewels of Ophir' was no sooner finished than I was deep in volumes three and four of a history of 'The Conquest of Peru' (the rest of the set was missing). I would go from that to 'Rip van Winkle' and straight on to a tattered copy of the Hotspur".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Michael Stapleton Print: Book

George Alfred Henty :

'James Williams admitted that, growing up in rural Wales, "I'd read anything rather than not read at all. I read a great deal of rubbish, and books that were too 'old', or too 'young' for me". He consumed the Gem, Magnet and Sexton Blake as well as the standard boys' authors (Henty, Ballantyne, Marryat, Fenimore Cooper, Twain) but also Dickens, Scott, Trollope, the Brontes, George Eliot, even Prescott's "The Conquest of Peru" and "The Conquest of Mexico". He picked "The Canterbury Tales" out of an odd pile of used books for sale, gradually puzzled out the Middle English, and eventually adopted Chaucer as his favourite poet'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Williams Print: Book

Robert Michael Ballantyne :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Williams Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Williams Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : The Cenci

'We think he is mistaken in every respect. His work does not teach the human heart, but insults it...His precepts are conveyed in the cries of Bedlam; and the outrage of a wretched old maniac, long passed the years of appetite, perpetrated on the person of his miserable child, under motives that are inconsistent with reason, and circumstances impossible in fact, is presented to us as a mirror in which we may contemplate a portion, of least, of our common nature! How far this disposition to rake in the lazar-house of humanity for examples of human life and action, is consistent with a spirit of for the real faults and infirmities of human nature, on which Mr Shelly [sic] lays so much stress, we may discover in one of his own absurd allusions.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Scott Print: Book

Louisa May Alcott : Jo's Boys

Elizabeth Segel, in "'As the Twig is Bent ...': Gender and Childhood Reading": "[Melvyn Bragg] became 'hooked' on Alcott after having picked up at a seaside bookshop Jo's Boys ... 'I read it countless times,' he remembered, 'and the pleasure I found in it ... enabled me to hurdle the terrible barrier presented by Little Women, which I sought out at the library on the hunt for anything else by Louisa May Alcott ... For Little Women, Miss Alcott announced, firmly, on the title page, was A Story for Girls. Yet I read it.'"

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Melvyn Bragg Print: Book

Louisa May Alcott : Little Women

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Melvyn Bragg Print: Book

Sir John Leslie : Elements of Geometry, Geometrical Analysis, and Plane Trigonometry

'I had read some little of Laplace when I saw you; & I continue to advance with a diminishing velocity. I turned aside into Leslie's conics - & went thro' it, in search of two propositions, which when in your geometrical vein, you will find little difficulty in demonstrating'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold (Canto IV)

'Moore's Lallah Rookh & Byron's Childe Harold canto fourth formed an odd mixture with these speculations. It was foolish, you may think, to exchange the truths of philosophy, for the airy nothings of these sweet singers: but I could not help it. Do not fear that I will spend some time in criticising the tulip-cheek.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

" ... a young compositor encounters Macaulay for the first time: "'Bernard Shaw tells me how he could get more intoxication from Mozart and Beethoven than any common mortal could from a bottle of brandy. I was as intoxicated that day far more completely than wine or whisky have ever made me, and intoxicated by literary art, as well as by the pageantry of its historical theme.'"

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila : A general system of toxicology, or, a treatise on poisons, drawn from the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, considered as to their relations with physiology, pathology and medical jurisprudence by M.P. Orfila, translated from the French ?

3 pp of ms at the end of v.1 appear to be brief notes abstracted from details in the text. Each page is ruled and divided into 3 columns headed, 'Substance', 'Symptoms', 'Corrections' [ie remedy]. Example: 'Alkalies - Soda Ammonia Lime &-', 'Nearly the same [ie as the entry above for concentrated acids] -the ejected matter does not effervesse [?] with alkalies but with acids'. 'Vinegar or limejuice - a spoonful or two in a glass of water frequently - or simply warm [?] water'. There are 9 such entries.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Dr Sibbald Print: Book

Sir Philip Sidney : The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

"According to [James] Johnstoun, his supplement [to Sidney's Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia] grew out of his affection for Sidney's romance. Having read the Arcadia over and over, he became inspired by the two pairs of lovers ..."

Unknown

Century: 1500-1599 / 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: James Johnstoun

Sir Philip Sidney : The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

"According to one contemporary anecdote, when a would-be lover borrowed from the Arcadia to woo a lady, she immediately saw through his deception: she 'was so well versed in his author, as tacitely she traced him to the bottom of a leaf.'"

Unknown

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: anon

William Michael Rossetti : Biographical essay on Wordsworth

Stephen Gill, "Copyright and the Publishing of Wordsworth, 1850-1900": "In 1870 Moxon decided to launch a new edition [of Wordsworth's poetry] ... prefaced by an essay from William Michael Rossetti. When the Wordsworths saw it ... they were outraged. Not only had Rossetti made some factual errors, he had presented the poet in an unflattering light ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Wordsworth Family Print: Book

Mary Finlay Cross : story

Catherine A. Judd, "Male Pseudonyms and Female Authority in Victorian England": "In 1877 [Mary Ann] Evans wrote to her future sister-in-law Mary Findlay Cross that 'I read your touching story aloud yesterday ...'"

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ann Evans

William Dean Howells :

Elizabeth Morrison, "Serial Fiction in Australian Colonial Newspapers": " ... the short novel A Woman's Friendship ... owes much to [Ada] Cambridge's reading of George Eliot, George Meredith, Henry James, and William Dean Howells ..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Ada Cambridge Print: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

'Bookbinder Frederick Rogers read Faust "through from beginning to end, not because I was able at sixteen to appreciate Goethe, but because I was interested in the Devil". Moving on to Don Quixote, "I did not realise its greatness till long after; but its stories of adventure and its romance and humour appealed to me strongly enough".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick Rogers Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :

'Stella Davies's father would read to his children from the Bible, "Pilgrim's Progress", Walter Scott, Longfellow, Tennyson, Dickens, "The Cloister and the Hearth", and Pope's translation of the "Iliad", though not in their entirety: "Extracts suitable to our ages were read and explained and, when we younger ones had been packed off to bed, more serious and inclusive reading would begin... We younger ones often dipped into books farf beyond our understanding. It did us no harm, I believe, for we skipped a lot and took what we could from the rest".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stella Davies Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stella Davies Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Don Juan

'There were few books at home when [Harry Burton] was a boy, but one of them was "Don Juan". He read it before he was eleven - through a prepubescent frame, of course. "I saw nothing in it but comic adventures, sunny shores, storms, Arabian interiors and words, words, words. Many of these words I did not understand, but I did not therefore jump to the conclusion that they were indecent. All of them - or nearly all - jogged happily through my unreceptive brain leaving vaguely pleasing sensations in their wake.... Genius speaks to all hearts and to all ages".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Harry Burton Print: Book

Henry Rider Haggard : She

'Growing up in Lyndhurst after the First World War, R.L. Wild regularly read aloud to his marginally literate grandmother and his completely illiterate grandfather - and it was his grandparents who selected the books... "I shall never understand how this choice was made. Until I started reading to them they had no more knowledge of English literature than a Malay Aborigine... I suppose it was their very lack of knowledge that made the choice, from "Quo Vadis" at eight, Rider Haggard's "She" at nine. By the time I was twelve they had come to know, intimately, a list of authors ranging from Shakespeare to D.H. Lawrence. All was grist to the mill (including Elinor Glyn). The classics, poetry, essays, belles lettres. We took them all in MY stride. At times we stumbled on gems that guided us to further riches. I well remember the Saturday night they brought home "The Essays of Elia". For months afterwards we used it as our roadmap...".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: R.L. Wild Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: R.L. Wild Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron :

'George Howell, bricklayer and trade unionist..."read promiscuously. How could it be otherwise? I had no real guide, was obliged to feel my way into light. Yet perhaps there was a guidance, although indefinite and without distinctive aim". Howell groped his way through literature "on the principle that one poet's works suggested another, or the criticisms on one led to comparisons with another. Thus: Milton - Shakespeare; Pope-Dryden; Byron-Shelley; Burns-Scott; Coleridge-Wordsworth and Southey, and later on Spenser-Chaucer, Bryant-Longfellow, and so on". By following these intertextual links, autodidacts could reconstruct the literary canon on their own'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Howell Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Howell Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Howell Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Howell Print: Book

William Cullen Bryant :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Howell Print: Book

Philip Dorner Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield : Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son

'Read Lord Chesterfield's letters to his gidson in which I see nothing to admire but the gentle-manly style, but his lax morality is shocking to every serious thinking man.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Newton Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : Self Reliance

'Charlie Chaplin was a classic autodidact, always struggling to make up for a dismally inadequate education, groping haphazardly for what he called "intellectual manna"... Chaplin could be found in his dressing room studying a Latin-English dictionary, Robert Ingersoll's secularist propaganda, Emerson's "Self- Reliance" ("I felt I had been handed a golden birthright"), Irving, Hawthorne, Poe, Whitman, Twain, Hazlitt, all five volumes of Plutarch's Lives, Plato, Locke, Kant, Freud's "Psychoneurosis", Lafcadio Hearn's "Life and Literature", and Henri Bergson - his essay on laughter, of course... Chaplin also spent forty years reading (if not finishing) the three volumes of "The World as Will and Idea" by Schopenhauer, whose musings on suicide are echoed in Monsieur Verdoux'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Spencer Chaplin Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Spencer Chaplin Print: Book

grandfather of Benjamin Newton : [sermon]

'Transcribed and altered a sermon of my grandfather's on the text "And if I be lifted up will draw all men to me" [...]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Newton Manuscript: Sheet

Sir John Sinclair : The Code of Agriculture

'Snow and rain all day. Read Pegge on the English language, Sir J. Sinclair's Code of Agriculture, proceeded with notes on Bede. Mr Cline in his paper on breeding is quite decided that [...] but Mr Colling [...] is not of thatopinion. [NB Henry Cline - on the form of animals]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Newton Print: Book

[Erskine or T.E.] : Armata, a Fragment

'Read Armata, said to be Lord Erskine's, very unworthy of his name 'tho his politics are displayed which are pretty nearly my opinions and I should therefore be more inclined to judge favourably. The allegory [...] is not well kept up, but degennerates into matter of fact [...]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Newton Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

[imaginative role play] 'One chauffeur's daughter alternated effortlessly between heroes and heroines: "I have plotted against pirates along with Jim Hawkins and I have trembled with Jane Eyre as the first Mrs Rochester rent her bridal veil in maddened jealousy. I have been shipwrecked with Masterman Ready and on Pitcairn Island with Fletcher Christian. I have been a medieval page in Sir Nigel and Lorna Doone madly in love with 'girt Jan Ridd'".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Wharton Print: Book

Arthur Conan Doyle : Sir Nigel

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Wharton Print: Book

Richard Doddridge Blackmore : Lorna Doone

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Wharton Print: Book

L. Margery Bazett : After-Death Communications

"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle endorses many of the volumes in his collection of books about spiritualism and parapsychological experience with a signed note on the title page: of L. Margery Bazett's After-Death Communications (1918), for example, he says, 'A very useful little book with many good cases entirely beyond Criticism.'"

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Print: Book

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus : Meditations

" ... to the coda of his copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 'depart, therefore, contented and in good humour ...' [Leigh] Hunt courteously adds, 'Thanks, and love to you, excellent Antoninus. L. H. Feb. 7th 1853. His second regular perusal.'"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Henry Leigh Hunt Print: Book

John Wilmot Earl of Rochester : poems

"The books in which Pope's annotations, though scanty, are undoubtedly authentic include a copy of the racy poems of the Earl of Rochester in which Pope filled in some of the concealed or deliberately omitted names."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Alexander Pope Print: Book

John Chetwode Eustace : A [classical] tour through Italy

'Read Eustace's tour and think he is the best dissenter I have met with, rather prolix about churches, especially such as have nothing extraordinary about them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Newton Print: Book

Falcon Harmonic Society : Notice of a Burns Supper

"It so happened that a retired Scotch physician, who had settled in the town, chanced to read this notice, and, interested in all related to his gifted countryman [Burns], timidly asked if he would be allowed admission [to a Burns' Night supper organised by the Falcon Harmonic Society]."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: a Scotch physician Print: Poster

Thomas Frognall Dibdin : Bibliographical Decameron

'Read Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron this summer, & Davis's Second Tour round a Bibliomaniac's Library.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cole Print: Book

Hester Lynch Piozzi : Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of...

'The book is one huge mass of entertainment from beginning to end - And written in such an unaffected spirit of Christian charity...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

John Horne Tooke : Epea Pteroenta, or the Diversions of Purley

'Horne Tooke is a dirty dog - he gives the derivation of such words! - There sits Mr Wilbraham two hours every morning in the library, sniggering and shaking his fat sides over such grave nastiness as is enough to make a modest soul like me blush or turn sick: and he always puts a little paper mark into the worst passages to show them to me when I go down. Was ever anything so impertinent & insulting! As if I loved dirt.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : Letters of Madame de Sevigne

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy : Les Lettres de Messire Roger de Rabutin

'Rabutin de Bussy in his little way, is also delightful...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : Letters of Madame de Sevigne

'I have finished all dear old Sevigne's Letters...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Adelaide Filleul, Countess de Flahaut : Eugenie et Mathilde

'I wanted to have sent you a translation of the epigram Flahaut has introduced in her book. It is Johnson's...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Mary Leadbetter and Maria Edgeworth : Cottage Dialogues Amongst the Irish Peasantry

'Have you seen the little book, 'Cottage Dialogues', by Mrs Leadbetter. Edgeworth's notes are lively and [nationally] characteristic as ever: but I own I am tired a little of the receipts to make cheap dishes.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

F. W. J. von Schelling :

S. T. Coleridge, annotation to Schelling: "'A book, I value, I reason & quarrel with as with myself when I am reasoning.'"

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Joshua Reynolds : Works

William Blake, in copy of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Works (1798) vol I: " '... I read Burkes Treatise [on the Sublime and Beautiful] when very Young at the same time I read Locke on Human Understanding & Bacons Advancmt [sic] of Learning on Every one of these Books I wrote my Opinions & on looking them over find that my Notes on Reynolds in this Book are exactly Similar. I felt the Same Comtempt & Abhorrence then; that I do now.'"

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Blake Print: Book

Hester Lynch Piozzi : Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D

"For [Sir James] Fellowes, a prospective biographer ... [Hester Lynch Piozzi] annotated books by and about herself: Nathaniel Wraxall's Historical Memoirs of My Own Time (1815), the Johnson Anecdotes and Letters, and her own Observations and Retrospection."

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Piozzi Print: Book

Hester Lynch Piozzi : Retrospection: or A Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations, and their Consequences, which the Last Eighteen Hundred Years have Presented to the View of Mankind

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Piozzi Print: Book

Hester Lynch Piozzi : Observations

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Piozzi Print: Book

Raymond Macdonald Alden : Introduction to Poetry for Students of English Literature

H. J. Jackson discusses Rupert Brooke's pencilled notes, "clearly made out on a single reading," in copy of Raymond Macdonald Alden, Introduction to Poetry for Students of English Literature (1909); notes that Brooke acquired the book when aged twenty-one.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rupert Brooke Print: Book

C. G. Jung : Two Essays on Analytical Psychology

H. J. Jackson discusses T. H. White's reading and annotating of C. G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (1928); Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1923), and Alfred Adler, Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology (1924), conjecturing that White read these before 1932 (when aged 26).

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: T. H. White Print: Book

Thomas Frognall Dibdin : Bibliographical Decameron

'On turning to my book, I find I have journalised only one day, during this summer vis [sic] July 29, when I walked after tea with Mrs Cole a new walk down Penny-black Lane, across Chapman's Common, & into the Scalby Road - a short way into the Whitby Road, & returned over the fields by the bleach yard on the Whitby Road - a delightful rural walk. Read in Dibdin's Decameron - Delany's Life of King David, & Gay's Choir.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cole Print: Book

Gerard Manley Hopkins : [religious poems]

'I?m also doing a series of four-part songs for Peter & his Round-table singers to "first-perform" at the Aeolian Hall on November 24th. I?ve done four so far ? fairly extended, all to religious words by Gerald [sic] Manley Hopkins - & there?ll probably be two more.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Britten Print: Book

R J Yeatman : 1066 and all that

'- have you ever read a book called "1066 & all that" ?i t's very funny, & one of the authors is on board.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Britten Print: Book

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin : Boris Godonof

'One has no inclination at all to work or to read seriously ? so I?ve been dipping into an enormous range of stuff ? from Hans Anderson to Boris Godonof.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Britten Print: Book

Hans Christian Anderson :

?One has no inclination at all to work or to read seriously ? so I?ve been dipping into an enormous range of stuff ? from Hans Anderson to Boris Godonof.?

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Britten Print: Book

W A Aiken : The Voice: An Introduction to Practical Phonology

'I have been working with Shakespeare (a very good book) with an occasional dip into Aiken, and my B flats and Bs really do sound like them now, although I still get stiff with nerves sometimes.' 'I am keeping your Shakespeare and Aiken very carefully here with me, as I thought it would be too risky and diffIcult sending them. However if you can't do without them I will send them.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Peter Pears Print: BookManuscript: Letter

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Hebrew Melodies

'John Smith, Bob Hankinson, and I, went over the "Hebrew Melodies" together'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Marriage

'In a letter to Mrs Herzog he says: "Wells's new novel, Marriage, of which I have just read the proofs, contains more intimate conveyances of the atmosphere of married life than anybody has ever achieved before, I am rather annoyed as I am about to try and get the same intimacy in my Clayhanger-Hilda book, entitled These Twain.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown, proofs of book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : annotations to Samuel Daniel's poetry

Charles Lamb's response to reading marginal comments by S. T. Coleridge in his copy of Samuel Daniel's Poetical Works, in letter to Coleridge: "'I wish every book I have were so noted. They have thoroughly converted me to relish Daniel, or to say I relish him ... Your notes are excellent. Perhaps you've forgot them.'"

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Lamb Manuscript: annotations in printed text

Charles Tennyson Turner : Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces

H. J. Jackson notes S. T. Coleridge's annotations, at owners' requests, of copies of Barry Cornwall, Dramatic Scenes, and Charles Tennyson Turner, Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Mrs Henry Sandford : Thomas Poole and His Friends

H. J. Jackson notes "extra illustration" ("prompted by the text") of a copy of Margaret Sandford, Thomas Poole and His Friends (1888), with inserts including letters and "a flower taken from Wordsworth's garden in 1844."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

William Charles Macready : [diary]

'Rather like celibate life in Paris again. I dined at the club and read Macready's diary;. . .'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : The Black Arrow

'Last night I spent with Charles Strachey; we each had an arm chair with a chair between us to hold books as we passed judgment on them. I am sending you Stevenson's last book which came out a few days ago, which I bought and read this afternoon (I had a meddlesome red pencil with which I slightly disfigured it) and which I think spendidly spirited.' [followed by a judgment on the book]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Walter Raleigh Print: Book

S. Clarke Hook : [Jack, Sam and Pete stories]

'C.H. Rolph... picked up [a message that "well-trained impis could outwit upper-class English duffers"] from S. Clarke Hook's stories of Jack, Sam and Pete in the Boys' Friend Threepenny Library. Jack and Sam were white boys and their friend Pete was a black superhero, "who was not only stronger than Samson but richer than Croesus".'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: C.H. Rolph Print: Book

Mrs O.F. Walton : Christie's Old Organ

'Especially effective [at transmitting conservative values to the working classes] were the pious works of Hesba Stretton, Mrs O.F. Walton, and Amy Le Feuvre, stories with titles like "Little Meg's Children", "Jessica's First Prayer", "Christie's Old Organ", and "Froggy's Little Brother". In an Oxfordshire village in the 1880s, Flora Thompson recalled that children and mothers alike borrowed them from the Sunday School library and cried over them.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: children and mothers Print: Book

Mrs O.F. Walton : [pious novels]

'Marjory Todd read [the books of Hesba Stretton, Mrs O.F. Walton and Amy le Feuvre but felt later that] "I would not now willingly expose a child of mine to the morbid resignation of any of these books... yet I think that children, when their home life is secure and happy, can take a lot of that debilitating sentiment... We sharpened our teeth on this stuff and then went on to greater satisfaction elsewhere", including "Pride and Prejudice", "Jane Eyre", "Alice in Wonderland", Captain Marryat, Kenneth Grahame, and E. Nesbit'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Marjory Todd Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : The Waste Land

'Coachman's daughter Anne Tibble was enraged by "The Waste Land", which she read as a scholarship student at a redbrick university: "Eliot's neurosis of disillusion was horrifying... almost utterly invalid...almost entirely without feeling for others. Eliot showed people as ugly, stupid, shabby, vulgarian, squalid, somehow indecent...the 'broken fingernails of dirty hands'...Weren't these my father's and my mother's hands?". The experience of reading it plunged her into depression, but in the late 1920s it was difficult to express her real feelings about one of the greatest living poets...Instead, she channelled her scholarly energies toward the poetry of John Clare, whose work affirmed the literacy of working people'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Tibble Print: Unknown

Alfred Russel Wallace : Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection

H. J. Jackson notes how annotations made in 1871 by Francis Palgrave in his copy of Alfred Russel Wallace, Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870) show development of Palgrave's response (including objections) to the argument of the text.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Palgrave Print: Book

T. J. Mathias : Pursuits of Literature

H. J. Jackson notes annotations by T. B. Macaulay in T. J. Mathias, Pursuits of Literature, including "'Bah!'" "'A contemptible heap of rant & twaddle'" and "'Noisome pedantry'."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Henry Rider Haggard : She

'W.J. Brown was introduced to literature by "Robinson Crusoe", "She", "The Last of the Mohicans", and "Around the World in Eighty Days", and he never moved far beyond that level. He tried "The Idiot" and "The Brothers Karamazov", but found them too depressing, perhaps because his life was anything but Dostoevskian'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William John Brown Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : The Last of the Mohicans

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William John Brown Print: Book

Thomas Henry Huxley : [unknown]

'after tea [W.J. Brown] would enjoy "five glorious hours of freedom" reading Darwin, Huxley and Tennyson's "In Memoriam" at the Battersea Public Library'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William John Brown Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : In Memoriam

'after tea [W.J. Brown] would enjoy "five glorious hours of freedom" reading Darwin, Huxley and Tennyson's "In Memoriam" at the Battersea Public Library'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William John Brown Print: Book

Thomas Henry Huxley : [unknown]

'After a miserable Catholic school education...periodic unemployment allowed [Joseph Toole] to study in the Manchester Reference Library. There he discovered, Adam Smith, Ricardo, Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Mill, Emerson, Dickens, Morris, Blatchford, Shaw and Wells, and of course John Ruskin..."Study always left me with a deep feeling that there was so much amiss with the world. It seemed that it had been started at the wrong end, and that it was everybody's business to put the matter right".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Toole Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Toole Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Toole Print: Book

Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Toole Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Toole Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Toole Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Lays of Ancient Rome: with "Ivry" and "The Armada"

H. J. Jackson notes annotations made by John James Raven over period of around 40-50 years in copy of Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome given to him in 1848, "when Raven was a schoolboy of fifteen."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John James Raven Print: Book

Helen Maria Williams : Sketches of the State of Manners and Opinions in the French Republic Towrds the Close of the Eighteenth Century

"Horatio Nelson's copy of Helen Maria Williams's Sketches of the State of Manners and Opinions in the French Republic Towards the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1801) ... has very little marking and only a few actual notes in it, but all his notes correct the author on matters of fact ..."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Horatio Nelson Print: Book

B. L. Putnam Weale : Indiscreet Letters from Peking

H. J. Jackson notes handwritten insertion of names of persons identified only by initials in H. Giles's copy of B. L. Putnam Weale, Indiscreet Letters from Peking (an "alleged eyewitness account of the siege of Peking in 1900"); Giles also places question marks beside passages of "'doubtful historical value', as explained in another note by him in the text.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: H. Giles Print: Book

James Andrew Pettit : Anecdotes, &c Ancient and Modern

H. J. Jackson notes Hester Lynch Piozzi's notes to Pettit's Anecdotes (borrowed from her friend Edward Mangin in 1817), written by her onto separate sheets of paper, which were cut up and pasted into the relevant sections of the text by Mangin.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Piozzi Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]

'Lancashire journalist Allen Clarke (b.1863), the son of a Bolton textile worker, avidly read his father's paperback editions of Shakespeare and ploughed through the literature section (Chaucer, Marlowe, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Milton, Pope, Chatterton, Goldsmith, Byron, Shelley, Burns, Wordsworth, Leigh Hunt) of the public library. With that preparation, he was winning prizes for poems in London papers by age thirteen...[he] went on to found and edit several Lancashire journals'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Allen Clarke Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Allen Clarke Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : [unknown]

'As a ?1-a-week warehouse clerk in the early 1920s, H.E. Bates spent most of the workday with Conrad, Hardy, Wells, Bennett, Galsworthy, Edith Wharton and Willa Cather'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Herbert Ernest Bates Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : The Dying Swan

'Masefield's early experience of literature came with the stories told or read to him by his nurse. The fare was what would be expected in a middle class Victorian home; even "Dick Whittington and his Cat" was introduced. Tennyson's "The Dying Swan" was one of the boy's earliest delights; and, having been taught to read before his sixth birthday, he read and committed to memory copious amounts of Longfellow, especially Hiawatha and Evangeline'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Evangeline

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Hiawatha

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

'Masefield obtained his first copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" on the Conway and was soon enraptured by the possibility that such South Sea adventures might overtake him'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [unknown]

'Masefield habitually purchased a book each Friday evening and read it over the weekend. Among the first purchases was a seventy-five cent copy of Chaucer; and that evening, as he recalled, "I stretched myself on my bed, and began to read 'The Parliament of Fowls'; and with the first lines entered into a world of poetry until then unknown to me". As a result, Masefield's study of poetry deepened, and Chaucer, John Milton, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats became his mentors. Shelley converted the impressionable youth to vegetarianism....Unfortunately [he] overdid vegetarianism by abjuring milk; and, weak from lack of protein, he finally gave up the regimen'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

T. Livii Patavini : Romanae historiae principis Decades tres cum dimidia

Anthony Grafton, "Discitur ut agatur: How Gabriel Harvey Read His Livy": "In 1576-77, just before Philip Sidney went on his mission to the Emperor Rudolph II in Prague, he and [Gabriel] Harvey read books 1-3 of the first decade [of Livy's Romanae historiae], which embrace the early history of Rome and its passage from monarchy to republic."

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey and Philip Sidney Print: Book

T. Livii Patavini : Romanae historiae principis Decades tres cum dimidia

Anthony Grafton, "Discitur ut agatur: How Gabriel Harvey Read His Livy": "In 1584 ... in Cambridge, Harvey read Livy ... with Thomas Preston, master of Trinity Hall. They read Machiavelli's Discorsi at the same time ... They read several other up-to-date works on pragmatic politics as well, notably Jean Bodin's Methodus and Republic."

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey and Thomas Preston Print: Book

T. Livii Patavini : Romanae historiae principis, Decades tres cum dimidia

Anthony Grafton, in "Discitur ut agatur: How Gabriel Harvey Read His Livy," notes that in 1590 Gabriel Harvey read Livy's Romanae historiae with reference to passages on it in St Augustine's De Civitate Dei; "Harvey read the City of God not on its own but together with its almost equally vast Renaissance companion, the commentary by Juan Luis Vives ..."

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book

Juan Luis Vives : Commentary to St Augustine, De Civitate Dei

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book

T. Livii Patavini : Romanae historiae principis, Decades tres cum dimidia

Anthony Grafton, "Discitur ut agatur: How Gabriel Harvey Read His Livy": " ... when ... [Harvey] and [Philip] Sidney went through books 1-3 [of Livy's Romanae historiae], they compared them to Frontinus's Stratagems (first century A.D.) [notes copiousness of annotations in Harvey's copy of Frontinus at the Houghton Librrary, Havard]."

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey and Philip Sidney Print: Book

T. S. Eliot : Criterion, The

'He had recommended T.S. Eliot to the War Office in 1918, and continued to praise his poetry and his periodical, the "Criterion"'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

F. Sommer Merryweather : Lives and Anecdotes of Misers

'The conception of this particular novel ["Riceyman Steps"] was probably sparked off by the discovery, in an old Southampton bookshop, T. James and Co., of 34 Bernard Street, of a curious old book called "Lives and Anecdotes of Misers", by F. Sommer Merryweather (1850). Bennett bought it in 1921 on one of his yachting expeditions, read it and used it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Mary Wortley Montagu : Letters

'[Mary Wortley] Montagu's Letters and accounts of the sexual freedom of Tahitian women were popular: Elizabeth Montagu and Anna Seward for instance, read both.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book

Mary Wortley Montagu : Letters

'[Mary Wortley] Montagu's Letters and accounts of the sexual freedom of Tahitian women were popular: Elizabeth Montagu and Anna Seward for instance, read both.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Montagu Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [poems]

'Anne Grant loved books, but felt guilty about literary pleasure: she enjoyed Byron's poems but worried about their morality, and was "fully convinced of the bad tendency" of the works of Peter Pindar because of "the amusement I derive from them".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar] Print: Book

Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo : Amadis de Gaule

'Robert Boyle being made to "read the state adventures of Amadis de Gaulle and other fabulous stories" which met a "restless fancy, then made more susceptible of any impressions by an unemployed pensiveness" and accustomed his thoughts to such a habitude of roving, that he [had] scarce ever been their quiet master since.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Boyle Print: Unknown

Teresia Constantia Phillips : An apology for the conduct of Mrs Teresia Constantia Phillips

'She claims, for instance, a "charity to all kinds of books" which allows her to read sympathetically even the scandalous memoirs of Teresia Constantia Phillips.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim : An Ecclesiastical History, ancient and modern

'During these twelve months [in prison] I read with deep interest and much profit Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", Hume's "History of England", and many other standard works- amongst others, Mosheims "Ecclesiastical History". The reading of that book would have made me a freethinker if I had not been one before.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Watson Print: Book

Samuel James Arnold : The Creole

'[Burney was] 'not impressed by Samuel James Arnold's "The Creole", Lady Morgan's "The Missionary", Edgeworth's "Patronage", which she found "dull and heavy" or Hannah More's "Coelebs", which she found "monotonously without interest of ANY kind", despite her approval of its politics.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney Print: Book

Agnes Maria Bennett : The Beggar Girl and her Benefactors

'[Harriet Grove] enjoyed novels and plays: in 1809-10, she read with pleasure in a family group a number of popular bestsellers (which in the period means largely novels by women), including Lady Morgan's "The Novice of Saint Dominick", Agnes Maria Bennett's "The Beggar Girl and her Benefactors", Edgeworth's "Tales of Andrews", "Sir Charles Grandison" and "A Sentimental Journey"'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Grove Print: Book

Regina Maria Roche : The Children of the Abbey

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Grove Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge :

[Shelley encouraged her to read] 'some key Romantic texts (Coleridge, Scott, Southey, Volney's "Les ruines"), radical politics ("The Rights of Man" and "The Age of Reason") and radical sexual politics (Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the Rights of Woman" and James Lawrence's anti-marriage utopia, "The Empire of the Nairs").'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Westbrook

Issac de Beasobre : Introduction to the reading of the Holy Scriptures

Letter from Sedgwick to William Ainger dated 22/5/1815 says the former is reading Beasobre, and 'the task is a confounded dry one'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Adam Sedgwick Print: Book

Mary Ann Hanway : Ellinor, or the World as it is (A Novel in Four Volumes)

'Ellinor, or the World as it is, by M.A.Hanway. 4 vols. An entertaining production written in a light, easy style [editor does not reproduce all of Weeton's comments] [The story] cannot have the slightest tendency to injure the morals of any reader,whether they have common sense or not, when it is considered that there was a continued series of suffering for 20 years from first to last.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

James Hingston Tuckey : Narrative of an expedition to explore the river Za

'Read Tuckey's Voyage to the Congo or Zaire, seems to have brought on the mortality that precailed in his crew by sleeping too much in the open air, by the quantity of women eveywhere offered them and too great fatigue.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Newton Print: Book

Jean Francois Marmontel : Moral Tales

'E- being called out for a few hours in the morning I attempted to amuse myself with Marmontel's Tales- it was but an attempt. For I hurried thro' them 'quite upon thorns' expecting every moment his return, - which prevented either pleasure or instruction to arise from it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Upcott Print: Book

Matthew G. Lewis : The Monk

'The evening until one was [frittered?] away in reading the 'Monk' for the fourth time at least.... In the second volume are some beautiful lines that often delights one ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Upcott Print: Book

Tobias George Smollett : The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom

'I got thro 6 chapters of Count Fathom- about an hours undertaking- and this has been the way thro my whole readings- a chapter at one hour - the volume thrown aside for perhaps two more- take it up make another attempt- ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Upcott Print: Book

Alfred Louis Charles de Musset :

'After "Trilby" came the effect of "Peter Ibbetson". "It came to me", writes the poet of this book, "just when I needed an inner life". From "Peter Ibbetson" he learned of the existence of Villon and of de Musset. He read these poets but "the time was not ripe for either".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : The Revolt of Islam

"'On first reading Shelley", he writes, "I told myself that this was a new kind of verse, such as I had not known existed." Now it was the VERSE, not the argument, which had an effect upon Masefield which he describes as "electric and ecstatic", and he tells how excited he was by the CONSTRUCTION of "The Revolt of Islam"'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Dante Gabriel Rossetti :

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson :

'Before his departure for his native land he had read some of Dickens and Stevenson... and William Morris. John Masefield's debt to William Morris as a constructive thinker is considerable. It may be that Morris has been the formative influence, in his limitations as well as his liberations, on Masefield's view of life'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Algernon Charles Swinburne : Chastelard

'Fine writing and realism were what John Masefield was after in prose. In poetry, it was the upsurge of feeling and rhythm first released by Swinburne. Masefield wrote in a letter to me after my first meeting with him, "Swinburne meant much to my generation: he was literary, he adored the French masters, who were then our masters in all things: he was generous beyond most poets...:he was one of the real discoverers of Blake: he could write exquisite verse in an age of exquisite verse: he laid us all at his feet with half a dozen things which I cannot read without emotion now. he was one of the first romantic poets to be read by me: and Chastelard, to a boy, is all that the heart can desire and the lines on the death of Baudelaire all that genius and grief can utter".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Algernon Charles Swinburne : [poem on the death of Baudelaire]

'Fine writing and realism were what John Masefield was after in prose. In poetry, it was the upsurge of feeling and rhythm first released by Swinburne. Masefield wrote in a letter to me after my first meeting with him, "Swinburne meant much to my generation: he was literary, he adored the French masters, who were then our masters in all things: he was generous beyond most poets...:he was one of the real discoverers of Blake: he could write exquisite verse in an age of exquisite verse: he laid us all at his feet with half a dozen things which I cannot read without emotion now. He was one of the first romantic poets to be read by me: and Chastelard, to a boy, is all that the heart can desire and the lines on the death of Baudelaire all that genius and grief can utter".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

Wiliam Butler Yeats : [unknown]

'Masefield was already a well-read man when, at the age of twenty-one, he came across the works of Yeats, whose disciple he became, and whom he shortly met'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book

[probably] Georges-Eugene Sorel :

[the 'intellectual' clique within the Clarion Scouts, including Edwin Muir] "followed the literary and intellectual development of the time, discovering such writers as Bergson, Sorel, Havelock Ellis, Galsworthy, Conrad, E.M. Forster, Joyce and Lawrence, the last two being contributed by me, for I had seen them mentioned in the New Age by Ezra Pound".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

Edward Morgan Forster :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : [unknown]

'The poet Clare Cameron, born Winifred Wells to a London blacksmith, was a 15s a week clerk given to artistic ecstasies... She ate cheap lunches at Lyons to save money for volumes of Tennyson, Shelley and Ruskin. She found the "kindling glow" of words and ideas in Tolstoy, Shaw, Ibsen, Nietzsche, and Marx... Once she read Murger's novel and saw Puccini's opera, she could not turn back: "Ah, THERE was the life we craved. There was expression of and answer to all our fumbling desires and half-formed dreams"...At her first Bohemian party (it was actually in St John's Wood) she was dazzled and intimidated by the easy conversation, the poise, the confidence, the wit'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clare Cameron Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : [unknown

'[Ethel] Mannin was firmly rooted in the autodidact tradition. In her father's library she enjoyed Gissing and Wells, "Adam Bede" and "The Cloister and the Hearth". A Clapham letter-sorter, he collected Nelson's Sevenpenny Classics, which she applauded as "a great boon to poor people"... By age fifteen she was quoting Wilde, Dr Johnson, Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, Milton, Elizabeth Browning, Omar Khayyam, Anatole France, Emily Bronte, Shaw, Hazlitt, Stevenson, W.E. Henley, and Schopenhauer in her commonplace book...Except "Orlando", she read nothing of Virginia Woolf, whom she found "too intellectual, too subtle and complicated and remote from reality"...Mannin made sure to read "Ulysses" (or at least the final chapter) and she admired Gertrude Stein'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel Mannin Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge :

'Soon Pritchett was reading Penny Poets editions of "Paradise Regained", Wordsworth's "Prelude", Cowper, and Coleridge. He formulated plans to become Poet Laureate by age twenty-one'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Sawdon Pritchett Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

'With autodidact diligence [Leslie Paul] closed in on the avant-garde. He read "Prufrock" and "The Waste Land", though not until the 1930s. He smuggled "Ulysses" and "Lady Chatterley's Lover" past customs. In "John O'London's" and "The Nation", in William MacDougall's Home University Library volume on "Psychology" and F.A. Servante's "Psychology of the Boy", he read up on Freud. In a few years he knew enough to ghost-write BBC lectures on modern psychology'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Paul Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : The Waste Land

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Paul Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : Lady Chatterley's Lover

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Paul Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

'Bernard Kops, the son of an immigrant leather worker, had a special understanding of the transition from from autodidact culture to Bohemia to youth culture, because he experienced all three. He grew up in the ferment of the Jewish East End... read "The Tempest" at school, and cried over "The Forsaken Merman". At fifteen he became a cook at a hotel, where the staff gave him Karl Marx, Henry Miller and "Ten Days that Shook the World". A neighbor presented him with the poems of Rupert Brooke, and "Grantchester" so resonated with the Jewish slum boy that he went to the library to find another volume from the same publisher, Faber and Faber. Thus he stumbled upon T.S. Eliot. "This book changed my life", he remembered. "It struck me straight in the eye like a bolt of lightning... I had no preconceived ideas about poetry and read 'The Waste Land' and 'Prufrock' as if they were the most acceptable and common forms in existence. The poems spoke to me directly, for they were bound up with the wasteland of the East End, and the desolation and lonelines of people and landscape. Accidentally I had entered the mainstream of literature".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Bernard Kops Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : 'The Waste Land'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Bernard Kops Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

'my mother arrived in England with a great respect for culture, and eager to learn all she could. We find her struggling to read Browning and Tennyson and Shelley; battering her way with pride and tenacity through "La Petite Fadette"... But with all her respect for education...learning was never her strong point'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Maud du Puy Print: Unknown

William Makepeace Thackeray : Henry Esmond

'David Copperfield was puzzling, too. He was a 'posthumous child' and was born with a 'caul'. The French dictionary, the only one I had, gave posthumous; posthume, which did not help me much; but for caul it gave fillet, and of course a fillet was a string bag. How very odd. Then someone gave me a present of Esmond; but my mother said I was not to read it, because parts of it were 'not very nice'. Of course I wanted to find out what was not nice about it; so, by a quibble, I decided that I might read all that I could manage without cutting the pages. With industry and perseverance this meant practically all of it, though the pages were not cut for many a long year. But I could never discover what was wrong with it'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gwen Raverat Print: Book

Charlotte Mary Yonge : The Little Duke

'Lovely books she read to us...:"The Wide Wide World", with all the religion and deaths from consumption left out, and all the farm life and good country food left in; "Masterman Ready", with that ass Mr Seagrave mitigated, and dear old Ready not killed by the savages; "Settlers at Home", with the baby not allowed to die; "The Little Duke" with horrid little Carloman spared to grow more virtuous still; "The Children of the New Forest"; "The Runaway"; "The Princess and the Goblin", and many more'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henrietta Litchfield Print: Book

Elizabeth Anna Hart : The Runaway

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henrietta Litchfield Print: Book

Helen Maria Williams : various books

'[Carter] is sympathetic to women of different views, like Charlotte Smith or Helen Maria Williams whose books she finds "too democratical" but praises as "exprest with decency and moderation" and "very prettily written".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book

Charlotte Trotter Cockburn : works

'Having heard the work of another virtuous woman writer, Catherine Trotter Cockburn, was to be published, [Elizabeth Carter and Catherine Talbot] displayed great interest in this literary foremother, and when the 1751 edition of her work appeared, they were struck by her "most remarkable clear understanding and excellent heart".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : Fairy Tales

[Maud Montgomery and her foster brothers] 'read the "Wide Awake" magazines the boys' aunt sent them for a while - the last instalment of a serial Maud was reading was due when the magazines stopped coming. The boys thought this was a huge joke...(thirty years later she came across bound copies of "Wide Awake" and was finally able to finish reading that story). They told ghost stories. In school Well won the teacher's prize for being the best in arithmetic that winter, a copy of Hans Andersen's fairytales. Maud was enchanted by the book. Then she won a collection of fairytales for being top student most often and it had a story in it called "The Honey Stew of the Countess" Bertha which "abounded in ghosts" and she liked it even better'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Maud Montgomery Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : [Essays]

'Along with her old school books [Maud Montgomery] read whatever she could find both for pleasure and to learn from their authors how to improve her own writing: religious tracts, newspapers, the Godey's Lady's Book, Charles Dickens's "Pickwick Papers", Sir Walter Scott's novels, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The House of the Seven Gables", Washington Irving's "The Sketchbook", and Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Maud Montgomery Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

[L.M. Montgomery] 'read a great deal; she mentions fifty different authors in her journal which covers the years 1910 to 1921. Titles range from Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" to Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit" and Thackeray's "Vanity Fair". She also read many female writers, such as George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Edith Wharton and Olive Schreiner'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Maud Montgomery Print: Book

Frances Hodgson Burnett : Little Lord Fauntleroy

[Aunt Bessy] 'used to read "Little Lord Fauntleroy" over and over again to the old women [in the Cambridge workhouse], because they never wanted any other book'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Darwin Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

'I have only now realised that the reason Blind Pew in "Treasure Island" frightened me so extremely was that I gave him the face of our own Blind Man' [seen regularly in Cambridge and looking "most evil"]'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Gwen Raverat Print: Book

Johannn Wolfgang von Goethe :

'[Uncle William] read everything: all the classic works in all the languages he had ever known, or not quite forgotten: Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian; a bit of each every day; and when he was late for dinner, it was always because he was "just finishing a paragraph". He was very shy about it, and would be caught hiding Homer under a pile of papers, and have to be gently coaxed out into the open to talk about him. "Fine fellow, old Homer", he would say; or "Fine fellow, old Go-eethe"'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Darwin Print: Book

(ed.) Thomas Percy : Reliques of Ancient English Poetry

'The books [Uncle George] read to us were all in the romantic vein: Shakespeare's "Histories", Chaucer, Percy's "Reliques", Scott's novels'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Darwin Print: Book

Stendhal (pseud -Marie-Henri Beyle) : Le Rouge et le Noir

'[Gwen Raverat's father] was disgusted by Stendhal's "Le Rouge et le Noir" when I lent it to him; though I am still surprised that he did not appreciate the romantic fire which lies beneath Julien Sorel's somewhat unscrupulous methods of getting on in the world'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Darwin Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson :

'Aunt Ellen and her friends seemed to me wonderfully up-to-date and literary. She used to read Stevenson and Henley to us, which was the height of modernity then'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Crofts Print: Book

(probably) William Ernest Henley :

'Aunt Ellen and her friends seemed to me wonderfully up-to-date and literary. She used to read Stevenson and Henley to us, which was the height of modernity then'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Crofts Print: Book

Charlotte Mary Yonge : The Daisy Chain

'I could read "The Daisy Chain" or "The Wide Wide World", and just take the religion as the queer habits of those sorts of people, exactly as if I were reading a story about Mohammedans or Chinese'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gwen Raverat Print: Book

Edward Morgan Forster :

'Aunty Etty wrote of E.M. Forster, "His novel is really NOT good; and it's too unpleasant for the girls to read. I very much hope he will turn to something else".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henrietta Darwin Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Letters

Leon Edel, introducing vol 1 of Henry James's Letters, on James's feelings regarding publication of letters: "He opposed truncation. 'One has the vague sense of omissions ... one smells the thing unprinted,' he remarked after reading [Sidney] Colvin's edition of Stevenson's letters."

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

A. W. Kinglake : Eothen

Henry James to Thomas Sergeant Perry, 27 March 1860: "Have you ever read 'Eothen' a book of Eastern travels. I have just been reading it."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu : Letters

Henry James to Thomas Sergeant Perry, from home of host family in Bonn, Sunday 5 August 1860: "[on Wednesday morning] I sat down to read [in the study] till our room should be made ready for me to go in and set to work. I looked over an old volume of the 'British Chronicle,' a lot of bound weekly newspapers of the time of Byron, Shelley, Tom Moore and Walter Scott and which I had discovered in a corner the night before. Then I finished the Letters of Lady M. W. Montague which I had commenced a few days before from curiosity and had continued from interest."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : [two or three works]

Henry James to Charles Eliot Norton, 28 February 1866: " ... allow me to retract my proposal to deal critically with Mrs. Stowe, in the N[orth]. A[merican]. R[eview]. I have been re-reading two or three of her books and altho' I see them to be full of pleasant qualities, they lack those solid merits wh. an indistinct recollection of them had caused me to attribute to them ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve : Nouveaux lundis

Henry James to Thomas Sergeant Perry, from Cambridge, Mass., 20 September 1867: "I had just been reading, when your letter came, Taine's Graindorge, of which you speak ... I enjoy Taine more almost than I do any one; but his philosoph of things strikes me as essentially superficial and as if subsisting in the most undignified subservience to his passion for description ... I have also read the last new Mondays of Ste.B, and always with increasing pleasure."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : unknown

Leon Edel, introducing Henry James's letters from 1869-70: " [James] traveled in 1869, reading Goethe, Stendhal, the President de Brosses and Hawthorne."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : works

'she thinks Rousseau "the most dangerous writer I ever read", his work "of so bad tendency that, after a few trials, I have determined never to look into any thing he should publish".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book

Pliny the Elder : [observations and transcriptions from work]

'I am very much obliged to you, for your transcriptions and observations from Pliny; as you say, I should never find time to read the book. What stores of knowledge do I lose, by my incapacity of reading, and by my having used myself to write, till I can do nothing else, nor hardly that'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Richardson Manuscript: Unknown, transcriptions by Susanna Highmore

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Old Town Folks

Henry James to Alice James, 31 August 1869, on walking in Switzerland and Italy: "[after crossing Bernadine pass] I ... pursued my way ... to the village of Splugen, where I was glad to halt and rest and where I diverted myself the rest of the day, as I lay, supine, with Mrs. Stowe's Old Town Folks, which I found kicking about, and which struck me under the circumstances as a work of singular and delicious perfection."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

William Dean Howells : "A Pedestrian Tour"

Henry James to Henry James Sr, 14 January 1870: "I read in the last Atlantic Lowell's poem and Howells's Article."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

Henry Crabbe Robinson : Memoirs

Henry James to William James, 8 March 1870: "During the past month I have been ... reading among other things Browning's Ring and Book ... the President de Brosse's delightful letters, Crabbe Robinson's memoirs and the new vol. of Ste Beuve."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Francis Bret Harte : [unidentified story]

Henry James to Elizabeth Boott, 24 January 1872: "I heard read in MS. the other evening a new story by Bret Harte (for the next Atlantic) better than anything in his 'second manner' -- though not quite so good as his first."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Manuscript: Unknown

Joseph Ernest Renan : unknown

" ... [Henry James] would [after 1872] be a close reader of Renan ... whom he later met."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Marcus Tullius Cicero : [Letters]

'The fault of the great author, whose letters to his friend you have been reading, is, that Tully is wholly concerned for the fame of Cicero; and that for fame and self-exaltation sake. In some of his orations, what is called his vehemence (but really is too often insult and ill manners) so transports him, that a modern pleader... would not be heard, if he were to take the like freedoms... Cicero's constitutional faults seem to be vanity and cowardice. Great geniuses seldom have small faults. You have seen, I presume, Dr Middleton's "Life of Cicero". It is a fine piece; but the Doctor, I humbly think, has played the panegyrist, in some places in it, rather than the historian. The present laureat's performance on the same subject, of which Dr Middleton's is the foundation, is a spirited and pretty piece... You greatly oblige me, Madam, whenever you give me your observations upon what you read'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group:

Marcus Tullius Cicero :

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Richardson Print: Book

Dr D of Prospect Villa : [letter]

"'ne morning as we were sitting at breakfast, about 9 o'clock, ... in the garden, the postman, who had been knocking at the door, ... flung a paid letter on the path. Patty picked it up - it was directed to my father, and my mother opened it... My mother put a half-sheet into my hand from Dr D of Prospect Villa, ... "There", said she, "is something which I hope will prevent your going to Caudon - read it". The note was an acknowledgement...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Manby Smith Manuscript: Letter

Dr D of Prospect Villa : [letter]

'One morning as we were sitting at breakfast, about 9 o'clock, ... in the garden, the postman, who had been knocking at the door, ... flung a paid letter on the path. Patty picked it up - it was directed to my father, and my mother opened it... My mother put a half-sheet into my hand from Dr D of Prospect Villa, ... "There", said she, "is something which I hope will prevent your going to Caudon - read it". The note was an acknowledgement...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Smith Manuscript: Letter

William Dean Howells : A Chance Acquaintance (fifth part)

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 22 June 1873: "I heard from my mother a day or two since that your book is having a sale -- bless it! I haven't yet seen the last part ... Your fifth part I extremely relished ... Kitty [character] is a creation. I have envied you greatly, as I read, the delight of feeling her grow so real and complete ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Thomas Bailey Aldrich : Marjory Daw

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 22 June 1873: "I've just seen Aldrich's Marjory Daw in the Revue looking as natural as if begotten in the Gallic brain. It's a pretty compliment to have translated it ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

William Dean Howells : A Chance Acquaintance

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 9 September 1873, regarding Howells's A Chance Acquaintance (just published): "I had great pleasure in reading it over ... [goes on to praise in detail]"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Thomas Bailey Aldrich : story

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 3 May 1874: "Of Aldrich's tale, I'm sorry to say I've lost the thread, through missing a number of the magazine ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

William Dean Howells : review of Henry James, A Passionate Pilgrim

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 19 or 26 March 1875: "I read this morning your notice of A Passionate Pilgrim ... If kindness could kill I should be safely out of the reach of ever challenging your ingenuity again."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

Jean de La Bruyere : Les caracteres de Theophraste et de La Bruyere, avec des notes par M. Coste

[Marginalia]: pencil annotation at the end of the text of v.1 (ie p. 378): 'And this is given as the character of Louis the Fourteenth Pooh! P...! What a Prostitution of Talents [?] & Truth!' 'Is it that [?] can creep and pride that licks the dust' Two very brief notes on p. 342 and p. 182. Also has marginal marks | and * on various pages.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Drummond Erskine Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

'There is a novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which I should not omit to mention, since it made a great sensation when it appeared, and it was the only book of its class brought home by my father. "Uncle Tom" was read aloud in our little family circle, and it gave us many hours of happy, thrilling and not unwholesome excitement.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Peter Burt Print: Book

Horace Benedict Saussure : Voyage dans les Alpes

'I have no enthusiasm-cui bono? I always ask myself. It would be irksome, & impossible, in this state of my sheet, to criticise the elegant and ingenious rather than powerful or philosophical narrative which Horace Benedict Saussure gives of his journeys in the Alps. I am in the third quarto-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Biot : Traite de Physique

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

[alone in the sick bay] 'Read "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", as I always do when in the sick room.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Kidnapped

[alone in the sick bay] 'Read "Kidnapped". Not up to much... Dr came and said I couldn't go down [into lessons] until Monday. Damn. Felt miserable. Read "Trail of the Sandhill Stag" and tidied out the book cupboard.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Ernest Seton Thompson : Trail of the Sandhill Stag, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Christabel

'1943 My Favourite: Books: "How Green Was my Valley", "Witch in the Wood". Authors: T.H.White, Hugh Walpole Poems: "Christabel", "Lotus Eaters" Writers: Shaw, Shakespeare'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Lotos Eaters, The

'1943 My Favourite: Books: "How Green Was my Valley", "Witch in the Wood". Authors: T.H.White, Hugh Walpole Poems: "Christabel", "Lotus Eaters" Writers: Shaw, Shakespeare'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : [unknown]

'1943 My Favourite: Books: "How Green Was my Valley", "Witch in the Wood". Authors: T.H.White, Hugh Walpole Poems: "Christabel", "Lotus Eaters" Writers: Shaw, Shakespeare'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Dora Olive Thompson : That Girl Ginger

[List of books read in 1943, in diary for 1943]: 'The Farthing Spinster; Guy Mannering; Whereas I was Blind; And So to Bath; The Story of San Michele; Attack Alarm; The Murders in Praed Street; Lover's Meeting; The Secret Battle; Witch Wood; MD - Doctor of Murder; Murder at the Keyhole; That Girl Ginger; Ten Minute Alibi; Diary of a District Officer; Tarzan the Untamed; Peter Abelard; Pip; Pied Piper; A Man Lay Dead; Random Harvest; Madame Curie; Stalky and Co; Bellarion; Down the Garden Path; The Three Musketeers vol 1; The House in Cornwall; A Tall Ship; The Two Saplings; Farewell Victoria; Quinneys; House of Terror; Penguin Parade 4; Guy Mannering[presumably a re-reading]; The Man Born to be King; Casterton Papers; Old Saint Paul's; The Moon is Down; 1066 and all That; My Brother Jonathon; Gulliver's Travels; Ensign Knightley; Men Against Death; Fame is the Spur; Gone with the Wind; Mesmer; First Nights; The Hound of the Baskervilles; Little Gidding; Beau Geste; Beau Sabreur; The Amazing Theatre; The Pleasure of Your Company; Dandelion Days; Humour and Fantasy; Juno and the Paycock; The Beautiful Years; Teach Yourself to Think; Salar the Salmon; The Cathedral; The Mysterious Mr I; The Picts and the Martyrs; The Dream of Fair Women; The Star-born; Three Short Stories; A Thatched Roof; The Surgeon's Log; The Healing Knife; Nine Ghosts; While Rome Burns; The Star Spangled Manner; The Day Must Dawn; The Tower of London; Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; The Old Man's Birthday; A little Princess; Ego 5; The Lighter Side of School Life; Kidnapped; The Trail of the Sandhill Stag; Ballet Lover's Notebook; Lorna Doone; The Plays of JM Barrie; Jane Eyre; I'll Leave it to You; Henry Fifth; Longer Poems; Antony and Cleopatra; The Man in Grey; The House in Dormer Forest; The Writing of English; Miss Mapp; The Song of Bernadette; Happy and Glorious; Sixty Poems; The Birth of Romance; The Comedy of Life; Some Little Tales; Dream Days; Royal Flush.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine de Sta?l-Holstein : 'Considerations on the French Revolution'

'There is also Madame de Stael on the French revolution - first volume only finished - remarks (if any) in the next letter.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine de Sta?l-Holstein : Considerations Sur La Revolution Francaise

'In conformity with ancient custom, I ought now to transmit you some account of my studies- But I have too much conscience to dilate upon this subject. Besides, it is not so easy to criticise the brilliant work of Madame de Stael-considerations sur quelques evenemen[t]s de la revolution - as to tell you, what I learnt from a small Genevese attending Jameson's class, that she was very ugly and very immoral- yet had fine eyes, and was very kind to the poor people of Coppet & the environs.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Horace Benedict Saussure : Voyages dans les Alpes

'In conformity with ancient custom, I ought now to transmit you some account of my studies- But I have too much conscience to dilate upon this subject... On the same authority [a small Genevese], I inform you that Horace Benedict Saussure (whose beautiful voyages I have not yet finished) died 20 years ago; but Theodore, his son, is still living.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Jean Sylvain Bailly : Memoires D'un Temoin De La Revolution

'I read Bailly's memoires d'un temoin de la revolution, with little comfort. The book is not ill-written: but it grieved me to see the august historian of astronomy, the intimate of Kepler, Gallileo & Newton- "thrown into tumult, raptur'd or alarm'd," at the approbation or the blame of Parisian tradesmen - not to speak of the "pouvres ouvriers" [poor workers], as he fondly names the dogs, du faubourg St Antoine.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal Marquise de Sevigne : Letters

'Have you read Mad. Sevigne's Letters from the [French]? Fine passages and Sentiments there are in it, & a notion given of the French manner tho' written in the middle reign of Louis XIV. What are the Two volumes called the History of Man from the French also. There is a volume which is not chaste enough to be recommended to your Ladiship. It is truly French. Its language good. But for the knowledge of the hearts of people given up to what is called Gallantry, particularly French Gallantry, I have not seen its equal. It is called Letters of Ninon de Lenclos to the marquis of Sevigne. Son of the above-named Lady, and her contemporary. It will not offend the Ear. But I would not by any means recommend it to a very young Lady'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Richardson Print: Book

Dorothy L Sayers : The Man Born to be King

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : Hound of the Baskervilles, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Harry S. Keller : Mysterious Mr I, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Dorothy L Sayers : Have His Carcase

'Read "Have His Carcase". Will be the last fiction I'll read at weekends till after exams, worse luck. Am beginning revision to-morrow.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Complete Plays

'Read Shaw, which is wonderful, but I'm sure I don't understand half of it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Hiawatha

'1944 My Favourite: Books: "Peter Abelard". "The Story of San Michele" Authors: Henry Williamson, B. Nichols Poems: Hiawatha. Arabia Writers: Shaw. Dorothy Sayers'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Heartbreak House

[List of books read during 1944]: 'The Specialist; All This and Heaven Too; Antony; Uncle Tom's Cabin; Roper's Row; Tom Brown's Schooldays; Life's a Circus; The Keys of the Kingdom; Two Survived; Hamlet; King's Nurse, Beggar's Nurse; The Snow Goose; Gerald; Early Stages; Cross Creek; Footnotes to the Ballet; The Great Ship; Hungry Hill; Hiawatha; Captain Blood; Scaramouche; Heartbreak House; Fortune's Fool; Fifth Form at St Dominic's; Cold Comfort Farm; The Lost King; The count of Monte Cristo; Diary of a Provincial Lady; Frenchman's Creek; Song of Bernadette; Romeo and Juliet; Rebecca; The Surgeon's Destiny; The Killer and the Slain; Anna; King Solomon's Mines; The Black Moth; Have His Carcase; Peacock Pie; Alice in Wonderland; The Citadel; Good Companions; Our Hearts were Young and Gay; Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man; The Healing Knife; First Year Out; Saint Joan; Stars Look Down; Bridge of San Luis Rey; Rogue Herries; Caesar and Cleopatra; Xmas at Cold Comfort Farm; Dark Lady of the Sonnets; The Velvet Deer; Leaves from a Surgeon's Case Book; A Christmas Carol; Craft of Comedy; As You Like It; Lottie Dundass; Plays of John Galsworthy; Provincial Lady in America; She Shanties; Peter Abelard; Actor, Soldier, Poet; The Best of Lamb; Some Essay of Elia; Poems, Plays etc; The White Cliffs; Three Men in a Boat; Confessions of an Opium Eater; In Search of England; Wuthering Heights; Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Poems of Contemporary Women; Crime at the Club; Quality Street; Villette; Major Barbara; Pygmalion; You Never Can Tell; King John; Doctor's Dilemma'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Saint Joan

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Caesar and Cleopatra

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Dark Lady of the Sonnets

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Jerome K. Jerome : Three Men in a Boat

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Major Barbara

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Pygmalion

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : You Never Can Tell

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Doctor's Dilemma

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : [poems]

?The gentle Cowper was my earliest favourite, a small second-hand copy of his poems, which I bought for eighteen pence, being the first book I bought for myself. It emptied my pocket, but I walked home, as I had walked to Newcastle (a distance some eighteen miles to and fro) with a light head, now and then reading as I fared along. Longfellow, Pope, Milton, Wordsworth and other poets were soon afterwards added to my little collection. I read them all. Many passages have clung to my memory, a life-long possession, giving, with their music, sometimes inspiration, sometimes solace in the conflicts and sorrows of life.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Book

Alexander van Humboldt : Cosmos

?Two or three years my senior, Sam, like myself, was acquiring a taste for books. Our tastes were not wholly dissimilar. Both of us read and enjoyed poetry; but while Sam?s more solid reading was in science, especially in astronomy and geology, mine was in history, biography, logic, languages, oratory, and general literature. Sam?s favourite books at this time were Alison?s "History of Europe" and Humboldt?s "Cosmos".?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Bailey Print: Book

Phillip James Bailey : Festus: A poem

?[William Ritson] was a lover of books ? specially fond of poetry. He lent me about this time a paper-backed copy of Bailey?s "Festus", which I read with great admiration.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Book

Thomas Babbington Macaulay : History of England

?Macaulay, who had recently died, was greatly in vogue. I had read with enjoyment and advantage his "History of England" and some of his essays.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Book

Countess Claire-Elisabeth de Remusat : Correspondence (vols 6 and 7)

Henry James to Thomas Seregant Perry, 25 November 1883: "I have just been reading the two last [sixth and seventh] volumes of Mme de Remusat, just out -- her correspondence with her son -- and finding them interestng ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

James Anthony Froude : Life of Carlyle (concluding instalments)

Henry James to Violet Paget, 21 October 1884: "I have just been reading the new instalment (conclusion) of Froude's Carlyle ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : article

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 5 December 1884: "I read only last night your paper in the December Longman's in genial rejoinder to my article in the same periodical on Besant's lecture, and the result ... is a friendly desire to send you three words."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

Mrs Humphry Ward : Miss Bretherton

Henry James to Mrs Humphry Ward, 9 December 1884: "I read ... [Miss Bretherton] with great interest and pleasure ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Henry James Sr and William James : The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James

Henry James to William James, 2 January 1885: "Three days ago ... came the two copies of Father's (and your) book ... All I have had time to read as yet is the introduction ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book, Unknown

E. L. Godkin : review of The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James

Henry James to William James, 15 February 1885: "You don't tell me whether you had any rejoinder from Godkin to the letter you wrote about the [unfavourable] review [in The Nation] of your book [The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James]. When I had read the article it was absolutely impossible for me not to write to him on my own account ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

H. Rider Haggard : King Solomon's Mines

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 2 August 1886: "Since I saw you [on Sunday 1 August] I have finished Solomon and read half of 'She' ... It isn't nice that anything so vulgarly brutal should be the thing that succeeds most with the English of today [goes on to complain further of violence and racism in this novel]."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. Rider Haggard : She

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

William Dean Howells : The Minister's Charge

Henry James to Wiliam Dean Howells, 7 December 1886: "The last thing I did before leaving London three days and a half ago was to purchase 'Lemuel Barker' ... and though I laid him down twenty-four hours ago I am still full of the sense of how he beguiled and delighted and illumined my way. The beauties of nature passed unheeded and the St. Gotthard tunnel, where I had a reading lamp, was over in a shriek. The book is so awfully good that my perusal of it was one uninterrupted Bravo."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

William Dean Howells : article

Henry James to William James, 5 October 1887 (in letter begun 1 October 1887): "I hadn't seen ... [W. D. Howells's] 'tribute' in the September Harper, but I have just looked it up."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

Robert Louis Stevenson : The Master of Ballantrae

Henry James to Wiliam James, 29 November 1888: " ... I have had in my hands the earlier sheets of the Master of Ballantrae, the new novel ... [R. L. Stevenson] is about to contribute to Scribner, and have been reading them with breathless admiration."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Manuscript: Sheet

various authors : correspondence and other papers

'I am employing myself at present, in looking over & sorting, & classing my Correspondencies and other Papers. This, when done, will amuse me by reading over again, a very ample Correspondence: & in comparing the Sentiments of my Correspondents, at the time, with their present; and improving from both'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Richardson Manuscript: Letter, letters and papers

David Herbert Lawrence :

[Lehmann and her first husband, Leslie Runcimann] 'were great readers, particularly of modern novelists such as Huxley, Lawrence and Gerhardie.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamond Lehmann Print: Book

William Alexander Gerhardi(e) :

[Lehmann and her first husband, Leslie Runcimann] 'were great readers, particularly of modern novelists such as Huxley, Lawrence and Gerhardie.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamond Lehmann Print: Book

William Alexander Gerhardi(e) :

[Lehmann and her first husband, Leslie Runcimann] 'were great readers, particularly of modern novelists such as Huxley, Lawrence and Gerhardie.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Runcimann Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence :

[Lehmann and her first husband, Leslie Runcimann] 'were great readers, particularly of modern novelists such as Huxley, Lawrence and Gerhardie.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Runcimann Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot :

'her main intellectual interests were always literary, and as a novelist she was predominantly engaged in the business of reading and writing, with a keen critical interest in the works of other writers. She read avidly, modern poets such as T.S. Eliot, Roy Fuller, Auden and Cecil Day Lewis, and contemporary novelists, admiring in particular the work of Faulkner and Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Ivy Compton Burnett, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Jean Rhys and Elizabeth Bowen. Jean Rhys's bleak, beautiful novel "Voyage in the Dark", published in the same month as [Lehmann's] "Invitation to the Waltz", had much impressed Rosamond, who invited its author to tea'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamond Lehmann Print: Book

Wystan Hugh Auden :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamond Lehmann Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamond Lehmann Print: Book

Ivy Compton Burnett :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamond Lehmann Print: Book

Sylvia Townsend Warner :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamond Lehmann Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : The Four Quartets

[Rosamond Lehmann wrote in her memoir, "Swan at Evening"] "I took down and re-read "The Four Quartets", the sublime, unhopeful, consoling cluster of poems; and discovered, or rather re-discovered, that everything was there - everything that I have been trying, and shall be trying, to say".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamond Lehmann Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : Political Economy

?There were other books which I then read and studied with care, including Adam Smith?s "Wealth of Nations" and Mill?s "Political Economy". This was not a kind of literature to borrow from public libraries, but to have in one?s possessions.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Book

G. B. Shaw : Common Sense about the War

'I asked James if he had read Shaw?s Manifesto. He said "I have it here and have made several attempts, but his horrible flippancy revolts me".?

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

Louis Sebastien Mercier : Mon Bonnet de Nuit

'While at Mitchelstown she brushed up on her French by reading Madame de Genlis's "Letters on Education", Louis Sebastien Mercier's comedy "Mon Bonnet de Nuit", and the Baroness de Montoliere's novel "Caroline de Litchfield". The first she pronounced "wonderfully clever", and it may well have proved helpful to her as a teacher; the last she described as "One of the prettiest things I have ever read", and it perhaps suggested that her own life could serve as the basis of a sentimental novel'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile

'the book that prompted [Mary Wollstonecraft's] fullest comment was Rousseau's "Emile". It was bound to appeal to her; it was a treatise on education, a metaphysical essay - at times almost a sermon - and a sentimental novel, all in one'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book

Arnold Bennett : How to Become an Author

'Swinnerton feels sure that C & W would be willing to publish a new edition of "How to become an Author". I gave him the book to read and he is enthusiastic about it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Swinnerton Print: Book

William Dean Howells : A Hazard of New Fortunes vol 1

Henry James to William Dean Howells, from Milan, 17 May 1890: " ... I have been reading the Hazard of New Fortunes ... it has filled me with communicable rapture ... I read the first volume just before I left London -- and the second, which I began the instant I got into the train at Victoria, made me wish immensely that both it and the journey to Bale and thence were formed to last longer."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

William Dean Howells : A Hazard of New Fortunes vol 2

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile

'I am now reading Rousseau's "Emile", and love his paradoxes. He chuses a common capacity to educate - and gives as a reason, that a genius will educate itself - however he rambles into a chimerical world into which I have too often [wand]ered - and draws the usual conclusion that all is vanity and vexation of spirit.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book

[probably] Christian Gotthilf Salzmann : [probably] Moralisches Elementarbuch

'I am so fatigued with poring over a German book, I scarcely can collect my thoughts or even spell English words.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Ballads

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 12 January 1891: "To-day what I am grateful for is your new ballad-book, which has just reached me by your command. I have had time only to read the first few things ... As I turn the pages I seem to see that they are full of charm ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : The South Seas

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 12 January 1891: "I read with unrestrictive relish the first chapters of your prose volume (kindly vouchsafed me in the little copyright-catching red volume) and I loved 'em and blessed them quite."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Ballads

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 13 January 1891 (in letter begun 12 January 1891): "Since yesterday I have ... read the ballad book -- with the admiration that I always feel as a helplessly verseless creature ..."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

'L.' - prob George Henry Lewes :

'When we came home I read some of L.'s M.S. aloud.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown

Charles Augustin Sainte Beuve : [unknown]

'We read, wrote and walked a little before dinner. After, I read Sainte Beuve aloud.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben : [a bacchanalian poem]

'When the cigars came, Hoffmann was requested to read some of his poetry, and he gave us a bacchanalian poem with great spirit... little rain sent us into the house, and when we were seated in an elegant drawing room, opening into a large music salon, we had more reading from Hoffmann, and from the French artist who with a tremulous voice pitched in a minor key, read us some rather pretty sentimentalities of his own'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Manuscript: Unknown, own poem

[a french artist] : [his own poems]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Die Wahlverwandtschaften

'In the morning I partly condensed Liszt's article on Meyerbeer for the Vivian paper. In the evening walked and read aloud the Wahlverwandtschaften.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

James Elroy Flecker : [poetry]

'Spent half an hour reading Flecker - he's wonderful'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

James Elroy Flecker : [poetry]

'I felt incapable of doing any Zoo [zoology preparation for mid-school exams] so read Flecker's poetry all night! Felt immensely cheered up by it, but very wicked!'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [probably] : Egmont

'Began to read Egmont after dinner, then "The Hoggarty Diamond".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Great Hoggarty Diamond

'Began to read Egmont after dinner, then "The Hoggarty Diamond".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Gross Cophta

'Bad headache all day. Gross Cophta in the evening. Looked through Moore's Life of Sheridan in the morning - a first rate specimen of bad biographical writing'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

possibly Johann Nikolaus Gotz : [if this Gotz, then poetry]

'I read Gotz in the morning. In the afternoon, Liszt, the Marquis de Ferriere and Mr Marshall sat with us. Walked, read the "Burgergeneral", and chatted with Mr M. again in the evening.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Der Burgergeneral

'I read Gotz in the morning. In the afternoon, Liszt, the Marquis de Ferriere and Mr Marshall sat with us. Walked, read the "Burgergeneral", and chatted with Mr M. again in the evening.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

James Elroy Flecker : Old Ships, The

'Today I spent ages trying to find a poem for Elocution [Grade 6 exam] in my special choice part. At last I chose "The Old Ships" by Flecker, which I think is one of the most beautiful poems I have ever read.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Summer Evening

'I have been reading Tennyson's "Summer Evening", which is a lovely poem, full of pictures.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Edwyn Robert Bevan : Jerusalem under the High Priests: five lectures on the period between Nehemiah and the New Testament

[Sunday, on a bike picnic] 'It began to pour down just as B [unidentified] and I reached a barn... so we stayed there to eat, and curled up on rugs on mouldy straw, and I read "Jerusalem under the High Priests"! Arrived in at 6:30 totally soaked! Maccy [later the cookery writer Jane Grigson] has a tiny book of Shakespeare's Sonnets which I must try and get - they are most lovely and very interesting and soothing.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

'Began translating Spinoza's Ethics... Read Wilhelm Meister aloud in the evening'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : Rivals, The

'I finished reading "The Rivals", and have embarked on Bradley's "Shakespearean Tragedy"'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Carl Eduard Vehse : Der Hof zu Weimar

'Read Vehse's Weimar in the evening'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : Rivals, The

'I did a lot of "The Rivals", which I don't like a bit. It has momentary flashes of wit, but otherwise it's awful.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

James Elroy Flecker : [poetry]

'I read Flecker most of evening and am more and more convinced that his poetry is wonderful'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry

'Read Laocoon'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

'In the evening we went to Spargnapini's, and had some chocolate and read the papers. G. finished reading allowed (sic) the Merchant of Venice, and I the first vol. of Wilhelm Meister'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry

'Finished Lessing's Laocoon - the most un-German of all German books that I have ever read.The style is strong clear and lively, the thoughts acute and pregnant. It is well adapted to rouse an interest both in the classics and in the study of art'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi : Briefe Uber Spinoza

'The weather continues disagreeable and the streets dirty. Read Jacobi's Briefe uber Spinoza.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Nathan der Weise

'Home for half an hour and read Nathan der Weise'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Minna von Barnhelm

''Finished Minna von Barnhelm... G. began Antony and Cleopatra'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Italianische Reise

'Began the Italianische Reise.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Italianische Reise

'Read Italianische Reise - Residence in Naples. Pretty passage about a star seen through a chink in the ceiling as he lay in bed. G. read Henry IV'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Robert Louis Stevenson : Across the Plains

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 15 April 1892: "... I have just read the last page of the sweet collection of some of your happiest lucubrations put forth by the care of dear [Sidney] Colvin."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Island Nights

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 8 June 1893: "It was only when I came back [from travels abroad] the other day that I could put my hand on the Island Nights, which by your generosity ... I found awaiting me on my table ... I read them as fondly as an infant sucks a stick of candy."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

James Russell Lowell : Letters of James Russell Lowell

Henry James to Charles Eliot Norton, 15 November 1893: "The two beautiful volumes of dear J[ames] R[ussell] L[owell] constitute a gift for the substantial grace of which I lose as little time as possible in affectionately thanking you ... I have read the whole thing with absorption and with a delightful illusion [of Lowell's being present]."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Life

Henry James to Mrs. Henry James Sr., 8 May 1876: "I have been reading Macaulay's Life with extreme interest and entertainment, and admiration of the intellectual robustness of the man."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : [a farce]

'G went at 8 and I spent the evening alone for the first time since we have been at Berlin. I read G's Farce - Robson's adventure with a Russian Princess'.

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Hermann and Dorothea

'Read Hermann and Dorothea - 4 first books. G read 2nd Part of Henry IV'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre

'I began to read aloud the Wanderjahre'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : [discourse on Shakespeare]

'Came home and copied Goethe's discourse on Shakespeare. Read, at dinner, his wonderful observations on Spinoza. Particularly struck with the beautiful modesty of the passage in which he says he cannot presume to say that he thoroughly understands Spinoza. After coffee read aloud G's M.S. of the Leipsic and beginning of the Strasburg Period. G. finished Lear - sublimely powerful!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : [on Spinoza]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : [draft of Life of Goethe]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown, MS of Lewes' book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Dichtung und Wahrheit

'Read at dinner Goethe's account of his relations with Herder at Strasburg in Dichtung und Warheit. Continued aloud Heine's Salon. G. read Knight's studies of Shakspeare. Twaddling in the extreme'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Thomas [?] Knight : [studies of Shakespeare]

'Read at dinner Goethe's account of his relations with Herder at Strasburg in "Dichtung und Warheit". Continued aloud Heine's "Salon". G. read Knight's studies of Shakspeare. Twaddling in the extreme'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Henry Lewes Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Maxims, in Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre

'Read Goethe's "Maxims in the Wanderjahre". Then we compared several scenes of "Hamlet" in Schlegel's translation with the original. It is generally very close and often admirably done but Shakespeare's strong concrete language is almost always weakened'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : book in MS, perhaps his Life of Goethe

'Staid at home this evening and read G's M.S. Book 3. Took a little walk under the Linden and afterwards read Twelfth Night'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown, book M.S.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : West-Ostliche Divan

'Finished the poetry of the West-Ostliche Divan'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

'Tried reading the 2nd part of Faust aloud, but gave it up, as it was too difficult for G. to follow it rapidly enough. Read a little of Gervinus on Shakespeare, but found it unsatisfactory. Read some of Stahr's "Ein Jahr in Italien". The description of Florence excellent'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Georg Gottfried Gervinus : [on Shakespeare]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Romische Elegien

'Read the wondrously beautiful "Romische Elegien" again and some of the Venetian epigrams. G. began Winter's Tale'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Venetian Epigrams

'Read the wondrously beautiful "Romische Elegien" again and some of the Venetian epigrams. G. began Winter's Tale'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : "Zuegnung", "Gedichte", Ballads

'In the evening... read the "Zueignung" to the "Gedichte" and several of the Ballads'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Karl Eduard Vehse : probably Geschichte der deutschen H?fe seit der Reformation

'Read... two first vols. of Vehse. Called at Vehse's for the other volumes'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

'In the evening began Macaulay's History of England. Richard III and G's M.S. on Goethe's scientific labours'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : part of the MS of his Life of Goethe

'In the evening began Macaulay's History of England. Richard III and G's M.S. on Goethe's scientific labours'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown, MS of book

George Henry Lewes : MS of his Life of Goethe

'Read G.'s MS. of Friendship between Schiller and Goethe'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown, MS of book

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe : Reineke Fuchs

'Began "Reineke Fuchs"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

William Dean Howells : The Lady of the Aroostook

Henry James to W. D. Howells, 7 April 1879: "The amazingly poor little notice of your novel in the last (at least my last) Nation, makes me feel that I must no longer delay to ... tell you with what high relish and extreme appreciation I have read it. (I wish you had sent it to me ... I have had to go and buy it -- for eight terrible shillings ...)"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Wiliam Dean Howells : The Undiscovered Country

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 18 April 1880: "I read your current novel with pleasure, but I don't think the subject fruitful, and I suspect that much of the public will agree with me."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Unknown

William Dean Howells : The Undiscovered Country

Henry James to Wiliam Dean Howells, 20 July 1880; "I am much obliged to you for the pretty volume of the Undiscovered, which I immediately read with greater comfort and consequence than in the magazine."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Charles Eliot Norton : Historical Studies of Church Building in the Middle Ages: Venice, Siena, Florence

Henry James to Grace Norton, 7 November 1880: ' ... please tell Charles [Norton] I am to write to him in a day or two to thank him for his own beautiful volume which I have waited to do, only to read it. I am just terminating this pleasure, and he shall hear from me.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Wiliam Dean Howells : Dr. Breen's Practice

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 4 October 1881, on Howells's new story, Dr Breen's Practice: "I won't forego the pleasure of letting you know ... what satisfaction the history of your Doctress gives me. I came back last night from a month in Scotland, and found the October Atlantic on my table; whereupon, though weary with travel I waked early this morning on purpose to read your contribution in bed -- in my little London-dusky back-bedroom, where I can never read at such hours without a pair of candles."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

G. W. Smalley : article on American novels

Henry James to G. W. Smalley, 21 February 1883: "I have just been reading in the Tribune your letter of Jan. 25, in which you devote a few lines to the silly article in the Quarterly on American Novels, etc [goes on to correct points in this]."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

Baron Jacob Berzelius : Examination of some compounds which depend upon very weak affinities

'The Dr [Brewster] stopped to tell me that he had got a paper on Chemistry written (in French) by Berzelius, professor of that science in Stockholm - which was to be published in April:- would I translate it? I answered in the affirmative; and next day went over to get the paper in question. It consists of six long sheets, written in a cramp hand, & in a very diffuse [s]tile. I have it more than half done. The labour of writing it down is the principal one. In other respects there is no difficulty.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Manuscript: Sheet

Baron Jacob Berzelius : Examination of some compounds which depend upon very weak affinities

'With respect to my occupations at this period; they are not of the most important nature. Berzelius' paper is printed - I was this day correcting the proof-sheet-. The translation looks not very ill in print. I wish I had plenty more of a similar [sor]t to translate and good pay for doing it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Proof-sheet

August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue : Unknown

'At present, I am reading a stupid play of Kotzebue's - but to-night I am to have the history of Frederick the Great from Irving. I will make an affu' struggle to read a good deal of it & of the Italian in Summer - when at home.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Jean le Rond D'Alembert : Unknown

'You are not to think that I am fretful. I have long accustomed my mind to look upon the future with a sedate aspect; and at any rate, my hopes have never yet failed me. A French Author (D'Alembert, one of the few persons who deserve the honourable epithet of honest man) whom I was lately reading, remarks that one who devotes his life to learning ought to carry for his motto-Liberty, Truth, Poverty; for her that fears the latter can never have the former.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Unknown

Mostyn John Armstrong : Scotch Atlas; or description of the kingdom of Scotland: divided into counties, with the subdivisions of sherifdoms; shewing their respective boundaries and extent, soil, produce, ... also their cities, chief towns, seaports, mountains, ...

[Marginalia]: Three entries (Perth, Haddington and Fife & Kinross) have been annotated with some extra information ex. from the Perth entry 'At a small village calld [sic] Pitcaithly within a mile of Dumbarny, 25 miles from Perth, is a well whose water is remarkable for curing sore eyes. Near Loch Dochart in Breadalbane, is Ben More, among the highest hills in Scotland.'

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Wemyss Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : [poems]

?A situation as an errand boy at a bookseller?s was then found for me. A circulating library was attached to the business. My duties were to clean books and knives and brasses, and then carry books and magazines to the houses of the gentry who were subscribers to the library. The occupation was not uncongenial? for I was able to steal a peep at literature which would not otherwise have come within my reach. The book that was then in greatest demand, as I gathered from so often carrying it from one house to another, was Eliot Warburton?s "Crescent and the Cross", and next to it, I think, came Tennyson?s poems.?

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Edwin Adams Print: Book

Thomas Jonathan Wooler : Black Dwarf

?His [James Watson?s] mother, who was left a widow soon after he was born, obtained a situation at the parsonage, where she read Cobbett?s "Register" and "saw nothing bad in it". James himself was apprenticed to the clergyman to "learn field labour" but his indentures, owing to the reverend gentleman leaving Yorkshire for another part of the country, were cancelled before he had finished his time. Thereupon the youth set out for Leeds in search for friends and employment. While working in a warehouse, he too began to read Cobbett?s "Register" and "saw nothing bad in it". Besides Cobbett?s writings, he early made the acquaintance of the Radical literature of the day ? Wooler?s "Black Dwarf" and Carlile?s "Republican".?

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Watson Print: Serial / periodical

Anna Letitia Barbauld : Hymns in Prose for Children

'Another book which thus came in my way was Mrs Barbauld's "Hymns for Children" which I soon perceived to be exactly suited both to my taste and my capacity. Here I met with descriptions of rural scenery, life and manners which delighted and instructed me...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Sir Richard Phillips : Geography

'I had been made the more anxious to get some spare time, because several books which I had not before seen now fall in my way. This was through the courtesy of my young master whose kindly feelings I have already noticed. He now gave me free acess to his little library, in which were Enfield's "Speaker", Goldsmith's "Geography", an abridged "History of Rome", a "History of England", Thomson's "Seasons", "The Citizen of the World", "The Vicar of Wakefield", and some other books the titles of which I do not now remember. These books furnished me with a large amount of amusing and instructive reading.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Rev. Thomas Scott : [various essays]

'Nor must I omit to mention the obligations I owe to some essays written by the late Rev. Thomas Scott and which were given me by my master. I do not remember their exact titles, nor can I recollect much of more than one of them. This was, if I err not, a kind of exposition on the tenth commandment...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Theodor (?) Schwann : unknown

'We are reading Wallenstein and Schwann in the evenings'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book

Franz Joseph Gall : Anatomie et Physiologie du Cerveau

'We are reading Gall's Anatomie et Physiologie du Cerveau in the evening, with, occasionally, Carpenter's Comparative Physiology. The Newcomes as light fare after dinner'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book

William Benjamin Carpenter : Principles of General and Comparative Physiology

'We are reading Gall's Anatomie et Physiologie du Cerveau in the evening, with, occasionally, Carpenter's Comparative Physiology. The Newcomes as light fare after dinner'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Newcomes

'We are reading Gall's Anatomie et Physiologie du Cerveau in the evening, with, occasionally, Carpenter's Comparative Physiology. The Newcomes as light fare after dinner'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Hiawatha

'We have been reading Longfellow's Hiawatha'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book

Karl Friedrich August Kahnis : [history of German Protestantism - title unclear]

'finished Kahnis' History of German Protestantism'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

William Heinrich (?) Riehl : unknown

'Began to read Riehl, on which I am to write an article for the Westminster'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Richard Chenevix Trench : An essay on the life and genius of Calder?n,: With translations from his Life's a dream and Great theatre of the world

'In the evenings I have been reading Masson's Essays - "The Three Devils" and Chatterton's Life - and this evening I have read some of Trench's Calderon'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Breau : [zoology]

'have now taken up Quatrefages again.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Aurora Leigh

'We are reading Carlyle's "Cromwell" and "Aurora Leigh" again in the evenings. I am still in the "Oedipus Tyrannus", with Shelley's Poems and snatches of "Natural History".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [Poems]

'We are reading Carlyle's "Cromwell" and "Aurora Leigh" again in the evenings. I am still in the "Oedipus Tyrannus", with Shelley's Poems and snatches of "Natural History".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book

John William Draper : Human Physiology

'I have begun Draper's "Physiology", too but rarely have spirit and clearness of brain for it'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book

Henry Thomas Buckle : History of Civilization in England

'Finished Buckle's "History of Civilization in England" vol. I which I began a fortnight ago.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Essays on Lord Clive And Warren Hastings

'In the evenings of late, we have been reading Harriet Martineau's sketch of "The British Empire in India", and are now following it up with Macaulay's articles of Clive and Hastings. We have lately read H.M.'s Introduction to the "History of the Peace" and have begun the "History of the Thirty Years Peace".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl : Die Familie

'We have been reading the last two evenings, the Christmas number of "Household Words" - "Perils of Certain English Prisoners" - by Wilkie Collins and Dickens. I am reading "Die Familie" by Riehl, forming the third volume of the series, the two first of which "Land und Volk" and "Die Burgerliche Gesellschaft", I reviewed for the Westminster'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book

Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl : Land Und Volk

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book

Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl : Die Burgerliche Gesellschaft

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book

Pierre Jean de Beranger :

'Read my new story to G. this evening as far as the end of the third chapter. He praised it highly... I am in the Choephorae now. In the evenings we are reading "History of Thirty Years' Peace" and Beranger. Throughly disappointed in Beranger'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book

Jean Fran?ois de Galaup La P?rouse : [narratives of voyages]

'About this time I read also the narratives of some eminent navigators and travellers; among the former were those of Cook, P?rouse and Bougainville; of the latter I chiefly remember those of Bruce, Le Vaillant and Weld. Mr. Weld's narrative so deeply interested me, as to have well nigh been the occasion of my emigrating to the United States or Canada. The desire of seeing those countries which was excited thereby remained with me for some years: it was the cause of my reading several works descriptive of North America and the condition of its inhabitants.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson marquise de Pompadour : Suite d'estampes gravees par Madame la marquise de Pompadour d'apres les pierre gravees de Guay graveur du Roy

[Marginalia]: 8 leaves of ms notes, in ink, in French, have been bound in at the beginning of the volume. They consist of an introduction praising those who protect and encourage the arts, including Madame la Pompadour, 'who brought fame to this series of etchings', followed by a description of each etching. There is also a single sheet, in a different hand, containing more notes related to the item.

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Louis Antoine de Bougainville : [narratives of voyages]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Christoph Christian Sturm : Reflections on the Works of God and of His Providence

'While walking to Hampstead, I strayed into a copse not far from my road, where I seated myself upon the trunk of a tree, and read, with no small pleasure, several of the papers contained in that highly entertaining book, "Sturm's Reflections on the Works of God". As I read these, surrounded by many of the objects upon which they so pleasingly descant, I was enabled to look "through nature up to nature's God"; to hold, as it were, converse with that glorious and beneficient Being, and to recognise Him as a father and a friend.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Edward Holton James : two stories

Henry James to Edward Holton James, 15 February 1896: 'For the two stories in the "Harvard Magazine" I am [...] gratefully indebted to you. I have read them with a searching of spirit (to begin with) inevitable to one who has in a manner set an example and who sees it (in his afternoon of life) inexorably and fatally followed.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

Arthur Christopher Benson : Diary

Henry James thanks Arthur Christopher Benson for letting him borrow and read his 'Diary', in letter of 1 October 1897: 'I have read, of course, every word -- and I think I have had real inspirations in the way of making you out.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock : Messiah

'It is the rainy evening of a dull day which I have spent in reading a little of Klopstock's Messiah (for the man Jardine, who broke his engagement); and in looking over the inflated work of 'Squire Bristed on "America and her resources". "Vivacity", therefore, on my part, is quite out of the question-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Lady Sidney Owenson Morgan : France

'I know not if there be a Goddess of Sloth - tho' considering that this of all our passions is the least turbulent and most victorious, it could not without partiality be left destitute - But if there be, she certainly looks on with an approving smile - when in a supine posture, I lie for hours with my eyes fixed upon the pages of Lady Morgan's France or the travels of Faujas St Fond - my mind seldon taking the pains even to execrate the imbecile materialism, the tawdry gossiping of the former, or to pity the infirm speculations and the already antiquated mineralogy of the latter.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Lady Sidney Morgan : Roderick, the Last of the Goths

'I know not if there be a Goddess of Sloth - tho' considering that this of all our passions is the least turbulent and most victorious, it could not without partiality be left destitute - But if there be, she certainly looks on with an approving smile - when in a supine posture, I lie for hours with my eyes fixed upon the pages of Lady Morgan's France or the travels of Faujas St Fond ... What shall I say to the woebegone Roderick last of the Goths; and others of a similar stamp? They go through my brain as light goes thro' an achromatic telescope.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron :

'In the [italics]Autobiography[end italics] he tells us of the impact of Byron on him and his friend Dave: "His influence on Dave was so great that it was publicly shown to all the boys and girls in the chapel's schoolroom... While we were playing kiss in the ring, singing and laughing... Dave would lean his figure... against a pillar, biting his lips and frowning at our merrymaking"... His friend soon tired of this Byronic posing, but Davies marks the occasion as the first time he was really attracted to poetry with enjoyment and serious purpose. He went on to read Shelley, Marlowe's plays, and some further Shakespeare. Wordsworth failed to attract him, though he later studied him very diligently'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Davies Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Davies Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: [Dave, friend of W.H. Davies] anon Print: Book

J. W. Mackail : The Life of William Morris

Henry James to Charles Eliot Norton, 28 November 1899 (in letter begun 24 November 1899): 'I gather [...] that you have read Mackail's Morris [...] I felt much moved, after reading the book, to try to write [...] something positively vivid about it; but we are in a moment of such excruciating vulgarity that nothing worth doing about anything or anyone seems to be wanted or welcomed anywhere.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Mrs Everard Cotes : His Honour and a Lady

Henry James to Mrs Everard Cotes, 26 January 1900, on (published) novel she has written and sent to him: 'Your book is extraordinarily keen and delicate and able [...] One or two things my acute critical intelligence murmured to me as I read. I think your drama lacks a little, [italics] line [end italics] [...] on which to string the pearls of detail.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The Time Machine

Henry James to H. G. Wells, 29 January 1900: 'It was very graceful of you to send me your book -- I mean the particular masterpiece entitled "The Time Machine", after I had so ungracefully sought it at your hands [...] You are very magnificent [...] I re-write you, much, as I read -- which is the highest tribute my damned impertinence can pay an author.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Katherine Prescott Wormeley : MS notes to Balzac's Letters

Henry James to Katherine Prescott Wormeley, 8 February 1900, thanking her for sending him a proof copy of her preface to her translation [of Balzac's Letters], and accompanying MS notes: 'I deeply appreciate the admirable and generous labour that prepared for me the ms. notes to Balzac's Letters and that accompanied the Preface to your translation. [...] I have read with care every word of your preface and notes -- as I had already read the "Roman d'Amour", and bought and read much of the "Lettres a l'Etrangere".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Manuscript: Unknown

Katherine Prescott Wormeley : Preface [on Balzac]

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: proof

Ford Madox Hueffer : Poems for Pictures

Henry James to Ford Madox Hueffer, 23 May 1900, thanking him for copy of his newly published volume of verse: 'I think your doubt about the verses misplaced and unjustified -- all those I have yet read seeming to me to hold their own very firmly indeed. Those I have read -- and re-read -- are the little rustic lays -- several of which I think admirable'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

William Dean Howells : Ragged Lady

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 29 June 1900: '[...] I've been, of late, reading you again as continuously as possible [...] the result of "Ragged Lady", the "Silver Journey", the "Pursuit of the Piano" and two or three other things (none wrested from your inexorable hand, but paid for from scant earnings) has been, ever so many times over, an impulse of reaction, of an intensely cordial sort'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

William Dean Howells : Their Silver Wedding Journey

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

William Dean Howells : 'Pursuit of the Piano' (short story)

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Unknown

W. Morton Fullerton : article

Henry James to W. Morton Fullerton, 9 August 1901: 'You speak of your "Cornhill" article as one always speaks and feels about one's potboilers; but that doesn't prevent me from having felt as I read it as if I were seated with you before that little [italics] cafe-glacier [end italics] that has the summer shade [...] and you were telling me, happily passive, things out of your abundance, and I could put my hand on your shoulder and wish the occasion would last.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

William Dean Howells : A Pair of Patient Lovers

Henry James to William Dean Howells, 10 August 1901: 'Ever since receiving and reading your elegant volume of short tales ["A Pair of Patient Lovers"]-- the arrival of which from you was affecting and delightful to me -- I've meant to write to you [...] I read your book with joy [...] The thing that most took me was that entitled "A Difficult Case"'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Sarah Orne Jewett : The Tory Lover

Henry James to Sarah Orne Jewett, 5 October 1901: 'Let me not [...] delay to thank you for your charming and generous present of "The Tory Lover" [her historical novel]. He has been but three or four days in the house, yet I have given him an earnest, a pensive, a liberal -- yes, a benevolent attention [goes on to offer detailed criticisms]'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Elizabeth Drew Stoddard : The Morgesons

Henry James to Sarah Butler Wister, 21 December 1902: ' [...] as for the "Morgesons" and "Two Men," I read them long years ago (the first in queer green paper covers) when they originally appeared [...] I seem to remember even having "noticed" the second (probably in the "Nation" and very badly).'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Unknown

Elizabeth Drew Stoddard : Two Men

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Unknown

Viscount Garnet Wolseley : The Story of a Soldier's Life

Henry James to Viscount Garnet Wolseley, 7 December 1903: 'I feel I must absolutely not have passed these several last evenings in your so interesting and vivid society without thanking you almost as much as if you had personally given me the delightful hours or held me there with your voice. I have read your two volumes [The Story of a Soldier's Life] from covers to covers and parted from you with a positive pang.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Mankind in the Making

Henry James to H. G. Wells, 24 January 1904: 'I've [italics] wanted [end italics], day after day, to write -- wanted to quite intensely from the day I read your two munificently-conferred books [...] "M[ankind] in the M[aking]" thrills and transports me [...] it becomes, as one reads, inordinately obective, heroic, sympathetic, D'Artagnanesque. Of the little Tales in t'other book ["Twelve Stories and a Dream"] I read one every night regularly, after going to bed -- they had only the defect of hurrying me prematurely to my couch.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Twelve Stories and a Dream

Henry James to H. G. Wells, 24 January 1904: 'I've [italics] wanted [end italics], day after day, to write -- wanted to quite intensely from the day I read your two munificently-conferred books [...] "M[ankind] in the M[aking]" thrills and transports me [...] it becomes, as one reads, inordinately obective, heroic, sympathetic, D'Artagnanesque. 'Of the little Tales in t'other book ["Twelve Stories and a Dream"] I read one every night regularly, after going to bed -- they had only the defect of hurrying me prematurely to my couch.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : A Modern Utopia

Henry James to H. G. Wells, 19 November 1905, in praise of two works recently sent by Wells: 'I found your first munificence here on returning [from tour of USA] [...] toward the end of July [...] I recognized [...] that the Utopia ["A Modern Utopia" was a book I should desire to read only in the right conditions of [italics] coming [end italics] to it [...] I "came to it" only a short time since [...] and achieved a complete saturation; after which [...] I found Kipps [...] awaiting me -- and from his so different but still so utterly coercive embrace I have just emerged.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Kipps

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Ralph Gordon Noel King, second Earl of Lovelace : Astarte

Henry James to the Earl of Lovelace, 14 January 1906: 'I left home at Christmas for a few weeks' stay, which became a fortnight's absence, and, on my return a week ago, found the very handsome, remarkable and interesting volume ["Astarte", Lovelace's account of his grandmother's marriage to Byron] which you had been so good as to send me. I wished to take real possession of it before having the pleasure of thanking you, and have now done so by a very attentive, and in fact fascinated perusal.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The Future in America

Henry James to H. G. Wells, 8 November 1906: 'I came back last night from five days in London to find your so generously-given "America," and I have done nothing today but thrill and squirm with it and vibrate to it almost feverishly and weep over it almost profusely'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward : The Whole Family (chapter)

Henry James to Elizabeth Jordan, 3 May 1907: 'you sent me Mrs. Phelps Ward's contribution to the "Whole Family" -- which I began to read the other day, but which immediately affeted me as subjected to so pitiless an ordeal in the searching artistic light and amid the intellectual and literary associations of Paris that I [...] laid it away to await resuscitation of it in a medium in which I shall be able to surround my perusal of it with more precautions.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James

George Gordon, Lord Byron : letters to Lady Melbourne (copies)

Leon Edel quotes John Buchan, in "Memory Hold-the-Door" (1940), pp.151-52: 'an aunt of my wife's [Lady Lovelace], who was the widow of Byron's grandson, asked Henry James and myself to examine her archives in order to reach some conclusion on the merits of the quarrel between Byron and his wife [...] during a summer week-end, Henry James and I waded through masses of ancient indecency, and duly wrote an opinion [signed by Buchan on 4 April 1910 and by James on 7 April]. The things nearly made me sick, but my colleague never turned a hair.' Edel adds that 'Byron's intimate letters to Lady Melbourne [copied by Lord Lovelace] [...] written during the three years preceding [his] marriage, were the ones read by James and Buchan.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James and John Buchan Manuscript: Letter

Mrs W. K. Clifford : The Getting Well of Dorothy

Henry James to Mrs W. K. Clifford, 18 May 1912: 'I find G. W. [Mrs Clifford's recent novel] very brisk and alive, but I [italics]have[end italics] to take it in pieces, and so have only reached the middle.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Marriage

Henry James to Edmund Gosse, 10 October 1912: 'I have received within a day or two dear old George Meredith's "Letters"; and, though I haven't been able yet very much to go into them, I catch their emanation of something so admirable, and, on the whole, so baffled and so tragic. We must have some more talk of them -- and also of Wells's book ["Marriage"], with which I am however having much difficulty. I am not so much struck with its hardness as with its weakness and looseness, the utter going by the board of any real self respect of composition and expression.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Marriage

Henry James to H. G. Wells, 18 October 1912, whilst suffering from shingles: 'you may not have forgotten that you kindly sent me "Marriage" [...] which I've been able to give myself to at my less ravaged and afflicted hours. I have read you, as I always read you [...] with a complete abdication of all those "principles of criticism" [...] which I roam, which I totter, through the pages of others attended in some dim degree by the fond yet feeble theory of, but which I shake off, as I advance under your spell, with the most cynical inconsistency.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Henry Kirk White : Remains

'For my private and sole use, seeing that my friends had no taste for poetry, I bought Mr. Pye's translation of Horace, and was well pleased with my purchase; for I found the old "Roman poet" to be a very lively and shrewd companion. I also ventured to spend a guinea in the purchase of "Kirke White's Remains": a large sum for one like myself to spend at one time in buying books; yet I had good reason to be satisfied; for the work was useful to me in the way of strengthening and confirming my habits of reading and observation.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Barry Edward O'Meara : Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from St Helena

'During this year I read an odd volume of that curious publication, the "Anti-Jacobin-Review", from which I gathered a little that pleased me. Among other things I met with some views respecting the conduct of Judas Iscariot towards his Divine Master which to me were quite new. I, however, thought them both reasonable and probable. I also read Mr. O'Meara's "Voice from St Helena", Dr. Henderson's "Travels in Iceland", and Captain Parry's "Narrative" of his Arctic Voyage. I must here beg the reader to remember that henceforth when I say that I have read any book it will only mean that I gave it a hasty perusal, for I had no time for close reading.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

William Edward Parry : Journal of a Voyage to discover a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

J.-C.-L. Simonde de Sismondi : Historical View of the Literature of the South of Europe

'By favour of my friendly draper I also had the satisfaction of looking over the elegantly written and very entertaining "Letters" of Mr. Gray together with M. Sismondi's "History of the Literature of the South of Europe".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu : Letters

?While in this state I read the "Letters" of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and some of Dr Beattie?s and Mr Hume?s ?Essays?, together with part of Dr Beattie?s ?Essay on Truth?.?

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The Passionate Friends

Henry James to H. G. Wells, 21 September 1913, thanking him for a copy of his new novel, "The Passionate Friends": 'I am too impatient to let you know [italics]how[end italics] wonderful I find this last [...] I bare my head before [...] the high immensity [...] which has made me absorb the so full-bodied thing in deep and prolonged gustatory draughts.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Sir Isaac Harman's Wife

Henry James to Hugh Walpole, 21 November 1914: '[H. G.] Wells has published a mere flat tiresomeness ("Sir Isaac Harman's Wife"); at least I had, for the first time with anything of Wells's, simply to let it slide.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

H. G. Wells : critique of George Bernard Shaw, Common Sense about the War

Henry James to James B. Pinker, 6 January 1915: 'be thanked [...] for your conveyance to me of Arnold Bennett's healthy article (which I had seen and much relished, though I do myself deprecate everywhere the laying on of any rose-colour too thick), and of Wells's admirable scarification, as I hold it, of G[eorge].B[ernard].S[haw]. -- in which I find myself ready to back himn up to the hilt.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Serial / periodical

H. G. Wells : Boon, The Mind of the Race, The Wild Asses of the Devil, and The Last Trump

Henry James to H. G. Wells, 6 July 1915: 'I was given yesterday at a club your volume "Boon, etc.", from a loose leaf in which I learn that you kindly sent it me [...] I have just been reading, to acknowledge it intelligently, a considerable number of its pages -- though not all; for, to be perfectly frank, I have been in that respect beaten for the first time -- or rather for the first time but one -- by a book of yours'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Molly V Hughes : London Child of the Seventies, A

'Long before I heard of Freud I was interested in reading accounts of first memories and impressions. My own experience had taught me that the roots of life were there but it was never certain, and that was the adventure, how they would emerge. It was partly because of this belief and partly because of a poem with that title by Robert Browning that I called my first book Development. The two volumes I now discovered were linked to this interest and not only gave me great pleasure but won me lasting friendships. They were A London Child of the Seventies (and its sequels) by Molly V. Hughes and Within the City Wall by Margaret Phillips.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group:

Molly V Hughes : A London Child of the Seventies

'If I enjoy a book I often write to its author. It seems to me a matter of politeness between one artist and another. Having read A London Child I wrote to Molly [Hughes] at once. I had been born thirty years later but the Victorians disliked change and our memories touched at many points.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Molly V Hughes : London Child of the Seventies, A

'We belong to our time and the most we can achieve as a rule is to be a generation ahead of it; if we tear up our roots how many can exist merely on air? Yet if people want to know what life was like for a poor scholar in one of the most opulent centuries England has known, they cannot do better than to study Molly?s [Hughes, A London Child of the Seventies] books. They are a record of an almost hopeless fight against prejudice when there was little chance for a woman, however brilliant her intellect, to get even a reasonably paid job. Today people find the Victorian age picturesque and amusing without understanding its cruelty. If they want a true photograph of part of it, they should consider what Molly had recorded.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group:

David Steuart Erskine, Lord Buchan : Anonymous and fugitive essays of the Earl of Buchan

[Marginalia]: an additional printed page, printed by the Buchan Portable Press, titled "Letter from Princess Mary to Lord Buchan" has been inserted after p.196 and has the ms annotation 'This message is the last (as is believed) that his Majesty was capable of dictating in his right mind' . This appears to be in the same hand as the ms note at the end of the preface 'To Edwards [? deleted] Constable Esq. as a mark of my regard, Buchan: Edr. October 25th 1816' as does the ms poem pasted in facing the Contents page. Part Latin, part English, it begins 'Quanti est ostimanda [?] Virtus ...'. Page 195 has the line 'On literary envy ..' marked * and the ms note '*In honour of the unfortunate ... George III'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: David Steuart Erskine, Lord Buchan Print: Book

Thomas Babbington Macaulay : [essays]

?Macaulay, who had recently died, was greatly in vogue. I had read with enjoyment and advantage his "History of England" and some of his essays.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Unknown

[author of "The Manoeuvering Mother"] anon : History of a Flirt, The

'Before I forget again?have you looked into the "History of a Flirt"? [The History of a Flirt, related by Herself ? by the author of "The Manoeuvring Mother"] The name may alarm you ? but the writer "leans to Miss Austen?s side," ? as I remember dear Dr. Mitford and yourself do - & there is some power and much truth to nature.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay

'Did you see ? what I am reading just too late (but we must be benighted sometimes) in the number before the last of the Edinburgh Review, a notice of Madme d?Arblay, very admirable in all ways, but chiefly interesting to you for the sake of the high estimate of your Miss Austen, who is called second to Shakespeare in the nice delineation of character.' [the review was in the January 1843 issue].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Psalm of Life

'Repeated Longfellow?s Psalm of Life. Read three first chapters of Chaucer?s Prologue. I had been depressed and ill all the morning, a little intercourse with minds seems to refresh me.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Morte d'Arthur

'In the evening we all went over to the Camerons. Several Pre-Raphaelite artists were there to meet Tennyson; Hunt and Rossetti and one or two whose names I did not gather. Lear was there also and sang a great many of his compositions to Tennyson's words. They are mostly very pretty things but he has no voice, and, on the whole, it is rather painful to listen to him. When they were all gone Tennyson read us his own Morte d'Arthur, and that really was a pleasure. It is a poem I have always been fond of.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie : Madame de Sevigne

November 18, 1881 [Paris] 'This morning I laid in a stock of Tauchnitzes, and am beginning a pleasant sketch of Miss Thackeray's on Mme. de Sevigne. Apropos of books, I received two days ago a letter from an American publisher, telling me that M. Lanier had thrown my Mabinogion into a popular form for children and had just completed the work before he died [?] This is very interesting to me. My first number came out in 1839, forty-three years ago.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [works]

'From that time [summer 1840] to the present [1845] I have not read much. I have, however, looked through Lord Byron's works, the "Memoirs of Mr William Hutton", and Dr Stilling's Autobiography; with some of the works of Sir Walter Scott, Dr Southey, and Miss Martineau.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book

Rapin de Thoyras : History of England

?With this proposal I of course readily closed and accordingly the next day my father gave me the 1st vol of the "Universal History" (beginning with the life of Mohamed) and the 1st of Rapin?s "History of England", to begin with, an each of which in turn, I bestowed an hour in reading on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday mornings, allotting the other two mornings to a more amusing kind of reading such as Dryden?s "Virgil", "Telamachus", "Charles 12th". etc. I also began a translation of "Diable Boiteaux" & a prose one of Virgil?s "Eneid".?

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

Alain Rene le Sage : Diable Boiteaux

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

members of the Society of London Scholars, J.D. and C.M. : Campanologia improved; or, the Art of ringing made easie

?Being now became a constant attendant of the gent?n ringers once or twice a week, I ? began to aspire towards ringing a longer peal, for w?ch purpose I wrote the changes out in figures with the rules & got a little old book called "Campanologia, or the Art of Change Ringing", w?ch within the insight I had now got into the mystery, I began to understand very well.?

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

Fanny Kemble, journal letter to Harriet St. Leger, 27 June 1835, listing 'the books just now lying on my table, all of which I have been reading lately': 'Alfieri's "Life", by himself, a curious and interesting work; Washington Irving's last book, "A Tour on the Prairies", rather an ordinary book, upon a not ordinary subject, but not without sufficiently interesting matter in it too; Dr. Combe's "Principles of Physiology"; and a volume of Marlowe's plays, containing "Dr. Faustus". I have just finished Hayward's Translation of Goethe's "Faust", and wanted to see the old English treatment of the subject. I have read Marlowe's play with more curiosity than pleasure. This is, after all, but a small sample of what I read, but if you remember the complexion of my studies when I was a girl at Heath Farm and read Jeremy Taylor and Byron together, I can only say that they are still apt to be of the same heterogenous quality. But my brain is kept in a certain state of activity by them, and that, I suppose, is one of the desirable results of reading.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Fanny Kemble Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Fanny Kemble Print: Book

Sir Richard Joseph Sullivan : A View of nature, in Letters to a Traveller among the Alps

'On this day I finis'd Sullivan's "View of Nature" w'ch I had from the Library Society from w'ch & from the Book Society we were now finish'd with as many books as we co'd get thro'.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

C B E Naubert : Hermann of Unna

'On the next day (Tuesday 31st) I went to Canterbury in the coach & on the same evening in the diligence to Dover where I amused myself with reading "Herman of Unna" (a then popular novel) which I got at Canterbury...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

Carl Philipp Moritz : Travels of a German through England in 1782

'To amuse ourselves at the inns on this road we brought with us Jackson's "30 Letters" & Moritz's "Travels in England" (both in our Society) but having finish'd the latter (w'ch John was now reading) & Mrs M being reading the other, I got Mrs Radcliffe's novel of the "Sicilian Romance" from the Library there, which I this day began reading & was much pleased with.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

Carl Philipp Moritz : Travels of a German through England in 1782

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

Alistair and Henrietta Tayler (eds) : Domestic papers of the Rose family

[Marginalia]: there are two annotators, one using blue ink and one red. All ms notes take the form of additional genealogical information ie pp. 4-7 added dates and people, p. 79 a family tree for William Cumming of Craigmill, and the beginning of an index on the inside back cover and facing page.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Agnes Maria Bennett : The beggar girl and her benefactors

'I on Friday the 16th went up in the coach to consult Mess'rs Bridges, Blake & other friends upon the matter, taking with me to amuse myself in the coach etc. the new popular novel of the "Beggar Girl".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : The Outcasts or Henry Dunbar

?There were no free libraries, so the younger hands joined with me in starting a "Literary Fund" of our own, towards which each paid three-halfpence a week. The papers and books bought for general reading were afterwards divided. In our little club the "Cornhill Magazine", from its start under Thackeray?s editorship, was read and discussed; also Dickens?s successive productions. I call to mind many serious books, as well as "Cassell?s Magazine" and the "London Journal", in which appeared Miss Braddon?s great story of "Henry Dunbar", then entitled "The Outcasts".?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Printers and compositors at Thomas Catling's place of work, Edward Lloyd's publishing house Print: Serial / periodical

Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges : Arthur Fitz-Albani

'During my late visit to the Hammonds, they had acquainted me with the names of the principal characters amongst our former neighbours in East Kent, pointed at in Mr E Bridges then late popular novel of "Arthur Fitzalbini" w'ch we on that account had lately read.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book

J. Patterson Milne : Adventures of Jig and Co

[List of books read in 1945]: 'For Whom the Bell Tolls; Henry Brocken; Doctor Faustus; Life of the Bee; The Screwtape Letters; Modern Short Stories; Letters of People in Love; Men and Women; The Headmistress; The People's Government; The Art of Writing; Speech and Sound; Background to the Life of Christ; The House of Prayer; Eleanor in the Fifth; Adventures of Jig and Co; Rendezvous with Fear; Antony and Cleopatra; Hamlet; The Poetry of James Elroy Flecker; Escape; Hangman's Holiday; The Body Behind the Bar; Strong Poison; The Critic; Magic Lantern; Listening Valley; Emma; Dragon Seed; Crowthers of Bankdam; The Rat Trap; The Vortex; Fallen Angels; The Spanish House; O the Brave Music; The Light that Failed; Ghosts; The Antiquary; The Knightes Tale; Luria; The Best of Hazlitt; Pericles; The Rivals; Hamlet [again]; Antony and Cleopatra [again]; Knightes Tale [again]; Julius Caesar; Merchant of Venice; The Critic; The Rivals; Cymbeline; Adventures of a Young Soldier in Search of a Better World; The Nine Tailors; The Conquered; The Professor; Peter Abelard; Then They Pulled Down the Blind; The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club; Portrait of a Man with Red Hair; Winnie-the-Pooh; The House at Pooh Corner; Mrs Parkinson; Adele and Co; Frossia; Cluny Brown; Four Gardens; The World is Square; Being Met Together; Best Sporting Stories; Selected stories by Q; And Five were Foolish; Campaspe; Endimion [by Lyly]; Midas; Dr Faustus [again]; Twelfth Night; Mrs Warrent's Proffession [sic]; The Spanish Tragedy; The Jew of Malta; Galathea; Tambourlaine; Sun is my Undoing; By Greta Bridge; Utopia; England, their England; The Art of Poetry; Old Wives Tale; The Reader is Warned; Long, Long Ago; Friar Bacon & Friar Bungay; James IV of Scotland; The Handsome Langleys; The Dog Beneath the Skin; Death Comes for the Archbishop; The Island of Youth; I'll Say She Does; The Forsyte Saga; In Youth is Pleasure; On Forsyte Change; Genesis to Nehemiah.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

James Elroy Flecker : Poetry of James Elroy Flecker

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Cecil Freeman Gregg : Body behind the Bar, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : Critic, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Lady Eleanor Smith : Magic Lantern

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Lady Eleanor Smith : Spanish House, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : Rivals, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Dorothy L Sayers : Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Mrs Warren's Profession

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Thomas Jonathan Wooler : Black Dwarf

'In early life, I have said, my attention was turned to politics. My first impressions were for universality. "Cobbett's Register" and "Wooler's Black Dwarf" were the first works I purchased and studied on political economy. It was my custom every Saturday evening, after my work was over, to go to the Market Place, and from a stall there, to purchase the breathings of those men of mind.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Christopher Thomson Print: Serial / periodical

G H Girle : [memoirs]

'Mr Girle wrote a history of his blue coat days, which he was anxious should appear in "Tait", and one day, at his request, I carried the MS to the warehouse, but it did not appear in the magazine. He read it, however, to the boys of "George Heriot's Hospital", of which great institution he was one of the "Governors" and it was printed for private circulation.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G H Girle Manuscript: Sheet, Unpublished memoirs

George L. Craik : Pursuit of knowledge under difficulties

'Much is being said and written now-a-days about the influence of books on the formation of character; let me therefore mention that my prime favourites while at Tait's were "Cobbett's advice to young men", and Charles Knight's "Pursuit of knowledge under difficulties"; which I read over and over again with great zest, and, I hope, much benefit. As a matter of course, I also read "Tait's Magazine" regularly, making myself familiar with its contents even before publication; the elaborate reviews of many of the best books of the period affording me the opportunity of picking up a considerable amount of useful information. Curiously enough, the reading of the "Waverley novels" was to me a task of difficulty; and I am ashamed to say that I have only read few of them, "Guy Mannering", "The Heart of Midlothian", "The Bride of Lammermoor" and "St Ronan's Well". "Waverley", although attempted more than once, failed to attract.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Glass Bertram Print: Book

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock : The Messiah

'Charles Shaw's dependance upon a small Sunday school library in Tunstall [...] imparted a magnificent if involuntary scope to his education: '"I read "Robinson Crusoe" and a few other favourite boys' books [...] After these the most readable I could find was Rollin's "Ancient History". His narratives opened a new world [...] [which] I regarded as remote from Tunstall and England as those other worlds I read of in Dick's "Christian Philosopher," which book I found in the library too ... Then I read Milton's "Paradise Lost", Klopstock's "Messiah", and later on, Pollock's "Course of Time", and Gilfillan's "Bards of the Bible".These books may look a strange assortment for a boy of fourteen or fifteen to read, but [...] they just happened to fall into my hands"'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Shaw Print: Book

Thomas de Quincey : George and Sarah Green

'When I had made a few visits to him, Mr De Quincey was so kind as to take some particular notice of me; and afterwards when he wrote his Grasmere article about "George and Sarah Green" (1839), he spoke to me of the subject, and read me a passage from the proof before it appeared in "Tait".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas de Quincey Print: Serial / periodical, proofs

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

'I pursued a similar plan with others of the magazines whenever I got a chance, especially "Bentley's Miscellany", which contained in my young days "Jack Sheppard".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Glass Bertram Print: Serial / periodical

Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse : "Vier Neue Novellen"

'I have read aloud this evening the last of Heyse's "Vier neue Novellen".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Unknown

Jean Charles L?onard de Sismondi : History of the Italian Republics

'Finished reading the four last volumes of the "Histoire des Ordres Religieux". Began "La Beata", a story of Florentine life by T.A. Trollope. I am also reading Sachetti's Novelle, and Sismondi's History of the Italian Republics'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : [MS article on Mad Dogs]

'Read... G's article on Mad Dogs which he was going to send to Edinburgh'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Sheet, MS of article

Anton Francesco Doni : I Marmi

'Looked into the "Marmi" of Doni... read Saccheti and Bocaccio's capital story of Fra Cipolla - one of his few good stories - and the Little Hunchback in the Arabian Nights, which is still better. Read Nardi in the evening'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

[probably] Luigi Pulci : [if this Pulci, poetry]

'began Pulci'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Giovanni (?) Villani : Life of Savonarola [in his Cronica?]

'Began again the Life of Savonarola by Villani. Read of "Ecstasy".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Pierre Louis Ginguene : unknown

'Read Ginguene in the evening'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot : [probably] The History of France from the Earliest Times to the Year 1789

'Read a chapter on the Roma Law in the Middle Ages in Guizot's History of Civilisation in France'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Ludovico Antonio Muratori : unknown

'Read Villari, making chronological notes. Then Muratori on Proper Names'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Pierre Louis Ginguene : [possibly] Histoire litteraire d'Italie

'Read "La Tancia", and Gingenue, Roman Epic'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

George Lillie Craik : History of English Literature and the English Language

'I read Craik's "History of English Literature"... up to end of XVth Century'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Ludovico Antonio Muratori : [unknown, on the Confraternita]

'Went to the British Museum. Found some details in Ammirato's "Famiglie Nobili Fiorentini"... In the evening I read Muratori on the Confraternita'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren : [on the XVth Century]

'Read... Heeren on the XVth Century'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Antonio Francesco Grizzini (pseud. Lasca) : [possibly a story from Le Cene]

'Read Sacchetti, and Luigi Pulci's novel, and part of Lasca's story of Lorenzo and the Medico Manente'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Emile Du Bois Reymond : [book on Johannes Mueler]

'Read passage from Du Bois Reymond's book on Johannes Mueller, a propos of visions. Finished Libro 1 of Machiavelli's Istorie. Read "Blackwood"'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning :

'As to what they read [at the Gower Street School in the 1880s] -- and [...] Lucy Harrison [headmistress] read aloud to them untiringly -- it must be what went deepest and lifted highest -- Shakespeare, Dante in Cary's translation, Blake, Wordsworth, and [...] [Miss Harrison's] own favourites, Emily Bronte, Christina Rossetti, the Brownings, Coventry Patmore [...] A reading which all [...] [Miss Harrison's] pupils heard often, and never forgot, was from Alice Meynell's "Preludes" of 1875 -- the sonnet "To a Daisy"'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Harrison, headmistress, Charlotte Mew, and other pupils at Gower Street school Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Catarina to Camoens

'On her deathbed Lucy [Harrison] asked Amy [Greener, her lover] to read to her from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Caterina to Camoens" [...] It must have been painful for Miss Greener to read these words [about a dying woman's reconciling herself to the idea that her lover might love again] aloud in the whitewashed bedroom, among the plain oak furniture which her friend had knocked together.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Amy Greener Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [romance]

'Hookham calls here & Shelley reads his romance to him.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner

[Shelley] 'Reads the ancient mariner to us'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena : La Calandra

'Finished "La Mandragola", second time reading for the sake of Florentine expressions, and began "La Calandra"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : Conquest in America, The

'Today we have been to the London Library and I have read J. Mill's article on "The American Conquest".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Casa Guidi Windows

'I have lately read again with great delight Mrs Browning's "Casa Guidi Windows". It contains amongst other admirable things a very noble expression of what I believe to be the true relation of the religious mind to the Past.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Jean Marie Napol?on D?sir Nisard : Poetes Latins de la Decadence

'Read Juvenal this morning, and Nisard - "Poetes Latins de la Decadence" in the evening'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : Aristotle, a Chapter from the History of Science

'I am now in the middle of G's "Aristotle", which gives me great delight'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Sheet, prob. in MS as publ. 1864

William Wetmore Story : Roba di Roma

'Reading Mommsen and Story's "Roba di Roma". Also Liddell's "Rome", for a narrative to accompany Mommsen's analysis'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Henry George Liddell : A History of Rome

'Reading Mommsen and Story's "Roba di Roma". Also Liddell's "Rome", for a narrative to accompany Mommsen's analysis'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim [possibly] : [unknown]

'Reading Gibbon Vol 1 in connection with Mosheim. Read about the Dionysia. Also Gieseler, on the condition of the world at the appearance of Christianity'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler : [unknown]

'Reading Gibbon Vol 1 in connection with Mosheim. Read about the Dionysia. Also Gieseler, on the condition of the world at the appearance of Christianity'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

[probably] William Prescott : [unknown]

'I read Prescott again and made notes'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Philip Wentworth Buckham : Theatre of the Greeks

'Reading Aeschlyus, "Theatre of the Greeks", Klein's "History of the Drama" etc.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Julius Leopold Klein : Geschichte des Dramas

'Reading Aeschlyus, "Theatre of the Greeks", Klein's "History of the Drama" etc.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

John Stuart Mill : Principles of Political Economy

'Finished Bamford's "Passages from the life of a Radical". Have just begun again Mill's "Political Economy", and Comte's "Social Science" in Miss Martineau's edition'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

[possibly] William Blackstone : [Commentaries on the laws of England?]

'Finished "Annual Register" for 1832. Reading Blackstone'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : The Rivals

'Went to hear Mr and Mrs Wigan read Tennyson and "the Rivals" at Apsley House'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr and Mrs Wigan Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : [article on Grote's Plato]

'in the evening I read G.'s article on Grote's Plato'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Manuscript: Unknown, ms of article

Th?odore Claude Henri vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqu : Contes populaires des anciens Bretons

'I have been reading Villemarque's "Contes populaires des Anciens Bretons".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Felicia Dorothea Browne : War and Peace -- A Poem. Written at the age of Fifteen

'[in 1811] Reginald Heber reads and praises "War and Peace".'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Heber

Johann Gottfried von Herder : unknown

From Chronology: Hemans's Life and Publications: '[in 1824] F[elicia] H[emans] studies German (Schiller, Herder, and Goethe, Korner).'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Book

Johan Wolfgang Goethe : unknown

From Chronology: Hemans's Life and Publications: '[in 1824] F[elicia] H[emans] studies German (Schiller, Herder, and Goethe, Korner).'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Book

Karl Theodor Korner : unknown

From Chronology: Hemans's Life and Publications: '[in 1824] F[elicia] H[emans] studies German (Schiller, Herder, and Goethe, Korner).'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Book

John Chetwode Eustace : A Classical Tour of Italy, An. MDCCCII (vol.1)

'In the 4th ed. [of [italics]A Tour through Italy[end italics], [italics]A Classical Tour through Italy, An. MDCCCII[end italics], 4 vols. (London, 1817) [...] [John Chetwode Eustace] relates the legends of the Unterberg (1.76-77), some of which F[elicia]H[emans] copied into her commonplace book, 20-22 (Houghton Library MS Eng 767).'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Book

Johann Gottfried von Herder : Volkslieder

Susan J. Wolfson notes Felicia Hemans's reading of Herder's ballad collection "Volkslieder".

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Book

Catherine Maria Sedgwick : Hope Leslie

In introductory note to Felicia Hemans, "The American Forest-Girl": 'F[elicia]H[emans] [...] read Catherine Maria Sedgwick's "Hope Leslie" [...] a novel published in 1827 about the Pequod War in 17th-c. New England.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Book

Stephanie Felicite de Crest de St-Aubin, comtesse de Genlis : Le Siege de la Rochelle

Felicia Browne to her aunt, Miss Wagner, 19 December 1808: 'I have been reading a most delightful French romance, by Madame de Genlis, "Le Siege de la Rochelle".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Browne Print: Book

Sir Joshua Reynolds : Memoirs

Felicia Browne to Matthew Nicholson, 17 July 1811: 'I have been reading lately the memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with his discourses to the Royal Academy, & I am so enthusiastic an admirer of the beauties of painting, that I derived both pleasure and instruction from the perusal.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Browne Print: Book

Sir Joshua Reynolds : Discourses

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Browne Print: Book

Dr Alexander Brunton : Memoir of Mary Brunton

Felicia Hemans to James Simpson, 22 October 1819: 'I have been much interested in the perusal of a work sent me some time since by Mr. Murray, the memoirs of the late Mrs Brunton, and her beautiful though unfinished tale of "Emmeline."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Book

Johann Heinrich Voss : poem ("nuptial benediction")

Felicia Hemans to the Reverend Samuel Butler, 19 February 1828: 'I do not know whether you are at all a Lover of German Literature, but there is a poem in that Language, a beautiful nuptial benediction pronounced by a Father over his child [...] which some parts of your letter [about his daughter's forthcoming marriage] recalled to my mind. I have copied Madame de Stael's translation of it, and take the liberty of including it for you.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Rienzi (excerpts)

Felicia Hemans to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 November 1828: 'My dear Miss Mitford, Accept my late, though sincere and cordial congratulations on the brilliant success of "Rienzi," of which I have read with unfeigned gratification [...] I have yet only read of Rienzi a few noble passages given by the Newspapers and Magazines, but in a few days I hope to be acquainted with the whole'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Newspaper, Serial / periodical

Ralph Waldo Emerson : Essays

'I am much obliged to you for the volume of Emerson Essays. I had heard of him before and I know that Carlyle rates him highly. He has great thoughts and imaginations, but he sometimes misleads himself by his own facility of talking brilliantly. However, I have not perhaps studied him sufficiently.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

F W Schneidewin : Delectus Presis Graeconim elegiacae, iambinis, melicae

'Lovely lines - but I knew them before ... the two last, two years ago in ... Schneidemn's Greek fragments - a book Frank Lushington had and which I ever since intended to get.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Philip James Bailey : Festus

'I have just got Festus - order it and read. You will most likely find it a great bore, but there are really very grand [both words underlined] things in festus... I have these last two days been reading 'Festus'... This sublimity is Michael-Angelic.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Aubrey de Vere : English Misdeeds and Irish Misrule

'His Irish book seems to me from the little I have read very clever.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Lady Georgiana Morpeth : unknown

'How pretty I think your verses they express so exactly what I felt but could not find words to speak [...]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

Faustina Maratti Zappi : Donna che tanto al mio bel sol piacesti

'Donna che tanto al mio bel sol piacesti Che ancor d'preggi tuoi parla sovente Lodando ora il bel crine, ora il ridente Tuo labbro ed ora i saggi detti onesti'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb

John Gibson Lockhart : Review of Thomas Moore's Life of Byron

Felicia Hemans to a new friend in Dublin, early 1831: 'Some "Quarterly Reviews" have lately been sent to me, one of which contains an article on Byron, by which I have been deeply and sorrowfully impressed.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Print: Serial / periodical

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Stanzas ("My Sister -- my sweet Sister")

Henry Chorley, in Memorials of Mrs Hemans (1836): 'after having heard those beautiful stanzas addressed to his sister [composed August 1816] by Lord Byron -- which afterwards appeared in print -- read aloud twice in manuscript, she [Felicia Hemans] repeated them to us, and even wrote them down with a surprising accuracy.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Felicia Hemans Manuscript: Unknown

Sir John Moore : A Narrative of the Campaign of the British Army in Spain

'I began Sir John Mo[o]res letters again and am very much struck if the account is true with the bad management there seems to have been at first setting out. I cannot also conceive how with such letters & opinions daily coming forth such a general infatuation about the Spaniards could prevail [...] [I]n Sir J Mo[o]res letter to Mr. Frere where one can see he is in a tiff at his appointment he agrees with you about titles wrongly bestowed [...] my blood curdled with the quantity of black bile Freres' pompous insignificant impudent letter brought forth.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'Childe Harold I have read your Book & cannot refrain from telling you that I think it & all those whom I live with & whose opinions are far more worth having--think it beautiful.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'"perchance my dog will whine in vain "Till fed my stranger hands-- "But long e'er I come back again "he'd tear me where he stands'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Bride of Abydos

'"Gull" & the Bulbul and a young Galeongee are just so many baits to draw sneers--which however disposed are always better avoided--I think the Bride of Abydos full of these lesser faults but the Corsair is quite beautiful--indeed he [Byron] has a very splendid Genius--& I cannot but feel a deep & lasting anxiety that he should be himself [underlined] in all things it is all I ask--you owe his quotations from Dante and the beginning of the Bride to me--& not to Mad. De Staal--for I sent him Dante last year so that you see I was not useless even to his Genius.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book, Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lines to a Lady Weeping

'How you surprise me--write me but one word more [--] it is not true that he [Byron] sent word to you that he was very angry "Weep daughter" was cut out of the other editions--is it not true that he stood firm to what he had done & took blame wholly upon himself--this I trust is true'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : unknown

'I never saw two Women more in love with you than my favourite Lady Hamilton & her sister. They talk of you in a manner I cannot bear to hear [...] I read to them in your voice & they nearly cried & kissed me till I was suffocated all for love of you.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Giaour

'I think I shall live to see the day--when some beautiful & innocent Lady Byron shall drive to your door [...] I really believe that when that day comes, I shall buy a pistol at Mantons & stand before the Giaour [Lord Byron] & his legal wife & shoot myself'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb

George Gordon Lord Byron : Hebrew Melodies

'Many a dull thing goes down by a puff--& all in all is fame Witness the Hebrew Melodies which I have though you did not send them me--they are not worthy of him--trust one who can appreciate his Genius they are very common place lowly performances'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Hebrew Melodies--"She walks in beauty"

'"She walks in beauty like the night," for example--if Mr. Twiss had written it how we should have laughed! Now we can only weep to see how little just judgement there is on earth, for I make no doubt the name of Byron will give even these lines a grace. I who read his loftier lay with transport will not admire his flaws and nonsense. You will say it is only a song, yet a song should have sense'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Stanzas to Augusta

'At a moment of such deep agony & I may add shame--when utterly disgraced judge Byron what my feelings must be at Murrays shewing me some beautiful verses of yours--I do implore you for God sake not to publish these could I have seen you one moment I would explain why--I have only time to add that however those who surround you may make you disbelieve it you will draw ruin on your own head and hers [Augusta Leigh's] if at this moment you shew these lines'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Third

'[B]e not thrown into wild delight because his genius has shone forth--misfortune & rage have occasioned this & whenever he may speak himself [underlined] Lord Byron will succeed--self is the sole inspirer of his genius he cannot like Homer Dante Virgil Milton Dryden Spencer Gray--Goldsmith [underlined] Tasso write on other subjects well[--]but what he feels he can describe extravagantly well--& therefore I never did doubt that he would one day or other write again as at first--but for God sake do not let this circumstance make you forget what a Rogue he is'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Beppo

'[A]nd so you have never heard of Beppo--I think you said so at Devonshire House supper. Now Heaven fail in granting me pardon for all my offenses if it is not by himself [Byron], & in his very best wit as good as any thing Swift ever wrote a flatterer would say better. I read it having taken an Emetic for that head ache which troubled me so much the night I sat beside you & I must own it did delight me so that the Emetic faild [sic] in affecting me--now though this is not a pretty illustration of what should be felt in reading Poetry--believe me it is emphatic & expresses much more than fairer words--after all it would be kind in you to tell me if it is his'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Beppo

'How very very clever I think Beppo--I am quite sure it is his [Byron's]--& still more that Mr. Frere never could have written any thing like it'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

Mathew (Monk) Lewis : The Monk

'I have made it [the plot of a novel she is writing] two stories--principle or the Brothers is full of events rather terrific & in Monk Lewis's style--all the people whether the Daemons or the angels male or female act from determination'.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

Lady Caroline Lamb : Ada Reis

'I must tell you an act of kindness of William Lamb--he has been looking over and correcting Ada Reis for me'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Lamb Manuscript: Unknown, William Lamb would have read either fair copies or proofs from the printer.

Lady Caroline Lamb : Graham Hamilton

'Thank you for being pleased with your visit and not displeased with Graham [Hamilton]'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Godwin Manuscript: Unknown

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Wallenstein

'[Y]ou interested me very much about Coleridge--I wish I had ever known him--his translation of Wallenstein is in my opinion perfectly beautiful'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : [Memoirs]

'I told Murray to tell you that I read his journal with sorrow & perhaps with anger'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

Lady Caroline Lamb : [letters and verses]

'I must tell you that Lord Byron said Mrs Lee [Augusta Leigh?] & Lady Byron had read all my letters [and] verses'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Augusta Leigh Manuscript: Unknown

Lady Caroline Lamb : [letters and verses]

'I must tell you that Lord Byron said Mrs Lee [Augusta Leigh?] & Lady Byron had read all my letters [and] verses'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Annabella Byron (n?e Milbanke) Manuscript: Unknown

H G Wells : unknown

'Bennett selected the things that interested him - notably novelists such as Henry James, Thomas Hardy, and his friend George Paston. It was through a review of a book by H. G. Wells that the two men first became friends, Bennett taking the initiative and writing to Wells in September 1897 to say how much he liked his work, and to ask him how well he knew the Potteries, which Wells had mentioned in several of his stories.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : On Liberty

'I have been reading Fawcett's Economic condition of the Working Classes, Mill's Liberty, looking into Strauss's Second Life of Jesus, and reading Neale's History of the Puritans of which I have reached the fourth volume'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

David Friedrich Strauss : Life of Jesus [second version]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : [perhaps] History of England [?]

'This evening read again Macaulay's Introduction'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : A System of Logic

'I am reading Mill's Logic again, Theocritus still, and English History and Law'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Jean Charles L?onard de Sismondi : [unknown - on Spain]

'I have taken up the idea of my drama, "The Spanish Gipsy" again, and am reading on Spanish subjects - Bouterwek, Sismondi, Depping, Llorente etc'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Georges Bernard Depping : [unknown - on Spain]

'I have taken up the idea of my drama, "The Spanish Gipsy" again, and am reading on Spanish subjects - Bouterwek, Sismondi, Depping, Llorente etc'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Juan Antonio Llorente : [Spanish history]

'I have taken up the idea of my drama, "The Spanish Gipsy" again, and am reading on Spanish subjects - Bouterwek, Sismondi, Depping, Llorente etc'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

William Henry Prescott : History of Ferdinand and Isabella, The

'Began again Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : [letter]

'I walked to Grossmutter's and read her a letter of G's'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Manuscript: Letter

Frederick Denison Maurice : Conscience: Lectures On Casuistry

'Reading; First book of Lucretius, 6th book of the Iliad; Samson Agonistes, Warton's History of English Poetry; Grote 2nd vol; Marcus Aurelius; Vita Nuova; vol IV, Chapter 1 of the Politique positive; Guest on English Rhythms, Maurice's Lectures on Casuistry'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Don Juan

'have been reading a little on philology, have finished the 24th book of the Iliad, the first book of the Faery Queene, Clough's poems, and a little about Etruscan things in Mrs Grey and Dennis. Aloud to G. I have been reading some Italian, Ben Jonson's Alchemist and Volpone, and Bright's speeches, which I am still reading - besides the first four cantos of Don Juan'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.] Print: Book

Jean Marie Napol?on D?sir Nisard : Histoire de la litt?rature fran?aise

'Began Nisard's History of French Literature - Villehardouin, Joinville, Froissart, Christine de Pisan, Philippe de Comines, Villon'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Jean Charles L?onard de Sismondi : Litt?rature du midi de l'Europe

'Read the articles Phoenicia and Carthage in Ancient Geography. Looked into Smith's "Universal History" again for Carthaginian religion. Looked into Sismondi's "Litterature du Midi", for Roman de Rose, and ran through the first chapter, about the formation of the Romance Languages. Read about the Thallogens and Acrogens in "the Vegetable World". Drayton's Nymphidia - a charming poem. A few pages of his Polyolbion. Re-read Grote v-vii on Sicilian affairs down to rise of Dionysius'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Charles Augustine Sainte-Beuve : [unknown]

'[in the past week I have read] part of 22nd Idyll of Theocritus, Sainte Beuve aloud to G. two evenings... Monday evening [was occupied] with looking through Dickson's Fallacies of the Faculty'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Pierre Victor Renouard : History of Medicine

'I am reading Renouard's "History of Medicine"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot Print: Book

[probably] Dante Gabriel Rossetti : [poems]

'In the evening, G. being very weary, I read him some of Rossetti's poems'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Thomas Robert Malthus : Essay on the Principle of Population

Mary Berry to a friend, 19 November 1798: 'Don't let me forget to advise you to to read the "Natural Son," or "Lovers' Vows;" it is the entire and literal translation of the play which is now acting with such success at Covent Garden, but [italics]not[end italics] as it is acted; you can get it at Todd's [bookseller's], where I did, to read in the chaise [...] Another book which I purchased at Todd's and read in my chaise was the "Essay on Population" which Mr. Wrangham left with you. It is uncommonly clearly thought and written, and contains much curious and uncontrovertible reasoning on the subject in question.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book

Thomas Robert Malthus : Essay on the Principle of Population

Mary Berry to a friend, 14 December, 1798: 'During my illness I have finished the 2nd vol. of Wraxhall which I had just begun at Brandsby, and which I like better and better the farther I go. I have consulted, too, one of his authorities for many things in the age of Henry the Third, Montaigne's Essays, a very curious and an [italics]astonishing[end italics] book, considering the times in which it was written, and which one never consults without entertainment. I have re-read, too, Condorcet's book, and compared his ideas and arguments on the subject of population with those of the Essay [by Malthus] we have been reading, and certainly the Essay has not only the best of the argument [...] but is absolute [italics]conviction[end italics]on the subject of the different ratios in which population, and the means of subsisting that population, increase'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Charles James Fox : letter to Uvedale Price on series of plays

Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 17 May 1799: 'I was much entertained by some letters which [Uvedale] Price showed me from Sr George Beaumont, Fox, and Knight, containing criticisms on the series of plays which he (Price) had set them all reading. They were excellent, the ideas of three very superior understandings and tastes'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter

Matthew Gregory Lewis : The Monk: a romance

'Shelley draws & Mary reads the monk all evening.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

'Shelley reads the Ancient Mariner aloud.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Queen Mab: a philosophical poem with notes

'Shelley is very unwell - he reads one canto of Queen Mab to me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Manuscript: Unknown, owned by author

Thomas Jefferson Hogg : Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff, translated from the oiginl Latin MS. under the immediate inspection of the prince by John Brown, Esq.

'I read part of Alexy. I repeated one of my own poems.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : unknown

'I read part of Alexy. I repeated one of my own poems.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

'on his eighth birthday, 27 February 1920, an ox-cart drew up outside Everleas Lodge with a present for him - a huge parcel of books. His father had bought him a complete set of Dickens which had belonged to a recently expired tea-planter. Durrell claimed later that he never got beyond the Pickwick Papers (sometimes he said that he got through about ten of them), but Dickens gave him a vision of merrie England... supplemented later by reading Thackeray and R.S. Surtees. In Surtees' convivial tales of the hunting, shooting, sporting Mr Jorrocks and his pursuitful adventures, there was something ruddy, jolly and rumbustious, which appealed to the perky youngster'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Robert Smith Surtees : [probably] Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

George Alfred Henty : [unknown]

'Kipling had now been supplemented with Henty, Ballantyne, Rider Haggard and John Buchan, all with their own tales of imperial derring-do to tell theimpressionable young colonial'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Robert Michael Ballantyne : [unknown]

'Kipling had now been supplemented with Henty, Ballantyne, Rider Haggard and John Buchan, all with their own tales of imperial derring-do to tell theimpressionable young colonial'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Henry Rider Haggard : [unknown]

'Kipling had now been supplemented with Henty, Ballantyne, Rider Haggard and John Buchan, all with their own tales of imperial derring-do to tell theimpressionable young colonial'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Richard (pseud.) Aldington [real name] : Death of a Hero

'The fresh-sounding work of the war generation, which began to appear in the late 1920s and early 1930s, provided him with important models. Huxley, Wells and Aldington (especially "Death of a Hero") were rapidly digested; his poetic models were Edith Sitwell, Aldington, Nichols, Sassoon and Graves (in the cheap Benn's Sixpenny Poets editions), to be followed by the more lasting influences of Eliot and D.H. Lawrence...He read an essay by Lawrence in which he showed how England treated its writers. That, he said, made him decide "to swim against the current".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Richard (pseud.) Aldington [real name] : [poetry]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : [poetry]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : [unknown]

'The fresh-sounding work of the War generation, which began to appear in the late 1920s and early 1930s, provided him with important models. Huxley, Wells and Aldington (especially "Death of a Hero") were rapidly digested; his poetic models were Edith Sitwell, Aldington, Nichols, Sassoon and Graves (in the cheap Benn's Sixpenny Poets editions), to be followed by the more lasting influences of Eliot and D.H. Lawrence...He read an essay by Lawrence in which he showed how England treated its writers. That, he said, made him decide "to swim against the current".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Charles Pierre Baudelaire : [unknown]

'He lapped up those French writers who kicked against those conventions - Rabelais, Villon, Baudelaire, Rimbaud'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

William Butler Yeats : [unknown]

'He was also interesting himself in poets such as Keats, Fitzgerald and Yeats'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : [unknown]

'He consumed works of western philosophy, from Rousseau to Wyndham Lewis. All this he added to his diet of sexology - Freud, Remy de Gourmont, de Sade and Krafft-Ebing. And with the Mediterranean in mind, he read D.H. Lawrence's "Sea and Sardinia" and Norman Douglas's "South Wind"'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Percy Wyndham Lewis : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Donatien Alphonse-Fran?ois de Sade : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing : [probably] Psychopathia Sexualis

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : Sea and Sardinia

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

George Norman Douglas : South Wind

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Zastrozzi

'Read Zastrozzi'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Print: Book

Marcus Tullius Cicero :

'Begin Julius Florus and finish the little vol of Cicero.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim : An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern, from the Birth of Christ, to the Beginning of the Present Century

'He [?my father?] also made me read, and give him a verbal account of, many books which would not have interested me sufficiently to induce me to read them of myself: among others, Millar?s Historical View of the English Government, a book of great merit for its time, and which he highly valued; Mosheim?s Ecclesiastical History, McCrie?s Life of John Knox, and even Sewell?s and Rutty?s Histories of the Quakers.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Stuart Mill Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : unknown

'The house was behind the post office and below the town library, and in a few years not even the joys of guddling, girning and angling matched the boy's pleasure in Emerson, Hawthorne, Ambrose Pierce, Sidney Lanier and Mark Twain. Day after day... he carried a large washing basket up the stairs to fill it with books, choosing from upwards of twelve thousand volumes, then downstairs to sit for hours in corners absorbed in mental worlds beyond the narrow limits of Langholm.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Christopher Grieve Print: Book

William R. Grove : On the Correlation of Physical Forces

'I began Grove on the Correlation of the Physical Forces, needing to read it again with new interests after the lapse of years'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

John Gibson Lockhart : Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott

'Aloud I read the concluding part of Walter Scott's "Life" which we had begun at Harrogate, two volumes of Froude's "History of England", and Comte's correspondence with Valat'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

James Anthony Froude : History of England

'Aloud I read the concluding part of Walter Scott's "Life" which we had begun at Harrogate, two volumes of Froude's "History of England", and Comte's correspondence with Valat'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang Goethe : Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

'I am reading Wolfe's Prolegomena to Homer. In the evening aloud, Wilhelm Meister again!'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Friedrich August Wolf : Prolegomena ad Homerum

'I am reading Wolf's Prolegomena to Homer. In the evening aloud, Wilhelm Meister again!'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : "Principles of Success in Literature

'Began to read "Principles of Success in Literature".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : [Social Function...]

'Read M.S. 'Social Function' and Physical Basis'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : Physical Basis of Mind, The

'Read M.S. 'Social Function' and Physical Basis'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : [journal, 1874]

'Wrote memories and lived with him all day. Read in his diary 1874 - "Wrote verses to Polly - Wrote verses on Polly".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown, journal

George Henry Lewes : [various works Eliot was revising]

'Began Revision of Problem II. Revised Introduction. Finished 2nd reading of Psychological Principles'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : Spanish Drama, The

'Read my darling's book on the Spanish Drama'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : [first article on Goethe]

'Read my darling's first article on Goethe'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: UnknownManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : [probably] Problems of Life and Mind; Third Series: Mind as a Function of Organism

'Reading Problem III'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown

W. Kingdom Clifford : First and Last Castrophe, The

'Read Clifford's First and Last Catastrophe'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

John Stuart Mill : [on socialism]

'Read J.S. Mill on Socialism'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : [on language]

'read my darling's M.S. on Language'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : [article on Philosophy in France]

'Made list of his articles, and read His article on Philosophy in France, 1843'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Unknown

Alexander (perhaps) Ellis (perhaps) : [perhaps] On the Laws of Operation, and the Systematization of Mathematics

'Re-read "Laws of Operation".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : [essay on Dwarfs and Giants]

'Read 'Dwarfs and Giants' with which many memories are connected of far off Richmond Days'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Unknown

Charles Augustin Sainte Beuve : unknown

'Read Homer, Bain, St Beuve'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : Biographical History of Philosophy, A

'Grote on the Sophists - then History of Philosophy to compare'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : Life and Works of Goethe, The

'History of Philosophy. Pollock's Sketch of Clifford. Life of Goethe. Homer'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Caroline Matilda Warren : Conrade, or the Gamesters

Mary Berry, Journal, 20 April 1808: 'At night finished Miss Warren's novel ["Conrade, or the Gamesters" by galloping over half the pages; human patience could not regularly wade through a series of adventures without "ensemble", of violent situations without interest or probability, and of characters equally pious or equally profligate.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book

Charles James Fox : Historical Work

Mary Berry, Journal, 2 June 1808: 'I began reading aloud Mr. Fox's historical work, in the beautiful large-paper copy which Robert Ferguson has given me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book

Charles James Fox : Historical Work

Mary Berry, Journal, 3 June 1808: 'I continued reading Fox's work. It is very well to read it once out; but it suggests so much thought, and so many new views of things, that I shall read it over more than once to myself in a very different manner to what I am now doing.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : Life and Works of Goethe

'Finished reading "Life and Works of Goethe" with great admiration and delight.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : [letters to George Eliot]

'I read his letters, and packed them together, to be buried with me. Perhaps that will happen before next November'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Manuscript: Letter

George John Romanes : Candid Examination of Theism, A

[Read] 'Romanes, 'Theism'. Tiele, History of Religions. Odyssey.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Cornelis Petrus Tiele : Outlines of the History of Religion

[Read] 'Romanes, 'Theism'. Tiele, History of Religions. Odyssey.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

John Hill Burton : history of the reign of Queen Anne, A

[Read] 'Burton's Queen Anne'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Frances Anne Kemble : Records of a Girlhood

'Finished Fanny Kemble's Records of a girlhood'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

[probably] Archibald Henry Sayce : [if this Sayce then work of Assyriology]

[Read] 'Sayce and Promessi Sposi'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Jean Le Rond D'Alembert : Discours pr?liminaire de l'Encyclop?die

'Finished the Discours Preliminaire'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Hermann and Dorothea

'Read Comte and began Hermann and Dorothea'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

Friedrich Max Muller : Lectures on the Science of Language

'Having finished Spencer's Sociology we began Max Muller's Lectures on the Science of Language'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and John Cross Print: Book

Frederic William Henry Myers : Wordsworth

'after dinner began Duffield's translation of Don Quixote and Myers' Wordsworth'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book

David Friedrich Strauss : Das Leben Jesu

'I am going to begin Strauss, and see what I can make of him. - Have you seen the Opium-Eater's papers on the Lakers in Tait? They are very interesting , but, it seems to me, the most tremendous breach of confidence ever committed; - particularly the giving an account of the "most sublime passage" of Wordsworth's great posthumous work. I wonder what you think of Chorley's "Lion". I don't think it can live, but that there is good enough in it to make one hope he may do something that will'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Henry Fothergill Chorley : Lion: A Tale of the Coteries, The

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : Essays

'Have you read Emerson's Essays? I suppose it is the first immortal Amern book. It has come to me like a visitation of health'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Heny Esmond

'O! "Esmond"! That book marks its own year in one's life. I never did any justice to Thackeray before; and I cannot now read "Vanity Fair". But the publisher sent me "Esmond"; and I expect to read it as long as I live. "Villette". I suppose you feel with the rest of us ; - that it is marvellously powerful, but grievously morbid and not a little coarse.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

John William Kaye : Life and Correspondence of... Sir John Malcolm, The

'I wanted to write about Malcolm's Life and Sothey's new letters, and other things; but I must stop now'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray : Narrative of the dangers to which I have been exposed, since the 31st of May 1793

'Read Louvets memoires'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Print: Book

Sara Sophia Hennell : Thoughts in Aid of Faith

'[Miss Hennell's] is a wonderful book for beauty; - a really wonderful poem, it seems to me: but O dear! so unsound in the latter part! - so weak in its lapse into metaphysics, after an apparent abjuring of them.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Heny Thomas Buckle : History of Civilization in England

'No doubt it is to you that I owe this pleasure, - of Buckle's 2d vol. Maria has been cutting and skimming, and she opines that I shall find it a very great treat indeed. My best thanks to you for it, dear friend. I am in the thick of a very different sort of book now, - "Elsie Venner", which I did not mean to read; but a look at the first page carried me on: How immensely clever some of these Americans are! and their style of tale so new! I dislike all the part connected with Elsie: but I enjoy the New England atmosphere of the thing, and the wonderful power of deep and incessant observation'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : Elsie Venner

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

John Lothrop Motley : Causes of the Civil War in America [probably]

'We are reading Motley's last, - much surprised not to like it better. It is so diffuse and sinks so very low in its Carlylisms &c.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau

James Anthony Froude : History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada [presumably part of]

'As to books, we (in this house) are very old-fashioned; and I am only now indulging in Froude's "Elizabeth". I did not mean to read it, - being disgusted by his dishonest treatment of evidence in his "Henry": but the review notices tempted me at last; and I find "Elizabeth" extremely entertaining, - however provoking'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Henry, Earl Grey : The reform act, 1832; the correspondence of the late Earl Grey with His Majesty King William IV. and with Sir Herbert Taylor, from Nov. 1830 to June 1832

'The two most interesting books I have read for some time are the Edgeworth Memoir (Lady Strangford's copy) and Ld Grey's 2 vols: of Correspondce between his father and Wm 4th (Lady Elgin's copy). I must not begin on either of them, or I shall write myself dead. I could not have supposed that any book could stir me as the Edgeworth correspondence does...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Mary Wortley Montagu : [Letters]

'Seward had been reading a five-volume edition of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's letters, and she had confessed her irritation with Lady Mary's avowed contempt for Pope' [see letter to Mrs Childers, 1804]

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Seward Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : [unknown]

'Annabella was now reading Cowper's "Iliad" and annotating evey second line; she was studying Alfieri with the family-solicitor's daughter; for relaxation condescending to "Evelina". In "Evelina" she was disappointed, like a good many more of its readers - more perhaps than make the confession. There was study of Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge as well, for everyone was reading them... Annabella waded through "Madoc". She found some passages wearisome but was convinced that Southey would one day be ranked high "among the ancient poets".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'She read enormously, finding time and energy we wonder how. A list of her books makes the unregenerate blood run cold, though she did include some novels - Miss Edgeworth's and Beckford's sensation-making "Vathek", in which she detected the source of some passages in the Book of the Season, Lord Byron's "Childe Harold". "Childe Harold's" only rival in her poetic reading was "The Faerie Queene". That was a reckless undertaking for the height of the London season; she may not, like so many of us, have quite finished "The Faerie Queene".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Lara

'she asked [Byron] to recommend her some books of modern history. At present she was reading Sismondi's "Italian Republics". And she had read "Lara". Shakespeare alone possessed the same power as Byron had there displayed'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke Print: Book

Jean Charles de Sismondi : Litt?rature du midi de l'Europe

[Letter from Byron to Annabella Milbanke, Aug 25th 1814]. 'You can hardly have a better modern work than Sismondi's, but he has since published another on the Literature of Italy, Spain &c., which I would willingly recommend... on my return to London I would gladly forward it... Gibbon is well worth a hundred perusals. Watson's Philip of Spain, and Coxe's Spain and Austria are dry enough; but there is some advantage to be extracted even from them. Vertot's Revolutions (but writes not history but romance). The best thing of that kind I met by accident at Athens in a Convent Library in old and not "very choice Italian". I forget the title - but it was a history in some thirty tomes of all Conjurazioni whatsoever from Catiline's down to Count Fiesco of Lavagna's in Genoa and Braganza's in Lisbon. I read it through (having nothing else to read) & having nothing to compare it withal, thought it perfection'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

Rene Aubert de Vertot : [book(s) on Revolutions]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon, Lord Byron Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Don Juan

'Early in July appeared the first part of "Don Juan". "The impression was not so disagreeable as I expected", wrote Annabella. "In the first place I am very much relieved to find that there is not anything which I can be expected to notice... I do not feel inclined to continue the perusal. It is always a task to me now to read his works, in which, through all the levity, I discern enough to awake very painful feelings".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella), Baroness Byron Print: Serial / periodical

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Giaour

'Early in 1831 there is the following entry in a diary: "Read to Ada the beautiful lines on Greece in 'The Giaour', the 'Fare thee well', and the 'Satire'. With the first she was highly pleased, from its efusion-of-feeling character; the 2nd she thought laboured and inferior in pathos; the 3rd very amusing though very unlike the person".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella), Baroness Byron Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Fare Thee Well

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella), Baroness Byron Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [a Satire - on Annabella?]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella), Baroness Byron Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : [works]

'By the age of ten he had gone through E.W. Lane's three-volume translation of "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night", Scott's Waverley novels, Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass", the adventure stories of Captain Marryat, everything of Harrison Ainsworth, and other, now forgotten, works'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Somerset Maugham Print: Book

[probably] James Murphy : [probably] Travels in Portugal ... in the Years 1789-90

Horace Walpole to Mary Berry, 22 November 1795: 'I will, while expecting Marchand [...] transcribe the wonderful Sanscrit paragraph which you found t'other morning in Murphy's "Portugal," and which you will like to possess: -- '"From whose splendid virtues, the great men, who delight to sport in the atoms which float in the beams of light issuing from the beauty of the leaf of the sleepy Ketahee of the diadem of the goddess Saraskatee, went to adorn the females of the eight points."'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Horace Walpole Print: Book

[probably] James Murphy : [probably] Travels in Portugal ... in the Years 1789-90

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book

Charles Brockden Brown : Edgar Huntley; or, the Sleep-walker

'Shelley reads Edgar Huntley to us'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

'Willie first read Goethe's "Faust" and "Wilhelm Meister" (later the subject of a major essay) in Heidelberg'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Somerset Maugham Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre

'Willie first read Goethe's "Faust" and "Wilhelm Meister" (later the subject of a major essay) in Heidelberg'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Somerset Maugham Print: Book

John Henry, Cardinal Newman : [theological works]

'Brooks loved literature, and during their long walks together he introduced Willie to the most important contemporary English writers: the theological works of Cardinal Newman, the witty novels of George Meredith, the "Imaginary Portraits" of Pater, the rapturous poetry of Swinburne and Fitzgerald's sensual translation of "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ellingham Brooks Print: Book

Algernon Charles Swinburne : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ellingham Brooks Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]

'Mary read to me some passages from Ld Byron's poems. I was not before so clearly aware [of] how much of the colouring our own feelings throw upon the liveliest delineations of other minds'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

James Henry Lawrence : Empire of the Nairs; or, The Rights of Women, The

'read Political Justice & the empire of the Nairs'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Thomas Jefferson Hogg : Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff

'read Alexy Haimatoff - study a little greek - read Political Justice'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Julius (Or Lucus Annaeus) Florus : [possibly] Epitome bellorum omnium annorum

'in the evening read Cicero de Senectute & the Paradoxa - Night comes. Jane walks in her sleep & groans horribly. listen for two hours - at length bring her to Mary. Begin Julius Florus and finish the little Vol of Cicero'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Hon Mrs C. Scott : MS

Mary Berry, Journal, 28 August 1823: 'Loitered in the garden with Car. [Hon. Mrs Scott, novelist], and read the MS. which she gave me.'

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown

Lazare N.M. Carnot : Memoir adresse au Roi en juillet 1814

'I read Carnot's memorial - he is a common place man'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : article on Frederick of Prussia

Lord Francis Jeffrey to Mary Berry, 23 April 1842 (in letter begun 22 April): 'I still read a good deal [...] I have just finished the last number of the "Edinburgh Review," and have been charmed more than ever, I think, with that splendid paper of Macaulay's on Frederic of Prussia. I have read it twice over already, with thrillings of admiration whcih make my very weak heart leap rather too strongly; but it is delightful.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Francis Jeffrey Print: Serial / periodical

Thomas Babington Macaulay : The History of England from the Accession of James the Second

Mary Berry to the Countess of Morley, 24 December 1848: 'Talking of Macaulay, I hope you have got his book, as the [italics]very[end italics] most entertaining reading I ever met with ... The first edition of 3,000 copies was sold in the first week; another, of 3,000 more, is to come out on Thursday next.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book

S. Stefano Guazzo : Civil Conversation

'[Gabriel Harvey] bought and studied Guazzo's [italics]Civil Conversation[end italics] in the early 1580s.'

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book

Lord Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton : A Defensative against the poyson of supposed prophesies

'Throughout [Gabriel] Harvey's copy of [Lord Henry Howard's "A Defensative against the poyson of supposed prophesies"] are underlinings and comments [on the necessity of patience, Howard's work having contained attacks on Harvey's astrologer brother]'.

Century: 1500-1599 / 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book

A. P. Gasser : Historiarum, et Chronicorum Totius Mundi Epitome

'In A. P. Gasser's "Historiarum, et Chronicorum Totius Mundi Epitome" (1538) purchased by [Gabriel] Harvey in 1576, are brief manuscript characterizations [by Harvey] of some of the historical figures mentioned.'

Century: 1500-1599 / 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book

Marco Antonio Gandino : unknown

Gabriel Harvey's favourite authors on warfare, listed in his copy of Machiavelli, "The Arte of Warre", after 1595: 'Mie principal Autors for Warr, after much reading, & long consideration: [...] For the Art, Vegetius, Machiavel & Sutcliff: for Stratagems, Gandino, & Ranzovius: for Fortification, Pyrotechnie, & engins, Tetti, & Digges [Stratioticos]: for the old Roman most worthie Discipline & Action, Caesar: for the new Spanish, & Inglish excellent Discipline & Action, Sir Ro[ger]: Williams.'

Century: 1500-1599 / 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book

Sir Roger Williams : unknown

Century: 1500-1599 / 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book

Sir R Phillips : Personal Tour

'Read a portion of Sir R Phillips' Personal tour.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cole Print: Book

Thomas Noon Talfourd : "On the System of Malthus"

'In a poor little struggling Unitarian periodical, the Monthly Repository [...] a youth, named Thomas Noon Talfourd, was about this time [1816] making [...] first attempts at authorship. Among his earliest papers [...] was one "On the System of Malthus" [...] It was prodigiously admired by [...] some of my family, who read it, and lived on it for awhile, but it served to mislead me about Malthus'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Martineau family Print: Serial / periodical

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

Harriet Martineau on German studies continued during stay in Kent: 'There I refreshed myself among pretty scenery, fresh air, and pleasant drives [...] and with the study of Faust at night'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Christopher Martin Wirland : Geschichte des Agathon

'read Agathon part of which I like but it [is] not so good as Peregrine'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Christopher Martin Wirland : Geschichte des Agathon

'finish Agathon - I do not like it. Wieland displays some most detestable opinions - he is one of those men who alter all their opinions when they are about 40 and then thinking that it will be the same with every one think themselves the only proper monitors of youth'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Sir Richard Phillips : Personal Tour

'Read in Sir Phillip's "Personal Tour" - curios of natural history... Read a portion of Blair on death.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cole Print: Book

Sir William Temple : [work on Holland]

Harriet Martineau, on research for a story on Bills of Exchange to be set either in Holland or South America: 'I thought Holland on the whole the more convenient of the two; so I dipped into some book about that country (Sir William Temple, I believe it was), picked out the two ugliest Dutch names I could find, made them into a firm, and boldly advertised them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixotte

To Miss Hunt, April 7, 1794 'At present I am puzzling at Persian and Arabic, and I mean to begin Hebrew. I get on at least with Spanish, for I have been able to meet with only one book since I read Don Quixotte, which was the "History of the Incas" by Garcillaso de la Vega. I was very pleased with it, though it is very long and in some parts tedious.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book

Garcilaso de la Vega : History of the Incas

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book

Juan de Mariana : History of Spain

To Miss Hunt, Bath Sept 27, 1794 'I have the great store of Spanish lately; the "Teatro Critico Universale" by Feyjoo, a very clever work in 14 volumes; and I am now reading post-haste [italics] Mariana's "History of Spain", of which I have only read half, but am determined to finish it before I go. It is not so interesting as some other histories, but one must know it.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book

Thomas James Mathias : The Pursuits of Literature

To Lady Isabella King, Bath March 8th 1798 'Have you read "The Pursuits of Literature"? It is a satirical poem. I dislike satire in general, but this appears to me one of the cleverest books I ever met with, and indeed this is the general opinion respecting it... I have read Robinson on the "Illuminati". It is said by people wel-informed on the subject to be a true representation.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book

Marcus Tullius Cicero : Tuscular Disputations

To Miss Hunt Shirley, July 28, 1795 'I must tell you that I cannot help being quite reconciled to Cicero... If you have not yet met with it, only read, as a sample, the first book of his "Tuscular disputations", "de contemrenda morte", and I think you will agree with me, that with the addition of Christianity to confirm his supposition, and rectify a few mistakes in them, and the knowledge of the true state of the universe, no doctrine can be more perfect than his; and that half the modern books on the subject might have been spared, had the writers of them, before they began, read this dialogue.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book

Edward Hyde Clarendon : History of the Rebellion and civil wars in England

To Miss Hunt Shirley, July 28, 1795 'I have just finished Clarendon's "History of the rebellion", which Miss Bowdler long ago desired me to read. It is extremely interesting and instructive.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book

R. Monckton Milnes : poems

'My [Harriet Martineau's] pleasure in [R. Monckton Milnes's poems] was greatest when I read them in my Tynemouth solitude. My copy is marked all over with hieroglyhics involving the emotions with which I read them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Tobias George Smolett : History of England

To Miss Hunt, December 12 1792 'The "Lusiad" I never read. It was Middleton's "Life of Cicero" that I meant. I was not tired with its length because the chief of its contents were new to me. I have lately undertaken Smollet's "History of England", but must leave it in the middle.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder : Floods in Morayshire

Harriet Martineau on inspirations and research for her story 'Settlers at Hoime': 'Tait's Magazine of last year had an article of De Quincy's which made me think of snow-storms for a story: -- then it occurred to me that floods were less hackneyed [...] Floods suggested Lincolnshire for the scene, and Lauder's book (Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's "Floods in Morayshire," read many years before) for the material. For Lincolnshire I looked into the Penny Cyclopedia, and there found references to other articles'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Irish Sketch-Book by M. A. Titmarsh

'My [Harriet Martineau's] first real interest in [Thackeray] arose from reading M. A. Titmarsh in Ireland, during my Tynemouth illness.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The History of Henry Esmond Esq

'"Esmond" appears to me [Harriet Martineau] [italics]the [end italics] book of the century, in its department. I have read it three times; and each time with new wonder at its rich ripe wisdom, and at the singular charm of Esmond's own character.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The History of Pendennis

'While at Cromer [...] I read "Pendennis" with such intense enjoyment [...] that the notion of trying my hand once more at a novel seized upon me'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : oration

Harriet Martineau, Journal, 7 November 1837: 'Read Waldo Emerson's oration. Though fanciful, it has much truth and beauty. It moved, roused, soothed and consoled me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

? J. G. ?Lockhart : Life of Scott (vol. 6)

Harriet Martineau, Journal, 7 January 1838: 'Read Life of Scott, Vol. VI. It is far more interesting than the former ones'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Samuel Jackson Pratt : Gleanings in England

'Returned Pratt's "Gleanings in England" to the [D.S?] library having only read a few of the letters which did not please me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Rev. George Butt : Timoleon

'One thing, however, yet remains to us & dares to baffle all the wickedness of the Ministry, the tyranny of the Crown, & the various horrours of these ruinous times, ?Manuscript tragedies are yet Handed about to be read & Country Parsons are yet left to Write them. One of these we had last Night the happiness of hearing,? the Author is Tutor to a Nephew of Sir Philip Clerke, ?I shall not pretend either to praise or to censure his Piece, but content myself with giving You a specimen of his ingenuousness ? "If", says he, "any one asserts that my Play is barren of incident,?it is no more than I know already,?but I can?t help it,?for I could find none in The History from which I took it". It is called, from its Hero, Timoleon.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney Manuscript: Sheet

Louisa May Alcott : Transcendental Wild Oats (article)

From chapter entitled 'Conversations' in Maria Weston Chapman's 'Memorials' of Harriet Martineau: 'Reading an article of Miss Alcott's, she [Martineau] says, "Transcendental Wild Oats"! -- what a capital title! It has genius in it."'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Unknown

Sir Walter Scott : Kenilworth

'In another house I found a tattered copy of Scott's "Kenilworth" and a quite new copy of "Cranford". Among some old books in my grandmother's cottage I found a curious one entitled "Adam's First Wife". This was a sort of history of the Garden of Eden which rather discounted the "rib theory" and raised some doubt in my mind as to Adam's innocence in the pre-apple days.' [continuation of discussion of Adam etc]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hannah Mitchell Print: Book

Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans : Bring flowers

[Transcribed into a ms volume] Title 'Lines by Mrs Hemans'; Text 'Bring flowers, young flowers, for the festal board/ To wreathe the cup ere the wine is poured;/ Bring flowers! they are springing in wood and vale,/ Their breath floats out on the southern gale; ...' [total = 6 x 6 lines verses]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Georg Eberhard Rumphius : Herbarium Amboinensis

'The growth of the Rhizophora also pleased me much, although I had before a very good idea of it from Rumphius, who has a very good figure of the tree in his Herb. Amboin. [v. iii. tab. 71, 72]'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Georg Eberhard Rumphius : Herbarium Amboinensis

'Browne, in his "History of Jamaica" mentions three species whose roots, he says, are used to dye a brown colour; and Rumphius says of his Bancudus angustifolia, which is very nearly allied to our nono, that it is used by the inhabitants of the East Indian Islands as a fixing drug for the colour of red, with which he says it particularly agrees.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Charles de Brosse : Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes

'From the vocabularies given in Le Maire's voyage (see Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, tom. i. p. 410) it appears clearly that the languages given there as those of the Isles of Solomon and the Isle of Cocos are radically the identical language we met with, most words differing in little, but the greater number of consonants.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Rene Augustin Constantin de Renneville : A collection of voyages undertaken by the Dutch East-India Company, for the improvement of trade & navigation ...

'I shall give them from a book called a "Collection of Voyages by the Dutch East Company", Lond. 1703, p. 116, where, supposing the author who speaks of ten numbers and gives only nine to have lost the fifth, their similarity is beyond dispute.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Abel Jansen Tasman : [unknown]

'The men in these boats were dressed much as they are represented in Tasman's figure, that is, two corners of the cloth they wore were passed over their shoulders and fastened to the rest of it just below their breasts; but few or none had feathers in their hair.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Amedee Francois Frezier : Relation du voyage de la Mer du Sud, aux c?tes du Chili, et du Peron, fair pendent les annees, 1712, 1713, et 1714

'We had also that fish described by Frezier in his voyage to Spanish South America by the name of "elefant, pejegallo" or "poisson coq" which, though coarse, we made shift to eat, and several species of skate or sting-rays, which were abominably coarse.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Mrs. Henry Wood : [novels]

'I also found a small library, which meant that many copper really needed for food were spent on borrowing books. At this time I read all Mrs. Henry Wood's novels, most of Sir Walter Scott's works along with a good deal of poetry and history, as well as a good deal of rubbish I daresay. But as I have forgotten it it did me no harm.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hannah Mitchell Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : [works]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hannah Mitchell Print: Book

James Edward Austen-Leigh : A Memoir of Jane Austen

"Jane Austen herself, the Queen of novelists, the immortal creator of Anne Elliott, Mr Knightley, and a score or two more of unrivalled intimate friends of the whole public, was compelled by the feelings of her family to cover up her manuscripts with a large piece of muslin work."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : When coldness wraps this suffering clay

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: Title = 'Strangers by Lord Byron'; Text = 'When coldness wraps this suffering clay/ Ah! whither strays the immortal mind?/ It cannot die, it cannot stay/ But leaves its darken'd dust behind ...' [total = 4 x 8 line verses]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

J G Brandon : Death in Downing Street

'Well, it's written snappy, you see. . . . Modern writers may not be up to the standard of the old writers, Dickens, Thackeray and Scott, but they're snappy-they're quick reading.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

[George Gordon, Lord] [Byron] : [Don Juan - Canto the Third]

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: Untitled; Text = 'Marriage from love, like vinegar from wine/ A sad, sour, sober beverage - by time/ Is sharpen'ed from its high celestial flavour/ Down to a very homely household savour'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge : The Penny Cyclopaedia

'And with that, dismissing the subject, I dived again into the unplumbed depths of the "Penny Cyclopaedia"'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Serial / periodical

Benjamin Wills Newton : Thoughts on the Apocalypse

'I read the Bible everyday, and at much length; also, - with what I cannot but think some praiseworthy patience, - a book of incommunicable dreariness, called Newton's "Thoughts on the Apocalypse".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

Andrew John Jukes : The law of the offerings in Leviticus

'There was, for instance, a writer on prophecy called Jukes, of whose works each of my parents was inordinately fond, and I was early set to read Jukes aloud to them. I did it glibly , like a machine, but the sight of Jukes's volumes became an abomination to me, and I never formed the outline of a notion what they were about.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge : The Penny Cyclopaedia

'Later on, a publication called the "Penny Cyclopaedia" became my daily, and for a long time almost my sole study...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [Memoirs]

'I read his own [Byron's] memoirs before Murray burnt them.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb

Sir Walter Scott : Guy Mannering

?There are good characters I think in Guy [Mannering] ? the Scotch Lawyer ? the Farmer ? [...] the Gipsies[sic] & Brown himself as a Modern Tom Jones ? It certainly cannot be called a bad novel it is written by a clever man ? a man who knows human nature & has looked as closely as Claude Lauraine on views of skies & water & rocks ? but there is not much genius there as there was in Waverly'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Waverley

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [poem]

'Dear Lord Byron? I must thank you for yr. Poem you have sent me I [this word is illegible] not say how good I think it is [?]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Sarah Jersey Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Bride of Abydos

'I received the Books, & among them the Bride of Abydos. It is very, very beautiful.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Canning Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

[Felicia Dorothea Browne] [Hemans] : The grave of a poetess

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Title] 'The grave of a poetess (Mrs` Tighe at Woodstock near Kilkenny)'; [text] 'I stood beside thy lowly grave;/ Spring-odours breath'd around/ And music, in the river-wave/ pass'd with a lulling sound ...' [total = 13 x 4 lines verses]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

[Anne Gabriel] [De Querlon]? : [Adieu]

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Title] 'Mary, Queen of Scots' farewell to France'; [text] 'Adieu, plaisant pays de France/ O ma patrie/ La plus cherie/ Qui a nourri ma jeune enfance ......' [total = 13 x 4 lines verses]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Letitia Elizabeth Landon : The record

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Title] 'The Record'; [text] 'He sleeps, his head upon his sword/ His soldier's cloak a shroud/ His churchyard is the open field/ Three times it has been ploughed... L.E.L.' [total =9 x 4 line verses]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Letitia Elizabeth Landon : The Troubadour [extract]

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Title] 'From the Troubadour by L.E.L.'; [text] 'A poetical sketch of a picture by Howard/ the subject - fairies on the sea shore./ First fairy/ My home & haunt are in every leaf/ Whose life is a summer day , bright & brief/ I live in the depths of the tulip's bower/ I drink the dew of the citrus flower/ ...'[total = 4 verses of 10,10,8,12 lines with chorus]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : 'The Walse' also entitled 'The Waltz'

[transcribed in what appears to be Lady Caroline's hand]: 'With modest sidelong look and downcase glance / Behold the well matched couple now advance / His hand held hers. The other grasped her hip[...]'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb

William Robert Spencer : Urania

[transcribed in what seems to be Lady Caroline's hand]: 'If guardian Powers preside above Who still extend to virtuous Love A tutelary care The Virgins bosom?s earliest dole The first born Passion of the soul Must find protection there. Never can noon's maturer ray That charm of orient light display, Which morning suns impart So can no later passion prove That glow which gilds the dawn of Love The day spring of the hearts?

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb

Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine : [L'Homme]

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: Title 'Address to Lord Byron by Dr Lamartine'; [Text] 'Toi, dont le monde encore ignore le vrai nom/ Esprit mysterieux, mortel ou demon/...' [total = 58 lines]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans : The illuminated city

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Title] 'The Illuminated City' ; [Text] 'The hills all glow'd with a festive light/ For the Royal city rejoiced by night/ ... [by] Mrs Hemans' [total = 5 x 8 line verses]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans : The forest sanctuary

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Title] 'From the Forest Sanctuary'; [Text] 'But the dark hours wring forth the hidden might/ Which hath lain bedded in the silent soul/ A treasure all undreamed of ; - as the night/ ... [by] Mrs Hemans' [total = 8 x 9 line verses, probably not a continuous extract]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

E. M. Forster : A Passage to India

'I gave her E. M. Forster's "A Passage to India". She- "I'm not sure, but I believe I've read it. I don't really remember." Rest of conversation not recorded, above remarks noted an hour later.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Sir Hans Sloane : History of Jamaica

'The gum-trees were like those in the last bay, both in leaf and in producing a very small proportion of gum; on the branches of them and other trees were large ants' nests, made of clay, as big as a bushel, something like those described in Sir Hans Sloane's "History of Jamaica", vol. II. pp. 221 to 258, but not so smooth.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon : Histoire naturelle, generale et particuliere

'While botanising to-day I had the good fortune to take an animal of the opossum ("Didelphis") tribe; it was a female, and with it I took two young ones. It was not unlike that remarkable one which De Buffon has described by the name of "Phalanger" as an American animal. It was, however, not the same. M. de Buffon is certainly wrong in asserting that this tribe is peculiar to America, and in all probability, as Pallas has said in his "Zoologia" the "Phalanger" itself is a native of the East Indies, as my animals and that agree in the extraordinary conformation of their feet, in which particular they differ from all the others.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Peter Simon Pallas : Miscellanea Zoologia

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Abel Janszoon Tasman : [unknown]

'This I should suppose to be the gum mentioned by Dampier in his voyage round the world, and by him compared with "Sanjuis draconis", as possibly also that which Tasman saw upon Van Diemen's Land, where he says he saw gum on the trees, and gum lac on the ground.' (See his voyage in a collection published at London in 1694, p. 133)

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon : Histoire naturelle, generale et particuliere

'The third was of the opossum kind, and much resembled that called by De Buffon "Phalanger". Of these two last I took only one individual of each. Bats here were many: one small one was much if not identically the same as that described by De Buffon under the name of "Fer de cheval". Another sort was as large as, or larger than, a partridge; but of this species we were not fortunate enough to take one. We supposed it, however, to be the "Rousette" or "Rougette" of the same author.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Georg Eberhard Rumphius : Herbarium Aboinense

'When first we found the tree, we of course gathered the branches, and were surprised to find our hands instantly covered with legions of these small animals, who stung most intolerably; experience, however, taught us to be more careful for the future. Rhumphius mentions a similar instance to this in his "Herbarium Amboinense", vol. ii. p. 257; his tree, however, does not at all resemble ours.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Georg Eberhard Rumphius : Herbarium Aboinense

'The chief inconvenience in handling the roots came from the infinite number; myriads would come in an instant out of many holes, and running over the hand tickle so as to be scarcely endurable. Rhumphius has an account of this very bulb and its ants in vol. vi. p.120, where he describes also another sort, the ants of which are black.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe : Sorrows of Young Werther

'at ten o'clock yesterday evening little Jem Parsons (the cabin boy), and his friend the black terrier, came on deck, and sat themselves on a gun-carriage, to read by the light of the moon. I looked at the boy's book, (the terrier, I suppose, read over the other's shoulder,) and found that it was "The Sorrows of Werter". I asked who had lent him such a book, and whether it amused him? He said that it had been made a present to him, and so he had read it almost through, for he had got to Werter's dying; though, to be sure, he did not understand it all, nor like very much what he understood; for he thought the man a great fool for killing himself for love. I told him I thought that every man a great fool who killed himself for love or for any thing else: but he had no books but "The Sorrows of Werter"? - oh dear yes, he said, he had a great many more; but he had got "The Adventures of a Louse", which was a very curious book, indeed; and he had got besides "The Recess", and "Valentine and Orson", and "Roslin Castle", and a book of Prayers, just like the Bible; but he could not but say that he liked "The Adventures of a Louse" the best of any of them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jem Parsons Print: Book

Amedee Francois Frezier : Relation d'un voyage de la Mer du Sud aux cotes du Chili et du Perou

'I have been told that this very method was proposed in the "Gentleman's Magazine" many years ago, but have not the book on board. Frezier, in his voyage to the South Sea, describes a contrivance of the Peruvian Indians upon the same principles, plate 31, p. 273, but his drawing and plan are difficult to understand, if not actually very faulty, and his description is nothing; the drawing may serve, however, to give an idea to a man who has never seen a thing of the kind.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Georg Eberhard Rumphius : Herbrium Aboinensis

'Authors tell strange stories about the immense size to which this fruit grows in some countries which are favourable to it. Rumphius says that they are sometimes so large that a man cannot easily lift one of them: the Malays told me that at Madura they were so large that two men could but carry one of them; at Batavia, however, they never exceed the size of a large melon, which in shape they resemble, but are coated over with angular spines like the shootings of some crystals: they are, however, soft, and do not at all prick any one who handles them.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Banks Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Quentin Durward

'In 1823 I read in Scott?s novel of ?Quentin Durward? the prophetic words of Martivalle, ?Can I look forward without wonder and astonishment to the lot of a succeeding generation, on whom knowledge shall descend like the first and second rain, uninterrupted, unabated, unbounded.? The Printing Press had produced the first rain; the Printing Machine was the ?little cloud no bigger than a man?s hand? which promised the second rain.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Knight Print: Book

G B Stern : [unknown]

'On the whole I'd rather have a book like G. B. Stern's, or Hatter's Castle or The Stars Look Down. It's very sad to read, but it does give you life's problems, doesn't it?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Archibald Joseph Cronin : Hatter's Castle

'On the whole I'd rather have a book like G. B. Stern's, or Hatter's Castle or The Stars Look Down. It's very sad to read, but it does give you life's problems, doesn't it?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Archibald Joseph Cronin : The stars look down

'On the whole I'd rather have a book like G. B. Stern's, or Hatter's Castle or The Stars Look Down. It's very sad to read, but it does give you life's problems, doesn't it?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

H G Wells : [unknown]

'I've read a book of H. G. Wells, he's good, I saw that film about "Things to Come", it's good, never read about science, they do some silly things, they're always talking about what should be, nobody takes any notice. My brother works in an electric works, he says they're always making new things. Gosh, I wouldn't like to go back to them old days . . . no buses or that . . . they only do it to make money.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

[Felicia Dorothea Browne] [Hemans] : [Kindred hearts]

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Untitled]; [Text]' ?Oh! ask not, hope not thou too much/ of sympathy below/ For are the hearts whence one same touch/ Bids the sweet fountains flow/ ?' [total = 16 lines but not a continuous extract]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans : [untitled]

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Untitled]; [Text]' ? Now I feel/ What high prerogatives belong to Death/ He hath a deep, though voiceless eloquence, /To which I leave my ? His solemn veil/ ... Mrs Hemans' [total = 12 lines]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

[Elizabeth Rundle] [Charles] : To one at rest

[Item transcribed into a commonplace book]: [Title] 'To one at rest/ by the author of/ the Three Wakings'; [Text] 'And needest thou our prayers no more, Safe folded mid the blest/ How changed are thou since last we met, To keep the day of rest/ Young with the youth of angels; Wise with the growth of years/ For we have passed since thou has gone, A week of many tears/ ...24th Sept 1871'; [Total = 11 lines]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine Print: Unknown

Giovanni Battista Belzoni : Travels

'Laura's greatest find was a battered old copy of Belzoni's "Travels" propping open somebody's pantry window. When she asked for the loan of it, it was generously given to her, and she had the intense pleasure of exploring the burial chambers of the pyramids with her author.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Old St Paul's

'Laura, who by this time was reading "Old St Paul's" at home, simply romped through this Little-Go'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Laura Thompson Print: Book

Queen Victoria : Leaves from Her Majesty's Life in the Highlands

'Laura was lucky enough to be given a bound volume of "Good Words" - or was it "Home Words"? - in which the Queen's own journal, "Leaves From Her Majesty's Life in the Highlands", ran as a serial. She galloped through all these instalements immediately to pick out the places mentioned by her dear Sir Walter Scott. Afterwards the journal was re-read many times, as everything was re-read in that home of few books.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Serial / periodical

Sir Walter Scott : The Bride of Lammermoor

'"The Bride of Lammermoor" was one of the first books that Laura read with absorbed interest. She adored the Master of Ravenswood, his dark haughty beauty, his flowing cloak and his sword, his ruined castle, set high on its crag by the sea, and his faithful servant Caleb and the amusing shifts he made to conceal his master's poverty. She read and re-read "The Bride"'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Don Juan

'She was shocked by some of the hero's adventures but more often thrilled. Laura learned quite a lot by reading "Don Juan".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Book

Pearl Mary Theresa Craigie : Letters from a Silent Study

'I will not tell you my exact state of health day by day, but will give you a diary of my reading, which is perhaps a good index of my physical state. Friday morning. Full of buck. "Tartarin sur les Alpes". Friday afternoon. Wanted soothing. "Letters from a Silent Study". Saturday morning. Very depressed. "Pickwick Papers". Saturday afternoon. A little better. "Esmond". Sunday morning. Quite well thank you! "Butler's Analogy". Sunday afternoon. Quite well thank you! "Esmond and Stonewall Jackson". As a guide I may point out that "Pickwick" cheers me up when I am most depressed, while "Butler's Analogy" taxes all my strength.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Donald William Alers Hankey Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The History of Henry Esmond

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Donald William Alers Hankey Print: Book

Thomas Jonathan Jackson : [Military History]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Donald William Alers Hankey Print: Book

Brooke Foss Westcott : Introduction to the Study of the Gospels

'As regards books, such a lot depends on what sort of life you are leading. I always relish Ingram's terse epigrammatic style, but more especially when I am actively busy in mind and body - as during a company course. At such times I have no use for Westcott and his Euclid-like problems and theorems and theses and antitheses. At the present moment, however, my brain is in tune with Westcott. I have a fair amount of spare time, my work is not much brain-work, and I feel I need an exercise of the reason such as I find his books give. I am reading his "Introduction to the Study of the Gospels" at present, and I like it better than any other book of his I have read. He has such a splendidly broad view of everything, and while he observes the minutest details of his subject, he never seems to lose his sense of the whole. That is what is so rare among religionists. They either seem to concentrate all their powers on one little details, or else get such a very general view that, not understanding the composition, they do not understand the full importance or significance of their subject.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Donald William Alers Hankey Print: Book

Sir William Francis Patrick Napier : History of the War in the Peninsular

'Don't worry about me; at last I am a serious soldier. I have a pile of books on ordnance, and gunnery, and ammunition, and explosives etc., etc., littering my table, to say nothing of Napier's "Peninsular War", and a "Life of Napolean"! [sic] So when my major made a surprise descent yesterday afternoon from Curepipe, he found me immersed in an essay on Rifling, and was rather pleased!'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Donald William Alers Hankey Print: Book

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli : The Spiritual Combat

'Curiously enough I arrived at this result by the aid of an R. C. book, called "The Spiritual Combat". The motto of many of the chapters might be written: "Attack all your faults. Smite them by the virtue of the Holy Cross. You know your own weakness, you are full of distrust in yourself. Very well. Now is the time to put your trust in God, and where your own weakness has failed, God's strength will prevail." 'It is a magnificent doctrine. I am trying to attach all my carelessness, and unpractical habits, and am endeavouring to perform most carefully those duties which are most irksome to me. 'I am trying to earn my pay as a soldier. 'I hope you will have no more livery letters. To the author of "The Spiritual Combat", a liver is a Heaven-sent opportunity for conquering one's lower nature.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Donald William Alers Hankey Print: Book

Dr Robert William Dale : The Doctrine of Atonement

'Many thanks for the cuttings on higher criticism. I can't help thinking that this movement is larely the result of trying to reduce (as I tried to do a few days ago!) Christianity to a comprehensible, logical system of ethics, rather than trying to realize that wonderful communion with God which must always be its source of faith, hope, love, and strength. 'Religion would cease to be divine if it were capable of being compressed into the narrow limits of human comprehension; isn't that right? 'I am afraid I greatly prefer Dr Dale's book to Bishop Westcott's. It is so much easier to understand. Westcott is very well for Sundays, but rather exacting for a tired week-day brain! 'The Bishop has returned from the Seychelles and is acting as our chaplin. He is a peculiar man, but I believe he is a very good one. 'I am, your affectionate son. 'P.S. I find I have got a copy of Gore's Prayer and the Lord's Prayer, with your name in it. May I stick to it? I like it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Donald William Alers Hankey Print: Book

Brooke Foss Westcott : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Donald William Alers Hankey Print: Book

C E M Joad : [unknown]

'I am forming my opinions mainly from what I read in books on economies, politics, history, etc. I read the daily papers, but I do not take a lot of notice of what I read in them from the point of view of their opinions on the war, and what shall be done after it. I get far more satisfaction from reading articles or books by authors such as C.E.M. Joad, H.G.Wells and Huxley.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

H G Wells : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Ministry of Information : [invasion leaflet]

'The leaflet makes a special point of common sense but the way it urges people to use it is unconsciously the upper class talking to the stupid mass. This unconscious attitude, so noticeable on the red Government posters at the beginning of the war, underlies the leaflet as a whole-see below, on Little Squash borough and Great Midtown. The lack of emotional or layout appeal is reflected in many comments. Thus, after reading it carefully, a barmaid sums up: "It's plain enough. I should have to read it again."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group:

Ministry of Information : invasion leaflet

'And a housewife, after reading it, says she is satisfied the she has done everything and knows everything that can be done in civil defence: "We've got enough, I mean, we've got a pail of water handy. That's all you can do and bandages and that."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

'Except a brief visit to Ruthwell, I have scarcely been from home since my arrival - my excursions in the world of literature have scarcely been wider... With respect to Goethe's "Faust" - if I were at your side you should hear of nothing else for many hours; and sorry am I that your brows will suddenly contract - if I give free scope to my notions even by this imperfect vehicle.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Hester Lynch Piozzi : Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson

'So much for Mrs Piozzi. I had some thoughts of writing the whole of my letter in her stile [sic], but I beleive [sic] I shall not.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Dr Edward Jenner : pamphlet on the cow pox

'We had a very pleasant day on monday at Ashe [...] There was a whist & a casino table, & six outsiders. - Rice & Lucy made love, Mat: Robinson fell asleep, James and Mrs Augusta alternately read Dr Jenner's pamphlet on the cow pox, & I bestowed my company by turns on all.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Austen

Dr Edward Jenner : pamphlet on the cow pox

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Augusta Bramston

Jean Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi : unknown history

'Having just concluded the first volume of Sismondi's history, and the other not being yet arrived from Edinr, I think I cannot better employ the hour of leisure, which necessarily intervenes between the end of this and the beginning of a fresh employment, than in returning you my thanks for the kind and good-humoured letter which I received last Saturday.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Sarah Harriet Burney : Clarentine, A Novel

'We are reading Clarentine, & are surprised to find how foolish it is. I remember liking it much less on a 2d reading than at the 1st & it does not bear a 3d at all. It is full of unnatural conduct & forced difficulties, without striking merit of any kind.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Revd T. Jefferson : Request for subscribers for "Two Sermons"

'I have read Mr Jefferson's case to Edward [Austen], and he desires to have his name set down for a guinea and his wife's for another; but does not with for more than one copy of the work.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen

Anna Maria Porter : Lake of Killarney

'While I write now, George is most industriously making and naming paper ships, at which he afterwards shoots with horse-chestnuts, brought from Steventon on purpose; and Edward equally intent over the "Lake of Killarney", twisting himself about in one of our great chairs'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Knight Print: Book

Mrs S. Sykes : Margiana, or Widdrington Tower

'The American Lady improved as we went on - but still the same faults in part recurred. - We are now in Margiana, & like it very well indeed. - We are just going to set off for Northumberland to be shut up in Widdrington Tower, where there must be two or three sets of Victims already immured under a very fine Villain.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Austen Family Print: Book

Charles James Blomfield : A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of his Diocese

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Joseph Blanco White : Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholics

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Joseph Blanco White : Letters from Spain

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Joseph Blanco White : A letter to Charles Butler, Esq

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Richard Payne Knight : An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

John Hookham Frere : Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Joseph Blanco White : The Poor Man's Preservative against Popery

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

August Heinrich Matthiae : A Copious Greek Grammar

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Henry George Grey : Corrected Report of the Speech of Viscount Howick

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Herder : Kalligone

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Georg August Goldfuss : Handbuch der Zoologie

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Das System der Sittenlehre nach den Principien

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Grundiss des Eigenthumlichen der Wissenschaftslehr

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Grundlage der gesammten Wissenschaftslehre als Han

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus : Das Leben Jesu

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gebbard Ehrenreich Maass : Versuch uber die Einbildungskraft

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Einleitung in das Neue Testament

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Hugh James Rose : Prolusio in Curia Cantabrigiensi recitata

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

William Charles Wells : Two essays: one upon single vision with two eyes

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Ferdinand Friedrich Runge : Neveste phytochemische Entdeckingen zur Begrundung

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel : Wissenschaft der Logik

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Alexander Charles Louis D'Arblay : The Vanity of All Earthly Greatness

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Herder : Briefe das studium der Theologie betreffend

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon : A Select Collection of Hymns

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Nicola Francesco Haym : Notizia de' libri rari viella lingua italiana

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Francis Bond Head : Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau, by an old man

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Christian Heinroth : Lehrbuch der Anthropologie

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Royal Society : The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Henry Nelson Coleridge : "Life and Writings of Hesiod" Quarterly Review

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Serial / periodical

Bernard Germain Etienne de La Ville Illon : Les ages de la nature et histoire de l'espece human

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

William Fitzwilliam Owen : Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : Philosophische Schrifte[n]

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : Philosophische Schrifte[n]

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Christoph Wolf : Curae philologicae et criticae, ...

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Karl Christian Wolfart : Jahrbucher Fur den Lebens-Magnetismus oder Neues

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : System des transcendentalen Idealismus

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : System des transcendentalen Idealismus

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling : Ueber die Gottheiten von Samothrace

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

August Wilhelm Schlegel : Gedichte

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

August Wilhelm Schlegel : Ueber dramatische Kunst und Litteratur

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher : A Critical Essay on the Gospel of St Luke

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher : Ueber den sogenannten ersten Brief des Paulos

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

James Abraham Hillhouse : Hadad

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Hugh of Saint Victor : De Sacramentis

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Wilhelm Martin Leberecht De Wette : Theodor

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Jean Antoine Dubois : Description of the Character, Manners and Customs of the People of India, and of their Institutions, religious and civil

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

John and Michael Banim : Tales by the O'Hara Family

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Peter Augustine Baines : Faith, Hope, and Charity

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Karl Friedrich Bahrdt : Glaubens-Bekanntniss

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus : The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

[Marginalia] mainly 1804-1811; a few notes added up to 1818-1819, one note is as late as 1826 or later

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

M Lodovico Ariosto : Orlando Furioso

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Jean Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens : Kabbalistische Briefe

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Christoph Adelung : Deutsche Sprachlehre fur Schulen

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Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Henry Nelson Coleridge : Six Months in the West Indies in 1825

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Henry Nelson Coleridge : Notes on the Reform Bill

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

William Ellery Channing : A Discourse

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir George Colebrooke : Six Letters on Intolerance

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Conrad Barchusen : Elementa Chemiae

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Gottfried August Burger : Gedichte

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Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Thomas Browne : Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or Enquries into very many received tenets and commonly presumed truths

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Thomas Browne : Religio Medici

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Thomas Browne : Religio Medici

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

William Lisle Bowles : Sonnets, and other poems

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Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Claude Alexandre, Comte de Bonneval : Memoirs of the Bashaw Count Bonneval

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Gottfried Christian Bohn : Wohlerfahrner Kaufmann

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

St Francis of Sales : Il Teotima osia il trattato dell'amor di Dio

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Carl Friedrich Flogel : Geschichte der Komischen Litteratur

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Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Carl Alexander Ferdinand Kluge : Versuch einer Darstellung des animalischen Magneti

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Carl Alexander Ferdinand Kluge : Versuch einer Darstellung des animalischen Magneti

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbarung

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbarung

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Veber den Begriff der Wissenschaftslehne

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Die Bestimmung des Menschen

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Die Anweisung zum seeligen leben

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann : Fantasiestucke in Calloti Manier

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Heinrich Hoffbauer : Der Mensch in allen Zonen der Erde

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Philippe de la Clyle, sire de Commines : The History of Philip de Commines

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Joannes Scotus Erigena : De divisione naturae libri quinque

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Joannes Scotus Erigena : De divisione naturae libri quinque

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Einleitung in die apokryphischen Schriften

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Einleitung in die apokryphischen Schriften

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Einleitung ins Alte Testament

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi : Veber die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herr

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi : Veber die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herr Moses Mendelssohn

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi : Veber die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herr Moses Mendelssohn

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn : Allgemeine Bibliothek der biblischen Litteratur

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Thomas W Dymock : England's Dust and Ashes Raked up

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach : Uber die naturlichen Verschiedenheiten im Menschen

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach : Uber die naturlichen Verschiedenheiten im Menschen

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz : Theodicee, das ist, Versuch von der Gute Gottes

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Gotthold Ephraim Lessings Leben, nebst seinem noch ubrigen litterarischen Nachlasse

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Gotthold Ephraim Lessings samm Hiche Schriften

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Nemesius of Emesa : Nemesii Philosophi Clarissimi de Natura Hominis Liber Utilissimus

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Bernard de Mandeville : The Fable of the Bees: or, private vices, publick benefits

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Von Matthisson : Gedichte

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Von Matthisson : Gedichte

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Philip Sidney : Arcadia der Graffin von Pembrock

[Marginalia]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Hugo de Groot : De jure belli et pacis

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann : De emendenda ratione graecae grammaticae pars prim

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Heinrich Jung : Theorie der Geister-Kunde

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling : Jahrbucher der Medicin als Wissenschaft

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi : Werke (Vol I-III [of 6])

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Anton Mesmer : Mesmerismus

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Friedrich Ludwig Von Hardenberg : Novalis Schriften (Vol I of 2)

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne : Private Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Benjamin Pitts Capper : A Topographical Dictionary of the United Kingdom

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Thomas Robert Malthus : An Essay on the Principle of Population

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Thomas Robert Malthus : The Grounds of an Opinion on the Policy of Restricting the importation of foreign corn

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Benedictus de Spinoza : Benedicti de Spinoza opera quae supersunt omnia

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

John James Park : The Dogmas of the Constitution

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir William Stewart : Outlines of a Plan for the General Reform of the British Land Forces

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Friedrich Meckel : System des vergleichenden Anatomie

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger : Philosophische Gesprache

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

John James Park : Conservative Reform

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Der Geschlossne Handelsstaat

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Manuel Lacunza Y Diaz : The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

George Stanley Faber : A Dissertation on the Mysteries of the Cabiri: Or the Great Gods of Phoenicia, Samothrace, Egypt, Troas, Greece, Italy and Crete

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

George Stanley Faber : A Dissertation on the Mysteries of the Cabiri: Or the Great Gods of Phoenicia, Samothrace, Egypt, Troas, Greece, Italy and Crete

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

A member of the Church of England : Eternal Punishment Proved to Be Not Suffering, But Privation

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Adolph Carl August Eschenmayer : Psychologie in drei Theilen

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book

Sir Frederick Morton Eden : The State of the Poor; or an History of the Labour

'Took the "Gent. Mag." to the Library, & brought Frederick Morton Eden's "State of the Poor"; he gives an account of the state of the poor in most of the large parishes in England, & amongst the rest Sheffield.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Johann Georg Zimmermann : Solitude, or the effect of Occasional Retirement

'Wrote out of Zimmerman on "Solitude" the introduction to it. [Notes that it is a 1797 edn when borrowed on 26 Aug. 1798].'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Johann Georg Zimmermann : Solitude, or the effect of Occasional Retirement

'Took Zimmermann to the library [In margin: 'vestry']. It consists for the most part of declamation, tho' it is very instructive; I have not finishe'd it but it was time to return it.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

De La Roche : New Memoirs of Literature

'Saw at Book John's [In margin: A person who stands in the Market Place & sells books & of whom I have sometimes bought books] "New Memoirs of Literature for the Year 1725" by [?] Roche. It is a review of books published that year in England...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Sir George Leonard Staunton : An Authentic Account from the King of Great Britain

'Took the 1st vol of Staunton to the library [borrowed on 7 Sept], & brought Townson's "Travels" ... The 1st part of Staunton brings the embassador into the Yellow Sea, so it is the second, which we must expect the most entertainment as it gives a very particular account of the Chinese custom &c.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Samuel Jackson Pratt : Gleanings Through Wales, Holland and Westphalia

'Read a beautiful story in Pratt [borrowed on 11 Oct] concerning a decayed merchant & his daughter who had retired into Wales & were unexpectedly relieved by the Great John Howard.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Helen Maria Williams : A Tour in Switzerland

'Thought the following remarks in Miss Williams was exceeding applicable to the manufacturers of Sheffield: "There is a spirit in that class, in all countries more favourable to inquiry & consequently more hostile to unconditional submission" Vol 2 p.227.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Henry William Bunbury : An Academy for Grown Horsemen

'Brought from the Library as a pamphlet Bunbury's "Academy for Grown Horsemen"; in some parts he is exceedingly humurous.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter

Helen Maria Williams : A Tour in Switzerland

'Miss Williams "Tour" is very entertaining; besides describing the scenery (which she does in a masterly manner) she gives short sketches of the government of the different cantons & compares the state of Switzerland to Paris.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Alaric Alexander Watts : Remember the Past

'Remember the Past!' '"Remember the Past" Oh since Fate has bereft me/...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

Nathaniel Thomas Haynes Bayly : 'The Forsaken to her Father'

'To Fanny' 'Oh! Name him not unless it be/...' 'T Haynes Bayly'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : On A Cornelian Heart Which Was Broken

'On a Gold Heart Which Was broken' 'Ill fated heart and can it be/...' [transcript changes the gender of the speaker]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

Alaric Alexander Watts : A Woman's Farewell. Adapted to an Air by Mozart

'Farewell to...' 'Fare thee well! Tis meet we part, /...' 'July 6th 1835/Julia'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Julia Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Destruction of Sennacherib

'On the Destruction of Semnacherib/ By Byron'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Julia Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Bride of Abydos OR 'Modern Greece'

'Modern Greece/ From the Bride of Abydos' 'Know ye the land where the cypress & myrtle/...' [canto one, stanza one (only) of Bride of Abydos: A Turkish Tale]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'To A Lady Weeping'

'To a Lady Weeping "Weep, daughter of a royal line..."'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George or Edward Carey Print: Unknown

Thomas Haynes Bayly : I Have Known Thee in the Sunshine

'To Selina' 'I have known thee in the sunshine/of thy beauty and thy bloom/...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

Thomas Haynes Bayly : The Bridesmaid

'The Bridesmaid' 'The bridal is o'er the guests are all gone/...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : From the Turkish [The Chain I Gave]

'From Byron' 'The Chain I Gave Was Fair to View.../'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Julia Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Lines Written Beneath A Picture

'Written Beneath a Picture' 'Dear object of defeated care!/...' 'R.G.C. 1835'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: 'R.G.C.' Print: Unknown

Thomas Haynes Bayly : Deck Not With Gems

'"Deck not with Gems"' 'Deck not with gems that lovely form forme/...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Julia Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : On Being Asked What Was the "Origin of Love"

'On being asked what was the "Origin of Love"' 'The "Origin of Love! - ah why/That question cruel ask of me/...' [minor differences from the original]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward or George Carey Print: Unknown

Nathaniel Thomas Haynes Bayly : The Last Green Leaf

'The Last Green Leaf' 'The last green leaf hangs lonely now/...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : A Fragment

'A Fragment' 'When to their airy hall... [printed first line 'When, to their...] 'Byron'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : To [George, Earl Delawarr]

'Friendship' 'O yes I will own we were dear to one another/...' [Oh! Yes, I will own we were dear to each other/...' - Byron's original text]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Maingay [?] Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Farewell! If Ever Fondest Prayer

'Farewell' 'Farewell! If ever fondest prayer/...' [Some differences in punctuation from Byron's text]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Tear

'The Tear' 'When Friendship or Love' [Epigraph from Gray, not transcribed]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Carey/Maingay group Print: Unknown

Leman Thomas Rede : Anecdotes and Biography, including many modern characters

'I have had it before, but have brought it now for the sake of copying a story or two out of it, of which there are very many entertaining ones'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Samuel Jackson Pratt : Gleanings in England

'Returned Pratt's "Gleanings in England" to the SS Library having only read a few of the letters which did not please me;'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Elizabeth Robinson Montagu : An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare

'I think Mrs Montague [sic] has fully vindicated Shakespeare from the objections of Voltaire [...] Her three dialogues of the dead at the end of her essay, are I think very good ones.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

James Thomas Kirkman : Memoirs of the Life of Charles Macklin Esq

'It being the Saturday previous to the annual meeting at the SS Library I was oblig[e]d to return, rather unwillingly, the "Life of Macklin" without having finished the volume. I have found what I have read more entertaining than I expected from the account given in the "Monthly Review" some months past.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Thomas James Mathias : The Pursuits of Literature [...] A Satirical Poem

'She [Mrs Montagu] is characterised in this manner in the first part of the "Pursuits of Literature"; comparing the commentators upon Shakespeare [transcribes note on Montagu's essay]. I shall perhaps be accused of want of taste in sending Campbell's "Pleasures of Hope" home unread & indeed I can give no good reason why I did so.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Thomas James Mathias : The Pursuits of Literature [...] A Satirical Poem

'Read the first 3 parts of the "Pursuits of Literature", of these the first I admire the most. There are people who will not allow that the author has either wit or learning, or is capable of writing good poetry. I think that wit & learning may be found in every page & that in some parts the poetry is excellent. I will give an example. Page 19. [Two pages of commentary and extracts]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Hunter Print: Book

Henry Saint John, Viscount Bolingbroke : Letter on the Study and Use of History

'Up by nine. Read a little this morning in Lord Bolingbroke's "Study of History". What extreme foppery! Yet what can one point out as proofs?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Windham Print: Book

Mary Wortley Montagu : Letters of the Right Hon. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

'Afterwards, when upstairs, Mrs Montagu's "Letters" which I think very highly of.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Windham Print: Book

John Wilson Croker : The Battles of Talevera, a poem

'In the evening read poem of "Talevera" ascribed to Croker.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Windham

George Henry Lewes : Life of Goethe

Letter to Barbara Leigh Smith from Bessie Raynor Parkes, 19 March 1856: 'What shall I say about Goethe? When I have done it I shall write to Marian - I don't see the self-development theory you see in him'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Bessie Raynor Parkes Print: Book

James Anthony Froude : Thomas Carlyle: A History of his Life in London, 1

'The greatest pleasure I have lately had has been the perusal of the 2 last volumes of Froude's Carlyle.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Horatio Forbes Brown : John Addington Symonds: A Biography Compiled from

'I have been reading the Life of Mr Symond, and it makes me almost laugh (though there is little laughing in my heart) to think of the strange difference between this prosaic little narrative,all about the facts of a life so simple, and his elaborate self- discussions.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage OR 'Impromptu, In Reply

'Impromptu, in Reply to a Friend' 'When from the heart where sorrow sits/...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Molineux group, including Mrs Molineux

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'On A Cornelian Heart' OR Childe Harold's Pilgrima

'On A Cornelian Heart Which Was Broken' [transcript entire poem]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Molineux group, including Mrs Molineux

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage OR 'Written Beneath...'

'On A Cornelian Heart Which Was Broken' [transcript entire poem]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Molineux group, including Mrs Molineux

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'From the Portuguese' 'In moments to delight devoted/...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Molineux group, including Mrs Molineux

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage OR 'On Parting'

'On Parting' 'The kiss, dear maid! Thy lip has left, /...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Molineux group, including Mrs Molineux

William Robert Spencer : Beth Gelert, or the Grave of the Greyhound

'Poetry Composed by Llewelyn on the Death of his Greyhound' 'The Spearman [spearmen in original] heard the bugle sound/...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Molineux group, including Mrs Molineux

George Gordon, Lord Byron : On Being Asked What Was The "Origin of Love"

'On being asked what was the "Origin of Love"' 'The "Origin of Love!" - Ah Why That Cruel question ask of Me.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Molineux group, including Mrs Molineux

Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton : The Child of Earth

'"The Child of Earth" by the Hon. Mrs Norton Fainter Her Slow Step falls from day to day... Otley - February 15th 1831. Benj. Beanlands'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Beanlands

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Sonnet on Chillon

'Sonnet on Chillon "Eternal spirit of the Chainless Mind!, ..."'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

Robert Hartley Cromek [editor of vol] : 'My Ain Fireside' OR Remains of Nithsdale and Gall

'My Ain Fire Side' 'O, I hae seen great ones...' >From the Nithsdale and Galloway Songs

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

Anne Maria Sargent : The Isle of Wight

'Isle of Wight by Anne Maria Sargeant A light so varied bursts upon my view, ...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

Anna Maria Porter : A Vision

'A Vision The Night-Mare came to my silent bed... Miss Porter'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : L'Amitie Est L'Amour Sans Ailes

'Why should my anxious heart repine, ... Byron-1807' [three stanzas first published in Moore's 'Life', 1830]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Elegy on Newstead Abbey

'It is the voice of the years that are gone! They roll before me with all their deeds. Ossian! Newstead! Fast falling, once resplendent dome!/...' 'Elegy on Newstead Abbey, Early Poems 1803'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

Thomas Haynes Bayly : The Bridesmaid

'The Bride Maid The bridal is over, the guests are all gone... Jany 18 1829'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

Felicia Dorothea Hemans : The Graves of a Household

'Graves of a Household' 'They grew in beauty side by side, ...' 'Mrs Hemans'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'If That High World' OR Hebrew Melodies

'If that high World If that high World which has beyond...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

Caroline Anne Bowles : Autumn Flowers

'On seeing some Autumn Flowers' 'Those few pale autumn flowers, How beautiful they are!...' 'L.G. Feb 1831'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: 'L.G.'

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Elegy on Newstead

'On leaving Newstead Abbey ... >From Newstead Sept 9th 1830'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Stanzas

'I would I were a careless child, ...' 'Early Poems'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

Mary Ann Browne : 'Relics' OR Winter's Wreath

'Relics' 'Oh! Wherefore, Lady dost thou price, ... M.A. Browne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group Print: Serial / periodical

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Oh! Snatched Away In Beauty's Bloom

'Oh! Snatched away in Beauty's bloom...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Monody on the Death of the Right Hon. R.B. Sheridan

Extract from Byron's Monody on the Death of Sheridan

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Manfred: A Dramatic Poem

'Voice of the Second Spirit' 'Mont Blanc is the Monarch of mountains, ...' 'Manfred'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Sun of the Sleepless

'Sun of the Sleepless' 'Sun of the Sleepless! Melancholy Star!...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Hebrew Melodies

'When coldness wraps this suffering clay ... Hebrew Melodies'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold, Canto IV

'Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean - roll! ... And laid my hand upon thy mane - as I do here. 4th canto'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bowly group

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold: A Romaunt, Canto IV

'Sometime about the twenty first year of my age I perceived the great advantage possessed by those who received a classical education. I had read Byron's "Childe Harold" and the passage "Alas for Tully's voice" and Virgil's Lay And Troy's pictured page &c inspired me with a desire to dive deeper into Latin Literature.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert White Print: Book

Livy (Titus Livius) : History of Rome Book XIII

'My journey lay over the field of Thrasymenus, and as soon as the sun rose, I read Livy's description of the scene [...] I was exactly in the situation of the consul, Flaminus - completely hid in the morning fog...So that I can truly say that I have seen precisely what the Roman army saw on that day.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Thomas de Quincey : The London Magazine: Review of Walladmor by Scott

'Lookd over the magaze for amusement [...] the letter on mackadamizing is good - the review on Walladmoor is 30 pages long I wish De Quincey had better subjects for his genius'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Clare Print: Serial / periodical

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Poems on Various Subjects

'Lookd in the poems of Coleridge, Lamb and Loyde - Colridges monody on Chatterton is beautiful but his sonnets are not happy ones they seem to be a labour after exelence which he did not reach [.] some of those by his friend Lloyd are exelent [...] "Craig Millar Castle" and "To November" are the best [...] Lambs best poetry is in "Elia"'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Clare Print: Book

Anna Laetitia Barbauld : Lessons for Children from Two to Three Years Old

'I have been reading over Mrs Barbaulds "Lessons for Childern" to my eldest child who is continually tearing me to read them I find by this that they are particularly suited to the tastes of childern as she is never desirous of hearing anything read a second time but them'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Clare Print: Book

Anna Letitia Barbauld (nee Aikin) : Early Lessons for Children

'The first books which are now usually put into the hands of a child are Mrs. Barbauld's "Lessons"; they are by far the best books of the kind that have ever appeared.' (p406), [ the following pages discuss specific problematic passages]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book

Alphonse-Marie-Louis Prat de Lamartine : Histoire des Girondins

'Yesterday morning I received the enclosed note from that most conceited and not over-well-bred Mons. de Lamartine. I desired my friend Madame Belloc to use her own discretion in reporting my criticisms on his Histoire des Girondins, but requested that she would convey to him the thanks and admiration of our family for the manner in which he mentioned the Abbe Edgeworth, and our admiration of the beauty of the writing of that whole passage in the work... I feel, and I am sure so will you and Mr. Butler, "What an egotist and what a puppy it is!" But ovation has turned his head.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book

Bishop Edward Elliott : Horae Apocalypticae

'During those melancholy weeks at Pimlico, I read aloud another work of the same nature as those of Habershon and Jukes, the "Horae Apocalypticae" of a Mr. Elliott. This was written, I think in a less disagreeable style, and certainly it was less opaquely obscure to me...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge : The Penny Cyclopaedia

'At other times, I dragged a folio volume of the "Penny Cyclopaedia" up to the studywith me, and sat there reading successive articles on such subjects as Parrots, Parthians, Passion-flowers, Passover and Pastry, without any invidious preferences, all information being equally welcome, and equally fugitive.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

Dr. Edward Young : The Last Day

'...a small thick volume, bound in black morocco, and comprising four reprinted works of the eighteenth century. Gloomy, funeral poems of an order as wholly out of date as are the cross-bones an druffled cherubim on the gravestones in a country churchyard. The four - and in this order, as I never shall forget - were "The Last Day" of a Dr. Young, "Blair's Grave", "Death" by Bishop Beilby Porteus, and "The Deity" of Samuel Boyse ... How I came to open this solemn volume is explained by the oppressive exclusiveness of our Sundays ... [explains how this reading matter was approved, and how it was taken into the garden] Thither then I escaped with my grave-yard poets, and who shall explain the rapture with which I followed their austere morality?' Later, 'I think that the rhetoric and vigorous advance of Young's verse were pleasant to me.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

Bishop Beilby Porteus : Death

'...a small thick volume, bound in black morocco, and comprising four reprinted works of the eighteenth century. Gloomy, funeral poems of an order as wholly out of date as are the cross-bones an druffled cherubim on the gravestones in a country churchyard. The four - and in this order, as I never shall forget - were "The Last Day" of a Dr. Young, "Blair's Grave", "Death" by Bishop Beilby Porteus, and "The Deity" of Samuel Boyse ... How I came to open this solemn volume is explained by the oppressive exclusiveness of our Sundays ... [explains how this reading matter was approved, and how it was taken into the garden] Thither then I escaped with my grave-yard poets, and who shall explain the rapture with which I followed their austere morality?' Later, 'Beilby Porteus I discarded from the first as impenetrable.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Gosse Print: Book

Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon : Histoire Naturelle

Letter xiv- "On Buffon's natural history" is a critique of the work

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Aikin Print: Book

John Aikin : Evenings at home

'My dear boys, when I was your age, there were no such children's books as ther are now...Now, among those very stupid old-fashioned boy's books was one which taught me [to use my eyes]...It's name was Evenings at Home, and in it was a story called "Eyes and no Eyes", a regular old-fashioned, prim, sententious story.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kingsley Print: Book

Alexander von Humboldt : Personal Narrative of Travels

Letter from Aikin to her brother Edmund, dated March 1818: 'It is curious to observe the native eloquence of Humboldt struggling with the encombrance of all the sciences. Did ever mortal man study so many ologies, or travel with so many ometers!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Aikin Print: Book

Sir J. Mackintosh : [a text on ethical philosophy]

Letter from Lucy Aikin to her niece Sue, dated Nov.17, 18..?: Aikin has been reading Mackintosh, and comments on the suitability of philosophical reading for women.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Aikin Print: Book

Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth : Practical Education

Letter from Lucy Aikinto Mrs.Taylor, dated October 1805: 'But within the last few days everything has given way to "Practical Education", which my mother and I have been studying with great diligence for the benefit of George's little boy, who was brought to us last Tuesday.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Aikin Print: Book

Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth : Practical Education

Letter from Lucy Aikin to Mrs.Taylor, dated October 1805: 'But within the last few days everything has given way to "Practical Education", which my mother and I have been studying with great diligence for the benefit of George's little boy, who was brought to us last Tuesday.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Martha Aikin Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [poems]

'for each there had been no poet later than Byron...'

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip and Emily Gosse Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Waverley Novels

'neither had read a romance since, in childhood, they had dipped into the "Waverley Novels" as they appeared in succession.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip and Emily Gosse Print: Book

Rev. George Croly : Salathiel

'As a young man in America, he had been deeply impressed by "Salathiel", a pious prose romance of that then popular writer, the Rev. George Croly."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Gosse Print: Book

Rev William Smith : Poetic Works including his version of Longinus on the Sublime

24 Oct 1788: 'Smith's version of Longinus on the Sublime, a translation with notes and observations - is a credit to the author and reflects lustre on Longinus himself. [Long quotation]: "to the unlearned also it may be of use ... an inclination to literature"'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Hamilton Print: Book

Rev William Smith : Poetic Works including his version of Longinus on the Sublime

13 Dec 1788 Another long quotation from Smith's translation: 'The Sublime is a certain force in discourse... from these three particulars joined together.' Also listed Longinus's five sources of the sublime.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Hamilton Print: Book

Rev J Granger : Biographical History of England from Egbert the Great to the Revolution, with a preface. Vol 1 and 2

Long description of character of Sir Keneth (?) Digby. 'By his eager pursuit of knowledge seemed to be born only for contemplation, but he was thought to be so well qualified for action, that in 1628 he was appointed commander of a Squadron ... made repris also on the Algerians [?] and set at liberty a great number of English slaves... His book "bodies" and that of "The Nature of Man's Soul" are reckoned among the best of his works. Abdiah Cole, a Physician of Note, flourished in this reign. There is a portrait of him in a Dr of Physic's Gown by / Crofts.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Hamilton Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

'Out of all that reading only one memory survives now. The story itself I have forgotten but the scene was laid in Italy, and there was a chapter in which a beggar arrived at a cottage carrying a heavy sack, which he left in a corner while he went, as he said, to the barn to get some sleep. The woman of the house, who lived by herself, happened to touch the sack, felt it moving, and knew at once that there was a man in it who had come to murder her... When I read "Treasure Island" a few years later the horrible figure of the blind seaman Pew brought back again the terrors of that dream.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

Felicia Dorothea Hemans : Casabianca

'when I was eleven a school history-book containing biographies of Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sidney, and Sire John Eliot showed me that reading could be something quite different. My reading books up to then must have been poor, for I can remember nothing of them except a description of Damascus, with a sentence to the effect that at night the streets were "as silent as the dead". I had had, of course, to learn "Casabianca" and "Lord Ullin's Daughter" and "Excelsior" and the other vapid poems which are supposed to please children, but like everyone else I was bored by them.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Excelsior

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'Then, when I was twelve we had a really good poetry book which contained extracts from "The Excursion", part of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", "The Eve of Saint Agnes", "Adonais", "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", and Mathew Arnold's "Tristram and Iseult". We were given "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and "The Pied Piper" to learn by heart in consecutive years. I never liked "The Pied Piper", which, being written consciously as a child's poem, made me feel conscious, and most of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" seemed unreal to me... The poems in the book which I liked best were "The Eve of Saint Agnes" and "Tristram and Iseult"...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Adonais: An elegy on the death of John Keats

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

Robert Michael Ballantyne : Hudson Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America

'there was nothing in the house which was worth reading, apart from the Bible, "The Pilgrim's Progress", "Gulliver's Travels", and a book by R.M. Ballantyne about Hudson Bay.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book

Edward L. Wheeler : Deadwood Dick

'In the lower part of the newsagent's windows were the journals that catered for me. By would be reformers they were lumped together as "penny dreadfuls". One was "Deadwood Dick" -a cowboy who was always bumping off people in Deadman's Gulch or Gallow's Ravine, The reformers told me that my mind would become brutalised by reading Penny Dreadfuls... Besides "Deadwood Dick" in the shop window there was "Bronco Bill", with stories of a similar type. And there was "Jack Wright".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Serial / periodical

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Hiawatha

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Evangeline

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Maud [and other poems?]

'So that, whatever may have been its deeper cause, the love which filled my imagination was of a kind that seemed, to me, to have little to do with what I meant by sex. "Love" was something I had learned about from "David Copperfield" and "Under the Greenwood Tree" and from the stories in "The Woman's Weekly", which my mother occasionally bought. And of course, from the poetry I was beginning to enjoy. I was naively oblivious to the sexual innuendoes of Keats and Tennyson but their romantic raptures set me trembling like a tuning fork. "Come into the garden, Maud" roused nothing of the derision, or even downright ribaldry, that it would surely rouse in a boy of today.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Norman Nicholson Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : [Tales]

'Tom... introduced me to Poe's "Tales", to my first detective stories and to the early novels of H.G. Wells.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Norman Nicholson Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : [unknown works]

'Our syllabus was large, covering at least twelve set books: two plays of Shakespeare's, two volumes of Milton and two of Keats; Chaucer, Sheridan, Lamb, Scott's "Old Mortality" and the first book of "The Golden Treasury", with its marvellous pickings of Coleridge, Shelly, Byron and, especially, Wordsworth, which excited me, at that age, more than any other poetry written.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Norman Nicholson Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Old Mortality

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Norman Nicholson Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : [poems extracts]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Norman Nicholson Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [poems extracts]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Norman Nicholson Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [poems extracts]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Norman Nicholson Print: Book

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse : [unknown]

'On the wall at the side of the chimney Dad put up the bookshelves which Dodie began to fill with secondhand penny books. Over the years we had Conrad and Wodehouse, Eric Linklater and Geoffrey Farnol, Edgar Wallace, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Mark Twain, Arnold Bennett, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Buchan, and a host of others, good, bad and awful, and we read the lot, some of them over and over.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: family of Rose Gamble Print: Book

John Jeffrey Farnol : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: family of Rose Gamble Print: Book

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: family of Rose Gamble Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: family of Rose Gamble Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

'It [central London] was truly a wonder world, for I seeing it not merely with my eyes of flesh but with the eyes of heightened imagination; -seeing it not only through spectacles manufactured by an optician, but through glasses supplied by magicians names Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray, Joseph Addison, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Toby Smollett, Sam Johnson and Will Shakespeare himself. Had I scraped an acquaintance with all these before I was fifteen? I knew them well! -and that was the trouble. I was book hungry, and I found a land where books were accessible in a quantity and variety sufficient to satisfy even my uncontrolled voracity.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas A. Jackson Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [novels]

'Later on I found at the bottom of a cupboard some of volumes -Addison's "Spectator", Pope's "Homer", and a few other things. My grandmother -who also devoured books in great gulps -gave me a "Robinson Crusoe", and lent me volumes containing four "Waverley Novels" apiece. Much about the same time my father got bound up a set of Dickens's novels he had bought in weekly parts. They were in the popular quarto edition with drawings by Fred Barnard, John Mahony and others. These were a real treasure -and all the more so as my father was an ardent Dickens "fan" who rather despised Scott as a "romantic" and a "Tory". His mother (born in 1815, so old enough to have read the "Waverley Novels" when they were still comparatively new things) rather sniffed at Dickens, and definitely preferred both Scott and Thackeray. She gave me "Vanity Fair" as an antidote to "David Copperfield" and added a Shakespeare, and a bundle of "paperback" editions -Fielding, Smollett, Fennimore Cooper and Captain Marryatt.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas A. Jackson Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

'We had read at school in our Reading Books, gorgeous bits from Macaulay's "History" -the Trial of the Seven Bishops and the Relief of Derry -and it was therefore natural that I should pounce with my penny at the sight of a copy of his essay on "Warren Hastings", which hit my eye on almost my first visit to the Row... I read it, I remember, on the Embankment -lying in the sun on my belly on the flat top of the ornamental arch, near Cleopatra's needle, up which a boy could climb... The series which included this edition of "Warren Hastings" gave an obvious first step along this road. It was one of Cassells National Library, a series of literary classics edited by Henry Morley, Professor of English Literature at London University, sold for 3d. paper and 6d. cloth. New or secondhand they opened an enticing field for adventurous exploration. So did a parallel series of shilling volumes the Universal Library issued by Routledge, batches of which used to be dumped upon the secondhand market and sold for 4d a copy.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas A. Jackson Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Warren Hastings

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas A. Jackson Print: Book

George Henry Lewes : Biographical History of Philosophy

'But by a lucky chance I happened upon a book included in Lubbock's "hundred" -George Henry Lewes's "Biographical History of Philosophy". It came just when I needed it and to my extreme delight and mounting excitement opened before me an entirely new world of adventure.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas A. Jackson Print: Book

[probably] Isaac Hawkins Browne : [poems complete works]

'I devoured poetry and nothing but poetry until I became insensible to poetry. Take an example; I happened upon some fat volumes of Campbell's "British Poets", the complete works of from four to eight poets in each volume which cost me 6d. apiece. They had shabby worn leather bindings, and the type was on the small side and closely set. But I ploughed through them, doggedly, as if reading for a bet, or an imposed task. One volume I remember contained the poetical works of Samuel Daniel, Browne, Giles and Phineas Fletcher, Ben Johnson, Drummond (of Harthornden), John Donne, and some more minor ones. Another contained along with "also rans" Cowley, Milton and "Hudibras" Butler. And, I repeat, I ploughed through them with a stout heart, but little sense, and a dwindling understanding.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas A. Jackson Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine de Sta?l-Holstein : De l'Allemagne

'Those latter volumes of the Allemagne will perplex you, I fear. The third in particular is very mysterious; now and then quite absurd. Do not mind it much.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Sir Charles William Pasley : Essay on the Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire

'We quite run over with Books. She [JA's mother] has got Sir John Carr's Travels in Spain from Miss B. & I am reading a Society-Octavo, an Essay on the Military Police & Institutions of the British Empire, by Capt. Pasley of the Engineers, a book which I protested against at first, but which upon trial I find delightfully written & highly entertaining. I am as much in love with the Author as I ever was with Clarkson or Buchanan, or even the two Mr Smiths of the city. The first soldier I ever sighed for; but he does write with extraordinary force & spirit.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

James and Horatio Smith : Rejected Addresses; or the new Theatrum Poetarum

'Upon Mrs Digweed's mentioning that she had sent the Rejected Addresses to Mr Hinton, I began talking to her a little about them & expressed my hope of their having amused her. Her answer was, "Oh! dear, yes, very much; - very droll indeed; - the opening of the House! - & the striking up of the Fiddles!" What she meant, poor woman, who shall say? - I sought no farther.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

James and Horatio Smith : Rejected Addresses; or the new Theatrum Poetarum

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Digweed Print: Book

James and Horatio Smith : Rejected Addresses; or the new Theatrum Poetarum

'The Papillons have now got the Book [J & H Smith's "Rejected Addresses"] and like it very much; their niece Eleanor has recommended it most warmly to them. - [italics] She [end italics] looks like a rejected Addresser.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Papillon Family Print: Book

James and Horatio Smith : Rejected Addresses; or the new Theatrum Poetarum

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eleanor Papillon Print: Book

Sir George Steuart Mackenzie : Travels in Iceland

'And what are their Biglands & their Barrows, their Macartneys & Mackenzies, to Capt. Pasley's Essay on the Military Police of the British Empire, & the Rejected Addresses?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton : Stuart of Dunleath. A story of the present time

'there has been so much motion that it has been next to impossible for a person to work. I have read lately the "Newcomes" by Thackeray "Stuart of Dunleath" by Mrs Norton & "Coningsby" by Disraeli'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : [novels]

'My mother used to read the novels of Miss Braddon and Mrs Henry Wood, and those in a series called "The Family Story Teller", that she got from the public library. My father got her "East Lynne" through a pub Literary Society, she read it over and over again. I read it when I was about nine. Heavens, the tears I gulped back over the death of Little Willie!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Polly Stamper Print: Book

Mrs Henry Wood : [novels]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Polly Stamper Print: Book

Mrs Henry [Ellen] Wood : East Lynne

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Polly Stamper Print: Book

Mrs Henry [Ellen] Wood : East Lynne

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Book

Charles Henry Ross : Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday

'None of the periodicals shown there are alive today. There was "Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday", my favourite comic. When Father had a spot of overtime in, he used to buy a copy on Saturday, coming home from work with his wages and give it to me. Ally Sloper was always front page and full page. He was a comical man with a great bulbous nose, a wide grin, and he wore a tall hat that had a definite waist. He had a ma-in-law, and other relatives who were always making difficulties for him, but he always scored off them in the end. R.I.P. Ally.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Serial / periodical

Edward L. Wheeler : Deadwood Dick

'Also on pink newsprint were "Sketchy Bits" and "Photo Bits". Most of the "bits" in these journals had huge nude thighs and huge, almost nude, bosoms, with the absolute minimum of clothing... These two "Bits" journals - that I sometimes bought for a halfpenny each at the second-hand periodical stall in the market -catered to some extent to masochists. There were pages of letters supposed to be written by readers to the editor -though it would not surprise me if they had all been written by the same journalist -that I did not quite understand as a boy. I read everything I came across, from the Bible to "Deadwood Dick", so I read these letters also.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Serial / periodical

Mrs Henry [Ellen] Wood : The Channings

'Now that we had gas I found it much easier and pleasanter to read. When I had read all my own periodicals I used to read Mother's literature. Sometimes she bought a novelette; the "Heartsease Library" was one, a penny per week. She was in the public library, too. I read "The Channings" by Mrs Henry Wood, and "Lady Audley's Secret" by Miss Braddon, and others by these two who were my mother's favourite authors.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : Lady Audley's Secret

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : Lady Audley's Secret

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Polly Stamper Print: Book

Mrs Henry [Ellen] Wood : The Channings

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Polly Stamper Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

'[Father] had joined the PSA at the YMCA. That is: the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon at the Young Men's Christian Association; a religious service with plenty of tuneful hymns, usually a couple of singers who gave "sacred" songs; and to which was attached a Book Club. By paying a few pence a week Father got all the books he could read; he was a slow reader, too. He got "Valentine Vox, Ventriloquist", "Sylvestre Sound", "Somnambulist"; "Uncle Tom's Cabin", and many others. Dolly has some of them at this date, sixty years later.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenb?ttel : published letter about the status of her marriage to the Prince of Wales

'I suppose all the World is sitting in Judgement upon the Princess of Wales's Letter. Poor Woman, I shall support her as long as I can, because she is a Woman, & because I hate her husband - but I can hardly forgive her for calling herself 'attached & affectionate' to a Man whom she must detest - & the intimacy said to subsist between her & Lady Oxford is bad...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Newspaper

John MacNeill Boyd : [unknown]

'Reading Capn Boyds book on seamanship, there is a great deal to be picked up from it, but of course some things there are, in which a variety of opinions exist, especially as regarding discipline and the management of large bodies of men.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : The history of England from the accession of James the Second

'Reading Macauleys "history of England" for the 2nd time'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : The history of England from the accession of James the Second

'I have been reading Macauleys "history of England", and have got thro 5 volumes, it is very interesting'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : The history of England from the accession of James the Second

'I am reading Macauleys "history of England", it is so interesting that it keeps me up at night, later than I ought to remain, it is a book, that when once a person has commenced it, he finds it impossible to leave off, until he has finished it -'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : The history of England from the accession of James the Second

'I have finished Macaulay's "history of England" and am now reading his speeches, they are interesting.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Speeches of the Right Honorable T. B. Macaulay, M.P. corrected by himself ..

'I have finished Macaulay's "history of England" and am now reading his speeches, they are interesting.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

Xavier Aymon de, Count Montepin : Les Filles de platre. Les trois debuts

'Reading the "Les filles des platre" by M. Xavier de Montepin it is like the generality of French Novels, and does not give a very exalted notions of French morals; the more I read French books, the more I am struck at the immense difference there is between the two nations that are only seperated [sic] by a narrow channel, twenty miles across; Customs manners & morals are entirely different; there is no nation in the world so much in love with domestic happiness & domestic comfort as the English, and none less so, than the French; that which affords great pleasure to our neighbours, excites only disgust in an Englishman; this I gather not only from the Books I read, but also from what I saw myself during my stay in France, and the older I get, the more thankful I am that I was not born a Frenchman.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

William Douglas Hamilton : Outlines of the History of England

'I am now reading a history of England by Douglas Hamilton, it seems to be very well written'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

William Douglas Hamilton : Outlines of the History of England

'As I expect a heap of books from England, I am having two book shelves put up in my cabin. I am afraid it will darken it a little, mais n'importe I am reading the constitutional history of England by Mr Hamilton it is very interesting. as soon as my books arrive I shall set to work in good earnest and try and improve myself, I think I have the brains, what I want is the application; my duties too interfere very much with any regular study.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book

Martin le Roy de Gomberville : Polexandre

'Home and to bed, leaving my wife reading in "Polixandre".'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

Madeleine de Scuderi : Artamene, ou Le grand Cyrus

'I fell a-reading in Fuller's "history of Abbys" and my wife in "Grand Cyrus" till 12 at night, and so to bed.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

Eaton Stannard Barrett : The Heroine; or, Adventures of Cherubina

'I finished the Heroine last night & was very much amused by it. I wonder James did not like it better. It diverted me exceedingly.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Eaton Stannard Barrett : The Heroine; or, Adventures of Cherubina

'I finished the Heroine last night & was very much amused by it. I wonder James did not like it better. It diverted me exceedingly.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Austen Print: Book

Eaton Stannard Barrett : The Heroine; or, Adventures of Cherubina, third volume

'It is Eveng. We have drank tea & I have torn through the 3d vol. of the Heroine, & do not think it falls off. - It is a delightful burlesque, particularly on the Radcliffe style.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Corsair

'Do not be angry with me for beginning another Letter to you. I have read the Corsair, mended my petticoat, & have nothing else to do.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Laetitia Matilda Hawkins : Rosanne; or, a Father's Labour Lost

'We have got "Rosanne" in our Society, and find it much as you describe it; very good and clever, but tedious. Mrs Hawkins' great excellence is on serious subjects. There are some very delightful conversations and reflections on religion: but on lighter topics I think she falls into many absurdities; and, as to love, her heroine has very comical feelings. There are a thousand improbabilities in the story. Do you remember the two Miss Ormesdens, introduced just at last? Very flat and unnatural. - Mlle Cossart is rather my passion.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Laetitia Matilda Hawkins : Rosanne; or, a Father's Labour Lost

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Lefroy Print: Book

Stephanie Felicite Ducrest de St Albin Comtesse de Genlis : Olympe et Theophile

'My dear Caroline, I am very glad to have an opportunity of answering your agreable [sic] little Letter. You seem to be quite my own Neice [sic] in your feelings towards Mde de Genlis. I do not think I could even now, at my sedate time of Life, read "Olimpe et Theophile" without being in a rage. It really is too bad! Not allowing them to be happy together, when they are married. Don't talk of it, pray. I have just let your Aunt Frank the 1st vol. of Les Veilles du Chateau, for Mary Jane to read.'

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

James Edward Austen : unpublished story

'Edward is writing a Novel - we have all heard what he has written - it is extremely clever; written with great ease & spirit; - if he can carry it on in the same way, it will be a firstrate work, & in a style, I think, to be popular.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Manuscript: Sheet

Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas : Divine weekes and workes

'My wife and I spent a good deal of this evening in reading Du' Bartas's "Imposture" and other parts, which my wife of late have taken up to read, and is very fine as anything I meet with.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas : Divine weekes and workes

'My wife and I spent a good deal of this evening in reading Du' Bartas's "Imposture" and other parts, which my wife of late have taken up to read, and is very fine as anything I meet with.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

E S Stevens : Ishtar

'I started to read a book called "Ishtar". It's not very good but I was very vague as to who Ishtar was - apparently the Babylonian goddess of love, war and fertility. Persepone, Artemis and Freya all in one. Normally Iwould not have bothered with it but a remark in Durrell's "Black Book" had set me wondering about Ishtar, vis - "From music we demand our whole life if it is to move us; every modulation of dream, despair, love, yearning. It is the past and the future going down into the tomb; the descent of Ishtar among the soiled roses; the entry into the chamber of the Cosmos; the first kicking in the womb and the last elegant spasm of cessation, lull, status". "Ishtar" by E.S. Stevens is badly written and rater trite, but quite interesting. I like stories about "digs" and I am rather interested in Baghdad though I know very little about that part of the world.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

H V Morton : I James Blunt

'Reading H.V. Morton, "I James Blunt". I read it in half an hour. It is propaganda but first-class propaganda and interesting and very readable and horribly convincing. It should shake up the complacent. If invasion succeeded it would be like that here. The weak point was the suggestion that all the dominions had been overthrown too - at least New Zealand had.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Ruby M Ayres : unknown

'"I like books by Ruby M Ayres and Anne Duffield. The young lady usually chooses the books for me - she knows what I want. Something light to take my mind off the war - a straight romantic tale.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

E M Delafield : The Diary of a Provincial Lady

'I'm not keen to read books dealing with the current situation. War's grim enough, I prefer to choose books without war interest. For that reason I try and get books of the humourous kind, such as "Night on Wheels" by Ian Hay, and "The Diary of a Provincial Lady" by E.M. Delafield. Books that provoke a laugh. During the winter months reading's been my main hobby. As I'm a quick reader, naturally I choose a fairly thick books of average size with medium print. Never the large type. I like a substantial book, not one that I can finish quickly. On the other hand I don't like books of the size of "Gone with the Wind" or "Anthony Adverse", some 900 pages. Either of these books should have been issued in two volumes.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

John Monk Saunders : A Yank at Oxford

'I've read one book since the war "A Yank At Oxford". I liked that.....'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Archibald Joseph Cronin : The Stars Looked Down

'I like anything good....something like "The Stars Looked Down" or "Gone with the Wind"...."Fame is the Spur" is a lovely book.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

D H Lawrence : Lady Chatterley's Lover

'Lady Chatterly's Lover is the absurdest pornography I have ever read, but The Man Who Died is one of the finest pieces of literature I remember reading and the idea strikes me as being one of the most brilliant that I have met in my small experience. Poetry equally good in places.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

D H Lawrence : The Man Who Died

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

D H Lawrence : Red Trousers

'His novels rather date, but his essays are vivid and stimulating. Red Trousers comes to the mind as being real hot stuff.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Sir Balth. Gerbier : Counsel and advise to all builders; for the choice of their surveyours... Together with several epistles to eminent persons, who may be concerned in building

'At the Coffee-house in Exchange=alley I bought a little book, "Counsell to Builders", written by Sir Balth. Gerbier; it is dedicated almost to all the men of any great condition in England, so that the epistles are more than the book itself; and both it and them not worth a turd, that I am ashamed that I bought it.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir John Birkenhead : Cabala, or An impartial account of the non-conformists' private design

'Thence with Mr Moore to the Wardrobe and there sat while my Lord was private with Mr Townsend about his accounts an hour or two - we reading of a merry book against the Presbyters called "Cabbala", extraordinary witty.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir John Birkenhead : Cabala, or An impartial account of the non-conformists' private design

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Moore Print: Book

J A Findlay : unknown

'After carrying out psychic research and reading reports and hypotheses by Lodge, Crookes, J.A. Findlay etc. I know to my own satisfaction that death is a mere passing on to a continued existence. This is no Christian 'Heaven'.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

John Gideon Millingen : The Portrait Gallery

?Dr Milligen?s paper, he must re-write the last half of it; it has cost me three hours this morning, and I can make nothing of it. I think very little of the gentleman who writes so complacently from Northampton with his first of a Series; but I suppose he?s a great man in a small way.?

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Dickens Manuscript: Unknown

Major Pryse Lockhart Gordon : [articles]

?I have read the several articles by Major Pryse Gordon, which I herewith return. Although they would possess considerable interest for military or naval gentlemen, I fear that to the public generally ? our public at all events ? they would present few attractions. Perhaps you will do me the favor to present my best compliments and thanks to Major Gordon and to suggest that the United Service Journal would be the best medium he could select for the publication of his papers. Beg him to understand distinctly that in returning them, I by no means question their merit, but merely express my opinion that they are not adapted to the pages of the Miscellany.?

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Dickens Print: Unknown

B.W. Proctor : 'The Sea'

?Just as the boat was leaving Dover, a breathless Bots put a letter from town, and ?The Examiner? into my hands, the latter of which, I verily believe preserved me from that dismal extremity of qualmishness into which I am accustomed to sink when I have ?the blue above and the blue below?. I have always thought that the ?silence wheresoe?er I go? is a beautiful touch of Barry Cornwall?s (otherwise Procter) descriptive of the depression produced by sea-voyaging. I know it?s remarkably silent wherever I go, when I?m on the briny.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Dickens Print: Book, Unknown

Sir Walter Scott : Waverley

'Readers of my generation owe a great debt of gratitude to the enterprise of Messrs. Dicks. My first introduction to great fiction dates from the publication by them of Scott's novels in threepenny paper-covered volumes, easily pocketable, when my apprenticeship, in its early days, consisted of sorting and picking - wearisome, dull, mechanical, solitary work. The appearance of "Waverley" marked an epoch. I read it and its succeeding volumes with absorbing interest, stealing at times scraps of hours which should have been devoted to my work.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey Print: Book

[Thomas Peckett] [Prest] : Sweeney Todd the Barber

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey Print: Serial / periodical

Dr Carpenter : Notes and Observations on the Gospel History

"A work of Dr Carpenter's,begun but never finished,called "Notes and Observations on the Gospel history", which his catechuments used in class, first put me on this track of study.-the results of which appeared some years afterwards in my "Traditions of Palestine".

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

Dr Carpenter : Articles: Mental and Moral Philosophy & Systemic Education

"Dr Carpenter was inclined also to the study of philosophy,and wrote on it,-on mental and moral philosophy;and this was enough,putting all predisposition out of the question,to determine me to the study. He was of the Locke and Hartley school altogether, as his articles on 'Mental and Moral Philosophy' in Ree's Encyclopedia,and his work on 'Systemic Education' show."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Rookwood

'I should have written to you to-day to thank you for your flattering and kind-hearted mention of myself in the new Preface to Rookwood; if the weather had been finer I intended riding out to tell you how warmly I felt it, and how much sincere delight your friendship affords me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Dickens Print: Book

Sir John Sucklings : Aglaura

'After dinner I down to Woolwich with a galley, and then to Deptford and so home, all the way reading Sir J Suck[l]ings "Aglaura", which methinks is but a mean play - nothing of design in it.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

'Arthur recalls that he could not read "properly" until he began school at the age of 9; he preferred his sister Anna to read to him. On one occasion, when she read "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Arthur, who believed that "a boy must never show any emotion", burst into tears, then flew into a rage over revealing his deepest feelings and attacked her with his fists'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Symons Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : unknown

'Coming upon a copy of "Don Quixote" in a warder's house, he thought it was "the most wonderful book [he] had ever seen". When he refused to give it up, the warder said he might keep it... "Don Quixote" awakened in Arthur a "passion for reading", and before long, he had read Scott, then Byron, who, he had been told was" a very, very great poet, and a very, very wicked man, an atheist, a writer whom it was dangerous to read".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Symons Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Henry Esmond

'In various letters to Osborne he mentions having received "Tom Jones" which he did not care for; "Jane Eyre" he thought a "wonderful book"; in a volume titled "British Dramatists" he thought Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" "the best by head and shoulders"; Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship" he admired "exceedingly" (he proceeded to write an essay of twenty-six notepaper pages on Carlyle); of Thackeray's "Henry Esmond" he told Osborne that he thought it a "great book", though he disliked its "overelaboration": "perhaps you may say it is merely an additional grace - but I think it stands rather in the way of true eloquence and geninely forceful tragedy, not that I deny there is both eloquence and tragedy in 'Esmond', but I think there might have been more and grander but for that elaborateness".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Symons Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Doge of Venice

'During Mr Montgomery's stay he read books from my library, and on his returning Byron's Doge of Venice.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Montgomery Print: Book

Henry Austin Dobson : Fanny Burney

On p. 206 (last page of text) 'Read Novr 13th/19th 1903 L A W' in pencil manuscript. In addition, a bookplate on inside front cover: 'Laurence A. Waldron.' with a coat of arm above, that carries the legend 'Spectemur Agendo'.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Laurence A Waldron Print: Book

Baron Paul Henrich Dietrich d'Holbach : Le Systeme de la nature

'I am reading for the second [time] "The System of Nature", by Holbach and Diderot, if every one would read it, they would soon discover, by reasoning the most correct & conclusive that man has hitherto been taught nothing but the most pernicious [underlined] errors - the consequence of which is his present moral [underlined] degradation & deplorable wretchedness [underlined], alas! that the bandage cannot be torn from his eyes but by slow degrees - ~"bit-by-bit" reforms. It would seem that his prejudices [underlined] were his only sores [underlined] - & that he is willing to endure all that sensation can endure rather than have these sores touched'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Doyle Wheeler Print: Book

Dante Gabriel Rossetti : 'Sister Helen'

'Before leaving BIdeford, he told Osborne, he had read Rossetti's poems "rapturously": "I am mad about Rossetti ever since and I solemnly declare that of all poems that I have read "Sister Helen" is the finest. Never in my life, not in Shakespeare, not even in Browning have I read such superbly passionate, such agonizingly intense accents of unfaltering revenge and implacable hate, creating, surely, a new shudder!"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Symons Print: Unknown

Herbert J C Grierson : Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the seventeenth century

Marginalia Many pencil sidelines in the Introduction. Donne, against l.52 "cf Good Friday" Herbert, The Collar "surrender to the will of God"; Aaron "old things are passed away"; Discipline "Consecration"; etc

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Robert Longworth-Dames Print: Book

William Dean Howells : A Modern Instance

'In another letter Arthur praises William Dean Howells's "A Modern Instance" as "a owerful novel - bare, blank, utterly unidealised realism, not by any means the ideal 'imaginative realism', but still, in its lower sphere, what mastery!"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Symons Print: Book

Sir Henry Cole : The Home Treasury - Felix Summerly's Fairy Tale Book

From Anne Thackeray Ritchie's 'Memoir for Laura': 'One of the nicest things that ever happened to us when we were children at Paris was the arrival of a huge parcel, which my Grannie cut open and inside there were piles and piles of the most beautiful delightful wonderful fairy tale books all painted with pictures ? I thought they would never come to an end but alas! in a week we had read them all. They were called the Felix Summerly series'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Marian (Minny) Thackeray Print: Book

Sir Henry Cole : The Home Treasury - Felix Summerly's Fairy Tale Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Thackeray Print: Book

Edward Meyrick Goulburn : An Introduction to the Devotional Study of the Holy Scriptures

J. H. Ewing's diary entry, April 10 1869: 'Goulburn's Study of the Holy Scriptures'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Juliana Horatia Ewing Print: Book

Dr Henry King : A sermon preached the 30th of January...1664

'I sat down and read over the Bishop of Chichesters sermon upon the anniversary of the King's death - much cried up but methinks a mean sermon.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir William Coventry : [letter]

'and by and by comes a letter from Mr Coventry's own hand to him; which he never opened (which was a strange thing) but did give it me to open and read, and consider what was fit for our offce to do in it and leave the letter with Sir W. Clarke... I copied out the letter...'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Manuscript: Letter

Sir William Davenant : The Seige of Rhodes

'We spent most of the morning talking, and reading of "The Seige of Rhodes", which is certainly (the more I read it I think so) the best poem that ever was wrote.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir William Davenant : The Seige of Rhodes

'So after supper Captain Cocke and I and Temple on board the Bezan, and there to Cards for a while, and then to read again in "Rhodes" and so to sleep.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir Joseph Williamson : Oxford Gazette

'This day the first of the "Oxford Gazettes" came out, which is very pretty, full of news, and no folly in it - wrote by Williamson.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Newspaper

Stephanie Felicite, Comtesse de Genlis : L'amour maternelle

'After supper [Mama] read us "L'amour maternelle" of Mde. de Genlis.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Agathe Wynne Print: Unknown

Stephanie Felicite, Comtesse de Genlis : Zelie

'Mama read the story of Mde. de Genlis to us that is called "Zelie" or the "Ingenue" it is very fine. I like it the best of all the pieces by that author.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Agathe Wynne Print: Unknown

Stephanie Felicite, Comtesse de Genlis : Olympe et Theophile

'This evening we read "Olympe and Theophile" (by Mde. de G.) We all cried so much there was not one of us that was capable of reading. [Eugenia says: 'Mesdames de Bombelles and de Regis, Mde. de B, Lou Bitche and Betsi all wept there wass but me that was firm']' [square bracketed text added by editor]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: the Wynne family and friends, including Betsey, Eugenia and several women Print: Unknown

Fernao Mendes Pinto : Peregrinacao

'have you read the Story of China written by a Portuguese, Fernando Mendez Pinto I think his name is . . . tis as diverting a book of the kinde as ever I read, and is handsomly written.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Osborne Print: BookManuscript: Letter

J. Ramsay Macdonald : Socialism: Critical and Constructive

'Saturday, 16th January, Left letter at Beechcroft for Milligan re continuance of Discussion Group through the summer. Also re donation from Club and Mr. Milligan?s date on syllabus. Read ? ?Socialism: Critical and Constructive? (J.R. McDonald)'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

E. Phillips Oppenheim : The Great Impersonation

'Monday, 8th February, Gave the Anno Domini a miss. Tired. Reading Herrick. Also Oppenheim ?The Great Impersonation?. How efficiently this stuff is written. Exciting.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Barry Lindon

'Monday, 15th February, Thackeray?s descriptions of high life, and, more especially of army conditions, are magnificent. I would like to give a paper on this aspect of Thackeray?s writing, or, indeed, on this book. Wrote to Eric Barber re Scarborough Camp. Read - ?Barry Lindon? (W. M. Thackeray)'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Four Georges

'Sunday, 28th February, Discussion Group ? We read four plays from which we intend to choose our programme for the summer and next year: ? Thread o? Scarlet? (J. J. Bell) ? A night in the sun? (Dunsany) ? The Monkey?s Paw? (W. W. Jacobs) ?The rising of the moon? ( Lady Gregory) Read ? ?The Four Georges? (W. Thackeray)'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

'Friday, 5th March, I worked late tonight which allowed me to get in a nice little talk with Pat on the value of the classic books of criticism, as apart from their literary value. It was my opinion that in nearly all cases, as the minds of readers has evolved with the changing times so the light in which the classic must be viewed has altered and therefore old criticism must, in nearly every case be superseded. At least, as regards the ?human? as distinct from the literary element in the book. I feel that we cannot ever completely reconstruct the life of a past age or enter into the minds of people who lived in other times. Pat remarked that he was constantly struck by the little progress made in thought and the things of the mind. Read ? ?The Autocrat of the breakfast table? (O. W. Holmes).'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century

'Tuesday, 13th April, Madge intending to call, decided to go to the Settlement to see Algy and his players. The rehearsal fell through however owing to the Settlement being crowded. Postponed to Friday. I walked down to the Ferry with Bal Lear, talking about the merits of the ?Observer? and Garvin?s leaders. The beautiful weather which has lasted, unbroken, for three weeks came to an end today. It looks as though summer had set in. Read ? ?English Humourists? (W. M. Thackeray)'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

St Francis of Assissi : Little Flowers of St Francis

'Thursday 8th July I am enjoying ? between books - the ?Everyman? ?Little Flowers of St. Francis?, and find it very lovely if at times a little amusing. Cannot however stomach the bodily uncleanness of the ?out and out? Franciscans. It does not read well. The miracles are often very beautiful and often rather funny.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Esmond

'Friday 27th August I bought ?Esmond? and ?Westward Ho!? today and started to read the former. Why is Thackeray suffering from a decline? He is the best of them, easily. What novelist is there to rival him in the nineteenth century? Dickens, perhaps, in greatness, but there is no comparison between their writings, they are so completely different from each other. There is no standard, and no need for one. I picked up for 6 cent. a little ?Selected works of Pope. With the ?Dunciad? ?The Rape of the Lock?, ?Essay on Critism?? Fine!'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

Rev Lewis Tomlinson : Recreations in Astronomy

'We were told that a Bible and Testament were placed at the head of each bed; and we saw one convict reading "Recreations in Astronomy".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

Henry N. Brailsford : War of Steel and Gold

'Wednesday 3rd November. ?War of Steel and Gold? ? (Henry. N. Brailsford).'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

J. Maynard Keynes : The End of Laissez Faire

Monday 6th November. ?The End of Laissez-Faire? - J. M. Keynes. Busy today as usual. My latest book,[Keynes] is very interesting; it is quite a declaration of belief and gives some typically tentative and nervous signs of Keynes position. I think he realises that his attitude requires considerable modification. He has found and knows the truth, but is afraid to realise it. He tries to cover it up from himself by ineffectual qualifications.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne : The Rev. Captain Kettle

'Saturday 18th December. ?Rev. Captain Kettle? ? (Hyne)'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

Sidney and Beatrice Webb : The Decay of Capitalist Civilisation

'18th January, Tuesday. ?The Decay of Capitalist Civilisation? (S & B Webb) I was up till late last night finishing my paper for Wednesday.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

George Eric Paterson : poems [unspecified]

'20th January, Thursday. Pat has given me a number of his poems for the ?Two Houses?. [a magazine of which Gerald Moore was the editor] I had to smile at finding again the classic influence which inspires his every thought. He writes in the style of a man whose reading lies in the works of Shakespeare, Milton and the Golden Age.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Manuscript: Sheet

Nikolay Vasilevich Gogol : Taras Boulba

'6th October 1928 (Saturday). So I finish my day, after an abundant dinner reading ?Taras Boulba? (Gogol) - translated by A. Potogky- Stchekotikhina. Scripta Manent Edition.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Back to Methuselah

'1st January 1929 (Tuesday) In the eveningthe usual German sing-song. I to bed early. Re-reading ?Back to Methuselah?. ?Back to Methuselah? (George Bernard Shaw)'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Back to Methuselah

'4th January 1929. ?Back to Methuselah?. G. B. Shaw'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

Arthur W. Pollitt : The Enjoyment of Music

'16th February 1929. ?Appreciation of music? (Pollitt)'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : unknown

'15th March 1929 Miss M?ndel and I inspect my little library. We read some Brooks, Kipling, Holmes, Artemus Ward, de Quincey -- in short, a browse. We looked at ?Phiz? illustrations to ?Sketches by Boz? and she talked of Wilhelm Busch as the greatest of German pencil artists.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book

Sir Paul Rycaut : unknown

'Sir Paul Rycaut is mistaken (as he commonly is) in calling the sect [italics] muterin [italics].'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary, Lady Wortley Montagu Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her reading at home in the Isle of Wight, after leaving her Bath boarding school in 1830: 'I used to study by myself, for I knew that I was woefully ignorant. Such books as Russell's "History of Modern Europe" and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth", I read, and also Watts on the "Improvement of the Mind", and I plodded through an Italian history of the Venetian Doges, lent me by an intimate and valued friend of my father, Mr. Turnbull [...] I taught myself besides to read Spanish -- for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the books which I knew so well by name. The elements of botany on the Linnean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, beside the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too was a great favourite.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : poetry

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book

Laetitia Matilda Hawkins : The Countess and Gertrude

Elizabeth Missing Sewell on a stay at her aunt Mrs Hanbury's London house during late 1835: 'The house and the situation [John Street, Bedford Row] were alike dreary [...] The only gleam of romance I had in connection with the place was derived from the fact that the large bare house reminded me of a description of one like it in an old novel by Miss Hawkins --"The Countess and Gertrude".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book

Mrs. Mary Sherwood : Tales

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the start of her writing career: 'I began "Amy Herbert"-- I scarcely know why -- only I had been reading some story of Mrs. Sherwood's, which struck me as having pretty descriptions, and I fancied I could write something of the same kind; and as a matter of curiosity I determined to make the attempt. I read both the few chapters of the intended tract ["Stories on the Lord's Prayer"], and the beginning of "Amy Herbert"to my sisters, and they liked them'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Stories on the Lord's Prayer

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Amy Herbert

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the start of her writing career: Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the start of her writing career: 'I began "Amy Herbert"-- I scarcely know why -- only I had been reading some story of Mrs. Sherwood's, which struck me as having pretty descriptions, and I fancied I could write something of the same kind; and as a matter of curiosity I determined to make the attempt. I read both the few chapters of the intended tract ["Stories on the Lord's Prayer"], and the beginning of "Amy Herbert"to my sisters, and they liked them'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Stories on the Lord's Prayer

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the anonymity of her first publication ("Stories on the Lord's Prayer", serialised in "The Cottager's Monthly Visitor" in 1840): 'I did not give my name, and no one knew anything about it, except my mother and sisters. I have often vexed myself since -- thinking that I did not tell my father -- but I had a dread of any person talking to me about my writing, and I knew that if he was pleased he would not be able to keep himself from telling me so. I was reading the little book aloud to my mother one evening when he was in the room, and not being well was lying on the sofa half asleep, as I thought; but he listened, and I think was interested, for he asked me what I was reading. I forget exactly what answer I made, but it certainly was not that I was reading anything of my own, and so I lost the opportunity of giving him pleasure.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Amy Herbert

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on her mother's admiration for her writings: 'After my father's death, the only reading, except the Bible, which, for weeks, she would listen to, was "Amy Herbert"'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Sewell Print: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Amy Herbert

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on her family's encouragement of her writing: 'William [Sewell's brother] had arranged to have the "Stories from the Lord's Prayer" published as a little book [...] This made Ellen [Sewell's sister] speak to him about "Amy Herbert". He looked at the first chapters, and liked them, and begged me to finish the story.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : 'little history of the early Church'

Elizabeth Missing Sewell on support received in the face of criticisms of her novel [italics]Margaret Percival[end italics] for its supposedly Roman Catholic sympathies: 'My one consolation, when criticised, was, and is, that the statement of the historical grounds on which the English Church rests were [sic] privately approved by [...] the Rev. Samuel Rickards, rector of Stowlangtoft, Essex [...] Mr. Rickards also advised me to write a little history of the early Church, which I afterwards did. He saw part of it, and liked it.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Rickards

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : The Earl's Daughter

'[italics]The Earl's Daughter[end italics] was [...] begun before my mother's death, and I read part of it to her, but she saw from the beginning that it was likely to be sad, and I think it rather oppressed her. [italics]Margaret Percival[end italics] I read to her entirely, and also a portion of [italics]Laneton Parsonage[end italics], and I remember being obliged to assure her that Alice Lennox (in the latter tale) when taken ill would not die, she took such a vivid interest in the story -- which was only completed after her death.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Margaret Percival

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Laneton Parsonage

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Stephanie Felicite de Genlis : Veilees du Chateua ou Cours Morale a l'usage des Enfants

'We read today in the "Veilees du Chateau" I think that book very good for the young people'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book

John Lodge Cowley : ?[An Appendix to the Elements of Euclid]

"amused myself with looking over Cowley's Geometrical Plates - the different Problems of Euclid are drawn upon Pasteboard Paper & cut so that you may lift them up & see the solid forms &c &c I suppose a profound scholar might despise all this - but I think it a pretty work for Ladys or young beginners."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hamilton Print: Book

Mrs. Humphry Ward : The Story of Bessie Cottrell

'You may know that Mrs Humphry Ward is one of my literary bugbears. I have never really read any of her much-lauded works, but from casual glances into one or two of them & the perusal of copious reviews, I have felt instinctively that she was No Good. A new book of hers, a short one, The Story of Bessie Costrell, will appear in three months time & I have been promising myself the pleasure of scalping the woman. The tale runs through Cornhill in three instalments & in order that my onslaught might appear immediately after publication of the book, contemporaneously with the fulsome flatteries which the daily press is certain to shake out, I determined to read the thing carefully in serial form, and prepare a reasoned expos?. I have just returned from the Free Library. The mischief is, I find the first instalment damn well done. It is beautifully arranged and selected. The writing, without being great, is dignified and decent; and it is perfectly clear that she knows what she is talking about, to wit, village life.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Ivan Sergevich Turgenev : On the Eve

'(I am tempted, by the way, to say that 'On the Eve' is the finest novel I have ever read. I must lend it you. Its subtlety and restraint prevent it from ever being really popular.)'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

William Henry Lyttelton : [probably] A Monody to the Memory of lady Lyttelton. Written in the Year 1747

'I read several elegies today, two of Shore the one on the death of his wife, the other on the loss of his child. His tale of woe is expressed in the most moving and natural fashion, and though you greatly admire the poet yet you must yield to the soft and sympathising composition of the widowed Husband and childless father. It is not so when you read Lord Littleton's complaint on his Lady's death, the poetry is beautiful but less natural, less moving. He boasts with his grief, and indulges himself some digressions which show his extended knowledge but are not natural, I think, to a mind wholly occupied with despair'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Eugenia Wynne Print: Unknown

Christoph Martin Wieland : Agathon

'I read a great deal of "Agathon" a very fine German novel taken from a grecian manuscript written by Wieland. It is very interesting and expressed with equal grace, elegance and nature. One thing which shows that no man is free of a vanity in which he seeks to hide is that the Author takes every opportunity to mention himself and appears afraid that "Agathon" should make you forget Weiland'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Eugenia Wynne Print: Book

Sir Paul Rycaut : unknown

'I could also, with little trouble, turn over Knolles and Sir Paul Rycaut, to give you a list of Turkish Emperors'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary, Lady Wortley Montagu Print: Book

Sir Paul Rycaut : unknown

'But the Armenians have no notion of transubstantiation, whatever accounts Sir Paul Rycaut gives of them (which account I am apt to believe was designed to compliment our court in 1679).'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary, Lady Wortley Montagu Print: Book

Sir Paul Rycaut : unknown

'I can only tell you, that if you please to read Sir Paul Rycaut, you will there find a full and true account of the viziers, the [italics] beglerbeys [italics], the civil and spiritual government, the officers of the seraglio, &c., things that 'tis very easy to procure lists of, and therefore may be depended on; though other stories, God knows - I say no more - every body is at liberty to write their own remarks; the manners of people may change, or some of them escape the observation of travellers, but 'tis not the same of the government; and for that reason, since I can tell you nothing new, I will tell nothing of it.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary, Lady Wortley Montagu Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

'As I began to mend, the Governor, to keep me from brooding too much, gave orders that I was to have all the reading matter I wanted within the limits of the prison library, and my book changed just as often as I liked and at any hour of the day. To a man eager to improve his acquaintance with standard literature such a privilege was immeasurably great, and for the next six weeks or so I browsed among the Victorian novelists - Austin [sic?], the Brontes, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Meredith, Lytton, Kingsley, Reade, Hughes, Trollope and others.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book

Thomas [?] Hughes : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book

John Henry Newman : Obedience, the remedy for religious perplexity

From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 20 June 1845: 'The Meyricks have been here today. Mr. Meyrick told Edwards [Sewell's brother] there was no doubt that Newman is going over to Rome, which agrees but little with an observation made by Dr. Pusey to G. F. a short time since that no one could know how devoted a servant of the Church Newman was till after his death. The Church though may mean the Catholic or Universal Church, and so Rome may be included. It is a horrid, startling notion, but a sermon of Newman's I was reading to-night would be a great safeguard against being led into mischief by it. "Obedience, the remedy for religious perplexity."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Katherine Ashton

Elizabeth Missing Sewell on the model for the domineering husband Colonel Forbes, in her novel [italics]Katherine Ashton[end italics]: 'Colonel Forbes has not in appearance, position and surroundings the least resemblance to his prototype; yet that the character is in the main true was shown to me strangely by the fact that the gentleman who gave me the idea of it came to me after he had read [italics]Katherine Ashton[end italics] and owned that Colonel Forbes resembled himself, though no one else ever suggested the likeness.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Thomas Babbington Macaulay : [uknown]

Second confinement in the Prison at Hull: 'I remember how when the light began to fail of evenings, I often risked punishment by getting up to my window to finish an essay by Macaulay, whose style charmed me, or one of those vibrant, pulpitating lectures on hero-worship by Carlyle!'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book

Joseph Henry Shorthouse : John Inglesant

'I often found peace in the pages of Ecclesiastes or Isaiah, or in the writings of men whom Barry has described as the heralds of revolt - John Inglesant, George Eliot, Carlyle, Heine, Loti, Nietzsche, etc. But in time even literature palls.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel : [unknown]

'At Maidstone, both on this occasion and subsequently when I served several months in separate confinement as a convict preparatory to going to Parkhurst, I was able, through the chaplain's kindness, to study not only Greek philosophy, but also Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, Schopenhauer, Fechner, Lotze, etc. Being a very rapid reader and having some ability in getting at the gist of a book I got through a fair amount of really interesting reading. ... In the summer I grabbed a book as soon as it was light enough to read, say, four o'clock, read till and during breakfast, dinner, supper and continued till 9:30 or 10 o'clock at night, an average of 8 to 10 hours a day. There were times, of course, when the burden of prison life bred a spirit of discontent and restlessness which books could not assuage.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book

Rudolph Hermann Lotze : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie, ou la nouvelle Heloise

'I return the first two volumes of Julia with many thanks - It seems to me, that the most proper way of testifying my gratitude to the amiable Jean Jacques for the pleasure he has afforded me, is to do what in me lies to extend the circle of his admirers - I shall begin with you - Do read this book -'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Bailie Welsh Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie, ou La Nouvelle Heloise

'I have finished Julia - Divine Julia! What a finshed picture of most sublime virtue!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Bailie Welsh Print: Book

Richard Henry Dana : Two years before the mast

'The routine of the "Scourge" has grown familiar; and one tires of unbroken fine weather and smooth seas. No resource for me but the officers' little library. Therefore I must have been sleepily pouring over Dana's "Two Years before the Mast": a pleasant, rough kind of book, but with something too much hauling of ropes and "handing" of sails it in. ...I have been reading also "The Amber Witch", a most beautiful German story, translated into English, by Lady Duff Gordon.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Mitchel Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Essays

'Reading - for want of something better - "Macaulay's Essays". He is a born Edinburgh Reviewer, this Macaulay; and, indeed, a type-reviewer - an authentic specimen-page of nineteenth century "literature". He has the right, omniscent tone, and air, and the true knac; of administering reverential flattery to British civilisation, British prowess, honour, enlightenment, and all that, especially to the great nineteenth century and its astounding civilisation, that is, to his readers. It is altogether a new thing in the history of mankind, this triumphant glorification of a current century upon being the century it is...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Mitchel Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Essays [on Bacon]

'After breakfast, when the sun burned too fiercely on deck, went below, threw off coat and waistcoat for coolness, and began to read Macaulay's essay on Bacon - "the great English teacher", as the reviewer calls him. And to do the reviewer justice, he understands Bacon, knows what Bacon did, and what he did not; and therefore sets small store by that illustrious Chimera's new "method" of investigating truth...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Mitchel Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Windsor Castle

'Three weeks of sickness, sleepness nights, and dismal days: and the "light" reading that I have been devouring I find to weigh very heavy. Yet the "Three Mousquetaires" of Dumas is certainly the best novel that creature has made. How is it that the paltriest feuilletoniste in Paris can always turn out something at least readable (readable, I mean, by a person of ordinary taste and knowledge) and that the popular providers of that sort of thing in London - save only Dickens - are also so very stupid, ignorant and vicious a herd? Not but the feuilleton-men are vicious enough; but then vice wrapped decently in plenty of British cant, and brutified by cockney ignorance, is triply vicious. Dumas's "Marquis de Letoriere", too, is a pleasant enough little novelette: but I have tried twice, and tried in vain, to get through a mass of letterpress called "Windsor Castle", by Ainsworth; and another by one Douglas Jerrold, entitled "St Giles and St James".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Mitchel Print: Book

Sir Alexander Burnes : [Journey through Bokhara and Voyage up the Indus]

'One of the last books I have laid hands on is Lieutenant Burnes's (afterwards Sir Alexander Burnes) "Journey through Bokhara and Voyage up the Indus". And, not to speak of the intrinsic merits of the work as a narrative of travel, which merits are moderate, it has become remarkable on account of events which have befallen since its publication. This Burnes was sent to those countries (in plain English) as a spy, to make observations and get intelligence which should be available to the Anglo-Indian government, in the project they had of invading, civilising, plundering, clothing in cotton, and finally subduing Lahore and Cabool.' [diary entry includes extracts from the book]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Mitchel Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

'Have been reading in "Tait's Magazine" an elaborate review of a new book by the indefatigable Government literator, Macaulay - no less than a "History of England".' 'NB: Bothwell, V.D.L. 4 August 1851 - I have read the book itself here; for, having become one of the most popular books in the world, it is even in the village library of Bothwell. Mem. - It is a clever, base, ingenious, able and shallow political pamphlet in two volumes. This writer has the rare art of colouring a whole narrative by an apparently unstudied adjective or two, and telling stories of frightful falsehoods by one of the most graceful of adverbs. What is worse, the fellow believes in no human virtue - proves Penn a pimping parasite, because he hated penal laws; and makes a sort of Bromwicham hero out of the dull Dutch Deliverer'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Mitchel Print: Book

Charles de Remusat : 'French Essays on Literature'

From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 28 January [?1865]: 'I am reading [italics]French Essays on Literature[end italics] [sic] -- so clever they are! Charles de Remusat describes the French of the eighteenth century as "Des gens qui ne lisaient qu'afin de pouvoir parler". Could anything be more apt?'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire : Conferences de Notre Dame de Paris

From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 7 November 1868: 'Began Lacordaire's [italics]Conferences de Notre Dame[end italics]. He starts with premises open to much discussion, and all his arguments fall to the ground unless one can accept the premises.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Laneton Parsonage

From letter to Elizabeth Missing Sewell reproduced in [italics]The Autobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell[end italics], written in 1889 by the Rev. J. J. Lias, to accompany a copy of one of his own published writings: 'I am sending this book in recognition of invaluable help rendered by you to me nearly half a century ago [...] When I first fell in with [italics]Laneton Parsonage[end italics] I was in a stage of sentimental evangelicalism in which the reading of good works and thinking of (perhaps) good thoughts was to me the whole of religion. When my tutor gave me [italics]Laneton Parsonage[end italics], its doctrine of baptismal grace and privileges at once inspired me [...] I never became an advanced High Churchman, but my sympathies have been with the common-sense practical Churchmanship you have taught in your books -- a Catholic Christianity which holds fast the Word of God and the Creeds, and honours the Sacraments.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: J. J. Lias Print: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Preparation for the Holy Communion

From letter to Eleanor L. Sewell reproduced in [italics]The Autobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell[end italics], written on 15 December 1906 by Miss [E.] Wordsworth , in response to appeal for thoughts and reminiscences regarding Sewell and her works: 'We are all apt to forget how much good there was in England before "Tractarianism" had become a potent influence in the Church. There is one little book [of Sewell's] that I should like to name [...] [italics]Preparation for the Holy Communion[end italics] by the author of [italics]Amy Herbert[end italics] [sic]. It was given me years ago, and I have found it very helpful. There is an earnestness and sobriety [...] in its tone, which makes it very suitable for many who would shrink from making use of the less restrained phraseology of more modern manuals.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Wordsworth Print: Book

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : works

Eleanor L. Sewell, niece of Elizabeth Missing Sewell, in chapter 20 of [italics]The Autobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell[end italics]: 'I think I had read all her books when at the age of fifteen [...] I was drifted under her [personal] influence.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Eleanor L. Sewell Print: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : works

Eleanor L. Sewell, niece of Elizabeth Missing Sewell, in chapter 20 of [italics]The Autobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell[end italics]: 'Among many casual instances [of Elizabeth Missing Sewell's influence] is that of a girl who was detained at the foot of the Lollards' Tower, Lambeth, and showing her impatience of delay, was addressed by a little lady, who was also waiting her turn with a party, and asked to spend the time in learning more about the Lollards and the locality. The girl afterwards saw the lady's name in the visitors' book, was led to read her works and learnt for life the love of study, though she never met Miss Sewell again.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Unknown

Robert Louis Stevenson : Some technical elements of style in literatue

'In my new vol. of the Edinburgh Stevenson, there is a luminous essay, reprinted for the first time from a Fortnightly Review of 1881, on ?some technical elements of style in literature.? You must read it when you come up; it is profoundly interesting to a craftsman. . . . I read the thing last night in bed?after an evening at Chapman?s?& was made to think thereby.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Dr Peter Mark Roget : Thesaurus

'. . . have you got Roget?s Thesaurus of English words and phrases? It is the most wonderful machine for getting at words that you know but can?t think of at the moment, that I have encountered. . . I bought it about a year ago, & wonder how I ever did without it.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Ivan Sergevich Turgenev : On the Eve

'My favourite masters & models: 1. Turgenev, a royal first (you must read 'On the Eve'?flawless I tell you. Bring back such books of mine as you have; I have others you must read). 2. de Maupassant. 3. de Goncourts. 4. George Moore?the great author who can neither write nor spell! Stevenson only helps me in minute details of style.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Edmund and Jules de Goncourt : Renee Mauperin

'. . . I learnt this from the brothers de Goncourt. I must get you to read their 'Renee Mauperin'. To study the principles of its construction is both 'entertaining & instructive.' My favourite masters & models: 1. Turgenev, a royal first (you must read 'On the Eve'?flawless I tell you. Bring back such books of mine as you have; I have others you must read). 2. de Maupassant. 3. de Goncourts. 4. George Moore?the great author who can neither write nor spell! Stevenson only helps me in minute details of style.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : [Letters]

'I spent the whole afternoon reading some of Mde. de Sevigne's letters'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Wynne Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : [Letters]

'I read Mde. de Sevigne until I was quite tired'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Wynne Print: Book

Ivan Sergevich Turgenev : Smoke

'I have just read Turgenev?s Smoke. Man, we have more to learn in mere technique from Turgenev than from any other soul. He is simply unspeakable. I will ram this statement down your throat when I see you, with the book in front of us.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Sarah Stickney Ellis : Family Secrets

'I am occupied a geat deal just now in reading a new novel called "Family Secrets", it is a compound of unnatural occurrences but being embarked on it I am dommed to wade through five volumes', it belongs to the Purser's Steward'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Fremantle Print: Book

Ivan Sergevich Turgenev : On the Eve

"'On the Eve' is more than a nice novel; it is a great novel. I think that if I could read it in Russian I should set it down as the greatest within my knowledge."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Edmond and Jules de Goncourt : Germinie Lacerteux

'I am just reading 'Germinie Lacerteux,' the masterpiece (I fancy) of the de Goncourts.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Ivan Sergevich Turgenev : A Sportsman's Sketches

'Turgenev has forestalled you. & a bit to spare, in ?A Sportsman?s Sketches?, which you shall take home with you next time you come to London. These sketches are obviously records of things seen & heard by the author during his sporting tours, records devoid of literary artfulness, but chocked full of the art of observation, I know that you will be both delighted & edified by them, I read some of them a few years ago, & thought they were tame and lacked form. Now I know better.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Lawrence L. Lynch : Shadowed by Three: A Detective Story

One of them asked what he had been reading. 'Lynch, of course,' said Louis promptly, with a twinkling in his eye. 'Lynch? Lynch?' The name was jotted down in a notebook and on cuffs. There was a bewildered air among them as they glanced at each other. They were all of the intelligentsia and considered themselves well up in modern literature, yet here was a name they had never heard. Louis was being perfectly truthful. He had been reading 'Shadowed by Three' and 'Dashing Kate, the Female Detective', shilling shockers that amused him so much he had noted the author's name and was looking for more of his works.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Father Damien, an Open Letter to the Reverend Dr Hyde of Honolulu

Louis announced that he had written something he wanted us to hear. When we had taken our seats round the centre table he stood before us with a manuscript in his hand...then in his deep voice vibrant with emotion, with heightened colour and blazing eyes he read aloud the 'Father Damien Letter.' Never in my life have I heard anything so dramatic, so magnificent. There was deep feeling in every sentence - scorn, indignation, biting irony, infinite pity - and invective that fairly scorched and sizzled. The tears were in his eyes when he finished. Throwing the manuscript on the table he turned to his wife. She who had never failed him, rose to his feet, and holding out both hands to him in a gesture of enthusiasm, cried: 'Print it! Publish it!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown

Robert Louis Stevenson : Weir of Hermiston

After lunch was always a pleasant time at Vailima...that was the time Louis usually chose to read aloud something he had written. We were an eager, attentive audience, and when he had finished he welcomed suggestions and we were free to say whatever we liked. Usually we were unanimously enthusiastic, especially over chapters of 'Weir of Hermiston'...once, however, he read a story called 'The Witch Woman' that none of us cared for very much. My mother said it showed the influence of a Swedish author Louis had been reading, and was not in his own clear, individual style. She made no comment when he sent it to his publisher, and nothing more was heard of 'The Witch Woman'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown

Robert Louis Stevenson : The Witch Woman

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson

Thomas Skinner Surr : A Winter in London, or Sketches of Fashion

'I have finished "A Winter in Town", and think that if it was written in two volumes instead of three it would be a very good Novel - Some of the characters such as the Duchess of Devonshire, Duchess of Girdon, and Sir Walter Farquhar are admirably delineated in it'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eugenia Wynne Print: Book

Jean de La Fontaine : [unknown]

'The individual...was a fellow-worker of mine for nigh two years in Dartmoor. He had, in his younger days, passed through the workhouse; read the pestilent literature of rascaldom which has educated so many criminal characters in this country; then graduated in the "School", and ultimately became a noted burglar. His reading in prison had been pretty extensive, while his intelligence would have insured him a position in society above that of a labouring man... I could not help looking upon it as a very novel experience, for even this grotesque world, to have to listen to a man who could delight in a literary discussion, quote all the choice parts of Pope's "Illiad", and boast of having read Pascal and Lafontaine in the original, maintain, in sober argument, that "thieving was an honourable pursuit", and that religion, law, patriotism and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

W. Scott Irving : [poem celebrating peace at end of Napoleonic wars]

'I noticed, with pleasure, the insertion of your "Critique": but was very much mortified, - at seeing the pitiful conclusion which the Editor had foisted in,- in addition to the error in the signature. 'Tis a matter of no consequence - only it [italics]ruffles[end italics] in the mean-time. Our Bard has at length compelled them to print his poetry - and prose too, for, was not that same [italics]Blattum-Bulgium[end italics] disquisition his? And had not he a letter last week "on Burns"? - What a flo[w] of language - what a strength of epithet he pos[s]esses!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

W. Scott Irving : [essays on Burns and monuments]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

George Gordon Lord Byron : [Poems]

'What Books have you been perusing - and how did you like Sha[ke]spea[re]? - Since I saw you I have toil'd thro' many a thick octa[vo] - many of them to little purpose. Byron's and Scott's "Poems" I have read and must admire - tho' you recollect, we used to give Campbell a de[cided] preference - and I still think, with justice. Have you ever seen Hoole's "Tas[so?]" I have among many others read, it, "Leonidas", "The Epigoniad", "Oberon", "Savage[e's] Poems" &.c. Miss Porter's "Scottish Chiefs" and "Waverl[e]y" have been the principal of my Novels - With regard to "Waverl[e]y" I cannot help remarking t[hat] in my opinion it is the best novel that has been published these thirty years. The characters of Ebenezer Cru[i]ckshank[s] mine host of the garter, the Reverend Mr. Gowk - thrapple and Squire Bradwardian display a Cervantic vein of humour which has seldom been surpassed - whilst the descriptions of the gloomy caverns of the Highlands, and the delineations of the apathic Callum Beg and enterprising Vich Ian Vohr show a richness of [italics]Scottean[end italics] colouring which few have equalled. Give me your opinion of it if you have read it; - and if not - endeavour by all means to procure it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Sir John Leslie [or Playfair?] : review of Laplace's Essai philosophique sur les probabilites

'It is a considerable time since I saw Leslie's review of La Place'[s] essay on chances - and remarked with considerable surprise - the bold avowall of his sentiments on Hume's doctrine - "The Christian Instructor" attacks him with considerable asperity - and, I think, success. Hume's essays, I have not read - and therefore cannot condemn - The evidence of testimony, too, no doubt has its limits - But as far as I can judge, all that is urged either by La Place or His reviewer - does not at all affect Christianity.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

Pierre Simon Laplace : Essai philosophique sur les probabilites

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, Fourth Earl of Chesterfield : Letters to his Son

'As an extraordinary instance of perseverance, I must mention my having read "Cicero de officiis". You must read it too Bob - You will get thro' it in a week - and cannot think your time mis[s]pent. It consists of letters addressed to his son - and if we compare the steady, affectionate, unbending precepts of the venerable Roman - with the only work of a similar kind in our own times - Chesterfield's advice - we shall blush for the eighteenth century!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

William Rowe Lyall : [review in the Quarterly Review of Dugald Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind]

'The first article in the last Quarterly review is [on] Stewart's second volume. The wise men of London are earnest in their censures of "the metaphysical heresies" of their northern neighbours: and notwithstanding the high admiration they pay to Stewarts talents, the[y] differ from him in almost all his results - because they disbelieve his principles - the "first principles" of Dr. Reid. Their opinion (and they give no reasons), on a point of this nature, is of little consequence. All the prejudices natural to Englishmen, they entertain in their full extent - and always modify their decisions accordingly[.] For my part, tho' far be it from me to attempt to disparage or vilipend this great man - I cannot help thinking, that, the perusal of his book has done me hurt. Perpetually talking about analysing perceptions, & retiring within ones self, & mighty improvements that we are to make?no one knows how, - I believe, he will generally leave the mind of his reader?crowded with disjointed notions & nondescript ideas - which the sooner he gets rid of, the better. I know you think differently; but de gustibus non est disputandum [concerning taste it is needless to dispute, ed. note]; and very probably, the fault is not with the Author - but his subject'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion

'I was re[a]ding lately, Stewart's "life of Robertson", Smith's "wealth of nations", and Kames' "Essays on the principles of morality". The first is a sensible sort of book - unworthy, however, of Stewart. Dr Smith is a man of much research, & appears to understand completely all the bearings of his complicated subject. I have read his first and second volumes with much pleasure. He always writes like a philosopher. With regard to Lord Kames - his works are generally all an awkward compound of ingenuity and absurdity and in this volume the latter quality it appears to me, considerably preponderates. It is Metaphysical; upon Belief, identity, Necessity &c &c and I devoutly wish that no friend of mine may ever come to study it - unless he wish to learn - To weave fine cobwebs fit for scull That's empty when the moon is full. - and in that case he cannot study under a more proper master.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Benjamin Thomson Count Rumford : Essays, Political, Economical and Philosophical

'When I returned to Annan, it occurred to me, that it would be proper to see what was become of my Hall discourses. It occurred to me, much about the same time, that it would be proper to study Rumfords essays, Mackenzies travels, Humboldts New Spain, Berkeley's principles of knowledge, Stewarts essays, Simson's fluxions &c &c &c - It was some great man's advice, to every person in a hurry - never to do more than one thing at a time. Judge what progress I must have made - when I engaged in half-a-dozen. - Manufacturing theses - wrestling with lexicons, Chemical experiments, Scotch philosophy and Berkeleian Metaphysics - I have scarcely sufficient strength left, to write you even now. Upon consideration, therefore, of these egregious labours - I hope, you cannot refuse to forgive me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

George Stewart Mackenzie : Travels in the Island of Iceland during the summer of 1810

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Edmond de Goncourt : Madame Gervaisais

'Certain events (which I will relate when I see you?may it be soon) at the office have given me an idea for another novel; a study of religious mania?? la 'Madame Gervaisais', which you should read if you don?t know it already.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters to His Son

'It is about ten days since I got rid of a severe inflam[m]ation-of the throat, which confined me to the house for two weeks. During two or three days, I was not able to speak plainly; & you will easily conceive, that I passed my time very heavily. I endeavoured to read several things: I tried a book of modern Biography "The British Plutarch"; but soon finding it to be a very miserable book, I shut it for good and all. I next opened the "Spectator" - and tho' his ja[u]nty manner but ill accorded with my sulky humours, I toiled thro' a volume & a half, with exemplary patience. Lastly, I had recourse to Lord Chesterfield's "advice to his son"; and I think I never before so distinctly saw the pitiful disposition of this Lord. His directions concerning washing the face & paring the nails are indeed very praiseworthy: and I should be content to see them printed in a large type, and placed in frames above the chimneypieces of boarding-schools - for the purpose of enforcing the duties of cleanliness, upon the rising generation. But the flattery, the dissimulation & paltry cunning that he is perpetually recommending, leave one little room to regret that Chesterfield was not his father. Such was the result of my studies, in my sickness: - a result highly unfavourable to those feelings of prostration before high birth & weight of purse, which (many tell us) it is so eminently the duty of all men to cultivate. Indeed this is not the first time that I have noticed in my mind, a considerable tendency to undervalue the great ones of this world'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

J.M. Barrie : Sentimental Tommy

"I am now myself in cap III of 'Sentimental Tommy'. So far, it strikes me, as it struck me before in 'Scribner', as a little too merely facetious, Seems as if the beggar didn?t know when he was being humorous & when merely funny ? la Jerome. Having instinctive doubts of the book, I shouldn?t have started it only for Miss Symonds? urgent recommendation."

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre : Abrege d'astronomie

'For the rest - I continued reading Newton's "Principia" with considerable perseverance & little success - till on arriving a short way into the third book - I discovered that I had too little knowledge of Astronomy, to understand his reasoning rightly. And I forthwith sent to Edinr for De Lambre's "abr?g? d'Astronomie"; and in the mean time, betook myself to reading Wood's "optics". I cannot say much about this book. Its author intermeddles not with the abstruse parts of the science - such as the causes of reflection & refraction?the reason why transparent bodies, at given angles of incidence, reflect their light almost entirely (concerning which, I meet with many learned details, in the Encyclopedia Britan) - but contents himself with demonstrating, in a plain enough manner, the ordinary effects of plane & spherical mirrors - and of lenses of various kinds - applying his doctrines, to the explanation of various optical instruments & remarkable phenomena. But in truth, I know little about it, I read it with too great velocity. - I also read Keil's "introductio ad veram Physicam"; but I shall let it pass till next time I write. In fine De Lambre arrived; & I have read into his fourth Le?on -and like it greatly.I intended to have told you some of his observations - but I would not overwhelm you with ennui all at once - and therefore, I shall be silent at present. - [italics]ne quid nimis[end italics] [moderation in all things - editor's note] ? as the proverb saith'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Thomas or William Belsham : [either Elements of the Philosophy of Mind or Essays in Philosophical Morality]

'I return always to the study of Physics with more pleasure - after trying "The Philosophy of Mind". It is delightful, after wandering in the thick darkness of metaphysics?to behold again the fair face of truth. When will there arise a man who shall do for the science of mind - what Newton did for that of matter - establish its fundamental laws on the firm basis of induction - and discard forever those absurd theories - that so many dreamers have devised? - I believe this is a foolish question - for its answer is - never. - I am led to talk in this manner - by having lately read M[r.] Sweart's [Stewart's] "History of Philosophy" in the supplement to the "Encyclopedia Britannica"[.] I doubt I am going to displease you - but I must say - that I do not recollect of ever having bestowed as much attention with so little effect - upon any author as upon Profr Stewart. Let me study his writings as I like - my mind seems only to turn on its axis - but without progressive or retrograde motion at all.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Christian Leopold, Baron von Buch : Reise durch Norwegen und Lappland

'Last week I perused von Buch's "travels in Norway & Lapland". Much of his attention is devoted to Mineralogy, of which I am very ignorant, and his movements are sometimes not a little mysterious, from the want of a proper map of the country. Nevertheless he communicates some valuable information respecting the natural productions - & the wandering inhabitants of those dreary regions. His manner is as clumsy & ponderous as that of German philosophers generally is - and no where is this [more ap]parent than when he attempts to be striking, or tries his powers in the pathetic lin[e].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Jean Sylvain Bailly : Histoire de l'astronomie moderne

'I took Bail]ly's "histoire d'Astronomie", out of the College library, last time I was over the firth. [He seems] to write with great eloquence & perspicuity; but I have read little of him.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Jean Sylvain Bailly : Histoire de l'astronomie moderne

'Three weeks ago, I finished M. Bailly's "histoire de l'Astronomie Modern[e.]" His acquaintance with the science seems to have been more extensive than profound; his stile is elegant - perhaps somewhat too florid, and interspersed with metaphors which an English critic might be tempted sometimes to call conceited - I wish I were an Astronomer - Is it not an interesting reflection to consider, that a little creature such as man-tho' his eye can see the heaven but as it were for a moment - is able to delineate the aspects which it presented long ages before he came into being - and to predict the aspects which it will present when ages shall have gone by. The past the present & the future are before him.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine, Madame de Stael : De l'Allemagne

'What I deplore is that laziness and dissipation of mind to which I am still subject. At present I am quieting my conscience with the thought that I shall study very diligently this winter. Heaven grant it be so! for without increasing in knowledge what profits it to live? Yet the commencement has been inauspicious. Three weeks ago I began to read Wallace's "Fluxions" in the Encyclopaedia, and had proceeded a little way, when the "Quarterly Review", some problems in a very silly Literary and Statistical Magazine of which the the schoolmasters are supporters, Madm de Sta?l's "Germany", etc. etc., have suspended my operations these ten days. After all I am afraid that this winter will pass as others have done before it - unmarked by improvement; and what is to hinder the next, & its followers till the end of the short season allotted me to do so likewise?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Francois VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld : Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales

'Some time ago, I bought me a copy of La Rochefoucault. It has been said that the basis of his system is the supposition of selflove being the motive of all our actions. It rather seems, as if he had laid down no system at all. Regarding man as a wretched, mischievous thing, little better than a kind of vermin, he represents him as the sport of his passions, above all of vanity, and exposes the secret springs of his conduct always with some wit, and (?bating the usual sacrifices of accuracy to smartness), in general, with great truth & sagacity'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

J.M. Barrie : Margaret Ogilvy/by her son

'Barrie?s 'Margaret Ogilvy', though a trifle loose in the mere writing, is a divine thing, my boy?sort of book that immediately you have finished it you begin again, No fear of his reputation deliquescing just yet, with that to solidify it.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Frederic Jessup Stimson : King Noanett:A Story of Old Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay

'Dear Mr Lane, I must apologise for not returning 'King Noanett'. But I have been so awfully busy lately that I have not had time to finish it. I propose to take it into the country with me & let you have it next week certain.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Marie Eugene Melchior de Vogue : Le Roman russe

'I have Dupuy?s 'Les Grand Maitres de la literature russe', which strikes me as being platitudinous & not very informing or critical; also de Vog???s 'Le Roman russe'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

G. S. Street : reader's report on "Bettesworth"

'I saw Lane for a few brief moments last night. He showed me a second report on Bettesworth, by G.S. Street. It was distinctly favourable & appreciative. '

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown

Mrs H. H. Penrose : The Unequal Yoke

'I feel conscious of sin in regard to your manuscripts. With reference to An Unequal Yoke I knew that Young was bitten by it, & so asked him to supper & whiskey just in order to finish the matter up. Unfortunately some other men took it into their heads also to call that night & we couldn?t say a word together. . . . Touching Toddles: A Nuisance I have read this with great pleasure, & if Toddles is Claude, I want to know him instantly, forthwith, and immediately. . . . This book will sell all right: Constables; Hutchinsons; A.D. Innes? A. & C. Black ; J.M. Dent & Co; might be tried.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown

Mrs H. H. Penrose : Chubby, A Nuisance, A Study of Child-life

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown

William Edwards Tirebuck : Miss Grace of All Souls

'I am quite sure there is an aspect of these industrial districts which is really grandiose, full of dark splendours, & which has been absolutely missed by all novelists up to date. Tirebuck in 'Miss Grace of All Souls' was too much interested in his individual characters to note synthetically the general aspect, & Nevinson in 'Valley of Tophet' also let it escape him...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Henry Woodd Nevinson : In the Valley of Tophet

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Anna Laetitia Barbauld : 'Eyes, and No Eyes; or, The Art of Seeing'

From Letter V, "Letters on Daily Life": 'I wonder whether you ever met with an old-fashioned story called "Eyes and no Eyes." It was written, I think, by Mrs. Barbauld. I read it when I was a child. It went to show that two persons going for a walk through the same fields might return home with totally different impressions made upon them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Guy de Maupassant : Etude sur Gustave Flaubert

'Have you read de Maupassant?s '?tude sur Gustave Flaubert', preface to Bouvard et P?cuchet?from which I quote above? It is a most illuminating business, & one of the best bits of general literary criticism that I know of.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Guy de Maupassant : unknown

'I took up de Maupassant to inspire me into a new theme; got one in about 5 minutes, & in an hour had arrived at the details. But it is too new to work at tonight.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Henry Havelock Ellis : Affirmations

'You should get hold of Havelock Ellis?s new book Affirmations. It is all good; and there is an essay on Huysmans that I have found very inspiring indeed.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Allan Noble Monkhouse : A Deliverance

'As the writer of the recent article upon you in the 'Academy' I venture upon the intrusion of telling you personally that I was much impressed by your remarkable novel.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

A. E. Housman : A Shropshire Lad

'Have you read Housman?s poems A Shropshire Lad? They are only immortal, that?s all. I take them as a tonic.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

William Francis Patrick Napier : History of the Peninsular War

'I quite agree about Napier's book. I did not think that any man would venture to write so true, bold and honest a book; it gave me a high idea of his understanding, and makes me very anxious about his [italics]caractere[end italics].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

James Justinian Morier : Zohrab the Hostage

'We have read "Zohrab the Hostage" with the greatest pleasure. If you have not read it, pray do. I was so pleased with it that I could not help writing a letter of congratulation and collaudation to Morier, the author, who, by the bye, is an excellent man'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

(ed.) Lady Dacre : Recollections of a Chaperon

'I am always glad when a clever book has been written; not only because it pleases me, but because it is a new triumph for Brains. I have had very great pleasure in reading the stories; it is very difficult to say what they are made of, but they are very agreeable, and I beg for more. There is only one I dislike, it is too inocent for me - and yet I consider myself a very innocent person. I never read any stories which had so much the manners and conversation of real life; all aim at it, none have ever succeeded so well. I always write to everybody who publishes a book that gives me pleasure - so excuse me and believe me, dear Lady Dacre, ever sincerely yours...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Robert James Mackintosh : Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh

'I think you will like Sir James Mackintosh's Life; it is full of his own thoughts upon men, books and events, and I derived from it the greatest pleasure. He makes most honourable mention of your mother, whom I only know by one of her productions, - enough to secure my admiration'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Frances Milton Trollope : Tremordyn Cliff

'I am very desirous to read Mrs Trollope's Paris and the Parisians; her Tremordyn Cliff I read with considerable pleasure. She must be an amorous Old Dame; all these matters she describes with the most juvenile warmth and impetuosity'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : [writings on Indian Courts and Education]

'Get, and read, Macaulay's Papers upon the Indian courts and Indian Education. They are admirable for their talent and their honesty. We see why he was hated in India, and how honourable to him that hatred is'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Henry Harpur Spry : Modern India

'Read Spry's account of India - and believe if you can (I do) that within 150 mles of Calcutta there is a nation of Cannibals living in trees. It is an amusing Book.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

William, Baron Stowell Scott : [reports of cases in the Admiralty Court]

'I am very deep in Lord Stowell's "Reports", and if it were wartime I should officiate as Judge of the Admiralty Court. It was a fine business to make a public law for all nations, or to confirm one; and it is rather singular that so sly a rogue should have done it so honestly'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Unknown

(ed.) Mary Berry : [letters of Mme. du Deffand to Horace Walpole]

'I am reading again Madame du Deffand. God forbid I should be as much in love with anybody (yourself excepted) as the poor woman was with Horace Walpole!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Lays of Ancient Rome

'Have you read Macaulay's Lays? they are very much liked. I have read some but I abor all Grecian and Roman subjects'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Honore de Balzac : Pere Goriot

'Did you ever read Pere Goriot by Balzac or La Messe de L'Athee they are very good and perfectly readable for ladies and clergymen'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Honore de Balzac : La Messe de l'Athee

'Did you ever read Pere Goriot by Balzac or La Messe de L'Athee they are very good and perfectly readable for ladies and clergymen'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

William Ellery Channing : [sermon on War]

'I think Channing an admirable writer, so much eloquence so much sense so much command of Language; yet admirable as his Sermon on War is, I have the Vanity to think my own equally good quite as sensible quite as eloquent as full of good parables and of fine Language, and you will be more inclined to agree with me in this Comparison when I tell you that I preached in St Paul's the identical Sermon which Ld Grey so much admires. - I thought I could not write anything half so good so I preached Channing'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Unknown

(ed.) Richard Bourke : Correspondence of Burke

'I am beginning Burke's Letters or rather have gone through one volume but it is (I mean the Volume) full of details which do not interest me and there are no signs yet of that beautiful and fruitful imagination which is the great charm of Burke; and with the politics of so remote a period I do not concern myself'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Alexander William Kinglake : Eothen, or Traces of Travel brought home from the East

'Read Travels in the East called Eothen, they are by a Mr Kinglake of Taunton a Chancery Barrister, and are written in a very lively manner; they will amuse Lord Grey who I presume is regularly read to every day'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

One day, as Louis was leaving the hotel, he stopped to send a message up to my mother by one of the 'Buttons', as they were called. The only boy present was sitting, deeply engrossed in a book. When Louis spoke to him, he made no answer but went on reading. Impatient, Louis plucked the book out of the boy's hand. It was 'Treasure Island'. Returning it instantly, he said: 'Go right on reading, my little man. Don't let anyone disturb you.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : The Master of Ballantrae

On one occasion, he came to me, flourishing a paper wildly in the air...I thought he had suddenly inherited a fortune, or that something of an extreme value had fallen in his way. 'What in heaven's name is it?' I asked. 'This, my friend. For years a certain critic has practically damned my works - said there was nothing really in them - and now this person, whose ability I have always admired despite the fact that I have suffered, has declared: "Stevenson has at last produced one of the best books of the season, and the claim of his friends seems fully justified, for the work is full of genius."' His face was all aglow with feverish excitement. 'Who is this wonderful critic, Stevenson, whose praise you so enjoy? And what bitter things has he said of you before?' 'We will drop the severe things, Moors. You would never guess, if I gave you all morning, who it is who has at last admitted me to be in the front rank of my profession. It is Mrs Oliphant, my dear sir - Mrs Oliphant!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book, Serial / periodical

Sir William Temple : Essays

'Read, in the evening, "Temple on the Origin of Government:" in which the source of political power is successfully traced....' [Green usually gives extensive summary comments about books, interspersed with his reactions.]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Thomas James Mathias : Pursuits of Literature

'Finished, with much interest, the "Pursuits of Literature"...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan : The History of Nourjahad

'Finished the 'Novel of "Nourjahad" in the evening. Nothing, I think, can be more happily conceived for its purpose, than the plan of this little romance...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Bertrand de Moleville : Memoires secrets pour servir a l'histoire

'Finished Bertrand De Moleville's "Memoirs of the Last Year of the Reign of Louis the 16th". They contain much curious, and I presume, authentic information relative to the crisis of the Revolution...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Sir John Dalrymple : Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland

'Began Dalrymple's "Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland"; and read the two introductory sections, containing a masterly review of our political affairs...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Anthony Ashley Cooper : Inquiry concerning Virtue

'Read Shaftesbury's "Enquiry concerning Virtue". His ideas are not very distinctly state; but he seems, to place Virtue in a proper management of the affections...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Augustus Henry Fitzroy : The serious reflections of a rational Christian

'Looked over "Serious Reflections by a rational Christian", from 1788 to 1798 written by the Duke of G-...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope : Characters of eminent personages of his own time

'Looked over Lord Chesterfield's "Characters": all of which are neatly, and some very finely, drawn...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

J. J. Barth?lemy : Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece

'Finished the "Travels of Anacharsis". This work is ably executed, and must have cost prodigious pains; but it still leaves us, as we must ever be left, extremely ignorant of the political constitutions, religious worship, and private manners of the Greeks...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Sir James Mackintosh : A discourse on the study of the law of nature, and nations

'Perused, with delight and admiration, Mackintosh's "Preliminary Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations"...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise S?vign : Lettres choisies de Mesdames de Sevign? et de Main

'Looked over a Volume of "Lettres Choisies de Mesdames Sevigne et Maintenon"...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Sir James Mackintosh : Vindiciae Gallicae

'Read Mackinosh's "Vindiciae Gallicae". His style and manner in the Piece are magnificent, but uniformly cumbrous, and occasionally coarse...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Richard Owen Cambridge : The scribleriad: an heroic poem in six books

'Read Cambridge's "Scribleriad". The mock heroic is well sustained throughout; but the Poem is deficient in broad humour...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

August von Kotzebue : Das merkw?rdigste Jahr meines Lebens

'There is a great Peer in our neighbourhood, who gives me the run of his library while he is in town; and I am fetching up my arrears in books, which everybody (who reads at all) has read; among others, I stumbled upon the Life of Kotzebue, or rather his year of exile, and read it with the geatest interest. It is a rapid succession of very striking events, told with great force and simplicity. His display of sentiment seems very natural to the man, foolish as it sometimes is.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Marguerite de Launay, Baronne de Staal : Memoires

'With Madame de Staal's Memoirs, so strongly praised by the excellent Baron Grimm, I was a good deal disappointed: she has nothing to tell and does not tell it very well. She is neither important, nor admirable for talents or virtues. Her life was not worth recording.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : [Letters]

'I have now read three volumes of Madame de Sevigne - with a conviction that her letters are very much overpraised. Mr Thomas Grenville says he has made seven vigorous attacks on Madame de Sevigne and been as often repulsed'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Jean Francois Georgel : M?moires pour servir ? l'histoire des ?v?nements de la fin du 18e si?cle depuis 1760 jusqu'en 1806?10

'I have read Georgel and must say I have seldom read a more stupid book. The first volume in which he relates what he had seen and observed himself is well enough, but the last three volumes are no more than a mere newspaper collection of the proceedings of the Convention, trite lamentations on the wickedness of the revolution, and common parsonic notions of the rights of kings. Does the book strike you in any other point of view? Such as it is, I shall write a review of it, and I should be obliged to you, to tell me if you think my opinion just. Is his explanation of the Story of the Necklace to be credited? Could a man of the Cardinal's rank, who had filled the situation of Ambassador at the Court of Vienna, be the dupe of such a woman as Madame La Motte. Or was he the rogue? or was he the dupe? and La Motte the agent of the Queen? If this is not the true version, where is the true version to be found? Is there any new information respecting the French Revolution in Georgel? there seems none such to me'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Jean Francois Georgel : M?moires pour servir ? l'histoire des ?v?nements de la fin du 18e si?cle depuis 1760 jusqu'en 1806?10

'I recommend you to read the first and second volumes of the Abbe Georgel's Memoirs. You will suppose, from this advice, that there is something improper in the third and fourth: but, to spare you the trouble of beginning with them, I assure you I only exclude them from my recommendation because they are dull. You will see, in the second volume, a detailed account of the celebrated Necklace Story, which regaled your mama and papa before you were born'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Johann David Michaelis : Introduction to the New Testament

'Looked into Marsh's "Michaelis"...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

James Thomas Kirkman : Memoirs of the life of Charles Macklin

'Looked into Kirkman's "Life of Macklin"...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Johann Goffried Herder : Outlines of a philosophy of the history of man

'Began Herder's "Outlines of the Philosophy of the History of Man", of which I had heard high praise;--but was soon obliged to desist. He appears to write like a great child, eager to communicate its late acquirements, however trivial..'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Henry James Pye : A Commentary illustrating the Poetic of Aristotle

'Glanced over Pye's "Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics"...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book

Sir Isaac Newton : Institutes

'It occurred to me; much about the same time that it would be proper to study Stewart's Essays, Berkel[e]y's principes of knowledge, Rumfords Essays, Newton ['s] Institutes, Simpson's Fluxions &c &c - If to these overpowering engagements you add the numberless fits of indolence - and the perpetual visitations of spleen, to which one is subjected in this dirty little uncomfortable planet of ours - I presume you will have a sufficient excuse for my silence; and will rather wonder indeed that you have heard from me at all.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Sir John Leslie : Elements of Geometry

'With regard to the division of the circle into 360 parts,- I think it cannot be done by elementary Geometry - at least if M. Gauss is right - who (Leslie tells us) has demonstrated that a polygon can be inscribed in a circle - directly - by means of circles and straight lines - only - when the number of its sides is a prime number and can be denoted by 2n + 1.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Henry Grey Bennet : Letter to Viscount Sidmouth, Secretary of State for the Home Department, on the Transportation Laws, the State of the Hulks and of the Colonies in New South Wales

'Tell Lord Grey to read Bennet's pamphlet; it is a little long, but good and right in the main object. At the end is a very affecting letter from the Botany Bay Chaplain'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Lay of the Battle of Lake Regillus

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, in letter to '_____', from Albano, April 1861 [re Remains of Roman theatre at Tusculum]: 'The seats of this Theatre are quite perfect [...] We sat down there, and L -- read out Macaulay's Lay of the Battle of Lake Regillus.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

John Gibson Lockhart : Some Passages in the Life of Mr Adam Blair Minister of the Gospel at Cross-Meikle

'I think Adam Blair beautifully done?quite beautifully. It is not every lady who confesses she reads it; but if you had been silent upon the subject, or even if you had denied it, you would have done yourself very little good with me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Joseph Blanco White : Doblado's Letters from Spain

'I hope you have read and admired Doblado. To get a Catholic Priest who would turn King's Evidence is a prodigious piece of good luck, but it may damage the Catholic question'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Constantine Henry Phipps, Lord Normanby : Matilda

'Have you read Mathilda? If you have, you will not tell me what you think of it, you are as cautious as Wishaw. I mentioned to Lord Normanby, that it was the book selected as a victim for the next No of the Edinburgh Review, and that my brethren had complimented me with the Knife?Lady Normanby gave a loud shriek.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

George Agar-Ellis, Lord Dover : The true history of the state prisoner, Commonly called the Iron Mask

'Pray read Agar Ellis's ' Iron Mask;' not so much for that question [that of old age], though it is not devoid of curiosity, as to remark the horrible atrocities perpetrated under absolute monarchies; and to justify and extol Lord Grey, and, at the humblest distance, Sydney Smith and other men, who, according to their station in life and the different talents given them, have defended liberty.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

William Pitt Scargill [anon.] : Elizabeth Evanshaw

'I have received from you within these few months some very polite and liberal presents of new publications ; and though I was sorry you put yourself to any expense on my account, yet I was flattered by this mark of respect and good-will from gentlemen to whom I am personally unknown. I am quite sure, however, that you overlooked the purpose and tendency of a work called Elizabeth Evanshaw, or that you would not have sent it to a clergyman of the Established Church, or indeed to a clergyman of any church. [Smith then rebukes the publishers at length for producing irreligious books, including a translation of Voltaire, before going on to say that, nevertheless] I shall read all the works and tell you my opinion of them from time to time. I was very much pleased with the "Two Months in Ireland", but did not read the poetical part; the prosaic division of the work is very good'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Henry Gally Knight : Foreign and Domestic View of the Catholic Question

'I have read Knight's pamphlet. Pretty good, though I think, if I had seen as much, I could have told my story better'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith

Anne Jean Marie Rene Savary : The Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo

'I have been reading the Duke of Rovigo - a fool, a Villain, and as dull as it is possible for any book to be about Buonaparte'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Benjamin Thomson, Count von Rumford : Essays, Political, Economical and Philosophical

'I am glad you were pleased with Clery. As I have succeeded in one recommendation, I will take the liberty of making another, and advise you to buy Count Rumford's Essays, and to read that in particular which treats of the food of the poor. The amazingly small expence at which they can be fed is really surprising'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Jean-Fran?ois de Galaup de la Perouse : Voyage de la Perouse autour du monde

'You must get La Peyrouse's Voyage - and Vancouver's, and a book just come out on practical education by a Mr Edgeworth - [italics] Edgeworth on Practical Education [end italics] i vol. 4to I believe. It is written conjointly by Father and daughter, and is the result of 20 years reflection and Experiment. I have heard some extracts from it which delighted me very much'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Richard Lovell AND Maria Edgeworth : Practical Education

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Rene Aubert Vertot : Revolutions of Portugal, The

'...Sir Joshua Reynolds's Lectures. Mitford's History of Greece. Orme's History of Hindoostan. Vertot's Revolutions of Portugal and Sweden. Bossuet's Oraisons Funebres, Petit Careme de Massillon. Select Sermons of Dr Barrow. Burke's Settlement of the English Colonies in America. Alison on Taste. The first book, though written on painting, full of all wisdom. The second, a good history. The third, highly entertaining, fourth ditto. The fifth, a splendid example of sound eloquence. The sixth, piety, pure language, fine style. The seventh, lofty eloquence. The eighth, neat and philosophical. The ninth, feeling and eloquence. Here I think is is much wisdom as you can get for eight guineas. But remember to consult your family physician, your mother. I only know the general powers of these medicines; but she will determine their adaptation to your particular

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Rene Aubert Vertot : History of the revolutions in Sweden, occasioned by the change of religion, and alteration of the government in that kingdom

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Jacques Benigne Bossuet : Oraisons Funebres

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Massillon : 'Petite Careme'

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Edmund [??] Barrow : [??] Speech on conciliation with the American colonies

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Unknown

Robert Ker Porter : Account of the Last Russian Campaign

'after reading half thro' Porter's "Russian Campaign", I found it to be such an incorrigible mass of folly and stupidity, that nothing could be said of it but what was grossly abusive. I have read the controversy about the Auxiliary Bible Society, and will speedily send you an article upon it'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Emilia Galotti

'in the evening talk with Shelley read Emilia Galotti'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Stephanie Felicite Ducrest de St aubin, Marquise de Silley, Comtesse de Genlis : Les Veilles du Chateau

'read Tales of the castle'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : 'France: An Ode' [from] Fears in Solitude

'S reads Ode to France aloud and repeats the poem to tranquility'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

John Holroyd, Lord Sheffield (ed.) : Miscelaneous Works of Edward Gibbon Esquire, with memoirs of his life and writings composed by himself

'talk with Hogg - and read Gibbon but very little (30) in the evening work & S reads Gibbons memoirs aloud'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

John Holroyd, Lord Sheffield (ed.) : Miscelaneous Works of Edward Gibbon Esquire, with memoirs of his life and writings composed by himself

'S reads Gibbon aloud to me (160) - Weeks calls - Hogg comes - work - S reads Gibbons memoirs aloud'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

John Holroyd, Lord Sheffield : Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon Esquire, with memoirs of his life and writings composed by himself

'S reads Gibbon aloud to me (160) - Weeks calls - Hogg comes - work - S reads Gibbons memoirs aloud'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Lara: a tale

[italics] 'S. remains at home. reads Livy - [scored out] p.532 2d vol. [end scored out] Maie reads very little of Gibbon - We read and are delighted with Lara - the finest of Lord B's poems. S. reads Lara aloud in the evening. [end italics]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Lara: a tale

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine, Madame de Stael : Corinne, ou d'Italie

'read Corinne (42)'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine, Madame de Stael : Corinne, ou d'Italie

'Rise - talk and read Corinne' / 'nurse the baby and read Corinne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

R M Ballantyne : Martin Rattler or a Boy's Adventures in the Forests of Brazil

'I have got the book from Mrs Bell it is Martin Rattler.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

'At present I am going for Macaulay's History and no novels at all.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Algernon Charles Swinburne : Poems and Ballads [first series]

'I suppose Poems and Ballads will stand in the way of a Laureateship.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : '1865-1866'

'... such cursed nonsense as the last thing in Good Words. Oh! Alfred Tennyson! Alfred Tennyson, oh!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

Thomas Babington Macaulay : The History of England

'All the reading up is Macaulay, p.530 to 535 and then p. 616 to 630'. [The context of the reference suggests the text is Macaulay's History of England. RLS has been referring to pages 530-535, and 616-630 in his research for the play he is writing entitled Monmouth.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : The Golden Legend

"Can you find and send to me the last lines of Longfellow's Golden legend, beginning 'It is Lucifer, son of the air,' and so on. 'Since God put him there, he is God's minister for some good end.'"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel : unknown

'Hegel must either be frightfully clever, or a most egregious ass: I incline to the latter position.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson

William and Martha Dodd : Ambassador Dodd's Diary

'I got from my town head the idea that the world was made for us all and not for the few....so became a Socialist. But the war and its shocks and the good books I've read since have brought me out and shown me that I would have done my duty and my country much better that many. "Ambassador Dodd's Diary" helped me a lot. He was sincere and true. I've seen how the few good souls in all countries who warned us re Germany and Japan were ignored and fools went on their way rejoicing in their power luxuries and parties - and ignorance...I see that privilege got these fools into power...Books have helped a lot... this newest is fine, "your M.P." by Tiberius G......And I who know nothing am not satisfied with my education...know I'd have used the chances...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

G. B. Shaw : The Quintessence of Ibsenism

". . . you have helped to forward the sublime principles involved in the admirable chapter on the Parrot-woman in 'The Quintessence of Ibsenism'".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Thomas Lloyd Humbertstone : [article]

'This enclosed article is the third of yours that I have read. The first (about modelling) was about the most impersonal thing I ever came across. The second (spiders) was much better. And this third surprises me by its force & vitality.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Sheet

H. G. Wells : Anticipations

'I perceive you couldn?t keep your new house out of the "Fortnightly"! This third article is the best yet. I have never seen so good an illustration of the scientific use of imagination.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

H. G. Wells : unknown

'I note lately the evidence of an extraordinary activity on your part. Perhaps you have observed how difficult it is to pick up a decent magazine without You in it. I took in the "Fortnightly" and the "Strand" in order to run even with you. And now damned if you haven?t let me in for "Pearson?s"! And I hear rumour of a "Dream of Armageddon" in something else. You make your readers work.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

H. G. Wells : unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Thomas Lloyd Humberstone : Coventry

'I think the article on Sir John Gorst is able & shows a sufficient grasp of the subject; the tone of it also seems to me to be right . . . . As it stands, I think little of the chances of "Coventry" . . . People don?t want to know about their own country. If Coventry was in Italy, it would be different. As the article is not finished it would not be proper for me to criticise it finally. . .'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Sheet

Thomas Lloyd Humberstone : article on Sir John Gorst

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Sheet

H. G. Wells : The First Men on the Moon

'I have read [The First Men on the Moon] in Strand, & hasten to insult & annoy you by stating that the last two instalments are among the very best things you have done. I have read Anticipations in Fortnightly, & hasten to say that I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the breadth & the sheer intellectual vigour of them, not to mention the imaginative power. These articles really have made me a little afraid of you.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Christian August Vulpius : Rinaldo Rinaldini, der Rauberhauptmann

'Finish Renaldini - talk with Shelley- in very bad spirits but get better'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Christian August Vulpius : Rinaldo Rinaldini, der Rauberhauptmann

'Hogg stays all day with us - talk with him and read the fall of the Jesuits and Rinaldo Renaldini - not in good spirits'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Bernard le Bouyer de Fontinelle : Entretiens sur la pluralite des mondes

'Read and talk - still think about my little baby - 'tis hard indeed for a mother to loose a child - Hogg and C.[harles] C.[lairmont] come in the evening - CC goes at 11. Hogg stays all night - read Fontinelle Plurality of Worlds'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine de (Madame de) Stael : De la Litterature consideree dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales

'[italics to indicate Shelley's hand] S. has read the life of Chaucer - Ochley's History of the Saracens. Mad. du Stael sur la litteratur - to page 113. of the third Vol. of Livy. [end italics]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Alain Rene Lesage : Le Diable boiteux

'read le diable boiteux [...] in the evening read le diable boiteux and play at chess'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Guarini : Il Pastor Fido; tragicomedio pastorale

'read Ovid with Hogg (fin. 2nd fable). Shelley reads Gibbon and pastor fido with Clary - in the evening read Esprit des Nations (72). S. reads Pastor Fido (102) and Gibbon (vol 12 - 364) and the story of Myrrha in Ovid'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Shelley and Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Guiarini : Il pastor fido; tragicomedio pastorale

'[italics to denote Shelley's hand] Mary reads the 3rd fable of ovid. S & Clare read Pastor Fido. S. Reads Gibbon - (To recollect the life of Rienzi - Fortifiocca)[end italics]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Shelley and Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Jefferson reads Don Quixote - C. reads Gibbon - S. finishes the 17th canto of Orlando Furioso - Read Voltaire's Essay on Nations'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Jefferson Hogg Print: Book

Mary Wollstonecraft : Letters Written During a Short Residence in Norway, Sweden and Denmark

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1814 - since all these titles are mentioned in journal entries, they are not given separate database entries from this source] 'Mary. Those marked x. S. has read also xLetters from Norway x Mary, A Fiction. x Wordsworth's Excursion. x. Madoc. by Southey. 2 vol x Curse of Kehama. x Sorcerer. a novel. x Political Justice. 2 x The Monk - by Lewis - 4 x Thaliba 2 x The Empire of the Nairs 4 x Queen Mab x St Godwin x Wrongs of Women 2 x Caleb Williams 3 x Zadig x Life of Alfieri, by himself 2 x Essay on Sepulchres x Louvet's Memoirs Carnot's Memorial x Lives of the Revolutionists by Adolphus 2 x Edgar Huntley. x Peregrine Proteus. x The Italian. x Prince Alexy Haimatoff. Philip Stanley. by Brown x Miss Bailly's plays x Moores Journal x Agathon x Mungo Park's Travels in Africa. 1st part x Barrow's Embassy to China Milton's letter to Mr Hartlib Emilia Galotti. x Bryan Edwards hist. of the W. Indies x View of the French Revolution by M.W.G. x Candide x Kirke White. 62 volumes'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Die Lieden des jungen Werthers

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James IIThe Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Charles James, Lord Holland Fox : A history of the early part of the reign of James the Second

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

James Leigh Hunt (ed.) : The Reflector

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Serial / periodical

Charles Brockden Brown : Wieland; or, the transformation

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller : Don Carlos

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Les Confessions; suivies de Reveries du promeneur solitaire

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Gottfried August Burger : Lenore

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile; ou de l'education

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Anne Louise Germaine, Madame de Stael : De l'Allemagne

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Augustine, l'abbe Barruel : Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du Jacobinism

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie, ou La Nouvelle Heloise

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

August von Kotzebue : Das merkwurdigste Jahr meines Lebens

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Poems

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Paul Henri Dietrich, Baron d' Holbach : Systeme de la nature ou des loix du monde physique et du monde moral

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Francoise de Graffigny : Lettres d'une Peruvienne

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Charles Brockden Brown : Ormond; or, The Secret Witness

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin

Henry William Weber (ed.) : Tales of the East: Comprising the most Popular Romances of Oriental Origin and the Best Imitations by European Authors

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Meamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Charles James Fox, Lord Holland : A history of the early part of the reign of James the Second

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley - again, only those not mentioned in journal entries are indicated separately in the database] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Metamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

August von Kotzebue : Das merkw?rdigste Jahr meines Lebens

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : [Poems]

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1815. Only those titles not mentioned in journal entries are given separate database entries. xs denote books also read by Percy Shelley - again, only those not mentioned in journal entries are indicated separately in the database] 'Posthumous Works. 3. Sorrows of Werter Don Roderick - by Southey Gibbons Decline & fall. x Paradise Regained x Gibbons Life and Letters - 1st edition 2 x Lara New Arabian Nights 3 Corinna Fall of the Jesuits Rinaldo Rinaldini Fo[n]tenelle's Plurality of the Worlds Hermsprong Le diable boiteux Man as he is. Rokeby. Ovid's Metamo[r]phoses in Latin x Wordsworth's Poems x Spenser's Fairy Queen x Life of the Philipps x Fox's History of James II The Reflector Wieland. Fleetwood Don Carlos x Peter Wilkins Rousseau's Confessions. x Espriella's Letters from England Lenora - a poem Emile x Milton's Paradise Lost X Life of Lady Hamilton De l'Alemagne - by Made de Stael 3 vols. of Barruel x Caliph Vathek Nouvelle Heloise x Kotzebue's account of his banishment to Siberia. Waverly Clarissa Harlowe Robertson's Hist. of america x Virgil xTale of Tub. x Milton's speech on Unlicensed printing x Curse of Kehama x Madoc La Bible Expliquee Lives of Abelard and Heloise The New Testament x Coleridge's Poems. 1st vol. Syteme de la Nature x Castle of Indolence Chattertons Poems. x Paradise Regained Don Carlos. x Lycidas. x St Leon Shakespeare's Play. Part of which Shelley reads aloud Burkes account of civil society x Excursion Pope's Homer's Illiad x Sallust Micromegas x Life of Chauser Canterbury Tales Peruvian letters. Voyages round the World Pluarch's lives. x 2 vols of Gibbon Ormond Hugh Trevor x Labaume's Hist. of the Russian War Lewis's tales Castle of Udolpho Guy Mannering Charles XII by Voltaire Tales of the East'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Jean Antoine de Cerceau : Conjuration de Nicholas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, tyran de Rome en 1347

[Percy Shelley's Reading List for 1815, compiled by Mary Shelley. Only texts not referred to in journal entries are given separate database entries here] 'Pastor Fido Orlando Furioso Livy's History Seneca's Works Tasso's Girusalame Liberata Tassos Aminta 2 vols of Plutarch in Italian Some of the plays of Euripedes Seneca's Tragedies Reveries of Rousseau Hesiod Novum Organum Alfieri's Tragedies Theocritus Ossian Herodotus Thucydides Homer Locke on the Human Understanding Conspiration de Rienzi History of arianism Ochley's History of the Saracens Mad. de Stael sur la literature'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Carl Philipp Moritz : Reisen eines Deutschen in England im Jahr 1782

[Mary Shelley's Reading List for 1816. The diary from May 1815-July 1816 is lost, so this list is our only record for Mary's reading in early 1816. Later in the year texts are referred to in diary entries so as far as possible these works are not given separate database references based on this list. An x marks the fact that Percy Shelley read the book too.] x Moritz' tour in England Tales of the Minstrels x Park's Journal of a Journey in Africa Peregrine Proteus x Siege of Corinth & Parasina. 4 vols. of Clarendon's History x Modern Philosophers opinions of Various writers on the punishment of death by B. Montagu Erskines speeches x Caleb Williams x 3rd Canto of Childe Harold Schiller's arminian Lady Craven's Leters Caliste Nouvelle nouvelles Romans de Voltaire Reveries d'un Solitaire de Rousseau Adele et Theodore x Lettres Persannes de Montesquieu Tableau de Famille Le vieux de la Montagne x Conjuration de Rienzi Walther par La Fontaine Les voeux temeraires Herman d'Una Nouveaux nouvelles de Mad. de Genlis x Christabel Caroline de Litchfield x Bertram x Le Criminel se[c]ret Vancenza by Mrs Robinson Antiquary x Edinburgh Review num. LII Chrononhotonthologus x Fazio Love and Madness Memoirs of Princess of Bareith x Letters of Emile The latter part of Clarissa Harlowe Clarendons History of the Civil War x Life of Holcroft x Glenarvon Patronage The Milesian Chief. O'Donnel x Don Quixote x Vita Alexandri - Quintii Curtii Conspiration de Rienzi Introduction to Davy's Chemistry Les Incas de Marmontel Bryan Perdue Sir C. Grandison x Castle Rackrent x Gulliver's Travels x Paradise Lost x Pamela x 3 vol of Gibbon 1 book of Locke's Essay Some of Horace's odes x Edinburgh Review L.III Rights of Women De senectute by Cicero 2 vols of Lord Chesterfield's leters to his son x Story of Rimini' 'Pastor Fido Orlando Furioso Livy's History Seneca's Works Tasso's Girusalame Liberata Tassos Aminta 2 vols of Plutarch in Italian Some of the plays of Euripedes Seneca's Tragedies Reveries of Rousseau Hesiod Novum Organum Alfieri's Tragedies Theocritus Ossian Herodotus Thucydides Homer Locke on the Human Understanding Conspiration de Rienzi History of arianism Ochley's History of the Saracens Mad. de Stael sur la literature'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Pierre Jean Baptiste Legrand d' Aussy : Fabliaux ou contes du XII et du XIII si?cle

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Siege of Corinth: a poem; Parisina: a poem

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon : The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, begun in the year 1641; ed. with fourth volume, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Thomas, First Baron Erskine : [Collection of Speeches, perhaps Speeches of the Hon. Thomas Erskine, When at the Bar, on Subjects Connected with the Liberty of the Press, and Against Constructive Treason]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: a Romaunt

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Johann Friedrich von Schiller : Der Geisterseher

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Elizabeth, Lady Craven : A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: A Romaunt

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Siege of Corinth: a poem; Parisina: a poem

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Carl Philipp Moritz : Reisen eines Deutschen in England im Jahr 1782

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie; ou, La Nouvelle Heloise

[italics to indicate PB Shelley's hand] 'In the evening I walk alone a long way by the lake. Read Julie all day [end italics]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Mme de Genlis : Nouveaux contes moraux et nouvelles historiques

'We arrived wet to the skin - I read nouvelle nouvelles and write my story'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Les Confessions; suivies de R?veries du promeneur solitaire

'Read ten pages of Quintius Curtius and Rousseau's reveries'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Les Confessions; suivies de R?veries du promeneur solitaire

'Read twelve page[s] of Curt. write - & read the reveries of Rousseau - S. reads Pliny's Letters'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Les Confessions; suivies de R?veries du promeneur solitaire

'I read Reveries and Adele & Teodore de Mad.me de Genlis & Shelley reads Pliny's letters'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Ad?le et Th?odore; ou lettres sur l'?ducation

'I read Reveries and Adele & Teodore de Mad.me de Genlis & Shelley reads Pliny's letters'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Ad?le et Th?odore; ou lettres sur l'?ducation

'Finish the 1st vol of Adele - & write - after dinner write to Fanny and go up to Diodati where I read the life Mad. Deffand'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Madame du Deffand : [life included in] Correspondence in?dite de Mme du Deffand

'Finish the 1st vol of Adele - & write - after dinner write to Fanny and go up to Diodati where I read the life Mad. Deffand'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

August H.J. Lafontaine : Carl Engelmann's Tagebuch

'Shelley's 24th birthday. Write read [underlined] tableau de famille [end underlining] - go out with Shelley in the boat & read aloud to him the fourth book of Virgil - after dinner we go up to Diodati but return soon - I read Curt. with Shelley and finish the 1st vol. after which we go out in the boat to set up the baloon but there is too much wind. We set it up from the land but it takes fire as soon as it is up - I finish the Reveries of Rousseau. Shelley reads and finishes Pliny's letters. & begins the panegyric of Trajan'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Les Confessions; suivies de R?veries du promeneur solitaire

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Ad?le et Th?odore; ou lettres sur l'?ducation

'Finish the 2nd vol. of Adele - write - read Curt. In the evening we go up to Diodati - Shelley finishes the Panegyric of Trajan and begins Tacitus'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Ad?le et Th?odore; ou lettres sur l'?ducation

'Read Curt. out in the boat with Shelley who reads Tacitus - translate and in the evening read Adele & Theodore'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Claude Izouard (Delisle de Sales) : Le Vieux de la montagne, histoire orientale, traduite de l'arabe par l'auteur de la Philosophie de la nature

'I translate in the evening and read le vieux de la Montagne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Claude Izouard (Delisle de Sales) : Le Vieux de la montagne, histoire orientale, traduite de l'arabe par l'auteur de la Philosophie de la nature

'read le vieux de la montagne and write'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Claude Izouard (Delisle de Sales) : Le Vieux de la montagne, histoire orientale, traduite de l'arabe par l'auteur de la Philosophie de la nature

'finish the old man of the mountains - translate & read one book of the conjuration de Rienzi'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Antoine du Cerceau : Conjuration de Nicholas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, tyran de Rome en 1347

'finish the old man of the mountains - translate & read one book of the conjuration de Rienzi'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Antoine du Cerceau : Conjuration de Nicholas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, tyran de Rome en 1347

'read Walther and some of Rienzi'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

August H.J. Lafontaine : Walther oder das Kind vom Schlachtfeld

'read Walther and some of Rienzi'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

August H.J. Lafontaine : Walther oder das Kind vom Schlachtfeld

'Write and finish Walther - In the evening I go out in the boat with Shelley - and he afterwards goes up to Diodati - begin one of Madame de Genlis novels - Shelley finishes Tacitus'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Marcus Tullius Cicero : Fortieth oration

Letter to MIss Ewing September 21, 1778 'Were I not afraid of the imputation of pedantic affectation, I could make this clear by a learned quotation from M.T. Cicero?s fortieth oration.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar] Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Eliosa

Letter to Miss Ewing April 18, 1779 'I do not know whether you will view this in the same light, but I think it is the most affecting and heroic instance of true friendship I have met with in real life. One can?t help comparing it with the lively and impressive portrait Rousseau draws of Clara and Eloisa.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar] Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : The Sorrows of Young Werter

Letter to Mrs Brown March 9 1789 'As low as you rate your critical abilities, they have altogether captivated and dazzled my good man. He desires me to keep the letter for my girls, to moderate the poignant affliction they will feel, some time hence, in weeping over Werter. He considers this pathetic hero as a weak though amiable enthusiast, and looks upon Charlotte as first cousin to a coquette. Albert is his hero. ?.' [continues to refer to Werter for several pages]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar] Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : [?Emile]

Letter to Miss Ourry January 2 1794 'Then I have not put B. to school , or done half of what I meant.- I have seen Mary Wollstonecroft?s book, which is so run after here, that there is no keeping it long enough to read it leisurely, though one had leisure. It has produced no other convictions in my mind, but that of the authors possessing considerable abilities, and greatly misapplying them. To refute her arguments would be to write another and a larger book; for there is more pains and skill required to refute ill-founded assertions, than to make them. [and again on p. 272] 'Where a woman had those superior powers of mind to which we give the name genius, she will exert them under all disadvantages: Jean Jacques says truly, genius will educate itself, and, like flame, burst through all obstructions ?. [p. 268-277 is a criticism of Mary Wollstonecroft's work ]'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar] Print: Book

Helen Maria Williams : unknown

Letter to Mrs F--R (formerly Miss Ourry) April 11 1795 ??Innovation disconcerts us; new lights blind us; we detest the Rights of Man, and abominate those of Woman. Think then how I am prepared to receive your friend H.M.W.?s* new publication; though I admire her style, and confess that nobody embellishes absurdity more ingeniously. I am greatly inclined too to respect the purity of religious principles. Yet when I think of the associates with whom her political bigotry has connected her, I think I hear the Syrian leper entreating the prophet?s permission to bow a little occasionally in the house of their god Rimmon. [footnote] *Helen Maria Williams before she forsook her country and her principles'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar] Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

'My brothers and I have lived the book ["Treasure Island"] many times and the Bois de Boulogne is full of places that we re-christened with Treasure Island names such as Skeleton Island ? Treasure Island itself is that inaccessible island in the fairly large lake at the back of the Jardin d?Acclimatation. I gave it that name because there are no boats on the lake and we were never able to get anywhere near it. We were only little boys. I peopled the Bois de Boulogne with many strange tribes. We used to wonder if there was a ?Ben Gunn? marooned on the Treasure Island and for many hours we have gazed at it lying in the grass hoping for a signal of distress. You have no idea how the B de B is full of imaginary perils, adventures, Indians, Pirates, Cannibals, Outlaws and all of the hundred and one things that come into a boy?s life through books of adventure. What virgin forests we have explored in this way. Some day I must show you the Grand Canyon of Colorado at St. Cloud. How many times was the coach held up here and the passengers taken captive, to be rescued after fierce fights with Outlaws, Redskins and Renegades. Our coach was a Swiss condensed milk packing case, two broomsticks for shaft, and two old pram wheels; all of it painted a gorgeous but rather horrible brown. My youngest sister, Ethel, was usually the fair lady passenger. To young boys the spot really seemed fraught with danger and romance because very few people ever pass that way. There is an old bridge over this canyon, and steep banks barely scalable in places. ?. I was always planning some new affair, getting up some wild scheme. It was a good life for us. We were very, very poor boys but few were as rich as we were in imagination and few rich boys ever got as much spice out of life as we did. It was a healthy life too, always trotting about in the open. I really love the B de B and St Cloud woods; B de B as a little kid up to 12 or 13, then St Cloud, which grew dearer still in all my strenuous cross country days. I can remember many a pleasurable thrill in cross country when the trail led us over old familiar spots where our camp fires had burned (not really) and where we had seen stirring scenes of ?daring do?'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Vanson Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Les Voeux t?m?raires; ou l'enthousiasme

'Finish "les voeux temeraires" - write and read Rienzi'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Antoine de Cerceau : Conjuration de Nicholas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, tyran de Rome en 1347

'Finish "les voeux temeraires" - write and read Rienzi'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Christiane Benedicte Eugenie Naubert : Hermann von Unna, eine Geschicte aus den Zeiten der Vehmgerichte

'read Hermann d'Unna'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Christiane Benedicte Eugenie Naubert : Hermann von Unna, eine Geschicte aus den Zeiten der Vehmgerichte

'finish Hermann d'Unna and write - Shelley reads Milton - After dinner Lord Byron comes down and Clare and Shelley go up to Diodati - Read Rienzi'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Antoine du Cerceau : Conjuration de Nicholas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, tyran de Rome en 1347

'finish Hermann d'Unna and write - Shelley reads Milton - After dinner Lord Byron comes down and Clare and Shelley go up to Diodati - Read Rienzi'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Nouveaux contes moraux et nouvelles historiques

'After dinner read some of Madme Genlis novels - Shelley reads Milton'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Nouveaux contes moraux et nouvelles historiques

'Read Curt. finish the "noveaux novelles" de Mad. de Genlis'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Francois Marmontel : Contes moraux

'read "Contes moreaux de Marmotel - Shelley reads the Germania of Tacitus'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Francois Marmontel : Contes Moreaux

'Write & read "Contes Moreaux" - go down to the side of the lake to watch the waves - Lord Byron comes down - after dinner read Rienzi'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Antoine du Cerceau : Conjuration de Nicholas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, tyran de Rome en 1347

'Write & read "Contes Moreaux" - go down to the side of the lake to watch the waves - Lord Byron comes down - after dinner read Rienzi'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Honore Jean, Baron de Riouffe : Memoires d'un detenu pour servir a l'histoire de la tyrannie de Robespierre

'Shelley reads Germania and "memoire d'un Detenu".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : 'Christabel'

'Read Curt. and Caroline of Litchfield. Hobhouse and Scroop Davis come to Diodati - Shelley spends the evening there & reads Germania - Several books arrive among others Coleridges Christabel which Shelley reads aloud to me before we go to bed'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Elizabeth jeanne Isabelle Pauline, Baronne de Montolieu : Caroline de Lichtfield

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Elizabeth Jeanne Isabelle Pauline, Baronne de Montolieu : Caroline de Lichtfield

'Finish "Caroline of Litchfield" and "Marmotel's tales". Read Bertram and Christabel and several articles of the quarterly review'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Francois Marmontel : Contes moraux

'Finish "Caroline of Litchfield" and "Marmotel's tales". Read Bertram and Christabel and several articles of the quarterly review'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Charles R. Maturin : Bertram; or, the Castle of St. Aldobrand, a tragedy

'Finish "Caroline of Litchfield" and "Marmotel's tales". Read Bertram and Christabel and several articles of the quarterly review'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : 'Christabel'

'Finish "Caroline of Litchfield" and "Marmotel's tales". Read Bertram and Christabel and several articles of the quarterly review'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Henry Hart Milman : Fazio: a tragedy

'Read Fazio - Love and madness. & some of Rienzi - work - in the evening finish the antiquary'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Antoine Du Cerceau : Conjuration de Nicholas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, tyran de Rome en 1347

'Read Fazio - Love and madness. & some of Rienzi - work - in the evening finish the antiquary'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Margrave de Barieth : M?moires de Fr?d?rique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de Barieth; ?crits de sa main

'Write and read the memoirs of the princess of Bareith'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Margrave de Barieth : M?moires de Fr?d?rique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de Barieth; ?crits de sa main

'Read the Memoirs aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile, ou l'Education

'In the evening read the letters of Emile'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile, ou l'Education

'finish the letters of Emile and read a part of Clarissa Harlowe'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile, ou l'Education

'read Vol VII of Clarissa - Shelley reads the letters of Emile'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'read the Rambler - S reads Montaigne's essays'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Margrave de Bareith : M?moires de Fr?d?rique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de Barieth; ?crits de sa main

'Read Curtius and work - Read the memoirs of the Prinsse of Bareith aloud.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Charles Jean Dominque de Lacretelle : Precis historique de la Revolution Francaise

'Read Clarendon all day - Shelley writes to Albe [Byron] and other things - he finishes Lacratelle's history of the French Revolution - we walk out for a short time after dinner S. reads Lucian'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon : The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, begun in the year 1641; ed. with fourth volume, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland

'Read Clarendon all day - Shelley writes to Albe [Byron] and other things - he finishes Lacratelle's history of the French Revolution - we walk out for a short time after dinner S. reads Lucian'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Mrs. Mary Beeton : [cookery book]

Mrs Hugh Fraser on her son (having just described his Chinese nursemaid's indulgent treatment of him): 'He retained his fine appetite till he was five or six years old. Then I found him one night slipping "Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book" under his pillow. On my asking the motive of his selection he replied, "It is nice to read about the plum puddings even if you can't always get them."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing : Laetus Sorte Mea or The Story of a Short Life

"Laetus cost me 2s. 6d. My wife bet me 2s. 6d. I couldn't read it aloud without crying. I thought I could. But after a page or two - I put my hand in my pocket. I said there! take your half-crown and let me cry comfortably when I want to!"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Revd. Going Print: Book

Margrave de Barieth : M?moires de Fr?d?rique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de Barieth; ?crits de sa main

'read the memoirs aloud and begin the life of Holcroft'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon : The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, begun in the year 1641; ed. with fourth volume, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland

'Read Clarendon - finish the life of Holcroft - read Glenarvon in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon : The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, begun in the year 1641; ed. with fourth volume, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland

'Read Clarendon and Curtius - walk with Shelley - S. read Tasso'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Shelley reads Don Quixote aloud in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'S. reads Don Quixote - afterwards read mem. of the Prin/sse of Ba/th aloud.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Magrave de Bareith : M?moires de Fr?d?rique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de Barieth; ?crits de sa main

'S. reads Don Quixote - afterwards read mem. of the Prin/sse of Ba/th aloud.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Charles R. Maturin : The Milesian Chief

'Read Patronage & the Milesian chief - finish 5th vol of Clarendon - Shelley reads life of Cromwell'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Alphonsine; ou la tendresse maternelle

'Drawing lesson - read Alphonsine - shelley reads Don Q.[uixote] aloud.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Drawing lesson - read Alphonsine - Shelley reads Don Q.[uixote] aloud.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'S. reads Montaigne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'[Shelley] reads Montaigne - read Clarendon and O'Donnel'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'S. writes & reads Montaigne & Lucian & walks'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Read the Introduction to Sir H. Davy's Chemistry - write. In the evening read Anson's voyage and Curt. Shelley reads Don Q. aloud after tea - Finish Anson's voyage before night.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

E. Ysbrants Ides : Driejaarige reize naar China, te lande gedaan door den Moskovischen afgezant E. Ysbrants Ides

'Read Davy's Chemistry with Shelley - read Curt. and Ides travels. Shelley reads Montaigne and Don Quixote aloud in the evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'Read Davy's Chemistry with Shelley - read Curt. and Ides travels. Shelley reads Montaigne and Don Quixote aloud in the evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Read Davy's Chemistry with Shelley - read Curt. and Ides travels. Shelley reads Montaigne and Don Quixote aloud in the evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

[boys in the upper forms at Eaton] : De pests [Bacchus verses]

'To the hall, and there find the boy's verses "De peste"; it being their custom to make verses at Shrovetide. I read several, and very good they were, and better I think then ever I made when I was a boy - and in rolls as long and longer than the whole hall by much.' Editor's note: 'The "Bacchus verses": compositions by the upper forms, hung up from the hooks which may still be seen on either side of the hall.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Manuscript: Unknown

Olwen Ward Campbell : Shelley and the Unromantics

'Yes I know Sudermann ? his play ?Magda? was one of Mrs Pat. Campbell?s great parts ? and I believe he was the author of a book called ?The Song of Songs? that Billie Wood lent me ? and that I was shocked to find you reading. I have just got through Susan Glaspell?s ?Road to the Temple?, and C.E.Montague?s ?Right off the Map?. For lighter reading I?ve had Rose Macauley?s ? Keeping up Appearances?, and I?m reading all sorts of things about Shelley for my possible literature class. The present one is ?Shelley and the Unromantics?. The author lives in Birkenhead.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Winifred Agnes Moore Print: Book

Erich Maria Remarque : All Quiet on the Western Front

'I also have been reading ?All Quiet?. Stanley and I stood for an hour outside my hotel at midnight in Southampton Row ? and rowed about it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Winifred Agnes Moore Print: Book

Arthur Cecil Pigou : unknown

'I am busy also getting through the Keynes book, and chuckling over the fact that he wrote this book to make clear that Cambridge and London were a bit archaic as to the fundamentals of their economics. I stood for an hour arguing the main thesis (of course not worked out) with Harold one night at Euston. He had to walk home to Battersea Park in consequence. A year or so before I had covered reams with letters of vituperation against Prof: Pigou, till Stanley became furious ? also on the point. I don?t think it should need so large a book to get it over, I am also going to read Dodsworth when Gerry isn?t looking.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Winifred Agnes Moore Print: Book

Petrus de Palude [?] : Sermones thesauri novi de tempore

Marginal notes appear throughout this book, on almost every page. These notes range from comments written in Latin shorthand, underlinings, numbers marking particular passages and sketches of pointing hands. There is an obvious engagement with the text, and certainly evidence of a very intensive reading experience. There appear to be several different hands marking the book, indicating it was read and used by more than one person, as well as different types of ink.

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

E. Ysbrants Ides : Driejaarige reize naar China, te lande gedaan door den Moskovischen afgezant E. Ysbrants Ides

'Read Ides travels. S. reads Don Quixote aloud in the evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Read Ides travels. S. reads Don Quixote aloud in the evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Jean Francois Marmontel : Les Incas

'Write - read Davy - In the evening read Curt. and Les Incas'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Jean Francois Marmontel : Les Incas

'read Les Incas - Shelley reads Montaigne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'read Les Incas - Shelley reads Montaigne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'read Grandison and Curt. Shelley reads and finishes Montainge [sic] to his great sorrow - he reads Lucian'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Sir Thomas Ridley : A view of the civile and ecclesiasticall law

'after dinner I and my boy down by water to Redriffe; and thence walked to Mr Evelin's, where I walked in his garden till he came from church, with great pleasure reading Ridlys discourse all my way going and coming, upon the Civill and Ecclesiastical Law.... Thence walked back again, reading; and so took water and home'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Jean Francois Marmontel : Les Incas

'work in the evening - & read Les Incas'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy : L'histoire amoureuse des Gaules

'Thence by water to Redriffe, reading a new French book my Lord Brouncker did give me today, "L'histoire amoureuse des Gaules", being a pretty Libell against the amours of the French court.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir Thomas Ridley : A view of the civile and ecclesiasticall law

'Walked back again, reading of my civil law book.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir Thomas Ridley : A view of the civile and ecclesiasticall law

'I walked both going and coming, spending my time in reading of my Civill and Ecclesiastical law-book.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir Francis Walsingham : Arcana aulica, or, Walsingham's manual of prudential maxims for the states-man and courtier : to which is added Fragmenta regalia, or, Observations on Queen Elizabeth, her times and favorites

'I left them there and walked to Deptford, reading in Wallsinghams "manuall", a very good book.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir William Davenant : The Seige of Rhodes

'and after dinner, with my wife and Mercer and Jane by water all the afternoon as high up as Moreclacke, with great pleasure, and a fine day - reading over the second part of "The Seige of Rhodes" with great delight.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir Samuel Tuke : The Adventures of the five houres

'So down the River, reading "The Adventures of five houres", which the more I read the more I admire.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir Samuel Tuke : The Adventures of the five houres

'Up, and betimes with Captain Erwin down by water to Woolwich, I walking alone from Greenwich tither - making an end of "The Adventures of five houres", - which when all is done, is the best play that ever I read in my life.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

[Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de] Condorcet : The Human Understanding

'I have read since last October a good deal of the history relating to the East ...: not much of books not connected with India [but included] a good deal of Condorcet on "The Human Understanding" ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mountstuart Elphinstone Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters written by the . . . Earl of Chesterfield to his Son Philip Stanhope

'Finish the Rights of Woman - begin Chesterfields Letters to his son'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters written by the . . . Earl of Chesterfield to his Son Philip Stanhope

'Read Locke and Chesterfield - De Senectute and the wanderer'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters written by the . . . Earl of Chesterfield to his Son Philip Stanhope

'read the Wanderer - read de Senectute & Chesterfield'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters written by the . . . Earl of Chesterfield to his Son Philip Stanhope

'Read Lord Chesterfield - part of the Lay sermon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Statesman's Manual, or the Bible the best guide to political skill and foresight: a lay sermon

'Read Lord Chesterfield - part of the Lay sermon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Bred et de Montesquieu : Lettres persanes

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

Henry Hart Milman : Fazio

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

James Leigh Hunt : Story of Rimini

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book

James Leigh Hunt : Story of Rimini

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Henry Hart Milman : Fazio

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu : Lettres persanes

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Francois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon : Les Adventures de Telemaque

[Percy Shelley's Reading List for 1816. The diary from May 1815-July 1816 is lost, so this list is our only record of Shelley's reading in early 1816. Later in the year texts are referred to in diary entries so as far as possible these works are not given separate database references based on this list.] 'Works of Theocritus Moschus &c - Greek Prometheus of Eschylus - Greek Works of Lucian - Greek x Telemacho La Nouvelle Heloise x Blackwell's His. of the Court of August De Natura Lucretius Epistolae Plinii Annals by Tacitus Several of Plutarchs Lives - Greek Germania of Tacitus Memoires d'un Detenu Histoire de la Revolution par Rabault and Lacretelle Montaignes Essays Tasso Life of Cromwell Lockes Essay Political Justice Lorenzo de Medicis Coleridges Lay Sermon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Statesman's Manual, or the Bible the best guide to political skill and foresight: a lay sermon

'finish the lay sermon'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon : Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon . . . written by himself

'read Life of Clarendon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Madame de Genlis : Les Chevaliers du cygne; ou la cour de Charlemagne

'read Comus. Knight of the swan - 1st Vol of Goldth citizen of the world'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

J. A. Froude : Short Essays on Great Subjects

From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of non-fictional works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Froude's Short Essays on Great Subjects. -- I mention this book with a certain reservation, because, with all my admiration of Mr. Froude's talents, I certainly do not agree with him in principle [...] "Calvinism" appears to me to be about anything but Calvinism. It is rather an exposition of Mr. Froude's Protestant view of Christianity; but it is interesting and suggestive. Several of the other essays are on the colonial policy of England, and will be chiefly attractive to those who have colonial sympathies; but they are very clever.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Frederick William Robinson : Christie's Faith

From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Christie's Faith, by the author of "Owen, a Waif," is a novel which I can guarantee myself. The scenes are not laid in a very elevated class of life, and some are extremely painful, but there is a noble religious tone throughout the book which carries one through all. If I were inclined to criticise, I should say that the author does not understand women as well as he does men, and one scene, in which a so-called lady offers to be the wife of a man much her inferior in position, would in other hands have been very unpleasant. As it is, it is merely unnatural. The author's sympathies are evidently not with the English Church, but he is no way antagonistic to it.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

J. G. Sharp : Culture and Religion

From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's recommendations of non-fictional works 'which I can guarantee myself' in 'Hints on Reading': 'Culture and Religion, by J. G. Sharp, is a delightful little book, which should be read and thought over till it is fully mastered.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Jean de La Fontaine : [Poems]

'I have read since last October a good deal of the history relating to the East...: not much of books not connected with India [but included] ... In poetry, ... a great deal of Fontaine ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mountstuart Elphinstone Print: Book

[Samuel and John] Pepys : [Catalogue of his books]

'And so home and to supper, and then saw the Catalogue of my books which my brother hath wrote out, now perfectly Alphabetical; and so to bed.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Manuscript: Unknown

Dr George Hakewill : An apologie or declaration of the power and providence of God in the government of the world

'how[ever], I fell to read a little in Hakewill's "apology", and did satisfy myself mighty fair in the truth of the saying that the world doth not grow old at all, but is in as good condition in all respects as ever it was as to Nature. I continued reading this book with great pleasure till supper'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre : Etudes de la Nature [abstract of]

'I have read since last October a good deal of the history relating to the East ... not much of books not connected with India. ... [but included] ; an abstract of St. Pierre's "Etudes de la Nature"; ...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mountstuart Elphinstone Print: Book

George, 2nd Duke of Buckingham Villiers : The Restoration; or Right will take place

'Read the Restoration'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George, 2nd Duke of Buckingham Villiers : Rehearsal, The

'Read the Rehearsal'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Madeleine de Scuderi : Artamene, ou Le grand Cyrus

'and then home to my wife, who is not well with her cold, and sat and read [a] piece of "Grand Cyrus" in English by her'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Edward Daniel Clarke : Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa

'Read Pliny - transcribe - read Clarke's travels - Shelley writes and reads Apuleius and Spencer in the evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Edward Daniel Clarke : Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa

'read Pliny and Clarkes travels - Shelley writes his poem [The Revolt of Islam] - reads Hist. of Fr. Rev. and Spencer aloud in the evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'Read 3rd Canto of Childe Harold'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'I am melancholy with reading the 3rd Canto of Childe Harold. Do you not remember, Shelley when you first read it to me? One evening after returning from Diodati. It was in our little room at Chapuis - the lake was before us and the mighty Jura. That time is past and this will also pass when I may weep to read this words and again moralize on the flight of time. Dear Lake! I shall ever love thee. How a powerful mind can sanctify past scenes and recollections - His is a powerful mind. one that fills me with melancholy yet mixed with pleasure as is always the case when intellectual energy is displayed. I think of our excursions on the lake. how we saw him when he came down to us or welcomed our arrival with a goodhumoured smile - How very vividly does each verse of his poem recall some scene of this kind to my memory - This time will soon also be a recollection - We may see him again & again - enjoy his society but the time will also arrive when that which is now an anticipation will be only in the memory - death will at length come and in the last moment all will be a dream. Am I not very melancholy? Godwin is out and I shall finish the canto although I fear it will not raise my spirits.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

J. Frederic Lullin de Chateauvieux : Manuscrit venu de St Helene d'une maniere inconnue

'S. reads St Helena Manuscript'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

J. Frederic Lullin de Chateauvieux : Manuscrit venu de St Helene d'une maniere inconnue

'Read Tacitus and St Helena manuscript'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Buhle : Geschichte der neuern Philosophie

'S. reads Hist. de la philosophie Moderne. and Spencer aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon : Histoire naturelle generale et particuliere

'Read Buffon in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon : Histoire naturelle generale et particuliere

'finish 2nd book of Tacitus and read Buffon's Hist. Nat. - S. reads Arrian - Watson acquitted - read his trial'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise

'Read Tacitus and Julie'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise

'Read Julie - S reads Homer'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Charles de Secondat, baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu : Lettres persanes

'Read Tacitus - The Persian letters - S. reads Homer & writes - reads a canto of Spencer and part of the gentle shepherdess aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon : Histoire naturelle generale et particuliere

'Read Tacitus and Buffon. S. reads Homer and Plutarch'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Edward Daniel Clarke : Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa

'Read Tacitus - Clarkes travels - transcribe for S. - S writes - reads several of the plays of Aeschylus and Spencer aloud in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Henry George Bohn : unknown

'It is necessary to explain, O Argive youth, that I have been reading the translations of Bohn, cunningly written with a reed upon the well-prepared tablets'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Mankind in the Making

"Many thanks for 'Mankind in the Making'. Like 'Anticipations' it is very wonderful, and very uneven."

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The Food of the Gods

'Just before leaving Paris I read the first instalment of "F. of G." in Pearson?s & thought it extremely good, barring a few minime verbal infelicities. It cost me 2 francs to buy the number, but I couldn?t resist it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

H. G. Wells : The Country of the Blind

'And that reminds me that your last Strand story was really admirable. A little faint towards the end I thought, but fundamentally damn good. '

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

H. G. Wells : Scepticism of the Instrument

'I am disposed to agree with your own estimate of "Scepticism of the Instrument". I don?t, however, think that your third indictment of the instrument is quite new.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett

L G Silbergleit : Robert Burns' Lieder und Balladen [etc]

'Today, I got rather a curiosity - Lieder und Balladen von Robert Burns, translated by one Silbergleit, and not so ill done either.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Scepticism of the Instrument

"I am disposed to agree with your own estimate of 'Scepticism of the Instrument'. I don?t, however, think that your third indictment of the instrument is quite new."

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett

H. G. Wells : A Modern Utopia

'Many thanks for the book. [A Modern Utopia.] If it was a novel I could say something useful about it, but as it isn?t, I don?t know that I can. The latter half of it is much more convincing & suggestive than the first half, & is also better done, but all of it is better than "Mankind in the Making".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Kipps

'The only real seizable fault that I can find in Kipps is the engagement to Helen, which entirely failed to convince me. . . . After agreeing with myself that I read the thing all through with eagerness & joy, and after telling myself that I must not expect in your "human interest" novels those aspects of life which you either can?t see or disdain to see, I find myself asking what this book "proves" & not getting any answer.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

H. G. Wells : 'The Schoolmaster and the Empire

'. . . By the way your Westminster Gazette article was magnificent, & filled me with holy joy.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

H. G. Wells :

'. . . now I see the announcement of your articles in the Tribune . . . '

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Advertisement, Serial / periodical

H. G. Wells : unknown

'Your Chicago article was very good.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Maud; A Monodrama

?I have just been reading "Maud". Do not fear, dear; it has not been unpleasant to me; I see and know and accept all the limitations without a grudge.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Madame de Graffigny : Lettres d'une Peruvienne

'Read Tacitus and les lettres d'una Peruviana'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Les Confessions; suivies de R?veries du promeneur solitaire

'write the trans. of Spinoza from S's dictation; translate Cupid & Psyche - read Tacitus and Rousseau's confessions'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Baruch de Spinoza : Tractatus Theologico-politicus

'write the trans. of Spinoza from S's dictation; translate Cupid & Psyche - read Tacitus and Rousseau's confessions'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : [Letters]

'Read Rousseau's letters.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : [Letters]

'Finish Rousseau's letters'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Address to the people on the death of the Princess Charlotte

'read Shelley's pamphlet.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Zapolya: a Christmas tale in two parts

''read Dante - finish Lambs specimens. walk to Mr Olliers. read Zapolya'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Madame de Souza : Eug?nie et Mathilde, ou les m?moires de la famille du Comte de Revel

'Read Mathilde et Eugenie'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Charles R. Maturin : Fatal Revenge; or the Family of Montorio

'read Family of Montorio'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Charles R. Maturin : Fatal Revenge; or the Family of Montorio

'Finish the Family of Montorio'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

August H. J. Lafontaine : Das Testament

read Tacitus and le Testament'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Laon and Cythna

'I read Tacitus - 3 of Hume's essays VIII IX X - some of the German theatre - write - walk - Shelleys [sic] reads Political Justice & 8 Cantos of his poem.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Laon and Cythna

'S. finishes reading his poem aloud. - read from the German theatre'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

H. G. Wells : In the Days of the Comet

'And you never will persuade the people who don?t matter that the close of the 'Comet' is not profoundly immoral.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Unknown

Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton : Fables in Song

'Struggling away at "Fables in Song" .'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson

Thomas Love Peacock : Rhododaphne; or, the Thessalian Spell

'Transcribe Peacocks poem'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Unknown

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Biographia Literaria; or Biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions

'Shelley reads & finishes Coleridge's Liteerary [sic] life'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Edward Daniel Clarke : Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa

'Read 2nd book of the Aeneid - read Dr Clarke's travels'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Edward Daniel Clarke : Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa

'Read part of the 7th book of Virgil - walk - finish the 3rd vol of Clarke'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'read Sterne & the 2nd Canto of Childe Harold'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

H. G. Wells : First and Last Things

'I am reading "1st & Last" which arrived a few days ago. As it isn?t a novel I can?t pontificate on it. However, when I have digested it I shall give you my ideas. There is not doubt whatever that it is a great deal too short, a very great deal.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Mrs Laurence Binyon : Nineteenth Century Prose

'Do you know the prose of Wilfred Whitten? If not read pp. 229-30 of Mrs. Laurence Binyon?s Nineteenth Century Prose (Methuens, 1907).'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Ivanhoe

'Scott was the first great writer to draw me under his spell - the first to open for me the golden gates of poetry and romance. I can well remember the time when, a mere child, I would spend my half-holidays over "Ivanhoe" and "the Lay of the Last Minstrel", seated in rapt silence on a hassock in my father's library, in our old house at Bristol. I can well remember, too, how I would carry fragments of these enthralling stories to my fellows at school, resolved, with all the enthusiasm of boyhood, to make them willing or unwilling partakers of my pleasure. The men and women of whom I read and told were real figures to us then; and in the organization of our little school we lived out a kind of chivalrous life, even emulating, to the no small alarm of our elders, the scenes on sherwood forest, and the achievements at ashby-de-la-Zouche.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Hudson Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Hudson Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Giaour, The: a fragment of a Turkish tale

'Read the Giaur[sic] & the Corsair'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Corsair, The: a tale

'Read the Giaur[sic] & the Corsair'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Lara: a tale

'Read Lara'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [critique of Rhododaphne]

'Copy S's critique on Rhododaphne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'Read Italian operas - Montaigne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

August W. von Schlegel : Uber dramatische Kunst und Literatur

'Shelley reads Schlegel aloud [to] us - We sleep at Rheims.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

August W. von Schlegel : Uber dramatische Kunst und Literatur

'Shelley reads Schlegel aloud and we travel on in a pleasant country among nice people - We sleep at Dijon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pietro Antonio Serassi : La vita di Torquato Tasso

'Read Aminta with Shelley - he reads Vita del Tasso'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pietro Antonio Serassi : La vita di Torquato Tasso

'Shelley has finished the life of Tasso & reads Dante - read Pamela'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Francoise Clarisse Manson : M?moires de Madame Manson, explicatifs de sa conduite dans le proc?s de l'assassinat de M. Fuald

'Clare reads the memoir of Madme Ma[n]son aloud to us'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Aristppe und einige seiner Zeitgenossen

'read Aristippus of Wieland - Shelley read[s] Rob Roy'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Sir Edward Coke : The third part of the Institutes of the Laws of England: concerning High Treason, and other pleas of the Crown

'Up, and I to my chamber, and there all morning reading in my Lord Cooke's "Pleas of the Crowne", very fine noble reading.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Aristipp und einige Zeitgenossen

'Read 1st ode of Horace - Aristippe'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Aristipp und einige seiner Zeitgenossen

'Read Les Abderites. S. finishes Aristippe'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Geschichte der Abderiten

'Read Les Abderites. S. finishes Aristippe'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Manso : La vita di Torquato Tasso

'Shelley reads Manso's life of Tasso'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Arnold Bennett : Helen with the High Hand

'There is only one trouble about the proofs. That is: the title is wrong. (This not your fault, but some copyist?s.) It ought to be Helen with the High Hand. I really want this "with". I cannot imagine how the mistake arose. I shall put headings to the chapters, as I think these make a book more readable.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Codex

Sir Edward Coke : Institutes of the laws of England

'By and by I got him to read part of my Lord Cooke's chapter of Treason, which is mighty well worth reading and doth inform me in many things; and for aught I see, it is useful to know what these crimes are.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Moore Print: Book

Sir Robert Cotton : An answer to such motives as were offer'd by certain military-men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect arms more than peace

'and so home and there to read and my wife to read to me out of Sir Rob Cotton's book about Warr; which is very fine, showing how the Kings of England have raised money heretofore upon the people, and how they have played upon the kings also.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'It is one of the most extraordinary accidents in my life, and gives ground to think of Don Quixot's adventures how people may be surprized'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Sir Robert Cotton : An answer to such motives as were offer'd by certain military-men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect arms more than peace

'So home, and my wife to read to me in Sir R. Cotton's book of Warr, which is excellent reading; and perticularly I was mightily pleased this night in what we read about the little profit of honour this Kingdom ever gained in its greatest of its conquests abroad in France.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

Sir Robert Cotton : An answer to such motives as were offer'd by certain military-men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect arms more than peace

'He gone, I home; and there my wife made an end to me of Sir R. Cottons discourse of Warr, which is endeed a very fine book. So to supper and to bed.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

Sir Fulke Greville : Life of the renowned Sir Phillip Sidney

'Here was mighty good discourse, as there is alway; and among other things, my Lord Crew did turn to a place in the "Life of Sir Ph. Sidny", wrote by Sir Fulke Grevill, which doth fortell the present condition of this nation in relation to the Dutch, to the degree of prophecy; and is so remarkable that I am resolved to buy one of them, it being quite through a good discourse.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Crew Print: Book

Duchess of Newcastle : The life of the thrice noble, high and puissant prince, William Cavendishe, Duke ... of Newcastle .. written by the thrice noble, illustrious and excellent princess, Duchess of Newcastle, his wife

'Thence home; and there, in favour to my eyes, stayed at home reading the ridiculous history of my Lord Newcastle, wrote by his wife, which shows her to be a mad, conceited, ridiculous woman, and he an asse to suffer [her] to write what she writes to him and of him. Betty Turner sent my wife the book to read; and it being a fair print, to ease my eyes, which would be reading, I read that.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Duchess of Newcastle : The life of the thrice noble, high and puissant prince, William Cavendishe, Duke ... of Newcastle .. written by the thrice noble, illustrious and excellent princess, Duchess of Newcastle, his wife

'and so home to read a little more in last night's book with much sport, it being a foolish book.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book

Samuel de Sorbiere : voyage into England

'and there got Balty to read to me out of Sorbiere's observations in his voyage into England; and then to bed.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Balthasar St Michael Print: Book

Madame de Scud?ri : Ibrahim, ou L'illustre Bassa

'And after dinner, she to read in the "Illustr. Bassa" the plot of yeterday's play, which is most exactly the same.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

Madame de Scud?ri : Ibrahim, ou L'illustre Bassa

'And there I saw this new play my wife saw yesterday; and do not like it, it being very smutty, and nothing so good as "The Maiden Queen" or "The Indian Imperour", of his making, that I was troubled at it; and my wife tells me is wholly (which he confesses a little in the epilogue) taken out of the "Illustr. Bassa".'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

James, Duke of York : [letter]

'Up, and all morning at the office << where the Duke of York's long letter was read, to their great trouble and their suspecting me to have been the writer of it>>'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Manuscript: Letter

Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton : Fables in Song

'All right, I'll see what I can do. Before I could answer, I had to see the book; and my good father, after trying at all our libraries, bought it for me. I like the book; that is, some of it; and I'll try to lick up four or five pages for the "Fortnightly."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: BookManuscript: Letter

Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin : letter

'Jenkin wrote to say he would second me in such a nice little notelet. I shall go in for it (the Savile I mean) whether "V.H." is accepted or not, being now a man of means.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Letter

L.G. de Cordemoy : A philosophicall discourse concerning speech, conformable to the Cartesian principles ... Englished out of French

'and then she to read a little book concerning Speech in general, a translation late out of French, a most excellent piece as ever I read, proving a soul in man and all the ways and secrets by which Nature teaches speech in man - which doth please me most infinitely to read.'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Pepys Print: Book

Sir William Coventry : [record of discourse upon business of Lord Clarendon]

'But by this discourse he was pleased to show me and read to me his account, which he hath kept by him under his own hand, of all his discourse and the King's answers to him upon the great business of my Lord Clarendon'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Coventry Manuscript: Unknown

H. G. Wells : The New Machiavelli

'The New M is a magnificent work.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

William Dean Howells : 'Easy Chair' column

'Hence I give myself the pleasure of writing to you in order to acknowledge your "Easy Chair" article in this month?s Harper?s.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Dr Peter Mark Roget : Thesaurus

'I send by parcel post two other jobs: One is "Roget?s Thesaurus". This is a book that I use every day, fairly roughly. Please bind it how you like, bearing this rough & constant usage in mind.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus

'Read 37 Canto - Virgil - & Perigrine Proteus'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus

'finish the first book of Horace's odes - S reads and translates Plato's Symposium - he reads Peregrinus Proteus and Hume's England aloud in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Revolt of Islam, The

'Finish the Aminta - Read Livy - Transcribe the Symposium - Read the Revolt of Islam'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

L'Abbe Augustin Barruel : Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du jacobinisme

'Wednesday August 24th. Read Abbe Bar[ruel]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

L'Abbe Augustin Barruel : Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du jacobinisme

'Thursday Aug-- 25th. Get up late [...] Go to the large & only boutique in Brunnen with [P. B.] Shelley -- Remove [to] the house on the hill [...] Read Abbe Bar[ruel]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

L'Abbe Augustin Barruel : Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du jacobinisme

'Friday August 26th. Boring Morning [...] Read Abbe Bar[ruel]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

'Thursday Sept. 15th. Read Emile -- Write i[n] my Common Place Book [...] Shelley reads us the Ancient Mariner [...] Read in the Excursion -- the Story of Margaret very beautiful.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Notes to Queen Mab

'Friday Sept. 16th. Rise at nine -- Breakfast -- Read Rasselas -- & De l'origine de l'inegalite [d]es Hommes' [...] Voisey at tea [...] Departs about 1/2 past ten -- Mary retires Shelley is writing to Papa & I am readin[g] the notes to Queen Mab when we hear Stones at the Window -- Look out & there is Charles.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont

Matthew Gregory Lewis : The Monk

'Thursday Sept. 22nd. [...] Return [from walking] at [...] 4. Read Greek [...] Sit up till one reading the Monk.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Matthew Gregory Lewis : The Monk

'Friday Sept. 23rd. Finish the Monk [...] Buy a Greek Anacreon [...] Read Greek [...] Shelley reads Thalaba aloud in the evening. Write a little Gre[ek] & learn four tenses of the Verb to strike'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Matthew Gregory Lewis : Tales of Wonder

'Saturday Sept. 24th. [...] Read Lewis Tales of Wonder and Delight. Shelley reads aloud Thalaba in the Evening finishes it. Write Greek -- Read Smellie.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Thomas Jefferson Hogg : Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff

''Tuesday Oct. 4th. [...] Read Alexy [...] Haimatoff twice through -- more delighted with it [...] In the Evening read Political Justice -- Sit up till twelve.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

''Wednesday Oct. 5th. [...] Read Political Justice Shelley reads aloud the Ancient Mariner. & Mad [...] Mother.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

L'Abbe Augustin Barruel : Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du jacobinisme

'Sunday Oct. 9th. [...] Read Political Justice [...] Shelley reads aloud part of Abbe Barruel about the Illuminati'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Zastrozzi

'Monday Oct -- 10th. Read Political Justice [...] sit up till twelve [...] Read through Zastrozzi -- by Shelley.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

L'Abbe Augustin Barruel : Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du jacobinisme

'Tuesday Oct. 11th. [...] Shelley reads [a]loud Abbe Barruel -- the Illuminati [...] read Political Justice & talk with Shelley over the fire till -- 12 o'clock.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

L'Abbe Augustin Barruel : Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du jacobinisme

'Wednesday Oct. 12 -- [...] Return [from Newgate Street] to dinner at six. Read Abbe Barruel. To bed at ten.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Thomas Jefferson Hogg : Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff

'Wednesday Oct 19th [...] Read Prince Alexy Haimatoff again -- read also Political Justice [...] In the Evening read Memoires of Voltaire by himself.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Thomas Jefferson Hogg : Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff

'Saturday -- 29th. [...] Read Comus. & Prince Alexy Haimatoff'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Queen Mab

'Sunday Oct 30th. [...] Dine at four. Read Comus. S[helley] & M[ary Wollstonecraft Godwin] go away in a coach at 1/2 past 8 [...] Sit up till ten reading Queen Mab'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Queen Mab

'Sunday Oct 31st [...] Get up at nine. Breakfast. Read a Canto of Queen Mab & Louvet's Memoirs. I am much interested in Louvet -- but like all French men he is so intolerably full of himself & never lets the reader find out the merit he may possess [goes on to discuss this text further, before recording activities later in day] [...] Sit up till eleven reading Louvet's Memoirs. I never remember be more interested in any book [sic]. So many fine instances of individual republican spirits displayed -- so many generous Women -- such constancy in misfortune.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Thomas Jefferson Hogg : Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff

'Sunday Nov. 6th. Rise at nine [...] Read Prince Alexy Haimatoff & King Richard III [...] Dine at four.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Jacques Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre : Paul and Virginia

'Tuesday Nov. 8th. Rise at nine -- Read through the Man of Feeling who would have just suited Fanny [Godwin] for a husband [...] [Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin] dines at two & goes to meet Shelley [...] Read Political Justice [...] Read Paul & Virginia -- in the Evening. I admire the descriptions [...] The Story is [...] in itself trifling & uninteresting -- the speeches and Characters are inflated and unnatural.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Rev. Joseph Berrington : A Literary History of the Middle Ages

'Sunday Feb. 22. [...] Read Berrington's History of the Middle Ages.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Johann Joachim Winckelmann : Histoire de l'art chez les anciens

'Sunday May [...] 2nd Rainy -- Read Floris & Fleur Blanche [sic] -- Cleomades et Clarimonde et Pierre de Provence et la Belle Maguelone -- Also 1st Chapter of Winkelmann [sic]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton : Fables in Song

?Friday. I have got on rather better with the ?Fables?; perhaps it won?t be a failure, though I still fear...Saturday...I just finished some of the deedest rubbish about Lord Lytton?s ?Fables?, that an intelligent editor ever shot into his waste paper basket.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Marriage

'I return the proofs by registered bookpost. I have read them with care. I have of course confined my observations to misprints, punctuation, points of phraseology, & sentences of which I absolutely failed to grasp the meaning.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Codex

Charles Antoine Guillaume Pigault-Lebrun : 'Tableaux de Societe'

'Saturday May 29th. [...] Read Tableau de Societe de P-- [...] Le Baune [sic].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : Nightmare Abbey

'Thursday June 10th. set out from Rome to Livorno [...] Arrive at Livorno Aquila Nera Thursday 17th. [June]. Stay there a week. [...] Remove to Villetta Valsovano near Monte nero Read Cobbett's Journal in America Birbeck's Notes on the Illinois Nightmare Abbey & the Heart of MidLothian by Walter Scott.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Don Juan [Cantos I and II]

'Monday Jany. 3rd. [...] Read Don Juan. Read the Life of Plutarch.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger : Travels Before the Flood. An Interesting Oriental Record of Men and Manners in the Antidiluvian [sic] World; Interpreted in Fourteen Evening Conversations between the Caliph of Baghdad and His Court

'Friday Jany 28th. Rainy -- Read Irish Pamphlet & Travels before the Flood -- Also two chapters in Schlegel's Dramactic [sic] Criticism'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

[probably] August Wilhelm von Schlegel : [probably] A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature

'Friday Jany 28th. Rainy -- Read Irish Pamphlet & Travels before the Flood -- Also two chapters in Schlegel's Dramactic [sic] Criticism'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Francois Rene de Chateaubriand : De Buonaparte, des Bourbons, et de la necessite de se rallier a nos princes legitimes

'Saturday Jany. 29th. [...] Read another Irish Pamphlet -- also one of Chateaubriand's -- De Buonaparte et des Bourbons'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont

Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger : Travels before the Flood. An Interesting Oriental Record of Men and Manners in the Antidiluvian [sic] World; Interpreted in Fourteen Evening Conversations between the Caliph of Baghdad and His Court

'Saturday Feb. 5th. [...] Read Paine's Letter to the Abbe Raynal. Read Travels before the Flood which I like much [makes detailed notes on this text].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger : Travels before the Flood. An Interesting Oriental Record of Men and Manners in the Antidiluvian [sic] World; Interpreted in Fourteen Evening Conversations between the Caliph of Baghdad and His Court

'Monday Feb. 7th. [...] Read and finish Paine's Letter to the Abbe Raynal the feeling of this letter I admire exceedingly -- it is truly cosmopolitan -- Finish the travels before the Flood.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Bernardo Davanzati Bostichi : Tacito volgarizzato

'Saturday Feb. 19th. Read 1 Scene in the Cisma de Ingalaterra. Begin Davanzati's Tacitus.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Bernardo Davanzati Bostichi : Tacito volgarizzato

'Monday Feb. 21st. Read La Cisma de Ingalaterra. Also a little of Davanzati's Tacitus [...] Read Locke.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Bernardo Davanzati Bostichi : Tacito volgarizzato

'Monday Feb. 21st. Read La Cisma de Ingalaterra. Also a little of Davanzati's Tacitus [...] Read Locke.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Bernardo Davanzati Bostichi : Tacito volgarizzato

'Read Davanzati's Tacitus' [entered in Claire Clairmont's 1820 Journal on 22, 24, 27 Feb and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19 March (reading begun 19 February); 'Read a little of Davanzati's Tacitus' entered on 18 March.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

David Erskine Baker : Biographica dramatica; or, a Companion to the Playhouse: Containing Historical and Critical Memoirs, and Original Anecdotes, of British and Irish Dramatic Writers

'Monday March 13th. [...] Read Dramatic Biography [makes detailed notes from vol. I part i in this]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

David Erskine Baker : Biographia dramatica; or, a Companion to the Playhouse: Containing Historical and Critical Memoirs, and Original Anecdotes, of British and Irish Dramatic Writers

'Tuesday March 14th. [...] Read Dramatic Biography'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Baron Felix de Bock : Les Chevaliers des sept montagnes, ou aventures arrivees dans le XIIIe siecle, du temps ou le tribunal secret avait sa plus grande influence, avec une notice sur l'etat ancien et actuel de ce tribunal

'Sunday April 9. [...] Begin the Germany of Tacitus. Read Les Chevaliers des Sept Montagnes by Baron Bock [notes anecdote from this]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Aristipp und einige seiner Zeitgenossen

'Tuesday July 4th. [...] Read Virgil -- Lines 100. Read Aristippe by Wieland.' [subsequent readings from Aristippe recorded in entries for 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 July 1820]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Alexandre L. B. Robineau : Jerome Pointu: Comedie

'Sunday July 16th. [...] Read Barber of Seville & Jerome Pointu.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Revolt of Islam, The

'Read Livy - The Revolt of Islam - 1st Canto of Tasso'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

John Chetwode Eustace : Tour through Italy, exhibiting a View of its Scenery, its Antiquities, and its Monuments... with an account of the present state of its cities and towns and occasional Observations on the recent Spoliations of the French

'S. reads the Persae of Aeschylus & Eustace's travels'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'Read a part of the 7 canto of Tasso - Livy - Montaigne and Eustace -S. reads Theocritus and Richard III aloud in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

John Chetwode Eustace : Tour through Italy, exhibiting a View of its Scenery, its Antiquities, and its Monuments... with an account of the present state of its cities and towns and occasional Observations on the recent Spoliations of the French

'Read a part of the 7 canto of Tasso - Livy - Montaigne and Eustace -S. reads Theocritus and Richard III aloud in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Rosalind and Helen: a Modern Eclogue

'Copy S's Eclogue - Read Horace'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Bernardin de St Pierre : Paul et Virginie

'Read Pope's Homer - finish it - read Paul et Virginie'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Prisoner of Chillon, The, and other poems

'Read Prisoner of Chillon &c. to Mrs G'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Christabel

'Wednesday August 16th. [...] Read Christabel & the Saggio Storico.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Johann David Wyss : The Family Robinson Crusoe: Or, Journal of a Father Shipwrecked, with his Wife and Children, on an Uninhabited Island

'Sunday August 20th. [...] Read Swiss Family Robinson Crusoe.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Prometheus Unbound

'Saturday Nov. 11th. [...] Read the 1st. Act of Prometheus unbound.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Friedrich Heinrich Karl Baron de la Motte-Fouque : Sintram and his Companions: A Romance

'Wednesday Jany 10th. [...] Read Sintram by Baron de la Motte Fouque.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : 'Das Geheimniss'

'Friday Feb. 9th. [...] Read Das Geheimniss one of Schiller's minor Poems.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : 'Das Gluck'

'Saturday Feb. 10th. [...] Read Das Gluck a poem by Schiller.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Das Lied von der Glocke

'Sunday Feb. 11th. [...] Read Das Lied von der Glocke by Schiller.' [further/other readings of this text (or sessions translating it) also recorded in journal entries for 13, 15 and 16 February 1821, and 13 March, with 'Read & finish Das Lied von der Glocke recorded on 14 March].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Joseph Francois Michaud : Histoire des croisades

'[Tuesday] March 13th. [...] In the Evening read Das Lied von der Glocke [Schiller] and begin the History of the Crusades by Michaud.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Hero und Leander

'Thursday March. 15th. [...] Begin the Hero & Leander of Schiller.' [reading from this text also recorded in journal entry for 18 March 1821, with 'Finish the Hero und Leander von Schiller' recorded on March 21].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Der Gang nach dem Eisenhammer

'Friday March 23rd. [...] Read Der Gang nach dem [...] Eisenhammer -- von Schiller.' [further readings from this text recorded in journal entry for 26 March 1821, with 'Work and finish Schiller's Der Gang nach dem Eisenhammer' recorded on 27 March].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Der Ring des Polycrates

'Monday April 2nd. [...] Read Der Ring des Polycrates.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Der Kampf mit dem Drachen

'Thursday April 5th. Begin Der Kampf mit dem Drachen von Schiller.' [readings from this text also recorded on 7 and 8 April 1820, with 'Finish Der Kampf mit dem Drachen' recorded on 9 April].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Die Zerstorung von Troja

'Saturday [...] April 14th. [[...] Read Die Zerstorung von Troia, freie [...] Ubersetzung der zweiten Buchs der Aeneide [sic] [precedes this with quotation of lines 3-4 from this text].' [readings from this text also recorded in journal entries for 18, 21, 22, 23, 24 April 1821]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Johann Isaac von Gerning : Reise durch Oesterreich und Italien

'Saturday May 5th. [...] Begin Reise durch Italien von J. J. Garning [sic].' [further readings in this text recorded in journal entries for 6, 7, 10, 11, 22 May 1821]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue : Possen, die Zeit beachtend, bey Gelegenheit des Ruckzungs der Franzosen. Seitenstuck zum Flussgott Nieman

'Wednesday May 16th. [...] Begin Seitenstuck zum Flussgitt Niemen von Kotzebue. [...] 'Sunday May 20th. [...] Finish Possen von [...] Kotzebue.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Volume IV

'S. calls on Lord B - He [presumably Shelley] reads the 4th Canto of Childe Harold'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Volume IV

'Read 4th Canto'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Mazeppa

'Transcribe Mazeppa'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'Ode on Venice'

'Finish transcribing Mazeppa - Copy the ode'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Hendrik Conscience : The Poor Gentleman

'Attended the reading of The Poor Gentleman & was very pleased with the gentlemanly manners of most of the Amateurs. Agreed to play Gruff old Humphrey Dobbin and suppose I must do it. It is not a pleasing character to sustain, but if Sir Richard Bramble is up in his part & gives the Cue well, every word Dobbin says is a Growl & if Dobbin growls well every sentence he speaks is a point.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: men Print: Book

Johann Georg Zimmermann : Solitude

'Read a chapter or two of Zimmermann on Solitude, and with that & ordinary business employed myself till four o clock.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : [Allan Poe]

'Sat at home in the evening mourning over my face and lazily reading the improbabilities of Allan Poe, went to bed very early.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Manso : La vita di Torquato Tasso

'Finish Vita di Tasso - Read Timon of Athens - work - S finishes the Winter's Tale'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Beppo: a Venetian story

'Read "Women" of Mathuerin [for Maturin] - the Fudge Family - Beppo &c. S. begins the Republic of Plato'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Hans Egede Saabye : Greenland : being Extracts from a Journal kept in that Country in the years 1770 to 1778.

'Read Saadye's [for Saabye's] Journal in Greenland'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'Read Montaigne - S. reads Plato's republic'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV

'Sleep at Bologna - S. reads 4th Canto aloud to me - read Montaigne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Sophie Ristaud Cottin : Claire d'Albe

'Read Livy - Claire d'Albe - Gilblas - walk in the gardens - S reads Livy'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Madame de Souza : Adele de Senage, ou lettres de Lord Sydenham

'Read Livy - Adele de Senange - S reads Livy'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : 'Lines written among the Eugenean Hills'

'Read Livy - write out Shelley's poem'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Joachim Winckelmann : Geschichte der Kunst des Alterhums

'Finish 1st Book of the Georgics - S. begins reading Winkhelmann's Histoire de l'art to me in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Johann Joachim Winckelmann : Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums

'Read Dante - S. reads Winkhelmann aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Jean Charles Leonarde Simonde de Sismondi : Histoire des republiques italiennes du moyen age

'S reads Livy & Winkhelmann aloud - read Dante - And Sismondi'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi : Histoire des republiques italiennes du moyen age

'Finish the Inferno of Dante & the 9th book of Livy - S & I read Sismondi'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary and Percy Shelley Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray : Les Amours du Chevalier de Faublas

'Read Sismondi - & Faublas'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi : Histoire des republiques italiennes du moyen age

'finish Sismondi'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Dominque Dufour de Pradt : Du Congres de Vienne

'Sunday May 27th. [...] Read Congres de Vienne de M. Pradt.' [also records 'Read Congres de Vienne' on 28 May 1821, and 'Finish Congres de Vienne' on 4 June].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Die Leiden des jungen Werther

'[Tuesday] May 29th. [...] Read the 1st Letter in Leiden von Werther.' [Also records reading this text on 31 May 1821, and on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 June].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'Read Montaigne - the Bible & Livy - Walk to the Coliseum - S. reads Winkhelmann'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Johann Joachim Winckelmann : Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums

'Read Montaigne - the Bible & Livy - Walk to the Coliseum - S. reads Winkhelmann'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : Melincourt

'Monday June 25th. [...] Read Melincourt'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Richard Lovell and Maria Edgeworth : Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esq. Begun by Himself and Concluded by His Daughter, Maria Edgeworth

'Wednesday July 11th. Read Edgeworth's Memoirs. [...] 'Thursday July 12th. [...] Read Life of Edgeworth -- I think their system seems to aim at making the mind satisfied with little.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Adonais

'[Tuesday] July 24th. Shelley comes to breakfast. Read Adonais.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont

Thomas Love Day : The History of Sandford and Merton

'Wednesday July 25th. [...] Read Sandford and Merton.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Kabale und Liebe

'Sunday August 5th. [...] Begin Cabale und Liebe [sic] of Schiller.' [also records reading this text on 6, 10, 11, 12 ('Sit at home all day & read Cabale und Liebe [sic]'), and 13 August 1821].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Francisco Gomez de Quivedo y Villegas : Suenos y discursos de verdades

'Read the vision of Quivedo'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Los rabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, historia septentrional

'Read Livy - Persiles & Sigismunda'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Die Jungfrau von Orleans

'Saturday Oct 6th. [...] Begin Johanna D'Arc [i.e. Die Jungfrau von Orleans] von Schiller.' [also records reading this text in journal entries for 7, 8, and 15 October ('Finish Johanna D/Arc') 1821].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Die Jungfrau von Orleans

'Thursday Oct. 11th. Read Johanna D'Arc [i.e. Die Jungfrau von Orleans] with S-- [...] 'Saturday Oct. 13th. [...] read Johanna D Arc with S--'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont and Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

'Wednesday Oct [...] 17th. [...] Begin Faust by Goethe [goes on to quote part i lines 590-593 and lines 602-605 from this]' [readings in this text also recorded in journal entries for 18, 19, 21 ('Read Faust all day'), 23 October 1821].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Etienne Francois de Lantier : Les Voyages d'Antenor en Grece et en Asie, avec des notions sur l'Egypte, manuscrit grec trouve a Herculaneum, traduit par E-F Lantier

'Since I left Rome I have read several books of Livy - Antenor - Clarissa Harlowe - The Spectator - a few novels - & am now reading the Bible & Lucan's Pharsalia - & Dante'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Christoph Martin Wieland : Menander und Glycerion

'Saturday Nov. 3rd. [...] After dinner [...] begin Wieland's novel of Menander & Glycera.' [reading/translation of this text also recorded in journal entries for 4, 5, 6, 8, 25 November 1821, with 'Finish Wieland's Menander and Glycera' recorded on 8 December].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Pierre-Laurent Buirette de Belloy : Gabrielle de Vergy, tragedie

'Friday December 22nd. [...] Read the tragedy of Gabrielle de Vergy by Belloi and False Delicacy an English Comedy translated into French.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Antoine Marin Lemierre : Hypermnestre

'Saturday Dec. 29th. [...] read Hypermnestre a tragedy by M. le Mierre and Rhadamiste et Zenobie by I. Crebillon.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon : Rhadamisthe et Zenobie

'Saturday Dec. 29th. [...] read Hypermnestre a tragedy by M. le Mierre and Rhadamiste et Zenobie by I. Crebillon [sic].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit

'Saturday March 9th. [...] Translate [...] a little of the life of Goethe.' [readings/translation/copying of translation from this text also recorded in journal entries for 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 March 1822, and 3, 7, 8, 10 April].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Saint Albin Berville and Jean Francois Barriere : Memoires de Madame Roland

'[Tuesday] May 12-24th [...] Early in the morning I read Madame Roland [...] 'Wednesday May 13th.-25th [...] Finish the Memoirs of Madame Roland.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

King James I of Scotland : The King's Quair

In journal entry for Wednesday 25 May, Claire Clairmont transcribes stanzas 28 and 29 from Canto II of The King's Quair, by James I of Scotland.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Friedrich Heinrich Karl Baron de la Motte Fouque : Die Cypressenkranze

'Friday May [...] 27th. [...] After dinner read Die Cypressenkranze de la Baronne la Motte Fouque.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Wallenstein

'Saturday [...] June 4th. [...] After dinner [...] M.G. [i.e. Chretien-Hermann Gambs] reads to me Schiller's Wallenstein.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Wallenstein

'Wednesday [...] June 8th. [...] I read Wallenstein and give my lessons.' [readings in this text also recorded in journal entries for 9, 13, 15, 17, 26 June 1825, with 'Read and finish Wallenstein' recorded on 27 June].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : The Revolt of Islam

'Sunday June [...] 19th. [...] Read the Revolt of Islam with M.G. [i.e. friend Chretien-Hermann Gambs]'. [readings from this text also recorded in journal entries for 20 and 26 June; 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 17, 24 July; 4, 7, 18, 28, 29 August; 3, 4 September 1825, some in company with Gambs].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

C. F. D. Schubart : 'Die ewige Jude: Ein lyrische Rhapsodie'

'Monday [...] July 11th. [...] Read Der ewige Jude by Schubart, the translation of which is in the Notes of Queen Mab.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Unknown

Jean Francois Regnard : Le Distrait

'Friday August [...] 19th. [...] Read Le Distrait by Regnier [sic].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Ernst Christoph von Houwald : Das Bild: Trauerspiel in funf Akten

'[Tuesday] September [...] 27th. [...] Read all the morning Das Bild von Houwald with Mr. G[ambs]. It is a charming tragedy in the romantic style and the novelty of the invention & yet its naturalness is delightful [goes on to quote at length from Act I scene 5].' [also records reading this text, with Chretien-Hermann Gambs, in journal entries for 28 and 29 September 1825]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Carl Friedrich Becker : life of Charles XII

'[Tuesday] [...] Octbr. 4th. [...] Begin reading the History of Charles the XII by Becker in German.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Antoine Etienne Nicolas Fantin des Odoards : Histoire philosophique de la revolution de France

'Saturday [...] Oct. 8th. [...] Read in the afternoon [following funeral of one of her pupils]. Histoire de la Revolution francaise par Antoine Fantin Desodoards [sic].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Jeanne Louise Henriette Campan : Memoires sur la vie privee de Marie Antoinette, reine de France ... suivis de souvenirs et anecdotes historiques sur les regnes de Louis XIV, de Louis XV et de Louis XVI

'Sunday [...] Oct. 9th. [...] I pack up [for family's departure from holiday home, following death of a child] & read the whole day Memoirs of Madame Campan.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : The Ghost-Seer

'Thursday October [...] 27 [...] Read Schillers Ghost [...] Seer.' [also records reading this text on 28 October 1825]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner : Die Templer auf Cypern

'Friday October [...] 28th. [...] After dinner read a little of Werner's Templers with M. G[ambs]. but not much for I am very stupid with a bad head-ach [previous day's journal entry marked X for start of menstrual period].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Jacques Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre : Paul et Virginie

'Sunday October [...] 30th. [...] Read Paul & Virginia.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Alexandre Joseph Pierre de Segur : Les Femmes, leur condition et leur influence dans l'ordre social chez differents peuples anciens et modernes

'Sunday Nov. [...] 20th. [...] Read to John Nine days' wonder. Begin reading Segur upon women.' [also records reading latter text in journal entries for 23 November 1825].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Die Kraniche des Ibykus

'Monday Novbr. [...] 28th. [...] After dinner read Ibycus & Die Kraniche with Midge [i.e. Chretien-Hermann Gambs] ['Analysis' of this text follows in same entry].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Amand Gottfried Adolph Mullner : Die Schuld: Trauerspiel in vier Acten

'Wednesday Nov. [...] 30th. [...] After tea [...] begin Mullner's Schuld with M. G[ambs]. We are interrupted by M. Baxter who spends the Evening.' [also records reading this text, sometimes with Gambs, in journal entries for 1, 2, 6 ('read till dinner time Die Schuld which we begin over again'), 7 (transcribes passages) December 1825].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : riddles

'Monday [...] Dec. 12th. [...] read some of Schiller's riddles'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

E. T. W. Hoffmann : 'Ritter Gluck: Eine Erinnerung aus dem Jahre 1809'

'Wednesday [...] January 11th. ...] read Ritter Gluck by Hoffman with Mr. Gambs.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

E. T. W. Hoffmann : 'Kreisleriana'

'Thursday [...] January 12th. [...] read Hoffman (Kreussleriana [sic]) untill bed-time.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book

Frederick Sylvester North Douglas : An Essay on Certain Points of Resemblance between the Ancient and Modern Greeks

Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, November 1818: 'I have read "Douglas on the Modern Greeks." I think it a most amusing book ... I have not yet finished "Bigland on the Character and Circumstances of Nations." An admirable work indeed ... I do not admire "Madame de Sevigne's letters," though the French is excellent [...] yet the sentiment is not novel, and the rhapsody of the style is so affected, so disgusting, so entirely FRENCH, that every time I open the book it is rather as a task than a pleasure -- the last Canto of "Childe Harold" (certainly much superior to the others) has delighted me more than I can express. The description of the waterfall is the most exquisite piece of poetry that I ever read [...] All the energy, all the sublimity of modern verse is centered in those lines'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

George Robert Gleig : The Subaltern

Uvedale Price to Elizabeth Barrett, 20 December 1826: 'I will ask you [...] whether you have ever read the Subaltern? It is said, by military men to be a very exact as well as lively account of the D. of Wellington's campaign in the Pyrenees [...] a great part of it is interesting even to so unmilitary a man as myself [...] the whole account of the attack & capture of St Sebastian at the beginning of the work, is most striking in all its circumstances and & all its detail [goes on to make detailed commentary, focusing especially upon description of thunderstorm in chapter 3]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Uvedale Price Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : "On Lord Lytton's Fables in Song"

?Morley has accepted the "Fables" and I have seen it in proof and think less of it than ever.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Sheet, Proof of the article

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Remorse: a tragedy in five acts

'Read the Quarterly review & Remorse - an unhappy day - S. reads one act of the alchemist to the G[isborne]'s in the evening - read 2 Canto of the Purgatorio'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Revolt of Islam, The

'S. reads Beaumonts & Fletchers plays - and the Revolt of Islam aloud in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Cenci, The

'Copy S's Tragedy'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : [unknown]

'S. reads Bocaccio [sic] - The Greek Tragedians & Calderon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Prometheus Unbound

'Copy Shelleys Prometheus - work - read Beaumont & Fletcher's plays'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : [unknown]

'S. reads Calderon with C.[harles] C.[lairmont] & Bocaccio [sic]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Shelley and Charles Clairmont Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : [unknown]

'[Shelley] reads the Trionfe della Morte aloud in the evening & Calderon with C.[harles] C.[lairmont] & Mrs G.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Shelley, Charles Clairmont and Mrs Gisborne Print: Book

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon : [probably] History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England

'Arrive at Florence - Read Massinger - S. begins Clarendon - reads Massinger - & Plato's Republic'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon : History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England

'S. finishes the 1st vol of Clarendon - Read the little Theif [sic]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon : History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England

'S reads Clarendon aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Friedich Heinrich Karl, Baron de la Motte Fouque : Undine, eine Erzahlung

'Read 2 book of Horace - Read Undine & c - S. finishes the 3 vol of Carendon aloud & reads Peter Bell - he reads Plato's republic'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Peter Bell the Third

'Read Horace - work - finish copying Peter Bell which is sent'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Madame de Stael : Considerations sur les principaux evenemens de la Revolution francaise

'Read Horace - Memoires du Comte Grammont - S. writes his letter concerning Carlile - & reads Mme de Staels account of the Revolution - & Clarendon aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : Lettres

'Read Horace and Lettres de Sevigne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : Lettres

'I read little else than Madame de Sevignes letters - Shelley reads St Luke aloud to us - & to himself the New Testament'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : La devocion de la Cruz

[Mary Shelley's Reading List of Percy Shelley's reading, 1819. Most texts are mentioned in journal entries so are not given separate entries here] 'Greek The Greek Tragedians Homers Iliad and Odyssey Plato's Republic Several of Plutarch's lives The Memorabilia of Xenophon Madame de Stael sur la Revolution Francaise Calderon - Several of the tragedies and Auto's'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : El Purgatorio de San Patricio

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : Los cabellos de Absalon

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : La cisma de Ingilterra

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : El principe constante

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : Cypriano

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : El magico prodigioso

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : Los dos amantes del cielo

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Adventures of Philip

'I have had all things considered and thanks principally to Philip, a very passable Christmas day [...] then went upstairs and read Phillip till lunchtime (you see I adhere to my own views as to how Philip should be spelt).'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'A Day of Pleasure at Malvern'

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 11 March 1827: 'I thanked you, in my last note, for sending me your works, -- & now, having read them, I have it in my power to thank you for the pleasure you have afforded me. As you desire me to mention which of the two poems on the calamity at Malvern, I prefer, I will frankly select the [italics]first[end italics], tho' the "Malvern tale" has many lines that interest me, together with a smoothness of versification which is common in your writings. Your prologue & epilogue to St Gregory's poems are elegant; & your preface to that translation, attractive on several accounts. I am not ungrateful to the [italics]Elegy[end italics]: but were I to say on what page I linger longest, I think I should turn at once to your translation from the [italics]Electra[end italics].'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett

Hugh Stuart Boyd : A Malvern Tale

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett

Hugh Stuart Boyd : Prologue and Epilogue to poems of St Gregory

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett

Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'Elegy'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett

Hugh Stuart Boyd : Translation from Sophocles' Electra

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett

Hugh Stuart Boyd : Reflections on the Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, September 1827: 'I am [...] obliged to you for sending me your work on the Atonement [...] I have read your book with sincere respect both for your ability as a disputant & your elevated feelings as a Christian.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Hugh Stuart Boyd : Select Passages from the Writings of St Chrysostom, St Gregory Nazianzen, and St Basil

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 3 November 1827: 'You have extremely obliged me by lending me your Select Translations, -- passages from which, I have repeatedly read with increasing delight & admiration: particularly the Oration on Eutropius, which is a picture in motion , -- & that [italics]Homeric[end italics] description of a battle, contained in your extract from the 6th book of St Chrysostom "On the Priesthood".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Don Juan

'S. reads D.[on] Juan aloud in the evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Don Juan

'Read Don Juan'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Mazeppa

'Read Livy - work - Read Mazeppa - S. reads Sophocles - & St Mathew [sic] aloud to me - Translate S.[pinoza]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Johannes von Muller : Allgemeine Geschichte

'S. reads the bible - and Muller's universal History'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger : Reisen vor der Sundfluth

'Read Travels before the flood'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger : Reisen vor der Sundfluth

'Finish Travels before the flood'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie, ou la nouvelle Heloise

'Begin Julie'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie, ou la nouvelle Heloise

'Finish Julie. Read the Fable of the Bees.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Bartolome de las Casas : Brevissima relacion de la destruycion de las Indias

'[Shelley] finishes reading Isaiah to me & begins Jeremiah - He reads Las Casas on the Indies - Eschylus & Athenaeus'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Bartolomeo de las Casas : Brevissima relacion de la destruycion de las Indias

'Read Livy & the F. of the Bees. Read Las Casas - S. reads Plato'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Antonio de Solis y Ribadeneyra : Historia de la conquista de Mejico

'Read Livy & F of the Bees. S. reads Solis' History of Mexico'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Antonio de Solis y Ribadeneyra : Historia de la conquista de Mejico

'Read Livy. F. of the Bees - Copy S's poems. S reads the Hist. of Mexico - & Henry IV aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Jean Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d' Argens : Lettres cabalistiques, ou correspondance philosophique, historique & critique, entre deux cabalistes, divers esprits elementaires & le Seigneur Astaroth

'Translate Sxxxxxa [Spinoza] with Shelley - Read Lettres Cabalistiques - S. finishes the Leviathan of Hobbes. reads the Bible aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley

Jean Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d' Argens : Lettres cabalistiques, ou correspondance philosophique, historique & critique, entre deux cabalistes, divers esprits elementaires & le Seigneur Astaroth

'Translate Sxxxxxa [Spinoza]. Read Lettres Cabalistiques - S. reads Ezechiel aloud. Reads Political Justice -'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Lady Mary Shepherd : Essays on the Perception of an External Universe

Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Mary Shepherd, c.July 1828: 'I am reduced to the necessity of offering my [italics]written[end italics] but warm thanks, for the valuable present, left for me by your Ladyship -- I have read several parts of the Essays with a [italics]curious[end italics] pleasure -- several with an entire mental satisfaction: and I have everywhere admired the originality, brilliancy, & power, which, -- whether your Ladyship's positions be questionable or the contrary, -- undeniably distinguish your mode of supporting them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'elegy'

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 'Saturday Night,' 2 August 1828: 'It is late for me to be writing, -- but I have this moment received your elegy, -- & I do not wish our servant to go tomorrow [...] without taking a few lines from me on the subject [...] for its has [italics]particularly pleased me[end italics] [goes on to discuss in detail]'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett

E. H. Barker : The Claims of Sir Philip Francis, K.B., to the Authorship of Junius's Letters, Disproved

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 6 August 1828: 'I have finished the Parriana -- but not the work on Junius.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Hugh Stuart Boyd : Thoughts on an Illustrious Exile

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 26-27 September 1828: 'On opening your book to look for Joan of Arc, I came upon your translation of the beautiful episode in the Georgics [i.e. "The Death of Orpheus and Eurydice"] [...] Did I not once tell you how much I admired this translation? I believe I did -- but I must say it over again.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Hugh Stuart Boyd : notes to the Agamemnon

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 May 1829: 'I never learnt anything about the rule [...] of the Greek Article, -- except what I learnt from [italics]you[end italics]: first, from your notes to the Agamemnon, & Select passages; & secondly, & more fully & clearly, from your essays in Dr Clarkes commentary.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'Essay on the Greek Article'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Jean Jacques Barthelemy : Voyage du jeune Anarcharsis en Grece (introduction)

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1829: 'I meant to have taken with me today the following extract from the learned Abbe Barthelemi's introduction to his "Voyage of Anarcharsis". It consists of his opposition to a few of the charges generally & principally brought against Homer [including lack of dignity in presentation of noble characters] -- & pleased me very much when I read it for the first time a few days ago [goes on to transcribe passage in own English translation].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Hugh Stuart Boyd : 'treatise on Geology'

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 'Tuesday Evening,' October 1829: 'With regard to your treatise on Geology, I will say nothing about the science of it, for fear you should laugh at me, in which case I should not have even the satisfaction of complaining of your injustice. I assure you I have read it quite thro', & more than once [goes on to cite specific passages].'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett

Hugh Stuart Boyd : Greek epitaph 'On the death of a favourite Tom Cat'

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, Monday 28 December 1829, thanking him for his epitaph on a cat, and following critical appraisal of it: 'You told me never to read anything of yours to anybody, because I read so badly. Notwithstanding this, I did transgress on Saturday by reading your [italics]feline[end italics] epitaph to Bro, because I thought it sounded better when read in [italics]our[end italics] way, than Carthusianly, as he would have read it. And as I read really very slowly (for [italics]me[end italics]!) & distinctly [...] you need not bewail yourself nor be severe upon me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown

Hugh Stuart Boyd : Annotations to St Chrysostom, 'In Epistolarum primam ad Corinthos'

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 16 January 1830: 'Chrysostom has been staggering me lately by his commentary on those passages of the Epistles to the Corinthians, which relate to the Lord's Supper. I have felt every now & then, that he [italics]must[end italics] hold transubstantiation, -- & then I look at your pencil marks upon those very passages, & recollect your opinion of his holding no such doctrine -- & then I am in perplexity'.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet : Vie de voltaire par le Marquis de Condorcet; suivie des memoires de Voltaire, ecrits par lui-meme

'Read Macchiavelli Hist. of Castruccio Castracani - Translate Sxxxxxa [Spinoza]. S. reads a part of 4th B. of the Aenied aloud - read Condorcet's life of Voltaire - S. reads Locke.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet : Vie de voltaire par le Marquis de Condorcet; suivie des memoires de Voltaire, ecrits par lui-meme

'Translate Sxxxxxa - Read life of Voltaire. finish life of Castruccio. - S. reads Political Justice - finishes the 4th Book & all we mean to read of 5th book of Virgil - Visit at Casa Silva. S. reads Locke'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Anna Laetitia Barbauld : Evenings at Home; or the Juvenile Budget Opened

'Read Life of Voltaire - & Evenings at home'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Jacques Racine : plays

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 8 September 1830: 'I have been reading lately with my brothers some of Racine's plays [...] It is several years since I read them by myself; and if they disgusted me then, they are intolerable to me now. The French have no part or lot in poetry [goes on to complain of what she perceives to be excessive formality and orderliness of French neoclassical poetry]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett and younger Moulton-Barrett brothers Print: Book

Jean Jacques Racine : plays

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Sir William Blackstone : Commentaries on the Laws of England

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 1 June 1831: 'I recollect many years ago when I read one whole volume of Blackstone through, I also read a little treatise by a Mr Hawkins an INFINITE Tory, entitled "Reform in Parliament, the ruin of Parliament"'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Sir Humphrey Davy : Consolation in Travail

Arabella Graham-Clarke to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett, 14 Deecmber 1830: 'Ba [Elizabeth Barrett] read the last work of Sir Humphrey Davey "Consolation in travail" It is philosophical and I think would amuse her'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Elizabeth (Susan) Wetherell (Warner) : Queechy

'I cannot tell you what they [the Miss Jaffrays] are reading. Perhaps Queechy ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Misses Jaffray Print: Book

Frances Anne Kemble : Francis the First, an Historical Drama

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 10 July 1832: 'I have read Miss Fanny Kemble's tragedy [...] It seems to me to be a very clever & indeed surprising production as from the pen of a young person; but I think that from any other pen, it would not find readers. The dialogue is sometime very spirited & ably done; but the poetry is seldom good as poetry'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : Pelham, or The Adventures of a Gentleman

Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 30 August 1832: 'As soon as breakfast is over, I read a chapter from the Hebrew Bible [...] and then I hear my brothers read Greek; at two we are so patriarchal as to dine: and afterwards I go out upon a donkey [...] & read Pelham, & do many idle things'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : novels including The Disowned

Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 14 December 1832: 'I have been reading Bulwer's novels & Mrs Trollope's libels, & Dr Parr's works [...] [Mrs Trollope] has neither the delicacy nor the candour which constitute true nobility of mind [...] Bulwer has quite delighted me: he has all the dramatic talent which Scott has: & all the passion which Scott has not -- and he appears to me to be besides a far profounder discriminator of character. There are some very fine things in his Denounced [sic].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

August Wilhelm von Schlegel : Uber dramatische Kunst und Literatur (extracts)

Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 31 December 1832: 'I have had my hands & head full of a book called the Greek Theatre, composed in part of extracts, & edited by a Cambridge Student [...] In the body of the work, are extracts from Schlegel: so full of poetical & classical enthusiasm, that I should like to know something of the [italics]German[end italics] Schlegel!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue

Robert Browning to William Johnson Fox, ?28 March 1833: 'You must not think me too incroaching, if I make the getting back [of] "Rosalind & Helen" an excuse for calling on you some evening -- the said R. & H has I observe been well thumbed & sedulously marked by an acquaintance of mine, but I have not time to rub out his labour of love.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

Gottlieb Friedrich Klopstock : The Messiah

Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 14 September 1834: 'Have you seen a poetical translation of Klopstock's messiah, the performance of a lady residing close to Honiton. I have read and been much pleased with it [goes on to comment upon specific passages].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Henry Peter Brougham, Lord Brougham : A Discourse upon Natural Theology

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 28 July 1835: 'I have been reading [...] Lord Brougham's Natural Theology, -- and have shaken my head over it [...] It seems to me to have its most valuable parts in its notes, -- in the observations there upon Hume's philosophy.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling : autobiography

Elizabeth Barrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 9 December 1835: 'I have read lately Stilling's autobiography; & was by turns touched & amused by it. It is an instance of the durability of romance & sentiment. I read it in English of course'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Dramatic Scenes, Sonnets and Other Poems

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 July 1836: 'You have not my dear kind friend thought me unkind and thankless in not writing my gratitude to you the moment I felt it, for your books [...] [explains having waited until had time to do justice to these, including one of Mitford's own] [...] My pencil has marked Emily and Fair Rosamund and Henry Talbot The bridal Eve, The Captive & The masque of the Seasons as chief favorites of mine. My pencil always does for me the prudent business which beans & pebbles did for the heroes of childish romance .. marking his footsteps in the wood [...] In these paths, these new paths -- thank you dear Miss Mitford for letting me walk in them'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : 'Jesse Cliffe'

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 August 1836: 'Jesse Cliffe -- I have read it! [italics]Thank you for it![end italics] and you must hear that from so many!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

William Charles Macready : annotations to Robert Browning, Strafford

Robert Browning to William Charles Macready, January 1837: 'I have taken a cursory look at your [italics]addissions[end italics] in "Strafford," seeing it on the table. I shall remedy every oversight I am sure out of an after crop of thoughts!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Manuscript: Unknown

Mary Russell Mitford : Otto of Wittelsbach

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?17 March 1837: 'I have read your play [Otto of Wittelsbach] my dearest Miss Mitford, & so you will be obliged to read my admiration upon it [goes on to discuss text in detail]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown

Frances Anne Butler : The Star of Seville

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 May 1837: 'Yes! the extracts from Mrs Butler's play, in the Athenaeum, are very beautiful -- and so are some others which I have seen in another paper.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical

Mary Russell Mitford : "The Widow's Dog"

Mary Hunter (aged 10) to Elizabeth Barrett, quoted in letter of Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 May 1837: '"I read today in a magazine a tale of Miss Mitford's about the widow's dog Chloe who was very faithful and would go back to the widow's house. If you do not know the story, I dare say she will tell it to you. I should like to know Miss Mitford very much -- for her writings are [italics]so[end italics] beautiful & affectionate, -- and I think she would not dislike children."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hunter Print: Serial / periodical

Lady Margaret Cocks : dramatic poems

Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, mid-May 1837: 'I am very much obliged by your kindness in allowing me to read the MS dramatic poems -- it seems to me that the character of your writing is not sufficiently concentrated & passionate for tragic poetry -- and that the moral beauty of gentle & tender & holy feeling is not eminent enough with glaring light & angular shadow, to constitute of itself the dramatic. Such a moral beauty -- & it pervades what you write -- is however a better & happier thing than dramatic excellence.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown

Frances Anne Butler : The Star of Seville

Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 June 1837: 'I have read the Star of Seville [...] It [italics]is[end italics] unequal -- it appears as if its writer stopped to take breath after her finest things -- and she has written some very fine things. You will admire Estrella's apology for her appearance [italics]alone[end italics], at the trial scene. It touched me deeply'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Lodovico Antonio Muratori : Dissertazioni sopra le Antichita Italiane, gia composte e publicato in Latino dal Proposto Lodovico Antonio Muratori e da esso poscia compendiate e transportate nell'Italiana favella

'Muratori. Antichita d'Italia'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Country Stories

Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 17 July 1837: 'Why should we [']'mere balladmongers" have so much to say of ourselves, when the "Country stories" lie cut & read upon the table? They have the Mitford-charm all over them! [..] The characteristic of your mind seems to be -- the power of bringing from the surfaces of things that freshness of beauty, which others seek from in the profundities of nature [...] Indeed it is a beautiful book'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Swellfoot the Tyrant

'Muratori - Greek - Queen's Letter - K.[ing] Swellfoot'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon : History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland

'Muratori - Greek - Rebellion of Ireland'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon : History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland

'Muratori - greek - finish the Rebellion of Ireland'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Die Jungfrau von Orleans

Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 19 August 1837: 'I scarcely ever do anything -- in the way of [italics]business[end italics] I mean -- except writing [...] even the German has not been studied or looked at much -- except a few tragedies of Schiller's & Goethe's seen by glimpses. Of these, I like Jean better than Mary Stuart, & him of the Iron hand less than Egmont'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Maria Stuart

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Gotz von Berlichingen mit der eisenen Hand

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Egmont

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Lady Mary Wortley Montague : Letters

Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, 29 September 1837: 'I confess to you that I utterly dislike Lady Mary! [...] She had a hard shining imagination, instead of a heart -- and words studied into carelessness, beating up & down, where warm natural woman pulses ought to have beat. She had too little depth for manhood, -- & too little softness for womanhood. Take away the corner stone & the top stone from Horace Walpole's imagination -- or rather, take away what poetry he had -- & dress him up in a hoop -- & there is Lady Mary Wortley Montague ready for court!! ---- I never could bear her -- or Horace Walpole either -- and whenever I have looked at her letters, I have felt too much out of humour to be amused.' '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Letter to Elizabeth Barrett

Elizabeth Barrrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 September 1837: 'You certainly shd write Dash [Mitford's dog]'s memoirs! My youngest brothers, to say nothing of my eldest, were delighted with the [italics]memorabilia[end italics], I read to them out of your letter.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter

Thomas Henry Lister : Granby

'I have been most shockingly idle, actually reading two novels at once. a good scolding would do me a vast deal of good, & I hope you will send one of your most severe one's.? What an entertaining book Granby is; do you remember Lady Harriet talking about inhaling [Ni]tric Oxide? Johnson has actually done it, & describes the effects as the most intense pleasure he ever felt. We both mean to get tipsey in the Vacation.?. The old Mr. Wedgwood, I see in Ure's Chem. Dic., did nothing else but hold his nose & kick.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Darwin Print: Book

Lodovico Antonio Muratori : Dissertazioni sopra le Antichit? italiane gia composte e publicato in Latino dal Proposto Lodovico Antonio Muratori e da esso poscia compendiate e transportate nell' Italiana favella

'Finish Muratori - Greek - Travels of Rolando - S. reads Robertson's America - begins Bocaccio [sic] aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

James Burnett, Lord Monboddo : Antient Metaphysics; or, the Science of Universals

'S. reads Antient Metaphysics'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Jean-Charles-L?onard Simonde de Sismondi : Histoire des r?publiques italiennes du moyen ?ge

'Sismondi - B.[occaccio] - S. reads A.[ntient] M.[etaphysics]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jean Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi : Histoire des Republiques Italiennes du moyen age

'Read Sismondi - Ride to Pisa - Georgics - B.[occaccio]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Don Juan

'Read Don Juan'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Prometheus Unbound

'Read Prometheus Unbound - papers - & Indicators'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley

Madame de Stael : Corinne

'read Corinne'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : [unknown]

'Write - Read Homer - Targione - Spanish - A rainy day. S. reads Calderon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Pedro Calderon de la Barca : [unknown]

'Don Quixote & Calderon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Don Quixote & Calderon'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : 'Witch of Atlas, The'

'Copy the Witch of Atlas'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Friedrich Heinrich Karl : Sintram und seine Gefahrten

'Greek - Sintram - S. not well'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Don Juan

[Mary Shelley's reading list for 1820, with texts also read by Percy Shelley marked with an x. Only texts not mentioned in the journal are given separate entries based on this list] 'M. (& (S with an x) - 1820 The remainder of Livy. x The Bible until the end of Ezekhiel x Don Juan x Travels Before the Flood La Nouvelle Heloise The Fable of the Bees Paine's Works Utopia x Voltaire's Memoires x The Aenied [sic] And Georgics Bridone's Travels Robinson Crusoe Sandford & Merton x Astronomy in the Encyclopaedia Vindication of the Rights of women x Boswell's life of Johnson Paradise regained & lost Mary - Letters from Norway & Posthumus [sic] Works Ivanhoe - Tales of my Landlord Fleetwood - Caleb Williams x Ricciardetto. x Mrs Macauly's [sic] Hist. of Engd x Lucretius The 3 first orations of Cicero Muratori Anti chita [sic] d'Italia Travels & Rebellion in Ireland Tegrino's life of Castruccio x Boccacio [sic] - Decamerone x Keats' poems x armata Corinne The first book of Homer. Oedippus [sic] Tyrannus A Little Spanish & much Italian.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

John Frederick William Herschel : Preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy

'If you have not read Herschel in Lardners Cyclo ? read it directly.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Darwin Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : "The Exile"

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, March 1838: 'I have been reading the "Exile," from Marion Campbell, with much interest and delight'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Monckton Milnes : Memorials of a Residence on the Continent, and Historical Poems

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 April 1838: 'I had to thank [John Kenyon] for [...] lending me Mr Milnes's Poems just printed for private circulation. They are of the Tennyson school [...] & very much delighted me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

John Edmund Reade : Italy

Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 7 June 1838: 'I turned over the leaves of Mr Reade's poem for some minutes before I opened your letter'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Thomas Noon Talfourd : The Athenian Captive

Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Noon Talfourd, 13 June 1838: 'Miss Barrett presents her compliments to Mr Serjeant Talfourd, and desires to express to him her thankfulness both for his very obliging note [of 2 June 1838], and also and in particular for the valued present accompanying it. She is glad to be able to associate with the true pleasure with which she lately read his beautiful play, the gratification of now receiving it from its author.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Frederick W Beechey : Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait to co-operate with the Polar Expeditions: performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom. London

'Have you Cap. Beecheys voyage to the Pacific? if you have not, I will buy it, as it contains some most excellent Meteorological Journals?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Darwin Print: Book

Henry Fothergill Chorley : letter (extract)

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 21 June 1838: 'I have seen an extract from a private letter of Mr Chorley editor of the Athenaeum, which speaks [italics]huge[end italics] praises of my poems. If he were to say a tithe of them in print it wd be nine times above my expectation!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter

Richard Edwin Austin Townsend : Visions of the Western Railways

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 June 1838: 'Mr Townsend's poems have just reached me. I have had no time to read them, except at a rail road speed, & that not continuously. They seem to have much thought & poetic beauty'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Edwin Austin Townsend : Visions of the Western Railways

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 July 1838: 'I have written to Mr Townsend. The more I read of his poems, the more deeply I feel their beauty. I [italics]did[end italics] read the romance of Mr Osggood [sic].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Frances Sargent Osgood : 'romance'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

J. C. F. von Schiller : Die Rauber

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 12 March 1839: 'I like Schiller's Robbers better than any other play of his I have read.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Alexander von Humboldt : unknown

'If you really want to have a [notion] of tropical countries, study Humboldt.? Skip th[e] scientific parts & commence after leaving Teneriffe.? My feelings amount to admiration the more I read him.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Darwin Print: Unknown

Francis Bond Head : Gallop: Rapid journeys across the Pampas

'I suppose you all well know Heads book.? for accuracy & animation it is beyond praise.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Darwin Print: Book

John Edmund Reade : Italy

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 April 1839: 'Mr Reade has power [...] both of thought & language [...] It [Italy] is the only poem of Mr Reade's I ever read [...] I may confess to [italics]you[end italics] that it [italics]provoked[end italics] me [i.e. with imitation of Byron]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Rosina, Lady Bulwer-Lytton : Cheveley, or the Man of Honour

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 May 1839: 'I am glad you have looked at Cheveley. [italics]Now[end italics] I can confess with one blush less that I have just read it through. People obliged to be dumb like me, & under a medical disciplinarian like Dr Barry have as good an excuse as any can have for reading it [...] The book, if not the reader, is without excuse. It is wonderful in unwomanliness [...] The book is a hard cold coarse book -- a bold impudent book -- & she who wrote it may have COUNTED many strifes but has [italics]felt[end italics] none'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

William Fullerton Cumming, M.D. : Notes of a Wanderer in Search of Health, Through Italy, Egypt, Greece, Turkey; Up the Danube and Down the Rhine

Elizabeth Barrett to Arabella Moulton-Barrett, 4 June 1839: ''[Dr Barry] has been lending me his friend & patient Dr Cummings book, to read -- "Wanderings in search of Health" [...] His adventures in wandering down the Nile in search of health inclined me to laugh as much as his confession that he was "a physician in search of it'"'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Sir Edward Coke : unknown

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 17 June 1839: 'I mean to make an extract of your legal admirations and send them to my brother George who begins his circuits next year as a BARRISTER!! I shall be curious to observe how his enthusiasm for his profession, which actually set him down to read Coke among this exquisite scenery, when he came down with me last year [...] will bear up under the infliction.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Goodin Moulton-Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : poems

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 August 1839: 'I a personally quite unacquainted with Mr Horne [...] Have you not heard of his Cosimo de' Medici? He is a man of indubitable genius. I feel THAT quite distinctly, although I have read only a little of his poetry'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown

Henry Fothergill Chorley : The Lion, a Tale of the Coteries

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 11 August 1839: 'I have read Mr Chorley's Lion [...] it is a work highly indicative of ability [...] brilliant with allusion, yet not too dazzling to think by. A great part of the first volume & the greater part of the third struck & interested me much'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Henry Fothergill Chorley : Sketches of a Sea Port Town

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 11 August 1839: 'Mr Chorley's Sea port town was brought to me a little while ago -- but not as Mr Chorley's. Henrietta [sister] brought it from the circulating library -- The [italics] librarian had recommended it![end italics] -- & I am so forced to be dumb & to abstain from continuous attention to grave subjects, that amusing books of the class to which it belongs are necessary to me sometimes. Well! I did not like the name of the book -- & was turning listlessly to the title page with the words "I cant read this", -- when [italics]there[end italics], was Mr Chorley's name! Of course I [italics]cd[end italics] read it immediately, -- & was much struck by the power it indicated, & the constructiveness of the stories -- a rare characteristic, even in these story telling days.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Jean Theodore Lacordaire : M?moire sur les habitudes des Col?opt?res de l'Am?rique m?ridionale.

'Judging from the Pamphlet, you gave me & which I have found very useful, the insects of the Rio Plata are tolerably well-known.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Darwin

Barry Edward O'Meara : Napoleon in Exile; or, A Voice from St Helena

'This unfortunate O'Meara, It was the merest chance he was not sent to extend his localities in the Highlands. I would have returned the book immediately, finding how long it had been here, had the subject been any other than Napoleon - however I made what haste I could with it; but though I read whenever a temporary cessation of civilities on the part of the inhabitants left a minute at my own disposal, I only finished it at twelve o'clock the night you wrote for it - '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: Book

Henry Hart Milman : Samor, the Lord of the Bright City

'I liked Milman's books better than your scanty recommendation led me to expect- The gentleman is certainly a poet - he excells in description - the outlines of his pictures want charecter [sic] but his colouring is rich and brilliant, and on the whole his manner is very graceful - he fails sadly when he makes his personages speak and feel - however 'the Bright City' is not without heart - the episode of Lilian and Vortimer is very natural and pathetic, and Rowena's love is quite Byronical - I think if you have not read it, it is worth your time - How very presumptuous it is in me to attempt criticising such an Author as Milman!-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: Book

Henry Hart Milman : Samor, the Lord of the Bright City

'I have read the 'bright city' and rejoiced to find your criticism of it so agreeable to my own. Milman is certainly a poet, but he takes a flight higher than he can sustain. He paints too gorgeously and indistinctly, he also whines too much, he is sometimes even liable to cant. I am astonished at your diffidence in judging him: it were well if he always found even critics by profession so well qualified.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Charles Hughes Terot : Poems

'Did [Benjamin Bell] write these verses? If so, he seems young at the art like us, but not without powers of doing better; dactyls are always difficult to manage, and his accordingly are but a kind of flash in the pan - no damage is done; but the other piece has a sort of pococurante [little-caring] air about it which looks more like genius and truth, and answers greatly better. Except the last stanza, they are good. If he is only about twenty years of age or so, he may cultivate poetry with considerable hope: if nearer thirty I advise him never to write another line.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Manuscript: Sheet, Poems included in letter from Jane Baillie Welsh to TC

Robert Louis Stevenson : Victor Hugo's Romances

?Yesterday, by the bye, I received the proof of "Victor Hugo"; it is not nicely written, but the stuff is capital, I think. Modesty is my most remarkable quality, I may say in passing.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Proof copy of RLS?s essay on ?Victor Hugo?s Romances?

Mary Ann Schimmelpenninck : Select Memoirs of Port Royal

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, late January 1840: 'Did you ever meet with an account partly translated partly composed by Miss Schimmelpenninck, of the Port Royal? It is long since I read, will be longer before I forget that most interesting account of the most interesting establishment which ever owed its conventual name & form to the Church of Rome, & its purity & nobility to God's blessing & informing Spirit'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard: A Romance

Mary Russell Mitford to Elizabeth Barrett, 30 January 1840: 'I have been reading "Jack Sheppard," and have been struck by the great danger, in these times, of representing authority so constantly and fearfully in the wrong, so tyrannous, so devilish, as the author has been pleased to portray it in "Jack Sheppard" [...] Of course Mr Ainsworth had no such design, but such is the effect; and as the millions who see it represented at the minor theatres will not distinguish between now and a hundred years back, all the Chartists in the land are less dangerous than this nightmare of a book, and I, Radical as I am, lament any additional temptations to outbreak, with all its train of horrors.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments

Elizabeth Barrett to Septimus Moulton-Barrett, 6 February 1840: ''Tell [Papa] too what I forgot to tell, that I have finished Shelley's volumes which, if it were not for the here & there defilement of his atrocious opinions [...] would have very deeply delighted me. As it is there are traces of my pencil "[italics]in a passion[end italics]" as dear Georgie [brother] would say. [goes on to criticise Shelley's translations from Plato in particular]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Captain Frederick Marryat, R.N. : novels

Mary Russell Mitford to Elizabeth Barrett, 3 March 1840: 'I had a kind message from Captain Marryat once [...] but I have never seen him. Without being one of his indiscriminate admirers, I like parts of his books (some of which I have read to my father), and have been told that they have done good in the profession -- suggestions thrown out in them having been taken up and acted upon by the Lords of the Admiralty'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book

Barry Edward O'Meara : Napoleon in Exile; or, A Voice from Saint-Helena

'I have just this instant finished the O'Meara - and have no time to write. You quite distress me by sending me so many books-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: Book, Volume 2 of 2Manuscript: Letter

Publius Cornelius Tacitus : Unknown

'During the last week I have also read the latter half of 'Maria Stuart' - some scenes of Alfieri - and a portion of 'Tacitus' (which by the way is the hardest Latin I ever saw) - when you devoted four hours of my day to the study of history, what did you mean should become of my Italian and my dear German?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: BookManuscript: Letter

Richard Hengist Horne : The History of Napoleon

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 15 May 1840: 'I had finished Napoleon & was about to write to you on the subject -- & I will still write.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Thomas Noon Talfourd : Glencoe

Elizabeth Barrett to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett, 17 June 1840: '["Glencoe"] never reached me until last week [...] Thank you my dearest Georgie! [...] It was, as you well knew it wd be, a great pleasure to me to look into Glencoe -- and yet the play is to my mind, a failure [...] High & tender thoughts there are, gracefully & harmoniously expressed -- which is not [italics]being tragic[end italics]!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Our Village

Elizabeth Barrett, invalid, to Mary Russell Mitford, 10 December 1840: 'You cant guess what my business has been lately [...] my business has been retracing my steps in the Village, your village [...] You cannot realize, -- you the writer -- cannot, -- the peculiar effect of that delightful book, upon one in a prison like me, shut up from air & light [...] It frees me at once for the moment -- shows me the flowers & the grass they grow by, & pours into my face the sweetness & freshness & refreshment of the whole summer in a breath.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Jacques Fracois Paul Alphonse, Abbe de Sade : Memoires pour la vie de Francois Petrarch

'I have spent a stupid day reading the Abbe de Sade's Memoirs of Petrarch. What a feeble whipster was this Petrarch with all his talents! To go dangling about, for the space of twenty years, puffing and sighing after a little coquette, whose charms lay briefly in the fervour of his imagination, and the art she had to keep him wavering between hope and despondency - at once ridiculous and deplorable - that he might write sonnets in her praise!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Margaret A. Carlyle : Letter

'It is already past twelve o'clock, and I am tired and sleepy; but I cannot go to rest without answering the kind little note which you sent me, and acknowledging these new instances of your unwearied attention to my interests and comfort.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Manuscript: Letter

(Eduard) Benjamin Baillaud : De la methode dans les sciences

Some marginalia in pencil in English and French on the following pages: 97, 206, 241, 321.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

(Eduard) Benjamin Baillaud : De la methode dans les sciences, deuxieme serie

Marginalia in pencil in French on page 191 only; some vertical pencil marks in the margins elsewhere.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

James Mark Baldwin : Mental Development in the Child and the Race: Methods and Processes

Considerable marginal annotation in pencil in English throughout.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

James Mark Baldwin : Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development: a study in social psychology

Considerable marginal annotation in pencil in English throughout.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Henri Etienne Beaunis : Les sensations internes

Some marginal notes in English and French throughout, especially pp.127-37

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee 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.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Elford Print: Book

Edmund Spenser : The Faerie Queene

'I must own that Virgil's "Envy" and Spenser's "Cave of Error" are my aversion, as well as some other most exquisitely disgusting allegories. Our own Milton, I think, always keeps clear of this fault, and I cannot believe, in spite of Mr. Maturin, and Mr. Wilson, and Lord Byron, that it is true taste which tolerates it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eleanor Anne Porden Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Rienzi

'I think it ["Rienzi"] extremely clever; some scenes are very powerful, and capable of being wrought into a most effective play.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: W.C. Macready Manuscript: Unknown

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The

'S. reads the Antient Mariner aloud'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Defence of Poetry, A

'copy for S. - he reads to me the tale of a Tub'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Richard Lovell Edgeworth : Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth

'read Edgeworths life.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery

'The first thing which struck me in your essays was the exact accordance between your printed and epistolary style. Are you aware how very little the idea of writing of the public changes your mode of expression? Some of your sketches I like very much. "Hannah" I had read before, as well as the "Talking Lady," with whose portrait I was particularly struck...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eleanor Anne Franklin Print: Book

Mrs S.C. Hall : Sketches of Irish Character

'I think Mrs Hall's book beautiful, but am not in love with her dedicatory letter [to Mary Russell Mitford]. It is meagre.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Barbara Hofland Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : response to article in the Monthly Critic

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, late January 1841: 'I have just read your reply to the Monthly Critic -- though not his attack'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown

Catharine M Sedgwick : Hope

'I send you with this all Dr. Channing's works, and the little series of four small volumes, in whcih Miss Sedgwick's "Home" is to be found, and I send them very gladly, both because I think them good and because the last of them, "Gleams of Truth", is a practical illustration of the principles touching the relations of the more favoured and less favoured classes of society, which are so ably and so beautifully set forth in the separate sermon of Dr. Channing which I send with them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Ticknor Print: Book

Thomas Noon Talfourd : Ion

'Thank you very much for the gift of "Ion"; the tragedy was known to us by extracts, and our desire to see it was great. We like it very much - it is a noble descendant of the noble Greek tragedy.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Howitt Print: Book

Robert Montgomery Bird : Nick of the Woods: A Story of Kentucky

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 February 1841: 'If you are looking out for romances to melt away the sense of snow & long evenings from your invalid [i.e. Mitford's father], there is the American Dr Bird's "Nick of the Woods" -- which for adventure & hair breadth escapes & rapid movement from the beginning to the end, will charm you far above the freezing point, though face to face with a thermometer. I recommend to you "Nick of the Woods". I read it lately myself, & went forthwith by metempsychosis into a pilgrim of those vast sighing forests'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : 'Orpheus'

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 10 March 1841: 'I have seen Orpheus, & write just to thank you for the pleasure of the vision [...] You have gathered power, intensity, freedom of versification -- But in my brain ---- "slow the Argo ploughs her way LIke a dun dragon spreading moonlit wings", to suggest certain unsurpassable lines.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown

Samuel Laman Blanchard : Life and Literary Remains of L.E.L.

Mary Russell Mitford to Elizabeth Barrett, 20 June 1841: 'I have been reading Blanchard's life of poor L.E.L. [...] The book is to me deeply affecting. She was a fine creature thrown away'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book

Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Bury : The History of a Flirt: Related by Herself

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 July 1841: 'Before I forget again .. have you looked into the "History of a flirt"? The name may daunt you -- but the writer "leans to Miss Austen's side" [...] There is nothing high toned or passionate -- & supposing you safely over the monotony of the subject & the odiousness of the heroine, it may not prove heavy reading for your evenings [...] It did indeed strike me as one of the very best domestic novels which have fallen upon these evil days.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Letitia Elizabeth Landon : poems

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 July 1841: 'Poor LEL! Just as she had outstretched her hand to touch nature, & to feel thrillingly there that is poetry is more than fantasy .. to die so! I have dropped tears on tears over some of her later poems'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : Exposition of the False Medium and Barriers Excluding Men of Genius from the Public

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 4 August 1841: 'I have seen & read [italics]the book[end italics] [...] It is written by an enthusiast in the cause of genius upon the spectacle of its misery, lighted up to ghastliness by the torchlight of [Isaac] D'Israeli & other memorialists [...] Its thunderbolts are hurled against all false media -- such as interpose between men of genius & the public, in the form of [italic]readers[end italics] for publishers & Theatrical managers, &c &c [...] There is, in fact, with much talent & power, a sufficiency of acrimony & indiscretion [...] notwithstanding the sense forced upon me of the overweight of certain words -- I did feel myself taken off my feet & carried along in the brave strong generous current of the spirit of the book -- It is a fearless book, with fine thoughts on a stirring subject'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Our Village

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 August 1841: '[Crow] is an excellent young woman -- intelligent bright-tempered & feeling-hearted, -- more to me than a mere servant; since her heart works more than her hand in all she does for me! And her delight in your Village which I gave her to read, was as true a thing as ever was that of readers of higher degree. She says to me that if we go to Reading, she means to visit the Village, and will know every house in it just as if it were an old place to her!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Crow Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : 'On the Portrait of the Duchess of Burlington, Painted after her Death by Mr Lucas'

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 August 1841: 'How glad I was to see the graceful stanzas in the Athenaeum! -- Lady Burlington's I mean!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical

Benjamin Robert Haydon : letters to Mary Russell Mitford

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 September 1841: 'Mr Haydon's letters shut up in the best letter of all [i.e. one from Mitford], I received this morning & will return to you in a day or two. I must let Papa just look at them. They interested me much [...] How fine this life of genius is! -- & its religion too! [...] I like these letters. They spring up like a fountain among the world's conventionalities'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter

Henry Noel Brailsford : A League of Nations

Some marginalia in pencil in English on page 5 only.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Henry Noel Brailsford : The war of steel and gold: a study of the armed peace

Notes on flyleaf and marginalia in English in pencil throughout

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Joseph S. Bridges : Plant Study in School Field & Garden

Some marginalia in pencil in English on the following pages only: 65, 232-3.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : 'Adonais'

'read S's Adonais.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Unknown, editors mention that it was the poem printed on its own

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Cain

'read Cain'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Vision of Judgment, The

'Read the Vision of Judgement'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

John G. Dalyell : Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea

'Read the Hist. of Shipwrecks'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

John G. Dalyell : [account of shipwreck of Wager in] Shipwrecks and Diasters at Sea

'E. reads the shipwreck of the Wager to us in the Evening'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Williams Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Heaven and Earth

'S. reads L.[ord] B.[yron]'s - Heaven and Earth in the evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile, ou l'Education

'Read Emile'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Werner

'dine with Jane - Read Albe's tragedy to her'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Sardanapalus, a Tragedy

'read Sardanapalus'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Two Foscari, The

'Read the Two Foscari'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile, ou l'Education

'Read Homer - Tacitus - Emile & 1 Canto of Dante'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand : Atala; ou les amours de deux sauvages

'At Sarzana - read Memoirs of the court of Charles II - Attala'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Madame de Stael : Memoires sur la vie privee de mon pere, par Madame la Baronne de Stael Holstein, suivis des Melanges de M. Necker

'Unwell - read Madme de Stael's vie privee de Necker'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Niccolo Ugo Foscolo : Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis

'read - Jacopo Ortis - 2nd Vol of Geographica Fisica - &c &c'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

John A. Heraud : The Roman Brother: A Tragedy

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 25 November 1841: 'The Roman Brother -- & thank you! -- There are fine things in it -- very -- but it wants continuity, interest altogether -- & leaves you cold as a stone.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling : Theory of Pneumatology

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 December 1841: 'Mrs Niven may keep the Pneumatology as long, just as long, as she pleases. I am glad she cares to look into it. I am pleased that the first glance into it has interested [italics]you[end italics].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book

R. M. Milnes : One Tract More, or, The System Illustrated by "The Tracts for the Times," Externally Regarded: by a Layman

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 6 December 1841: 'What a singular movement is this Puseyite one [...] Mr Milnes is a Puseyite & wrote the "One tract more," which I read at Torquay by grace of Mr Kenyon's kindness, but thought little of.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown

Thomas J. Serle : Joan of Arc

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 8 December 1841: 'I have not read Self formation, -- & [italics]have[end italics] read "Gaston de Blondeville" [...] And I have been reading your Mr Serle's Joan of Arc -- confessing with you the talent of the book, while I groaned a little under the heaviness [...] Joan is not very interesting -- true & beautiful as is the aspect she wears. She is seen as in a picture -- attitude, countenance -- but we dont feel her heart beat -- we know nothing of her inward life.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Anna Brownell Jameson : writings including Conversations on the State of Art and Literature in Germany (1837)

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 23-25 December 1841: 'Mrs Jameson's early writings -- the Ennuyee for instance -- have an adroit leaning to sentiment, which is [italics]sentimentality[end italics], & provokes one the more for the excellent taste observable & admirable even there. In her later books, I do, I confess, see much to admire. The conversations, for instance, on the state of art & literature in Germany .. oh surely, we cannot all but admire their acuteness & eloquence & high intonation.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling : Autobiography

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 23-25 December 1841: 'I have kept back my letter that I might send you Stilling's Autobiography! But [...] I cant get it anywhere [..] I [italics]am[end italics] so disappointed. Cant Mrs Cox get it for you from the place where she read it herself?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Cox Print: Book

Thomas Noon Talfourd : Recollections of a First Visit to the Alps, in August and September 1841

Robert Browning to Rachel Talfourd, c.1842: 'Out of certain projects of calling personally and saying my thankful say -- comes this poor paper and ink acknowledgement of the Sergeant's great kindness [...] I have read the "Recollections" with the greatest delight, seeing in my mind the whole party at every turn. Will you have the goodness to tell him this, mending my imperfect phrase.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : Alsargis

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 18 January 1842: 'What can you have thought, my dear Mr Horne, of all this loitering with your tragedy? [...] Here it is all safe back for you [...] thank you, thank you, twice over, for all the -- -- -- [italics]pleasure[end italics] is the wrong word -- -- -- [italics]sensation[end italics] is not quite right -- the [italics]emotion[end italics], which this fine tragedy has given me [goes on to comment upon text in detail]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown

H. F. Chorley : Music and Manners

Mary Russell Mitford to Elizabeth Barrett, 2 March 1842: 'Since writing to you yesterday, my beloved friend, I have read in H. F. C[horley]'s "Music and Manners" the account of a visit which he made to Madame d'Abrantes, I think in '39 [goes on to relate anecdote given]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Unknown

Edward George Earle Bulwer Lytton : Paul Clifford

'I have been reading with much encreased admiration Paul Clifford - It is a wonderful, a sublime book - What will Bulwer become? the first Author of the age? I do not doubt it - he is a magnificent writer'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Thomas Crofton Croker : Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland

'I am obliged to you for the books you were good enough to send me - Mr Crokers Volume was quite to my purpose' [letter to John Murray]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : "Victor Hugo's Romances"

'"Victor Hugo" has come; I like all your alterations vastly, except one which I don?t like, tho? I own something was needed there also.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Proof copy of RLS?s essay on ?Victor Hugo?s Romances?

Robert Louis Stevenson : [material on John Knox]

?Goodbye. I am at "Knox and the Women", which seems good stuff when I come to put it down; but the arrangement cost me some trouble.?

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book, Presumably numerous works by, and of general and specific reference to, Knox

Laetitia Elizabeth Landon : Romance and Reality

'L.E.L.'s [Laetitia Elizabeth Landon's] 3d vol is very good indeed. It has Romance & Sentiment; which is that in which she excells - [underlined] Reality [end underlining] she has too much fancy & feeling for - I was deeply interested in the 3d Vol - it does her heart & imagination both great credit. Cavendish I find very amusing' [Letter to Charles Ollier]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

William Johnson Neale : Cavendish; or, the Patrician at Sea

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

William Johnson Neale : Cavendish; or, the Patrician at Sea

'I will return Cavendish in a few days - It is very clever - but the beginning is best - & it is immoral - why [wr]ite about certain things; it is bad enough that they are' [Letter to Charles Ollier]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Constantine Henry Phipps, 1st Marquis of Normanby : Contrast, The

'Could you lend me any new publ. - you wd eternally oblige me - not the Contrast - I have read it - But the Fair of May Fair or Arlington -' [letter to Charles Ollier]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Lady Caroline Lucy Scott [pseud.] : Marriage in High Life, A

'Is Godolphin by Henry Bulwer? Pray tell me - Do you remember promising to lend me the letters of Horace Walpole when they came out - [Now] If you were very good and wished [much] to please me you would send them and [Trevyllian] Trevellian - which I should like to read as being by the person who wrote Marriage in High Life' [Letter to Charles Ollier]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [translation of Homer's Hymn to Mercury and the Cyclops]

'he does not like any poetry except Percy's Ancient ballads and Shelley's translation of Homer's Hymn to mercury and the Cyclops - but he likes romances any marvellous tales & is a great story teller' [letter to Maria Gisborne; subject is Percy Shelley junior]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Shelley Print: Book

Anselm von Feurbach : Caspar Hauser

'I am reading Caspar Hauser - its being an invention takes from the interest - if it were true it wd be a deeply exciting work - It reminds me much of Calderon's La Vida es Sueno' [letter to Maria Gisborne]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Jeremiah Holmes Wiffin [ed. / trans.] : Works of Garcilaso de la Vega

' I have got Wiffin's Garcilaso - He mentions in it that he meant to publish a Spanish Anthology - did he ever?' [letter to John Bowring who was helpiing Mary with Spanis researches]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Richard Monckton Milnes : Poetry for the People

'Two of your love poems are supremely beautiful - O let not words, the callous shell of thought & I will not say my life was sad and I like infinitely They owned their passion without shame or fear. I hope some day you will come and read to me again' [Letter to Richard Monckton Milnes]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Monckton Milnes Print: Book

Alexander Andrew Knox : Heir of Cyprus, The

'You liked "St Thomas's Eve" which gave great promise - a promise which "The Heir Of Cyprus" redeems. The tory is far more artistically, & is indeed admirably managed, whilst the poetry is not less spirited and fervid. It is presumptuous, I fear, to speak thus - but I think that animated by your genius, the character of the Hero will have a very powerful effect on the stage' [letter to William Macready]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley

Thomas Noon Talfourd : Recollections of a first visit to the Alps, in August and September 1841

'Will you thank Mr Talfourd for the kind present of his pleasant book' [letter to Edward Moxon]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Ida Grafin Hahn-Hahn : Grafin Faustine

'I sent you Nina - & a Novel of the Countess Hahn by Miss R - [Ramsbottom] her best I believe - I am reading another now that I do not like so well - Fau[s]tina is very clever - all about Clement is excellent - two things I think erroneous - one is bad management on the part of the authoress the other unnatural - She ought to have accounted better for the absence of Andlau - In the situation she describes he wd have come back or sent for her - never have allowed so long a separation - the unnatural thing is Faustina ever wishing to leave her child - a woman of that directness of feeling is always I think maternal but I like the book & it is clever - lend it to Knox when you have read it' [letter to Claire Clairmont]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Ida Grafin Hahn-Hahn : [a novel]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Manuscript: Unknown

Jean Francois Marmontel : Memoires

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 March 1842: 'I [italics]have[end italics] read Marmontel's memoirs .. & a most amusing book it is'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : Zanoni

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 17 March 1842: 'In regard to Zanoni, I think with you that there is much in it, one wd yearn to see cast out of it, in reverence to the unity of the whole [goes on to comment on text in further detail]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Edwin Austin Townsend : poem on the departure and farewell sermon of George Augustus Selwyn, on his being appointed Bishop of New Zealand

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 March 1842: 'I like this waste of the public money upon bishops of New Zealand!! [...] as little as you do, & have ventured to be open with Mr Townsend & tell him as much. The utter absurdity [...] of forcing out the forms & ceremonies of this Parliament church, out among the savages, I cd even cry over in utter vexation [...] let those who are sent, be [italics]missionaries[end italics]. The bishops are impotent [...] in all situations of the kind -- & as I ventured to tell Mr Townsend, the martyr soul of poor Williams was the true Bishop-soul for the South Seas. 'There is great sweetness in his little poem to be sure -- a few lines together which one smiles over to oneself as for pleasure. Still -- what a subject!'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett

Charles F. Darley : Plighted Troth

Wiliam Charles Macready, Journal, 6 August 1841: 'Finished the play of Plighted Troth -- a play written in a quaint style, but possessing the rare qualities of intense passion and happy imagination.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Charles Macready

Charles W. Ferguson : The Confusion of Tongues: a review of modernisms

Some marginal annotation in pencil in English on the following pages only: 256, 265-6, 274.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Charlotte Perkins Gilman : Human Work

Brief summary of notes on inside front cover, and marginalia in pencil in English throughout the volume.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Charlotte Perkins Gilman : The Home: Its Work and Influence

Some marginalia in pencil in English throughout the volume.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Edwin S. Goodrich : Living Organisms: An Account of their Origin & Evolution

Notes in pencil in the rear inside cover, and some light marginalia in pencil throughout the volume; this is extensive on the following pages: 90, 108-111, 116-7, 134-5, 140-1, 175, 185.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : unknown

Elizabeth Barrett to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett, 30 March 1842: 'I have been reading Emerson -- He does away with individuality & personality in a most extraordinary manner -- teaching that [...] every man's being is a kind of Portico to the God Over-soul -- with Deity for background [...] there are heresies as thick as blackberries. Still the occasional beauty of thought & expression, & the noble erectness of the thinking faculty gave me "wherewithal to glory".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

James Russell Lowell : A Year's Life

Elizabeth Barrett to James Russell Lowell, 31 March 1842: 'I beg you at last to receive my very earnest thanks for the volume of graceful poetry which I received from you some months ago through the hands of our mutual friend Mr Kenyon [...] There is a natural bloom upon the poems, a one-heartedness with nature, which is very pleasant to me to recognize [...] I hope that you will write on'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Agnes Maria Bennett : The Beggar Girl and Her Benefactors

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 April 1842: 'I read the Beggar girl, when I was very young'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier : Memoires

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 25 April 1842: 'Of course you know Mademoiselle de Monpensier's [sic] Memoires. They are most characteristically delightful -- yet I am only just now reading them -- & the Duc de St Simon's also. I have a sort of Memoir brain fever at the present season-- Don't you think so?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : letter to Elizabeth Barrett

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 May 1842: 'I cdnt help reading to Crow your beautiful story of your Flush [dog] [...] mine immediately took up the gesture of listening intently gathering his ears over his great eyes as if he saw a hare [...] & patting about his little paws everytime the word [...] "Flush" occurred. Be sure he thought I was reading about [italics]him[end italics]!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter

Ralph Waldo Emerson : Essays: First Series

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 June 1841: 'Yes [...] to [having read] Emerson's letters [sic]. Or rather, yes, to the letters, & "no" to Carlyle's preface -- because I read the American edition. Mr Kenyon lent the book to me, the book belonging to Mr Crabbe Robinson whose hair stood on end when he heard of its being lent to me! "Why" he said "that book is too stiff even for myself -- and I am not very orthodox." In fact the book [...] is very extravagant in some of its views. It sets about destroying [...] the personality of every person, & speaks of the Deity as of a great Background to which every created individual forms a little porch!!! For the rest, there are beautiful & noble thoughts in the book, beautifully & nobly said.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : Eva; the Ill-omened Marriage, and Other Tales and Poems (extracts)

Robert Browning to Alfred Domett, 13 July 1842: 'Sir L. Bulwer has just published a set of sing-songs -- I read two, or one, in a Review -- & thought them abominable.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical

Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna : 'little books'

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 August 1842: 'As to Charlotte Elizabeth -- yes, I have read that little book you speak of, & several of her little books besides. Her bitterness & narrowness towards the R Catholics [...] I admit & lament to the roots of my heart. She is a very devoted woman, & lives to God nearly as if she lived with Him -- and I believe that in exciting religious feeling her books have done much good & especially among the young.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown

Benjamin Robert Haydon : letter to the Sheffield Mercury regarding formation of a School of Design in Sheffield.

Elizabeth Barrett to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 29 October 1842: 'I have to thank you [...] for the sight of a very interesting letter of the Sheffield paper which I seem to be bound to return to you, as you do not say "keep it".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper

Richard Hengist Horne : review article on Tennyson and/or Browning

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 November 1842: 'Mr Leigh Hunt & Mr Horne have been reviewing Tennyson & Browning in the Church of England quarterly [...] Mr Horne is acute and generous as he always is, -- but Leigh Hunt's article, altho' honest in criticism, I do not doubt, & wise in many of the remarks, strikes me as a cold welcome from a poet to a poet -- & to such a poet as Tennyson! -- & I felt a little vexed while I was reading it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Lays of Ancient Rome (extracts)

Robert Browning to Alfred Domett, 13 December 1842: 'The only novelty we have had in books as yet, has been Macaulay's Lays of Rome -- a kind of revenge on that literature which so long plagued ours with Muses, and Apollo, and Luna and all that, -- by taking the stalest subjects in it, and as plentifully bestowing on them the commonplaces of our indigenous ballad-verse -- "Then out spake brave Sir Cocles" -- "Go, hark ye, stout Sir Consul" -- and a deal more: I have only seen extracts, but they gave me this notion.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical

Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon fils : Le Sopha, Conte Moral

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 28 December 1842: 'Did you ever look at -- I dont say [italics]read[end italics] -- the "Sofa" of Crebillon fils. I sent for it once in the innocense [sic] of my ignorance, & after a quarter of an hour's turning of the leaves dropped it like a burning iron. It is the most disgusting sensual book I ever [italics]tried[end italics] to read -- but [italics]did'nt[end italics] read, I do assure you.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Etienne Leon de Lamothe-Langon : Memoires d'une Femme de Qualite sur Louis XVIII, sa Cour et son Regne

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 December 1842: 'I remember [...] reading in the curious Memoires d'une femme de qualite, a mot upon Madme de Genlis who was said to have confessed in [italics]her[end italics] memoirs [italics]everybody's sins except her own[end italics].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Benjamin Robert Haydon : autobiography

Elizabeth Barrett to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 8 January 1843: 'Your autobiography my dear Mr Haydon is delightful! I have been deeply interested in it in all ways [...] you owe this M.S. to the world as you owe to it the productions of your Art [...] the descriptions of Northcote, Opie, & Fuseli are highly graphic & life-like'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown

Anton Felix Schindler : The Life of Beethoven

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 15 January 1843: 'I read this very morning Schindler's interesting memoirs of Beethoven'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : The Last of the Barons (extract)

Robert Browning to Alfred Domett, 5 March 1843: 'Here we are sound asleep. Bulwer's new Novel, "The Last of the Barons," is to be, he says, the last of Bulwer's -- and seems a poor affair, if one may judge by the single extract I have seen.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : unknown

Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, mid-March 1843: 'Thank you, my dear cousin, for Mr Longfellow's verses -- a [italics]whole book[end italics] of which I never saw before, & never liked him so little as in the same. But I suppose verses of this sort are meant to be light & insigni[fi]cative'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Francisco Gomez de Quevedo y Villegas : [unknown]

'In looking over my note I find that I have not half said all I think of the admirable manner you treat the subject of your book in the preface. Did you ever read any of Quevedo? the Spanish wit? - whose dry humour is very pointed - His account of the different awakenings of different characters for the day of Judgement is one among many specimens' [letter to Leigh Hunt]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : The Last of the Barons

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 March 1843: 'Notwithstanding my admiration of Bulwer, I had the hardest & most laborious work passing through his "Last of the Barons" (May it be the last of his romances wrought after such a fashion!) [...] There are threads of golden beauty [...] the sub-stuff being strong, & stiff, & useful -- very good stout history [...] but as for romance & poetic Art, the Goddess of useful knowledge has set her face against them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mrs Samuel Carter Hall : unknown

Elizabeth Barrett to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 21 April 1843: 'Mrs S. C. Hall is an agreeable & graceful writer, & I am one of her many readers [...] From her husband I had one or two kind notes once, when he had the editorship of Colburn's magazine & I was a contributor to the same.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown

Gottfried August Burger : Lenore

'My first sight of German letters, and my first wish to know the language, was gained from being allowed to look at a beautiful copy of Burger's "Lenore", illustrated by striking line engravings, and having the German on one page and the English translation on the other.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Benjamin Robert Haydon : journal

Benjamin Robert Haydon to Elizabeth Barrett, 28 April 1843: 'I have been sadly shocked at Reading Wilkie[']s life, -- to think that for 20 years of our earliest Friendship when daily I used to read to him my journal of my thoughts -- & he used to speak of the danger of all personal remarks in [a] journal [...] It [i.e. Haydon's] was only a journal of conclusions on Art, & Poetry which have been the foundation of my lectures -- I am shocked that I never knew [italics]he[ed italics] kept a journal of nothing but remarks on his Friends their weaknesses & follies'.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Robert Haydon Manuscript: Unknown

Nicholas John Halpin : Oberon's Vision in the Midsummer-Night's Dream

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 29 May 1843: 'Reading Mr Halpin of the Shakespeare society upon Oberon's command to Puck in the "midsummer night's dream," & falling into the degree of passion to which sympathy is more necessary than it is to grief itself, I turned in my thoughts to you as the person most likely of all to be in a competent passion [...] Now by the soul of Shakespeare, it ought to be a reason or blasphemy by act of Parliament for men to write such treaties & call them commentaries. They are [italics]mentaries[end italics] in the strictest sense [...] Mr Halpin gives us a "paraphrase" of Oberon's "sug'red words", -- from which, here is an extract. '"And so the imperial votaress passed on In maiden meditation, fancy-free." 'Halpin loquitur. "And so the virgin queen departed from Kenilworth castle, unshackled by any matrimonial engagement & as heart-whole as ever .." 'I hope you dont belong to the Shakespeare society.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : article on Royal Commission on Children's Employment

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 29 May 1843: 'By the way [...] I have been reading you in the Illuminated Magazine.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical

John Edmund Reade : Sacred Poems

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 May 1843: 'Mr Reade's "Sacred Poems" I am now looking into by dear Mr Kenyon's kindness. He is [italics]in Wordsworth now[end italics], having made the circuit of the poets. What a phenomenon!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Philip James Bailey : Festus

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 9 June 1843: 'A gentleman, a poet, a correspondent, at large intervals, of mine [...] wrote to me, praising [John] Sterling extravagantly. [italics]I[end italics], .. who never cd see much in Sterling, .. was sincere & cold about him in reply, .. & begged the praiser to read Festus, which I was reading at the moment. Well! -- Presently I had another letter. My correspondent was astounded at me! Upon my praise, he had procured Festus, & looked at one or two pages, .. when he was driven back in convulsive fits, by the hot blast of Indecency & Blasphemy emitted from the leaves -- he found it impossible to read such a book!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Philip James Bailey : Festus

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : Orion

Katherine Cockell to Elizabeth Barrett, 30 June 1843: 'I could not put Orion out of my hands for my needful food, -- nor out of my head for my more needful sleep. I was wholly possessed, rapt away into some new sphere never before dreamt of, & all this, (& much more than all this) tho' I have no classical enthusiasm (of course not!) real or affected; & tho' I have a particular antipathy to Giants.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Cockell Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : Orion

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 7 July 1843: 'Mr Kenyon was with me yesterday, and praised "Orion" most admiringly. He had read it only in parts yet, through a press of occupation, but he had from these parts, he said, the same sort of pleasure as from Keats's "Endymion" or "Hyperion;" and what particularly charmed him was the versification.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Kenyon Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'I taught myself besides to read Spanish - for having found a Spanish "Don Quixote" lying about, which no-one claimed, I took possession of it, bought a grammar and dictionary, and set to work to master the contents of the book which I knew so well by name'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

George Payne Rainsford James : novels

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 July 1843: 'I like the spirit & courteous goodness of Mr James's books [...] I believe I have read almost everyone [sic] of his books .. either when I was ill or when I was well. They have much of what Chaucer calls "gentilesse" .. if not much passion & imagination -- and his scenic descriptions are admirable. I do not know better books for an invalid -- although the author may not be pleased with my reason for saying so -- viz that they seldom make the heart beat.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]

'The elements of botany on the Linnaean system was another of my attempted acquirements, but I am afraid my studies were very superficial: I knew nothing perfectly, but I read everything that came in my way. There was an excellent town library in Newport, from which I could get any good modern works; and, besides the graver literature, I had always some lighter book on hand, and especially delighted in Walter Scott's novels and poetry. Byron, too, was a great favourite'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier : Memoires

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 July 1843: 'You must remember Mademoiselle de Montpensier's delightful memoirs. She was fifty or past it when she met Lauzun, & the tears ran down my cheeks as I read the recitation of her love sorrows.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

John Henry Newman : Tracts for the Times

'I had seen some numbers of "Tracts for the Times" lying on the counter in a bookseller's shop in Newport, and they had excited my curiosity, and led to inquiry; and, as my brother William's opinions had by that time become marked, he soon succeeded in indoctrinating us all with them. A very great comfort it certainly was to myself to have my ideas cleared upon subjects which had long been floating about in my brain, and worrying me almost without my knowing it. Especially it was a relief to me to find great earnestness and devotion in a system which allowed of reserve in expression, and did not make the style of conversation, which I had met with in the only definitely religious tales I had read, a necessary part of Christianity. Mrs Sherwood's "Tales" and others of a similar kind, described children as quoting texts, and talking of their feelings in an unnatural way, or what seemed to me unnatural; and I had really suffered so much at school from things said to me which jarred upon my taste that it was perfect rest to be able to talk upon religious subjects without hearing or using cant phrases'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Charles James Lever : Charles O'Malley

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?late July 1843: 'As you praise Charles O'Malley so much, I really must try to get thro' the thorns & read him. I tried only once certainly -- & then my own humour might have been partly in fault. My conclusion then was, that I cdnt read him -- that he was a very clever fellow & the very fellow to be written & read between the smoke of a cigar & the steam of a glass of brandy [...] His noise made my head ache, & his loud laughing made me grave. In fact, the book appeared to me a view of Life by the light of strong, somewhat coarse & altogether unworn animal spirits .. & not that touching, solemn, holy thing which Life is, in the eyes of that God who died for its purification, & those human beings who have learnt nearly all they know in the depth of its agonies.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mary Martha Sherwood : [Tales]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Stories on the Lord's Prayer

'I read both the few chapters of the intended tract, and the beginning of "Amy Herbert" to my sisters, and they liked them'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Amy Herbert

'I read both the few chapters of the intended tract, and the beginning of "Amy Herbert" to my sisters, and they liked them'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Stories on the Lord's Prayer

'I was reading the little book aloud to my mother one evening when he was in the room, and not being well was lying on the sofa half asleep, as I thought; but he listened, and I think was interested, for he asked me what I was reading. I forget exactly what answer I made, but it certainly was not that I was reading anything of my own, and so I lost the opportunity of giving him pleasure'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Mary Martha Sherwood : [Tales based on Church Catechism]

'The idea of connecting it ["Laneton Parsonage", by Sewell] with the Church Catechism had been originally suggested to me by Mrs Sherwood's stories on the same subject, which in my childhood had been a great source of Sunday amusement'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Earl's Daughter, The

'"The Earl's Daughter" was also begun before my mother's death, and I read part of it to her, but she saw from the beginning that it was likely to be sad, and I think it rather oppressed her. "Margaret Percival" I read to her entirely, and also a portion of "Laneton Parsonage", and I remember being obliged to reassure her that Alice Lennox (in the latter tale) when taken ill would not die, she took such a vivid interest in the story - which was only completed after her death'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Margaret Percival

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Laneton parsonage

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Manuscript: Unknown

John Henry Newman : [a sermon]

'The Church though may mean the Catholic or Universal Church and so Rome may be included. It is a horrid, startling notion, but a sermon of Newman's I was reading to-night would be a great safeguard against being led into mischief by it, "Obedience, the remedy for religious pereplexity".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Cecilia Frances Tilley : Chollerton: A tale of our own times

'I took up "Chollerton" (a Church tale) and skimmed parts through the uncut leaves and was not fascinated. It seemed strained and the fasting was brought forward prominently, and there seemed too much womanish humility. In one place the authoress cannot follow a young clergman, by description, in his feelings, or intrude "into that sacred edifice which formerly a woman's foot was forbidden to profane". This is, if I remember rightly, the drift of the observation, and really my humility cannot reach that depth. I think I [italics] can [end italics] imagine something of what a clergyman might feel, and I should never consider it an intrusion to go wherever men go, taking them as men. Of course the altar is different; but there the distinction is not between men and women, but between God and man'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Katherine Ashton

'Colonel Forbes has not in appearance, position and surroundings the least resemblance to his prototype; yet that the character is in the main true was shown to me strangely by the fact that the gentleman who gave me the idea of it came to me after he had read "Katherine Ashton" and owned that Colonel Forbes resembled himself, though no one else ever suggested the likeness.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon. Print: Book

Edward Bouverie Pusey : [Sermons]

'I have written a little, and read a good deal, - the second volume of "Sir Charles Metcalfe's Life", which makes me look upon him as more of a hero than many whom Carlyle would worship; and "Hypatia" and two sermons of Dr Pusey's against Germanism, and part of "Hero Worship", to say nothing of pamphlets and magazines, and a diligent study of "The Times" every evening. "Hypatia" is a marvel; very painful because it gives such a miserable view of Christianity in those days. In striving to be true, the description seems as if it must be untrue, even by its own acknowledgment. There must have been self-denial and faith, and charity working beneath those turbulent outward scenes. Yet it gives one no sympathy with philosophy. Mrs Meyrick and I both agree that "Pelagia" wins our affection much more than "Hypatia".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : Orion

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 7 August 1843: 'I heard of Orion the other day being admired at the first glance, & carried away to be admired at leisure, by Mrs Jameson'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Brownell Jameson Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : Lays of Ancient Rome

Elizabeth Barrett, invalid, to Richard Hengist Horne, 5 October 1843: 'I very much admire Mr Macaulay -- & could scarcely read his ballads & keep lying down. They seemed to draw me up to my feet as the mesmeric powers are said to do'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Baron Jean du Potet de Sennevoy : An Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism ... With an Appendix Containing Reports of British Practitioners in Favour of the Science

Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 12 December 1843: 'I have read in Baron Dupotet's & Dr Stone's book upon Mesmerism, that in cases of the chest, it will not avail -- and that the spitting of blood has been brought on very violently by attempting to cast the patient into sleep'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Monckton Milnes : 'Lay of the Humble'

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 13 December 1843: 'I admired [Richard Monckton Milne's] first volume very much; but his later poetry seems to want fire and imagination, and to strain too much at the didactic [...] And then that exquisite "Lay of the Humble" which I was praising lately, and which affected me very much at the time I read it (it appeared in the first volume), somebody told me the other day that it was not original. Taken from the German I think they said it was. I wish I knew. It is very beautiful in any case.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : Orion

Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 27 December 1843: 'I must not forget to thank you for your recommendation of "Orion" -- I have read it again & again, & like it exceedingly -- I thought it a little [italics]cold[end italics] at first, but lost sight of that in the second reading'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Ode to a Skylark

Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 1 January 1844: 'Shelley, I have read, through & through, & love & admire him as much, as I can do a man who holds himself so far aloof from common feelings, & common sympathies -- There are poems of his, which I never tire of reading -- the "ode to a Skylark", & "Alastor", & part of the "Prometheus", & that magnificent first canto of the "Revolt of Islam", with the fight of the eagle & serpent'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Alastor

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Prometheus Unbound

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : The Revolt of Islam (Canto I)

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book

George Payne Rainsford James : novels

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 5-6 January 1844: '[George Payne Rainsford James] is a picturesque writer [...] Often when I have been very unwell, I have been able to read his books with advantage, when I cd not read better ones. You may read him from end to end without a superfluous beat of the heart -- & they are just the sort of intellectual diet fitted for persons "ordered to be kept quiet" by their physicians [...] I am grateful to Mr James for many a still serene hour.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton : poems

Richard Hengist Horne to Elizabeth Barrett, 27 January 1844: 'Do you know Mrs Norton's poetry? Much I have seen, I thought very good of its kind. More high-minded in its personal aggrievedness, and less reproachful & vindictive than Ld Byron.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Hengist Horne

Richard Hengist Horne : plays

Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 28 January 1844: 'For the Dramas [of Richard Hengist Horne], we owe you many thanks -- we have read them all, & admired them all [...] I confess I have formed an almost higher opinion of Mr Horne's genius from them, than from "Orion" [poem] [...] "Delora["] too, has many fine passages, -- and I should be more particular in adverting to them & others, were it not that your own pencil has forestalled me, so that my encomiums would be, in most cases, but a reiteration of your own [goes on to reflect upon pleasures of reading annotations by others in books]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : The Ballad of Delora

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : The Ballad of Delora

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Charles James Lever : Harry Lorrequer

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 5 February 1844: 'I [italics]cannot read[end italics] Lever, ... honestly & without affectation, I [italics]cannot[end italics] [...] Over and over again have I tried to read his book -- and every time I came to the conclusion that he was a remarkably clever writer who was unreadable by me. [...] The chapters, I have read of him, make my head ache as if I had been sitting in the next room to an orgy [...] of gentlemen topers, -- with their low gentility, & "hip hip hurrahs," & wine out of wine-coolers [...] he is contracted & conventional, & unrefined in his line of conventionality -- and I cannot believe that he represents fairly even the social & jovial side of men of much refinement'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Philip James Bailey : Festus

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, letter postmarked 21 February 1844: '[italics]Have[end italics] I read "Festus"? Certainly I have [...] Oh yes! I was much struck by "Festus" [...] Both the "Festus" & the supplement apologetic to it, which appeared in the Monthly Repository (I think) filled me with admiration [...] Its [italics]fault[end italics] is an extraordinary inequality -- so really one falls down precipices continually; & from pinnacles of grandeur, into profundities of badness. Parts of the poem are as bad, & as weak as is well possible to be conceived of: and moreover [...] there is an occasional coarseness & gratuitous indelicacy [...] Also, I will not say that there is not some over-daring in relation to divine things [...] But when all is said, what poet-stuff remains!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Philip James Bailey : Additional scene for Festus

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical

John Edmund Reade : letter to Mary Russell Mitford

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 March 1844: 'My dearest friend I return Mr Reade's letter which amused me more perhaps than it [italics]shd[end italics] have done, as representing a human being bound, so, upon the agonizing wheel of an extreme & incessant vanity [...] Did you not laugh out loud when you read it? [goes on to mock Reade's views on his contemporaries in literature]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter

Sir Aurel Stein : unknown

'I have before me as I write a photo by Sir Aurel Stein showing the body of a man of Turfan buried fifteen centuries ago, and it is hard to belive that he is even dead. And the reason Sir Aurel suggests for this desiccation of Central Asia is, that not so much has the climate changed, as that in the past those areas subsisted in the main on the excess water given by the slow melting of the original ice-cap, since the actual snowfall must have been insufficient to produce glaciers of a size to give their requisite summer volume of water. And so it seems to me that that is to some extent the condition of Ladakh...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Martin Louis Alan Gompertz ('Ganpat') Print: Unknown

Richard Hengist Horne : A New Spirit of the Age

Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, ?12 April 1844: 'I have just finished the second volume [of A New Spirit of the Age], dear Miss Barrett, & my fingers itch to tell you that I am quite positively sure that [italics]you are in more pages of the book than those headed by your name[end italics]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : A New Spirit of the Age

Richard Hengist Horne to Elizabeth Barrett, 10 June 1844: 'Leigh Hunt has shown me his copy [of A New Spirit of the Age] all marked through. He has marked with great admiration various passages written violently of by [italics]others[end italics].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Leigh Hunt Print: Book

Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton : The Dream, and Other Poems

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 13 June 1844: 'The poem [of Caroline Norton's] which I called [italics]domestic[end italics] is one, I think, in an octave stanza, containing a story .. of a wife who becomes aware of the dishonour of her husband. It succeeds the Dream -- It has more [italics]power[end italics], than any composition of Mrs Norton's which I ever read. The name quite escapes me -- & I have so painful an association of a personal nature with the book, as to lose all courage to look into it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Henry Fothergill Chorley : Memorials of Mrs Hemans

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 22 July 1844: 'I have been reading for the second time, that interesting memoir of Mrs Hemans by Mr Chorley -- full of interest certainly. Still I stand by my position, that she was too conventionally a [italics]lady[end italics], to be a great poetess [...] I took up Blanchard's memoir of LEL just after Mr Chorley's book, & was struck by an undeniable vulgarity spreading all the way through it, in obvious contrast to the refinement of the other work.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Samuel Laman Blanchard : Life and Literary Remains of L.E.L.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

James Russell Lowell : Poems

Elizabeth Barrett to James Russell Lowell, 31 July 1844, thanking him for copy of his Poems (1844): 'Your "Legend of Brittany" is full of beautiful touches [...] Then among the miscellaneous poems my pencil has marked various beauties & felicities. Chief of all I like the [italics]ode[end italics], which has struck a deep string in me, as it must in all, to whom Poetry has been as to me, the Life-light of existence. 'If I ventured to make a remark in criticism on this new volume in a general point of view, it wd be that there is a certain vagueness of effect, through a redundant copiousness of what may be called poetical diction!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : unknown

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9-10 August 1844: 'Do you remember, by the glance you had, my lovely little cousin Lizzie Barrett [...] Well -- that child is only ten years old, & not remarkable in any way for precocity, .. simply an intelligent child, and fond of reading -- and she delights, quite delights in your books!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lizzie Barrett Print: Book

Catherine Smith Pyer : Wild Flowers; or Poetic Gleanings from Natural Objects

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 September 1844: 'I have sent you Miss Pyer's volume of poems today .. & see in it an address to yourself. The subscription is all settled.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : 'Early Administrations of George the Third: The Earl of Chatham'

Elizabeth Barrett to John Kenyon, 29 October 1844: 'There is an excellent refutation of Puseyism in the Edinburgh Review, .. by whom? -- and I have been reading besides the admirable paper by Macaulay in the same number.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical

John Gibson Lockhart : Some Passages in the Life of Mr. Adam Blair Minister of the Gospel at Cross-Meikle

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 November 1844: 'Have you any recollection of Adam Blair? I believe there was an outcry against the indecency of that book, -- & lately, on comparing the first with a last edition of it, I find that the author has left out the few lines which were taken generally to be offensive, & which compared to the least of certain offences, were the merest lamb-innocences.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Jean Francois Casimir Delavigne : poetry

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20 November 1844: 'I read "La Torpille" -- but I cannot give you any information, such as you ask for [...] As to Casimir Delavigne, I dislike his poetry so much that I dont think I [italics]can[end italics] try to read any more of it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Leonard Sylvain Jules Sandeau : Marianna

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 November 1844: 'Of [italics]Sandeau[end italics] I have read very little. His "Marianna" has power in its way [...] but acclimatation is a necessary precaution -- for the passion of the book exceeds the comprehension of an Englishman by leagues of extravagance. It's a melancholy, desecrating book'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The Passionate Friends

'You have been looking for the wrong things in "The Passionate Friends", & failing to see the right things.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Mazeppa

'Try, by way of change, Byron?s "Mazeppa", you will be astonished. It is grand and no mistake, and one sees through it a fire, and a passion, and a rapid intuition of genius, that makes one rather sorry for one?s own generation of better writers and ? I don?t know what to say; I was going to say ?smaller men?; but that?s not right; read it and you will feel what I cannot express. Don't be put out by the beginning; persevere; and you will find yourself thrilled before you are at an end with it.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Notes on the Movements of Young Children.

'Many thanks. I have received the 15 quid, and the "Portfolio" proof.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Proof copy of RLS?s essay

Thomas Dick Lauder : Scottish Rivers

'I have written a review of Lauder?s "Scottish Rivers" for the "Academy" which I think you will like; I should not have done it just now, but I was in the humour ? and I did eat...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonvantura Trapassi (AKA Metastatio) : Unknown

'Metastatio is improving I finish Themistocles and the second book of Annals today also - what tempted you to send me that deplorable (these blots are no work of mine) volume of calamities? it was enough to throw any one in my case into the blue devils for a twelvemonth to come.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: Book

Comte Emmanuel Dieudonne de Las Cases : Memorial de Sainte Helene

'Besides the highland impediment we have had daily visitors for a whole fortnight so I have got nothing read except Turnadot and Napoleon's memoirs - I assure you I have made a violent effort to keep my temper-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Stella

'I am staggering through Goethe as fast as I can - that is very slowly - Schiller was nothing to this - Goe[z] puzzled me so excessively that I thought it adviseable to let it alone for a little and try something else - I chose Stella as I had read it in french and with great difficulty I have got through it and part of Clavigo - I do not think I shall like Goethe much unless he improves greatly-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Clavigo, a Tragedy

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: Book

Johann Gottfried Gruber : Christop Martin Wieland

'Meantime I am reading Grubers Wieland: he is about equal to Doctor Joralic our worthy friend: a more learned man, but at bottom another of the same.-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Egmont

'I have finished the second volume of Gibbon the article on Christianity is real capital - Goethe gets no easier. I am near the end of Egmont which I like infinitely better than then two following pieces - At last I am begnining to recognise the Goethe you admire -'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: Book

George Gordon Byron : The Age Of Bronze

'Byron has sent us a new poem the Age of Bronze: it is short, and pithy - but not at all poetical. Byron may still easily fail to be a great man. You shall see his Bronze (a poetical squib) when you arrive; and another Liberal which is on the way.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: BookManuscript: Letter

Johann Karl August Musaeus : Volksmahrchen der Deutschen

'I finished your Musaeus ten days ago: it is a nice little book and will do very well. You shall have it at Had[dingto]n whenever you get there, with multifarious advices and palavers.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: BookManuscript: Letter

Robert Louis Stevenson : John Knox

'I have another letter from Groves [sic] about my ?John Knox?, which is flattering in its way: he is a very gushing and spontaneous person.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Grove Manuscript: Unknown

Laurent Angliviel de la Beaumelle : Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de Madame de Maintenon

'I have seen nothing new, & have been reading the Memoirs of Mde de Maintenon in French, which are exceedingly entertaining'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Joseph Cooper Walker : Historical and critical essay on the revival of the drama in Italy, An

'You ask me (pertly enough - pardon the expression) Whether I have read The Lay of the Last Minstrel - alas, only twice - And have, in addition, only the following Catalogue to subjoin of pleasing works which have come under my examination - English - Thalaba. Cowper Walker on The Revival of Italian Tragedy Southey's Tour in Spain Tommy Jones Italian - Metastasio's Olympiade Demofoonte, Giusepe riconosciuto, Gioas, La Clemenza di Tito, Catone, Regolo, Ciro, Zenobia - Tassos's Aminta - Seven Canto's of Ariosto, Il Vero Amore, an Italian novel - La bella pelegrina, La Zingana Merope, del Maffei, &c, &c, &c, &c French - None If you wish to know how I came to poke my green eyes into so many Italian books, I have this reply at your service. there has been an Italian Master here for above a month - and he brushed up for me the rusty odds an [sic] ends of his dulcet language which I had formerly picked up, & whilst he was here, & since his departure, I have done nothing but peep & pry into the works of his countrymen' [The format of SHB's list was in two columns, English and french to the left and Italian to the right]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book, Unknown

Rinaldo di Capua : La zingara

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Unknown

Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford : [unknown]

'I hate to be tantalized in such a way [referring to erratic correspondence]. - It is like being condemned to eat green pease, one by one, with a tooth-pick, a method much recommended, for the economization of human pleasures, by Count Rumford. Did you ever meet with the passage? If the goods of life are to be thus scantily doled out to me, I had rather philosophically make up my mind to do without them'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Hester Lynch Piozzi : Observations and Reflections made in the course of a journey through FRance, Italy and Germany

'So you are in correspondence with Mrs piozzi? Enviable Mortal! - Do you know I am, at this present writing, stark staring mad for love [of] her. I have been reading her Journey through France and Italy, and nothing that I ever luxuriously licked my lips over, ever delighted me half so much. The book is one huge mass of entertainment from beginning to end - And written in such an unaffected spirit of Christian charity for the errors of mankind - breathing such candour, chearfulness and good nature, that I quite adore her. She uses various quaint phrazes, very comical and expressive; but somewhat odd "somehow" (as she says) till one gets accustomed to her style. The original poetry thinly scattered through the work, I do not admire. But a woman cannot have every excellence of heart and genius. She has enough to satisfy a more fastidious spirit than mine'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Marie "Sophie" Cottin : Elisabeth, ou les Exiles de Siberie

'We have a little French story in the house, called [underlined] Elizabeth [end underlining], much admired and praised: but "somehow", I have taken it into my head that it is [underlined] too good [end underlining] for my palate, because Mrs W - the strictest person in the world about Novels, put it into the hands of my Bone - and my bone yawned over it - andd when I asked her how she liked it, said - "O very much - only there's hardly any love in it!" Whip Novels without love!'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Wilbraham Print: Book

Marie, marquise de Sevigne : [letters to her daughter - exact title uncertain]

'I have read some very delightful old books lately (for I now have just attained the wisdom to wish to make use of this ample library, and reject all borrowed or hired books) - Amongst others, two collections of letters, Sevigne's to her daughter, and Bussy Rabutin's to her and various others. The celebrity of these letters makes one ashamed to praise them; it is like saying Shakespear was a clever fellow: but I [underlined] will [end underlining] say, that their wit, their facility, their original humour; their arch simplicity, their every possible epistolary merit, surpass even their reputation. Having read a good many French Memoirs of that time, I enjoy the court details, and the scandal and gossip as much as Mde de Grignan could - and the witty stories occasionally inserted are [underlined] impayable [end underlining]. [SHB then describes at length the matter of some of the letters she has been reading, concluding...] It was a bright period for french intellects - Oh, how superior to the bright period of the Encyclopedists. at the time I am reading of, lived & wrote, Moliere, Corneille, Racine, La Rochfaucault [sic], Boilleau, celebrated Divines a million, and who were really good Christians; and Sevigne, and all her witty cluster of friends - and no jargon, & no frippery, & false philosophy among them - but sterling stuff, too good almost to be french'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy : [letters]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Richard Monckton Milnes : 'Projected Railways in Westmoreland. An Answer to Mr Wordsworth's Late Sonnet'

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 16 December 1844: 'I saw the sonnet [of Wordsworth] [...] which gave me so much offence by the prose note attached to it beginning .. "This is not mere poetry, but truth" -- or something to that effect! So unworthy of a poet, as giving in to the vulgar notion of poetry & truth being different things! Also, I saw Mon[c]kton Milnes's sonnet in reply -- very good -- but not one of his best sonnets.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper

Anne Marie Louise Henriette d'Orleans Duchesse de Montpensier : Memoires

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 December 1844: 'If you do not remember the memoires of "La Grande Mademoiselle" as she was called, mind to read them again. They made me laugh and cry -- [italics]at[end itaics] her & [italics]with[end italics] her.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : "On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places"

'I have the "PTFL" proof; and it is very fourth rate, I am afraid; not quite [italics] dead [end italics] you know, but ailing − very ailing.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Proof copy of RLS?s essay.

Robert Louis Stevenson : ?John Knox and his Relations with Women??

'I found the proof of ?John Knox? waiting me here, and have despatched it.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Proof copy.

Arabella and Henrietta Moulton-Barrett : letter to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella and Henrietta Moulton-Barrett (sisters), 2 October 1846, on receiving her father, brother's, and sisters' responses to her marriage: 'The delay of the week in Paris brought me to the hour of my death warrant at Orleans [...] Robert brought in a great packet of letters [...] He wanted to sit by me while I read them, but I would not let him [...] I got him to go away for ten minutes, to meet the agony alone [...] And besides it was right not to let him read -- -- They were very hard letters, those from dearest Papa & dearest George [...] 'Now I will tell you -- Robert who had been waiting at the door [...] came in & found me just able to cry from the balm of your tender words -- I put your two letters into his hands, & [italics]he[end italics], when he had read them, said with tears in his eyes, & kissing them between the words -- "I love your sisters with a deep affection -- I am inexpressibly grateful to them -- It shall be the object of my life to justify their trust as they express it here."' '

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Manuscript: Letter

Arabella and Henrietta Moulton-Barrett : letter to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Manuscript: Letter

Marchese Massimo Tapparelli D'Azeglio : Niccolo de' Lapi

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.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book

Hugh Stuart Boyd : letter to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett, 31 March 1847: 'Thank you for the dear welcome letters [...] Tell [Arabel] to thank Mr Boyd for his kind one -- Mr Boyd's [...] came when I was ill [following miscarriage] & Robert read [it] to me -- Not that he reads my letters so in general, mind, .. but that my head swam so on that particular occasion & wd not let me read properly.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Manuscript: Letter

Benjamin Nicolas Marie Appert : Dix Ans a la cour du roi Louis-Philippe et souvenirs du temps de l'Empire et de la Restauration

Mary Russell Mitford to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, letter postmarked 2 October 1847: 'The most interesting [book] that I have read for many years is Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins [...] Also I am reading Appert's Dix Ans a la Cour de Louis Philippe, very pleasant esprit -- & have just finished Le Chien d'Alcibiade -- a Tale of some cleverness although too close an imitation of Gerfaut [...] I see by the papers that poor Frederic Soulie is dead -- I was just reading a novel of his on the wars of La Vendee (Saturnine Fichet [sic]) which was interesting -- only he had imitated a likeness between two persons from the old French Story of Martin Guerre, which story aforesaid [...] Dumas had been using in Les Deux Diane -- by the way I am reading 3 series by Dumas, Les Deux Diane -- Les Memoires d'un Medecin & Le Batard de Mouleon [...] Of English books I have been much pleased by Mr Jesse[']s Antiquities of London -- very pleasant gossip -- & St John[']s Wild sports of the Highlands a mixed Vol of Deerstalking & Natural History which is charming'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book

J. Heneage Jesse : Literary and Historical Memorials of London

Mary Russell Mitford to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, letter postmarked 2 October 1847: 'The most interesting [book] that I have read for many years is Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins [...] Also I am reading Appert's Dix Ans a la Cour de Louis Philippe, very pleasant esprit -- & have just finished Le Chien d'Alcibiade -- a Tale of some cleverness although too close an imitation of Gerfaut [...] I see by the papers that poor Frederic Soulie is dead -- I was just reading a novel of his on the wars of La Vendee (Saturnine Fichet [sic]) which was interesting -- only he had imitated a likeness between two persons from the old French Story of Martin Guerre, which story aforesaid [...] Dumas had been using in Les Deux Diane -- by the way I am reading 3 series by Dumas, Les Deux Diane -- Les Memoires d'un Medecin & Le Batard de Mouleon [sic] [...] Of English books I have been much pleased by Mr Jesse[']s Antiquities of London [sic] -- very pleasant gossip -- & St John[']s Wild sports of the Highlands a mixed Vol of Deerstalking & Natural History which is charming'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book

Franco di Benci Sacchetti : Trecento novelle

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Anna Brownell Jameson, mid-December 1847: 'We are going through some of old Sacchetti's novelets now: characteristic work for Florence, if somewhat dull elsewhere [...] We got a newly printed addition to Savonarola's poems the other day -- very flat & cold -- they did not catch fire when he was burnt. The most poetic thing in the book, is his face on the first page, with that eager, devouring soul in the eyes of it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : Characteristics of the Present Age

Joseph Arnould to Robert Browning, 19 December 1847: 'My dear Browning do you know the German transcendental writers at all -- especially [italics]Fichte[end italics]? an enterprising American bookseller here has been translating all his exoteric works i.e. all except his Formal System of Metaphysics -- the titles will show you the nature of the Books[:] "The destination of Man" "The nature & vocation of the scholar" "Characteristics of the present age" [...] I have been reading them with that engrossing, rapt, concentrated attention which no book can command except one which speaks to the very soul of the reader: formalized in Fichte's books I find what has long been hovering vaguely before my own mind as truth: especially on Religion & Christianity. Do READ THEM -- they are not costly[,] the price of the hitherto published is as follows Characteristics of the Present Age 7s Vocation of the Scholar 2s The Destination of Man 3s 6d'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Arnould Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : The Nature and Vocation of the Scholar

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Arnould Print: Book

Johann Gottlieb Fichte : The Destination of Man

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Arnould Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.

'I tried to read Tennyson?s Ode on the Dook of Wellington (which is the finest lyrical poem in the language in case you don?t know) aloud this morning, and I had a hand at my throat tightening steadily as I read, until I could articulate no more and had to throw the book away. That is one of the experiences in life worth having; so were the Elgin Marbles.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Unknown

Francois de la Rochefoucauld : Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales

'Anch'io have been reading La Rochefaucould [sic] - and he has furnished me with an excellet Motto for my third Volume - And what is more to the purpose, with some entertainment of the highest & most rational kind for my breakfast hours. I can only afford time now to read at my meals. Ah pauvre humanite - I am afraid he is a [underlied] very [end underlining] little too severe against it! [...] He seldom writes as if he was hardened enough to exult in human depravity, but often as if he sadly, yet irresistibly felt its existence to be true - and such a book, it strikes me, properly considered, is calculated to produce infinite benefit'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine, Baronne de Stael-Holstein : De l'Allemagne

"I too am reading Mme de Staal [sic], and am such a Goth, that I catch myself yawning over it! Probably I am not formed to love "les plaisirs [underlined] dissertant [end underlining]." The book is like a long Review, and all about the same set of objects; and I tire for want of connection, and something either to interest my feelings or amuse my imagination. Yet, I have extracted some delightful, and some most wise little passages; and I read, though with fatigue, still with admiration, such a copious series of well-expressed reflections [...] I told my sister d'Arblay to-night, how glad I was that our best English writers, meaning Adison [sic], Swift, Johnson &c, had not written like Mde de Staal; for if they had, as sure as a gun, I should never have loved reading - I should never have opened a book. I have finished vol. I & shall probably read II and III, out of vanity, & just to say I have read them'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Anne-Louise-Germaine, Baronne de Stael-Holstein : De L'Allemagne

'I am not sufficiently fond of dissertations, of eternal analysis, of eloquent bubbles, to be a warm partizan of Mde de Staal [sic]. Between friends - but don't mention it - I yawned over her Allemagne - and yet, here and there, was electrified by a flash of sublimity. Do you agree with me in thinking, that with all her brilliant varnish, she is corrupt at heart? Had Satan himself written "Pauline", one of the stories published with "Zuma", he could have produced nothing more offensive to decency, more detestably disgusting'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Anne-Louise-Germaine, Baronne de Stael-Holstein : Zulma, et trois nouvelles

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Catherine Anne Dorset : Peacock "at home", The

'Yes I [underlined] have [end underlining] read the book you speak of, "Pride & Prejudice", and I could quite rave about it! How well you define one of its characterestics [sic] when you say of it, that it breaths [sic] a spirit of "careless originiality". - It is charming. - Nothing was ever better conducted than the fable; nothing can be more [underlined] piquant [end underlining] than its dialogues; more distinct than its characters. Do, I entreat, tell me by whom it is written; and tell me, if your health will allow you, [underlined] soon [end underlining]. I die to know. Some say it is by Mrs Dorset, who wrote that clever little [underlined] bijou [end underlining], "the Peacock at Home". is it so? Pray, pray tell me. I have the three vols now in the house, and know not how to part with them. I have only just finished, and could begin them all over again with pleasure'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Alicia Tindal Palmer : Authentic Memoirs of the Life of John Sobieski

'I have read both Scott's visits, and Mrs Hulse has just lent me the life of John Sobieski, K. of poland. I have only just begun it, but it promises facility of style, & I think I shall like it. I tried Pallas's Travels in Russia lately: but there was too much about progressive improvements in agriculture, & manufactuaries amongst the grown-up Muscovite babes, & I got tired, as I easily do of all that relates to half civilised nations. Give me a whole Savage or no Savage at all.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Giovanni Baptista Belzoni : Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs, and excavations, in Egypt and Nubia

'I have just begun Belzoni, & like his simple style very much. Miss Porter (Anna Maria) has published a new Novel, The Village of Mariendorpt, full of the most touching passages, but, as a whole, it drags. Her knowledge of military details appears to me marvellous; the period at which she makes her people act and talk, is during the Protestant War in Germany; she carries you to the dreadful siege of Magdebourg, & takes you into the camp and tent of Forstenson, Konigsmark, and I cannot tell you how many others, & seems to know more of warriors and warfare than, as a woman myself, I can at all account for'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Anna Maria Porter : Village of Mariendorpt, The

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Philippe-Paul, comte de Segur : Histoire de Napoleon et de la grande armee, pendant l'annee 1812

'Of course you have read Segur, & Pepys, and with the latter are perhaps "mightily" weary now & then, but on the whole amused - There is a interesting History of the Tower of London lately published, which read when you can, for its historical anecdotes - and also (if you like Tours) read John Russel's Tour in Germany in 1820, 21, 22.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Stephanie Felicite Brulart, comtesse de Genlis : Memoires

'What paltry stuff the Memoirs of poor vain Genlis are!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : Spy, The

'The most spirit-stirring author, next to the Great Unknown [walter Scott], that I have met with, is the American who has written the spy, and the Last of the Mohicans, & various pothers. He copies nobody, & he has an energy, a power of developing what he has previously enveloped, and of keeping the interest upon the stretch, that is admirable.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : Last of the Mohicans, The

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

John Mason Good : Book of Nature, The

'I have bought a book lately full of general information, & written in a good spirit - that is containing a happy mixture of religious feeling with Science. Its title is "Good's Book of Nature". Have you heard of it? It is by a Dr Good, an M.D.F.R.S. who delivered Lectures at the London Institution'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Niccolini : Antonio Foscarini

'I read only Italian books - and have just finished Niccolini's Foscarini, which is a fine masculine, energetic performance, & gave me much pleasure, and makes me admire and respect the Author'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Walter Savage Landor : Pericles and Aspasia

'[Virginia Stephen] was reading Walter Savage Landor's Pericles and Aspasia (1836), and writing, as was her habit during this time [Spring 1906], a description of her surroundings (unpublished).'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Stephen Print: Book

G. E. Moore : Principia Ethica

Virginia Stephen to Clive Bell, 19 August 1908: 'I split my head over Moore every night, feeling ideas travelling to the remotest part of my brain, and setting up a feeble disturbance, hardly to be called thought. It is almost a physical feeling, as though some little coil of brain unvisited by any blood so far, and pale as wax, had got a little life into it at last, but had not strength to keep it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Stephen Print: Book

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne : Les Essais

'I am alone in the house, and so I allowed myself, at dinner, the first light reading I have indulged in since my return in the shape of some Montaigne.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne : Les Essais, Livre III, Ch XII, De la physionomie

'As Montaigne says, talking of something quite different:"Pour se laisser tomber a plomb, et de si haut, il faut que se soit entre les bras d'une affection solide, vigoureuse et fortunee."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Philip Gilbert Hamerton (editor) : The Portfolio: An Artistic Periodical

'I had almost as soon have it in the Portfolio, as the Saturday; the P. is so nicely printed and I am gourmet in type.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

D. H. Lawrence : Women in Love

Virginia Woolf to Molly MacCarthy, 20 June 1921: 'I am reading the Bride of Lammermoor -- by that great man Scott: and Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence, lured on by the portrait of Ottoline [Morrell] which appears from time to time [...] There is no suspense or mystery: water is all semen: I get a little bored, and make out the riddles too easily. Only this puzzles me: what does it mean when a woman [Gudrun] does eurythmics in front of a herd of Highland cattle?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : Sons and Lovers

Virginia Woolf to Ethel Smyth, 20 April 1931: 'I'm reading Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, for the first time'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Thus to Revisit

Virginia Woolf to Hugh Walpole, 8 November 1931: 'I'm reading Middlemarch with even greater pleasure than I remembered: and Ford M. Ford's memoirs [Thus to Revisit] -- fascinating, and even endearing; but I long to know the truth about him'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve : Chateaubriand et son groupe litteraire sous l'Empire

'I have bought Sainte-Beuve's Chateaubriand and am immensely delighted with the critic.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Arthur Hugh Clough : unknown

'Dowson has lent me Clough, which I like a good deal ..'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

J.H., Count de Santo Domingo : Tablettes romaines; contenant des faits, des anecdotes et des observations sure les moeurs, les usages, les ceremonies, le gouvernement de Rome

'Another book of a very different character has amused me mightily; it is entitled "Tablettes Romaines", and is full of wit and vivacity, and gives a very just and true picture of modern Rome, at least, as far as I am competent to judge. I wish you could get it. The pretended name of the Author is Santo Domingo, but, somehow, I suspect that to be a fudge. It was printed at Bruselles, for neither in Italy nor at Paris would such free opinions have been allowed to see the light - at least during the Carlists day'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Edward John Trelawney : Adventures of a Younger Son

'I have just finished Trelawney's Adventures of a Younger Brother. It is a book that excites whilst reading, and leaves behind it, many painful feelings. A true radical spirit runs thoughout it; - a contempt of all establishments, social, political, or religious; - a mad ferocity of disposition that causes the narrative to be filled with details of atrocious murders, so minutely described that ones flesh creeps upon ones bones whilst reading. Yet - to give even the devil his due, he has succeeded in drawing a female character of surpassing loveliness, purity, and tender faithfulness. He makes her an Arab however, that European women may take no pride to themselves from the favourable description he gives of her.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : unknown

Virginia Woolf to Leonard Woolf, 14 July 1936: 'A very good, though very dull day. No headache this morning, brain rather active in fact: but didn't write -- did nothing but lie in bed and read Macaulay.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Lady Frederick Cavendish : The Diary of Lady Frederick Cavendish

Virginia Woolf to Ethel Smyth, 29 August 1938: 'Just finished Lady Fred Cavendish's diaries: no vigour, no insight, no originality. All as drab and dowdy as Mabel's Sunday best (Mabel is our maid of all work.) [...] And such damned condescension to artists. Yet all else is fine flowing and thoroughbred - only the mind cluttered with curtains and ferns.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

John Maynard Keynes : article on the Munich Crisis

Virginia Woolf to Vanessa Bell, Monday 3 October 1938: 'Yesterday the Keynes came to tea. Maynard had already summed up the situation [i.e. the Munich Crisis] in a very good article which he read us; I'll send you the N[ew]. S[tatesman] on Friday in which it appears. His view is that the whole thing was staged by Chamb[erlain].; that there was never any fear of war; that he never even consulted Russia; that it was a put-up job between him and Hitler [...] that we are sure of peace during our life time [...] and so on.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Maynard Keynes

Shena, Lady Simon : paper on women and war

Virginia Woolf to Shena, Lady Simon, 22 January 1940: 'I've had too many distractions to write [...] But not too many to read your paper. I find it useful, suggestive, and sound. I agree with most of your arguments [...] do cast your mind further that way: about sharing life after the war: about pooling men's and women's work: about the possibility, if disarmament comes, of removing men's disabilities. Can one change sex characteristics? How far is the women's movement a remarkable experiment in that transformation? Mustn't our next task be the emancipation of man?'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : unknown

Virginia Woolf to Ethel Smyth, 17 May 1940: 'D'you know what I find? -- reading a whole poet is consoling: Coleridge I bought in an old type copy tarnished cover, yellow and soft: and I began, and went on, and skipped the high peaks, and gradually climbed to the top of his pinnacle, by a winding unknown way.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

James Justinian Morier : Zohrab the Hostage

'By the way, have you read Mr Morier's Hohrab, or the Hostage? And if you have, do you (as I hope) like it? And if you have not, can you tell whether others like it? I was charmed with it here in manuscript, when he kindly lent it to me. Besides, I delight in Mr Morier as a man, as well as an author'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Manuscript: Unknown

Marie de Rabutin - Chantal, marquise de Sevigne : Letters of Madame de Sevigne to her daughter and her friends

'would you like, Ma'am, to know what I have been doing all alone and at home this winter? - I have, 'an please you, for the 2d time in my life read Mde de Sevigne, 9 vols. - Histoire de la Revolution, par Thiers, 10. vols. - Botta's Storia d'Italia, continued from Guicciardini; there are ten vols: I have read only 6 yet. Memoires de l'Abbe Morellet, very entertaining. Memoires de Mde Dubarry, very naughty, but very amusing, & she the best natured of the vicious, envious, spightful Court - and sundry other vols, dotted about, & lent me by one body or other. - I hope you are edified, Sister Emma.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Baron E.L. de la Mothe - Houdancourt : Memoires de Madame la comtesse de Barri

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Algernon Charles Swinburne : unknown

'I came up from Lincolnshire to town on Monday and went down that night to Magdalen to read my Catullus, but while lying in bed on Tuesday morning with Swinburne (a copy of) was woke up by the Clerk of the Schools to know why I did not come up.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

William Hurrell Mallock : The New Republic, or Culture, Faith and Philosophy in an English Country House

'That reminds me of Mallock?s New Republic in Belgravia; it is decidedly clever ? Jowett especially. If you have the key to all the actors please send it to me.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Serial / periodical

Louis-Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne : Memoires

'Have you read Bourrienne's Memoirs? Sick as I thought myself of Buonaparte and all that related to his tremendous though short-lived success (I always consider him as a permitted scourge), Bourrienne's book caught fast hold of me, & I was really sorry when I had finished it. Yet, I could only get it in English: but the translation is not very bad'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Edward William Lane : Account of the manners and customs of the Modern Egyptians

'Dr Nott has lent me a Work that I find very interesting, & which comes well after reading Wilkinson's Manners & Customs of the Ancient Egyptians; - It is, Lane's Manners & Customs of the Modern Egyptians: both works are full of Wood cuts in illustration of the subjects they describe, and in Wilkinson's work I found an ancient Egyptian Car, & a wooden pillow hollowed out for the head, which I immediately remembered having seen at Professor Roselini's Egyptian Museum at Florence'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

John Gardner Wilkinson : Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Benson Earle Hill : Recollections of an Artillery Officer including scenes and adventures in Ireland, America, Flanders and France

'When you have time & spirits for it, pray read "Sketches by Boz" with Cruikshank's designs. Except ones daily Scripture reading, I like no books that do not make me laugh, provided the laugh is not provoked by anything bordering upon indecency. - A little innocent vulgarity or even coarseness, I do not mind, if accompanied by wit & humour. Dickens has edited a delightful Life of poor dear Grimaldi. Have you seen Benson Earl Hill's "Recollections of an Artillery Officer"? I was much amused by it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Frances (Burney) d'Arblay : Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay

'Have you seen the Journal & letters of my dear Sister? & Charlotte Barrett's pretty Introduction. I earnestly hope the work will be liked; and I think it stands a very fair chance, so many celebrated people will be brought forward. - This is a very tolerable place for getting books (English [underlined] s'entend [end underlining]) but my copy is a present, & will have a fine gauntlet to run, I promise it'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Frances (Burney) d'Arblay : Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay

'Am charmed to find "The Diary" is approved by the General. The third vol: I think must be universally interesting - the [underlined] first [end underlining], to own the truth, contained too much about the early appearance of Evelina, to please me. - But it went down well with many people, & has caused a fresh demand for Evelina & Cecilia at every Library in Cheltenham'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Frances (Burney) d'Arblay : Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay

'You want to know what I think of the "Diary". I wil tell you fairly & impartially. after wading with pain and sorrow through the tautology and vanity of the first volume, I began to be amused by the second, and every suceeding volume has, to my thinking, encreased in power to interest & entertain. That there is still considerable vanity I cannot deny. In her life, she bottled it all up, & looked and generally spoke with the most refined modesty, & seemed ready to drop if ever her works were alluded to. But what was kept back, and scarcely suspected in society, wanting a safety valve, found its way to her private journal. Thence, had Mrs Barrett been judicious, she would have trundled it out, by half quires, and even whole quires at a time'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : [Review of Madame d'Arblay's "Diary and Letters" in the "Edinburgh Review"]

'I think I said in one of myy recent scrawls all I had to say concerning Mr Macauley's Review: every part of which I like mainly, except his severe mention of the Royal Family, and his unnecessary critique of my Sister's Life of Dr Burney. Surely Croker had cut that up quite bitterly enough; - I cannot see why it need have been brought forward again'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Serial / periodical

Anne, Lady Vavasour : My Last Tour and First Work; or, a Visit to the Baths of Wildbad and Rippoldsau

'read Lady Vavasour's "Last Tour, and First Work, or a visit to the Baths of Wildbad, & Rippoldsau". - It is only one Volume, & is very entertaining and often clever, & lively, with considerable general information. Campbell's Editorship of the "Life of Frederick the Great" has also amused me much'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : unknown "Tale"

'Piano again disentangled; and some hope, not for it only, but for the tale. I have read it to my mother, who thought it was the only one of mine she had ever heard, that promised any possible success: I have read some of it also to Baxter who was pleased and counselled me to go on with it. I suppose with these two opinions I should feel strengthened.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown, Seems to refer to one of a set of stories that RLS had at various stages of planning and completion, see Letter 329.

A. E. Housman : A Shropshire Lad

Saturday 13 February 1915: 'After luncheon [...] I went to a concert at the Queen's Hall [...] I was annoyed by a young man & woman who took advantage of the music to press each other's hands; & read "A Shropshire Lad" & look at some vile illustrations.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: 'young man and woman' Print: Book

Captain Ronald A. Hopwood : 'The Old Way'

Friday 18 January: 'Toynbees & Kot. to dinner on Tuesday [15 January]; & that afternoon Lady Strachey read to us -- to me for the most part, as L[eonard]. was late. She read Ben Jonson's masques. They are short, & in between she broke off to talk a little [...] I enjoyed it [...] She read us a poem called The Old Way, of a swashing, patriotic kind, & exclaimed how fine it was, & how, as long as we had Hopwood for a poet we needn't complain.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Maria, Lady Strachey Print: Book

John Pentland Mahaffy : Rambles and Studies in Greece

'Mahaffy's book of Travels in Greece will soon be out. I have been correcting his proofs and like it immensely.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Manuscript: Codex, publisher's proofs

John Addington Symonds : Studies of the Greek Poets

'I am deep in a review of Symonds's last book whenever I can get time.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Aurora Leigh

'Many thanks for your delightful letter. I am glad you are in the midst of delightful scenery and Aurora Leigh.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Reginald Harding Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Desiderata

'I have found what should interest you dear. A paper in which I had sketched out my life, before I knew you. Here is the exact copy even to spelling.[?]'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Sheet

William Makepeace Thackeray : Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family

27 January 1918: 'Desmond has read some of the Newcomes lately: finds no depth, but a charming rippling conventional picturesqueness.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Desmond MacCarthy Print: Unknown

John, Viscount Morley : unknown

2 March 1918: '[On 19 February] we went to Asheham [...] I saw no-one; for 5 days I wasn't in a state for reading [due to influenza]; but I did finally read Morley & other books; but reading when done to kill time has a kind of drudgy look in it [...] One day I sat in the garden reading Shakespeare; I remember the ecstacy'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

George Otto Trevelyan : The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay

2 July 1918: 'I was reading Macaulay's Life over my tea [...] when Mrs Woolf [husband's sister-in-law] was announced.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

William Michael Rossetti : Memoir of Christina Rossetti

Editor's note reads 'V[irginia] W[oolf] must have been reading William Michael Rossetti's 1904 edition of The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, to which he added a "compendious Memoir of her uneventful and rather secluded life."' See Additional Comments.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Benjamin Robert Haydon : Autobiography

'I lie in bed, and watch the fire on the ceiling, and hear the clock strike, and think how delicious it will be when you come to stay here - I read Haydon, and an excellent Cruickshank-ish book called Murder for Profit.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vita Sackville-West Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : To One in Paradise (1834)

'Is not this verse pretty? Thou wast that all [sic] to me, love, For which my soul did pine -- A green isle in the sea, love, A fountain and a shrine.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : King Pest: A Tale Containing An Allegory.

'I have made myself so ill with a story of Poe?s − ?King Pest?, by name. I did not sleep last night and I have scarcely been able to eat today.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

William Butler Yeats : Leda and the Swan

'I am grateful to you for having told me to buy Yeats' poems, they kept me happy in the train all the way. I like the one about Leda, How can those terrified vague fingers push That feathered glory from her loosening thighs?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vita Sackville-West Print: Unknown

Thomas Babington Macaulay : unknown

Friday 15 April 1921: 'I have been lying recumbent all day reading Carlyle, and now Macaulay, first to see if Carlyle wrote better than Lytton [Strachey], then to see if Macaulay sells better. Carlyle (reminiscences) is more colloquial and scrappy than I remembered, but he has his merits. -- more punch in his phrase than in Lytton's.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Lady Gwendolyn Cecil : The Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury

Tuesday 14 February 1922: 'I am reading [in convalescence, following week of illness] Moby Dick: Princesse de Cleves; Lord Salisbury; Old Mortality; Small Talk at Wreyland; with an occasional bite at the Life of Lord Tennyson, of Johnson; & anything else I find handy. But this is all dissipated & invalidish. I can only hope that like dead leaves they may fertilise my brain.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : Nightmare Abbey

Wednesday 15 February 1922: 'Of my reading I will now try to make some note. 'First Peacock; Nightmare Abbey, & Crotchet Castle. Both are so much better than I remember. Doubtless, Peacock is a taste acquired in maturity. When I was young, reading him in a railway carriage in Greece, sitting opposite Thoby [Woolf, reader's brother], I remember, who pleased me immensely by approving my remark that Meredith had got his women from Peacock [...] And now more than anything I want beautiful prose [...] And I enjoy satire more. I like the scepticism of his mind more [...] And then they're so short; & I read them in little yellowish perfectly appropriate first editions. 'The masterly Scott has me by the hair once more. Old Mortality. I'm in the middle; & have to put up with some dull sermons; but I doubt he can be dull, because everything is so much in keeping [goes on to comment further on text]'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : Crotchet Castle

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Stephen Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

'Jack tells me you are reading Meister: this surprises me; if I did not recollect your love for me, I shoudl not be able to account for it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret A. Carlyle Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre

'This morning I received a copy of Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (Travels), a sort of sequel to Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, which is at present stealing into what notice it can attain among you. The Travels was written two years ago by Goethe, and promises so far as I can yet judge to be a very special work. I am not without some serious thoughts of putting it into an English dress to follow its elder brother.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and/or Wanderjahre

'No skating scene in "Wilhelm Meister" whatsandever that [italics]I[end italics] can find, or hear of.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : To my Mother.

'This is E. A. Poe: Because I feel that, in the Heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of "Mother," Therefore by that dear name I long have called you- You who are [italics]more than mother unto me, And fill my heart of hearts.[end italics] [?]'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

'I am much charmed with Wilhelm Meister, the book I had begun to read with much prejudice of mind & forebodings that I should not like it, as I had been told such would be the case- but on the contrary I have met with nothing for a long time that pleased me half so well, or that has suggested to me so many profitable trains of thought-'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Julia Kirkpatrick Strachey Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Meister Wilhelm's Wanderjahre (first volume)

'I would have answered your letter sooner but for a long series of movements and countermovements I have had to execute. I also wished to read Goethe's book, before determining on your proposal with regard to it. This I have at length done: I find it will not answer. The work is incomplete, the first volume only having yet appeared; and it consists of a series of fragments, individually beautiful, but quite disjointed, and in their present state scarcely intelligible.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: BookManuscript: Letter

Mary Martha Sherwood : The Wishing Cap

'My present sojourn is the most distressing you can imagine: the weather is so bad that one cannot cross the threshold; there is not a book in the hou[se] besides "Rutledges's Sermons" and "Black's sermons" neither of which I have any relish for, and the "Juvenile Library" which, with the exception of "Jack the Gi[ant] Killer", ["]Blue Beard" and the "Wishing cap" that I read last night, does not appear to be particularly edifying...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh Print: BookManuscript: Letter

Hans Christian Andersen : Fairy Tales

'Whenever she felt morose or lonely she looked into books, and, having an insatiable curiosity, by the time she was three she had taught herself to read. Hans Christian Andersen's "Fairy Tales" became an early favorite. Some of the tales that she read again and again, it must have seemed, mirrored her own life. Aware that she had not inherited her mther's beauty, she was intrigued in particular by "The Ugly Duckling".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edith Sitwell Print: Book

Algernon Charles Swinburne : Poems

'When it was discovered that she liked Swinburne's poetry, Sir George demanded that she forego such sensual verse. If she had to read poetry, he pontificated, she should read Tennyson for beauty, Austin Dobson for charm, and Kipling for strength'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edith Sitwell Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnets from the Portuguese

'Browning was a little beyond her. Convinced that he was a great poet, she still found him a bore at times. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a major disappointment: she thought "Sonnets from the Portuguese" were beautiful in emotion but simply not good sonnets'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edith Sitwell Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [unknown]

[Helen Roothman] 'brought Edith new poetry too - the French symbolists, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Baudelaire - to enlarge her own rapt readings of Swinburne, William Morris, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, Yeats'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edith Sitwell Print: Book

William Butler Yeats : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edith Sitwell Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : unknown

Sunday 5 December 1920: 'My brain is tired of reading Coleridge. Why do I read Coleridge? It is partly the result of Eliot [i.e. The Sacred Wood] whom I've not read; but L[eonard]. has & reviewed & praised into the bargain.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : The Waste Land

Friday 23 June 1922: 'Eliot dined last Sunday & read his poem. He sang it & chanted it rhythmed it. It has great beauty & force of phrase: symmetry; & tensity. What connects it together, I'm not so sure. But he read till he had to rush -- letters to write about the London Magazine -- & discussion thus was curtailed. One was left, however, with some strong emotion. The Waste Land, it is called'.

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Stearns Eliot

Hester Lynch Piozzi (Thrale) : Anecdotes of the Late Doctor Johnson

Tuesday 12 September: 'Lytton drove off an hour ago; I have been sitting here, unable to read or collect myself -- such is the wreckage dealt by 4 days of conversation [...] I told Lytton I should try to write down his talk -- which sprang from a conversation about Boswell [...] Lytton had of course read Mrs Thrale [...] One night he gave us a complete account of the prison system, based on reports which he has been reading -- thoroughly, with mastery, & a kind of political ability which impresses me.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lytton Strachey Print: Book

J. G. Lockhart : Life of Walter Scott

Friday 15 August 1924: 'When I was 20 I liked 18th Century prose; I liked Hakluyt, Merimee. I read masses of Carlyle, Scott's life & letters, Gibbon, all sorts of two volume biographies, & Shelley.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Stephen Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : unknown

Friday 15 August 1924: 'When I was 20 I liked 18th Century prose; I liked Hakluyt, Merimee. I read masses of Carlyle, Scott's life & letters, Gibbon, all sorts of two volume biographies, & Shelley.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Stephen Print: Book

Ethel M. Dell : unknown

Sunday 17 May 1925: 'Yesterday we had tea with Margaret in her new house [...] She is severe to Lilian [Harris, her companion], who [...] is not allowed to plant flowers, she said bitterly, because it worries Margaret, & so nothing is done to the garden, which too worries Margaret. For these worries, she takes Ethel M. Dell & Dickens.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Caroline Llewelyn Davies Print: Book

Gerard Manley Hopkins : [manuscripts]

Thursday 1 July: '[in library of Robert Bridges, during visit to Morrell family at Garsington] I asked to see the Hopkins manuscripts; & sat looking at them with that gigantic grasshopper Aldous [Huxley] folded up in a chair close by.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Manuscript: Unknown

John Middleton Murry : God: an Introduction to the Science of Metabiology

Wednesday 23 October 1929: 'Since I have been back [apparently to London, from Sussex home] I have read Virginia Water (a sweet white grape); God; -- all founded, & teased & spun out upon one quite simple & usual psychological experience; but the mans no poet & cant make one see; all his sentences are like steel lines on an engraving. I am reading Racine, have bought La Fontaine, & so intend to make my sidelong approach to French literature, circling & brooding'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

E. F. Benson : Dodo

Monday 3 March 1930: 'Rodmell again [...] Suppose health were shown on a thermometer I have gone up 10 degrees since yesterday, when I lay, mumbling the bones of Dodo: if it had bones'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Archibald Hamilton Rowan : The Autobiography of Archibald Hamilton Rowan

Saturday 27 December 1930: 'We came down [to Rodmell] on Tuesday, & next day my cold was the usual influenza, & I am in bed with the usual temperature [...] I moon torpidly through book after book: Defoe's Tour; Rowan's auto[biograph]y; Benson's Memoirs; Jeans; in the familiar way [...] Oh & I've read Q[ueen]. V[ictoria]'s letters [...] Q.V. entirely unaesthetic; a kind of Prussian competence, & belief in herself her only prominences [...] Knew her own mind. But the mind radically commonplace.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

E. F. Benson : As We Were: A Victorian Peep-Show

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

The Rev. John Skinner : The Journal of a Somerset Rector

Saturday 27 December 1930: 'We came down [to Rodmell] on Tuesday, & next day my cold was the usual influenza, & I am in bed with the usual temperature [...] I moon torpidly through book after book: Defoe's Tour; Rowan's auto[biograph]y; Benson's Memoirs; Jeans; in the familiar way. The parson -- Skinner -- who shot himself emerges like a bloody sun in a fog. a book worth perhaps looking at again in a clearer mood [goes on to remark further on this text] [...] Oh & I've read Q[ueen]. V[ictoria]'s letters [...] Q.V. entirely unaesthetic; a kind of Prussian competence, & belief in herself her only prominences [...] Knew her own mind. But the mind radically commonplace.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Marrie de Vichy-Chamrond, Marquise du Deffand : Letters

'How do you like Thalaba? There are always so many nothings to be done in London daily, that I have not read ten lines for the last ten weeks, till I came to Holland House, where I have galloped through two volumes of Madame Du Deffand's Letters, and with much amusement, though the anecdotes are in themselves of no great value; still, being written on the spot, and at the moment, they have a vivacity and interest which make one read letter after letter without weariness. The extracts from Lord Orford's letters contain frequently excellent things; and indeed, in Madame Du Deffand's own general observations, there is much good sense and plain truth; but that sense and truth, being generally grounded upon knowledge of the world, it unfortunately follows, of course, that the information which it conveys must be of a disagreeable and humiliating complexion. [Lewis then talks about Lord Orfor'd treatment of a blind woman] Have you read these letters? You know, of course, that they were edited by your friend, Miss Berry, who has also written the Preface, the Life, and the Notes, all of which are most outrageously abused by many persons, though, in my opinion, without any just grounds'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Matthew Lewis Print: Book

Princess Caroline Princess of Wales : [verbal sketches of well known people]

'One day, the Princess showed me a large book, in which she had written characters of a great many of the leading persons in England. She read me some of them. They were drawn with spirit, but I could not form any opinion of their justice; first, because a mere outline, however boldly sketched, cannot convey a faithful portraiture of character; and, secondly, because many of the persons mentioned therein wre unknown to me. Upon the whole, these characters impressed me with a high opinion of her discernment and power of expression. Not that it was good English, but that it was strong sense. But how dangerous! If that book exists, it would form a curious episode in the memoirs of those times.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline Princess of Wales Manuscript: MS book

Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina Princess Royal of Prussia : MEMOIRS OF FREDERICA SOPHIA WILHELMINA, Princess Royal of Prussia, Margravine of Bareith, sister of Frederick the Great

'The Princess often read aloud. It was difficult to understand her germanised French, and still more, her composite English. She was particularly amused at the Margravine de Bareith's Memoirs. This lady was the sister of Frederick the Great - devil. In truth, they were amusing, as all memoirs are that merely relate to facts'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline Princess of Wales Print: Book

Walter Arthur Keppel Craven :

'I was shown today some verses by an accomplished man, which made me wish to be a free agent, and to visit the scenes which he describes so well. Mr Keppel Craven addressed them to a lady, a friend of mine. The writer was one of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales's most intimate friends, and she valued his acquaintance'. [The verses (which are lengthy) follow, dated Scio, March 1812]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson

'Talking of books, we have lately had a literary Sun shine forth upon us here, before whom our former luminaries must hide their diminished heads - a Mr Shelley, of University College, who lives upon arsenic, aqua-fortis, half-an-hour's sleep in the night, and is desperately in love with the memory of Margaret Nicholson. He hath published, what he terms, the Posthumous Poems, printed for the benefit of Mr Peter Finnerty; which, I am grieved to say, though stuffed full of treason, are extremely dull; but the author is a great genius, and, if he be not clapped up in Bedlam or hanged, will certainly prove one of the sweetest swans on the tuneful margin of the Charwell'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe Print: Book, Unknown

James Somerville Somerville : Memorie of the Somervilles being a history of the baronial House of Somerville

'Since I have been in London I have read nothing but Miss Seward's letters and Miss Owenson's Missionary. Of Miss Seward I am bound to speak well, as she doth so of me; and her monodies are beauiful; but the letters are naught; they abound in false sentiment, and a great many other false things. As to the Missionary, Ambrosio is his father, and Matilde his mother; but, wanting the indelicacy of papa, and the delicacy of mamma, he's a dull fellow. I could think of nothing else but poor Margaret Stewart of Blantyre, and her presbyterian minister, while I read this. Miss Luxina brought her hogs to a bad market, for Hilarion was little better than a beast. Walter Scott's last poem I have also seen, but so hastily that I can be no competent judge of its merits. Talking of words, allow me to recommend to you Ford's plays, lately re-published. Some of them are excellent; the first in the series (which hath an awkward name, I must confess) and the Broken Heart, are particularly admirable. I am sure that you will be struck with them; for Ford is almost as moving as Otway or Lee, - who is the mad poet I adore, yet I can persuade nobody to read him. The History of the Somerville Family, which I have seen in MS., is soon to be printed, and that of Sutherland is to be out shortly'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe Manuscript: MS book

Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield :

'So much for books - saving that Sir John Murray hath found the whole correspondence of the Earl of Chesterfield, who flourished in King Charles the Second's time, in Bath House, containing most curious letters of the Duchess of Cleveland, Lady Southesk, and many other personages whom Count Hamilton has rendered so interesting. I will try to get Sir John to publish them, for such things should not run the risk of fire, not to mention rats and mice. There is a sort of memoir of Lord Chesterfield at the beginning of the volume, in which he says his second wife died of the spotted fever or plague; but in fact he is said to have poisoned her in the wine of the sacrament, to be revenged for her gallantries, which were notorious: that old villain, Sir John Denham, having shown him the way, by getting rid of his wife after a fashion nearly similar'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe Manuscript: Letter

Anna Maria Porter : Don Sebastian Or The House Of Braganza

'When Miss Porter's Don Sebastian came out, I expected to find the Margravine, Keppel Craven, (with whom the fair authoress was in love,) and many of my other friends there; in place of which I found nothing but such heroes and heroines as might have been fashionable and common formerly, but who are wonderfully out of date and rare now; so that circumstances gave me a disgust to the book'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe Print: Book

Edward Felix Norton : despatch

'Before we turned in Raymond, at Hugh's suggestion, read aloud Norton's 1924 despatch, in which he summoned up the possibilities of climbing Everest.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: (Charles) Raymond Greene

Thomas Babington Macaulay : unknown

'I am glad to hear you are giving Macaulay a turn. I believe, though it sounds rude and foolish, nothing will do you more good.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sidney Colvin Print: Book, Articles in the Edinburgh Review?

T. S. Eliot : unknown

Friday 14 February 1931: 'Janet Case yesterday [...] I suppose over 70 now [...] She clings to youth. "But we never see any young people" & so reads Tom Eliot &c'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Janet Case Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : Sons and Lovers

Monday 20 April 1931: 'Arrived [at La Rochelle] at 7.30 -- so quick one drives: I forgot our 2 punctures. One at Thouart [Thouars]; kept us, as the man did not mend it while we lunched. I read Sons & Lovers [by D. H. Lawrence], every word.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : The Man Who Died

Thursday 28 May 1931: 'Disappointed, reading lightly through, by The man who died, D.H.L.'s last. Reading Sons and Lovers first, then the last I seem to span the measure of his powers & trace his decline. A kind of Guy Fawkes dressing up grew on him it seems, in spite of the lovely silver-bright writing here & there: something sham. Making himself into a God, I suppose.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The Science of Life

Tuesday 2 February 1932: 'I am reading Wells' science of life, & have reached the hen that became a cock or vice versa.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The Work, Wealth, and Happiness of Mankind

Thursday 11 February 1932: 'My mind is set running upon A Knock on the Door (whats its name?) owing largely to reading "Wells on Woman" -- how she must be ancillary & decorative in the world of the future, because she has been tried, in 10 years, & has not proved anything.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

H. G. Wells : unknown

Sunday 8 May 1932: 'I've scarcely read [on holiday in Greece] [...] only Roger's Eastman, & Wells, & Murry.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

John Middleton Murry : unknown

Sunday 8 May 1932: 'I've scarcely read [on holiday in Greece] [...] only Roger's Eastman, & Wells, & Murry.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Princess Charlotte : Letter

'The Princess received a letter of twenty-eight pages, from the Princess Charlotte, which looked like the writing of a chambermaid, and appeared to me wholly illegible; but she said she could decipher it, and so she did in regard to understanding the general meaning, but I defy her powers or her patience to have made out [italics] literally [end italics], what those twenty-eight pages contained'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline Princess of Wales Manuscript: Letter

Anne Louise Germaine de Stael Holstein : Petits Romans

'She read one of Madame de Stael's [italics] Petits Romans [end italics], which I had lent her, and which she told me had given her great pleasure'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline Princess of Wales Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte'

'I am sorry to mention that [Lord Byron's] last poem upon "The Decadence of Bonaparte", is worthy neither his pen nor his muse'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline Princess of Wales

Frances Burney, Madame d'Arblay : Wanderer, The

'What do you think of the "Wardour", by Madame d'Arblais [sic]? It has only proved to us that she forgot her English; and the same suspicion has arisen again in my mind, that "Evelina" was written, or at least corrected, by Dr Johnson.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline Princess of Wales Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine de Stael Holstein : De l'Allemagne

'"I do not consider at all", observed Madame de C[-], "the author of a book, but only the work itself abstractedly, and I think the work we are now speaking of is one of the most perfect and most extraordinary, to be a woman's writing, I ever read."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Madame de [C-] Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine de Stael Holstein : De l'Allemagne

'Madame de C[-], who appears to me to be a clever and deep-thinking person, admired the whole of it without reserve, and said, she thought nothing could be more luminous than the manner in which Madame de Stael spoke of the different systems of metaphysical philosophy; and the only thing she regretted, was, that some extracts of Kant's writings had not been inserted'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Madame de [C-] Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine Stael-Holstein : Treatise on the Influence of the Passions

'Read Madame de Stael sur les Passions. What a wonderful mind is hers! what an insight she has into the recesses of human feeling! How many secret springs does she unlock; and how much the woman - the tender, the kind, the impassioned woman - betrays herself even in all the philosophy of her writings.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine Stael-Holstein : Essai sur les fictions

'Madame de Stael's "Essai sur les fictions" delights me particularly: for every word in it is a beautiful echo of my own feelings'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne : Letters

'of all the generations who have praised Madame de Sevigne, and commended her writings, I am certain no one has ever entered more completely into the sentiment of her delightful letters than myself. It is melancholy that no similar instance of so perfect a love between parent and child has since been upon record'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Michel de Montaigne : Essais

'I read Montaigne and Metastasio'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Pen Portraits and Reviews

In Diary of Virginia Woolf, facing page on which entry for 20 August 1932 and beginning of entry for 2 September written: 'Reading this August: Souvenirs de Tocqueville Any number of biographies -- Coleridge -- one or two poems. Lord Kilbracken memoirs. Shaw Pen portraits. Ainslie memoirs. Vita's novel [...] Nothing much good -- except de T: Coleridges letters; but failed to finish the 2nd vol.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : poems

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : letters

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : The Letters of D. H. Lawrence

Sunday 2 October 1932: 'I am [...] reading DHL. with the usual sense of frustration. Not that he & I have too much in common -- the same pressure to be ourselves: so that I dont escape when I read him; am surfeited [...] What I enjoy (in the Letters) is the sudden visualisation [...] but I get no satisfaction from his explanations of what he sees [goes on to comment further on text]'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

R. Barry O'Brien : The Life of Charles Stuart Parnell

Sunday 15 January 1933: 'I am reading Parnell.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

J. G. Frazer : The Golden Bough

Sunday 21 May 1933: 'Tonight sitting at the open window of a secondrate inn in Draguignan [...] I dip into Creevey; L[eonard]. into Golden Bough.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

Geoffrey Cust Faber : A Character Study of the Oxford Movement

Saturday 12 August 1933: 'I've been reading Faber on Newman; compared his account of a nervous breakdown; the refusal of some part of the mechanism; is that what happens to me? Not quite. Because I'm not evading anything. I long to write The Pargiters [work in progress]. No. I think the effort to live in 2 spheres: the novel; & life is a strain'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

George D. Abraham : Swiss Mountain Climbs

'My early reading had been confined to the work of the pioneers, and in consequence it never occurred to me that big mountains coud be climbed without guides.[...] I had acquired a copy of Abraham's "Swiss Mountain Climbs" which set out in depressing detail the official tariffs of the great peaks, the study of which acted as a constant check on my ambitions.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Eric Shipton Print: Book

Mary Agnes Hamilton : Sidney and Beatrice Webb

23 September 1933: 'I am reading Margot [Oxford] -- "V W our greatest English authoress;" Molly Hamilton on Webbs: & Turgenev.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Lord John Russell : Life of William Lord Russell, with Some Account of the Times

'I employed myself in the evening, reading Lord John Russell's life of his ancestor Lord William Russell. The preface is modest, dignified, and forcible; the narrative is lucid; and the style is unaffected, and devoid of ornament, yet elegant. It is like the author. How much the sobriety of a sensible English book strengthens and refreshes the understanding, especially when we have lived some time in a dearth of English literature'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Sydney, Lady Morgan : Florence Macarthy: An Irish Tale

'I read Lady Morgan's Florence Macarthy. There is originality and genius in all she writes'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

John Gibson Lockhart : Adam Blair

'On my return home, I found several letters from England; amongst them, one from Miss [-], in which she speaks of W[-]'s "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life"; and her opinion is valuable and curious, as being that of a clever writer. she says: I hear you were charmed with the "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life". Some of them I think beautiful, some of them ridiculous, and all want truth and reality; for though I can still relish a fairytale or a romance, yet I do not like fiction in the garb of truth. As mere creations of fancy, they are fine; as pictures of Scottish life and human nature, they are false. But do not let me forget this Mr [-] is an [italics] awfu' [end italics] man to have for one's enemy. The greatest wonder of the day, I think, is that "Adam Blair" should be the author of "Valerius" - two works so totally different in every respect. What prodigious versatility of power the writer of them must possess! Of course you know it is Mr Lockhart, the son-in-law of Scott'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss [-] Print: Book

John Gibson Lockhart : Valerius

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss [-] Print: Book

Nathaniel William Wraxall : Memoirs of the kings of France, of the race of Valois

'I have been reading Wraxall's Memoirs of the House of Valois. it is a very diverting book. The discovery that I make from it is, that men were at that time sooner old than they are now. All the kings of France died of old age at fifty; but ladies lasted longer. At sixty-six Diana Poitiers was so beautiful that no man could behold her without love'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Sydney, Lady Morgan : O'Donnel: A National Tale

'Mr North has been reading Lady Morgan's "O'Donnel", and is delighted with it. He says he never read a book that amused him so much, and that it has the merit of being more interesting in the last than in the first volume'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr North Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Guarini : Il Pastor Fido

'Adam Smith, Sir [-] informed me, was no admirer of the Rambler or the Idler, but was pleased with the pamphlet respecting the Falkland Islands, as it displayed in such forcible language, the madness of modern wars. Of Swift, he made frequent and honourable mention, and regarded him, both in style and sentiment, as a pattern of correctness. He often quoted some of the short poetical addresses to Stella, and was particularly pleased with the couplet, Say Stella, - feel you no content, Reflecting on a life well-spent? Smith had an invincible dislike to blank verse, Milton's only excepted. "they do well", said he, "to call it blank, for blank it is". Beattie's Minstrel he would not allow to be called a poem; for he said it had no plan, beginning or end. He did not much admire Allan Ramsay's "Gentle Shepherd", but preferred the "Pastor Fido", of which he spoke with rapture'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Adam Smith Print: Book

Marie Anne de Vichy-Chambrond, Marquise du Deffand : Letters of the Marquise du Deffand to the Hon. Horace Walpole

'[in a letter from Bury's correspondent [-]] I believe I told you I had been reading Horace Walpole's Letters over again, and also Madame du Deffand's Letters to him, and that I like them better. I hesitated for so long before reading them, because you disparaged them to me. I do not admire herself: she is a hard, unfeeling, misanthropical old sinner. But her mind is so laid open to me, that I pardon her faults and think she could not help them, as I do and think of my own. I have finished her letters to Horace, and am quite angry there is no account of her death. I am now reading her letters to Voltaire, which I cannot endure; they are full of nothing but fulsome flattery, which disgusts me. How much true affection dignifies every thing! but flattery when seen through, is odious. I like the portaits at the end of her book'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Marie Anne de Vichy-Chambrond, Marquise du Deffand : [Letters to Voltaire]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine, Baronne de Sta?l-Holstein : De l'Allemagne

'[in a letter from Bury's correspondent [-]] I have been reperusing Madame de Stael's De l'Allemagne. I cannot very well express how much I am charmed with that work. As Midas's hand had the art of transmuting everything it touched into gold, so her pen illuminates every object, turning the rude ore of the mine into current coin, and rendering it useful to every one. It is certainly a most luminous emanation of the human mind, and proves the female intellect may perchance equal, if not surpass, that of the other sex. I never read any style I like so well, and the candour, liberality, and impartiality of her sentiments are truly admirable'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Michel Eyquem (de) Montaigne : Essays

'Our library too was a weighty affair. Shipton had the longest novel that had been published in recent years, Warren a 2,000-page work on physiology.[...] On Good Friday [...] the rest of us lay about, played chess or read the less technical portion of our curiously assorted library. This included "Gone with the Wind" (Shipton) "Seventeenth Century Verse" (Oliver), "Montaigne's Essays" (Warren), "Don Quixote" (self), "Adam Bede" (Lloyd), "Martin Chuzzlewit" (Smythe), "Stones of Venice" (Odell) and a few others. Warren,who rejoined us that day, besides his weighty tome on Physiology -in which there were several funny anecdotes if one took the trouble to look - had with him a yet weightier volume on the singularly inappropriate subject of Tropical Diseases.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles B.M. Warren Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : [unknown verses]

'Well, I was at the annual dinner of my old Academy schoolfellows last night. We sat down ten, out of seventy-two.[?] I read them some verses. It is great fun: I always read verses, and in the vinous enthusiasm of the moment they always propose to have them printed; [italics]ce qui n?arrive jamais, du reste[end italics]: in the morning, they are more calm.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown, Probably sheets of paper or pages from a notebook.

Mary Augusta (Mrs Humphry) Ward : Robert Elsmere

'At this precise moment I am feeling mightily morose, owing to my having foolishly embarked on Robert Elsmere and Tom Jones this afternoon.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buchan Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Corsair, The

'Your descriptions of your travels do indeed set my feet moving, and my heart longing to see all you have seen; and this desire has been increased by reading the "Corsair" lately; it is indeed exquisite, the most perfect, I think, of all Byron's performances. What a divine picture of death is that of the description of Gulnare!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Susan Ferrier Print: Book

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel : [probably] Geschichte der alten und neuen Literatur

'I was glad to have the enjoyment of reading Schlegel's History of Literature. It is a fine work, built on a sure foundation; and though I do not always agree with his taste, his feelings and his principles are exactly what I believe it is right to square one's own by'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Joseph Moyle Sherer : The Story of a Life. By the Author of Scenes and Impressions in Egypt and Italy, Recollections of the Peninsula, &c

'Spent a quiet day at home. Read "The Story of a Life" by Sherer; a powerfully written book with vivid description and truth of portraiture, both as to human character and to the effects of the scenery of nature. It has much interest, and a fine vein of religious morality distinguishes it from the commonplace productions of literature'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : [possibly] Autobiography: Truth and Fiction Relating to My Life

'At home all day. Read Goethe's Life, and Tweddell's remains. The latter is very invigorating, showing great animation of soul, joined to a high moral character. Goethe's Life does not make the reader love him - not as far as I have read at least'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne : Letters

'Affectation is never more tiresome and ridiculous than in a letter. Madame de Sevigne was the best letter-writer that ever existed. I would rank Swift and Lord Chesterfield next. Voltaire to me is charming; but then I suspect he studied his epistles, as Lord Orford certainly did, and so had little merit. Heloise wrote beautifully in the old time; but we are very poor, both in England and Scotland, as to such matters'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Sharpe Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters to his Son

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Sharpe Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine de Stael-Holstein : De l'Allemagne

'I happened to open Madame de Stael's "Allemagne", and passed the whole night in reading that delightful work over again. The great charm in all her writings is, that they are her own thoughts, set down with all the force of home-felt truth; and any person who has had the gratification of living in intimacy with this celebrated woman, must be aware that in reading her works they are holding conversation, as it were, with herself.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book

Mary Wortley Montagu : Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

'Letters bring Lady M. W. M[ontagu] into my head, which I now do not confess in public ever to have read, for they are deemed so naughty by all the world, that one must keep up one's reputation for modesty, and try to blush whenever they are mentioned. Seriously dear [-], I never was more surprised with any publication in my life. It was, perhaps, no wonder that the editor, my Lord of W[harncliffe], cheated by the charms of his subject, might lose his head and in the last volume kick up his heels at Horace Walpole and Dr Cole, and print the letters about Reevemonde, &c. But how the discreet Lady Louisa S[tuart]t could sanction this, I cannot guess'. [he then comments at length on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Sharpe Print: Book

Stephanie Felicite Ducrest de St-Aubin, comtesse de Genlis : Mademoiselle de La Fayette : ou le siecle de Louis XIII

'I send you a new novel of Madame de Genlis' 'Mademoiselle de la Fayette'. I think it will interest and amuse you at the same time. The subject is taken from the reign of Louis XIII and Anne d'Autriche. The colouring of the characters has proved a very happy effort of genius, and, after my taste and my humble judgment, I think it one of the best that she ever wrote, except 'Les Voeux Temeraires'.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline, Princess of Wales Print: Book

Stephanie Felicite Ducrest de St-Aubin, comtesse de Genlis : Les voeux temeraires : ou L' enthousiasme

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline, Princess of Wales Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [possibly lines from 'The Corsair' =- 'Weep, Daughter of a Royal Line']

'As you like sometimes high treason, I send you a copy of the verses written by Lord Byron on the discovery of the bodies of Charles the First and Henry the Eighth: you may communicate it to any of your friends you please'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Caroline, Princess of Wales Manuscript: Unknown

Giovanni Battista Guarini : Il Pastor Fido

'You seem so much interested with the translation of "Pastor Fido" that I shall take the liberty of sending it to you, that you may judge of its merits: not being skilled in the Italian tongue I cannot possibly give an opinion of it as a [italics] translation [end italics]. As anything else, I do not like it, nor ever liked pastorals or pastoral writing, even of the first order, further than as vehicles for fine poetry; and then the poetry would have pleased me better had it spoken for itself, than from the mouth of a creature to me so inconceivable as a shepherd or shepherdess, whose chief, or rather [italics] only [end italics] characteristics are innocence and simplicity. I am sorry to say they are but too apt to be insipid and uninteresting to those who merely read about them [she continues this critique at length, concluding] It may be owing to some defect in my mind that I really never yet knew an interesting pastoral character, or cared a straw about whether they hanged themselves upon the first willow, or drowned themselves in the neighbouring brook. I can enter into the delights of Homer's gods, and follow to their darkest recesses Milton's devils, and delight in the absurdities and extravagancies of Shakespeare's men and women, but I never could sympathise in the sufferings of even Virgil's shepherd swains'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss V[-] Print: Book

Giovanni Battista Guarino : Il Pastor Fido

'to return to "Pastor Fido", with whom I have not yet finished, - I must tell you, that though I (what a great authority!) do not take pleasure in this said translation of the "Pastor Fido" of Guarino, many of the wise folks here admire it beyond measure. Walter Scott and Wilson are of these and therefore there must be something worthy to excite the commendations of such men as they are, though I cannot discover its beauties. I suppose it is for the reason I already mentioned, that to me there is nothing so insupportable as a pastoral life. The shepherds and shepherdesses are always simpletons and viragoes, and that rule is faithfully adhered to in this instance, with the addition of an [italics] Arcadian [end italics] nymph in a [italics] wig [end italics]!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss V[-] Print: Book

Anne Louise Germaine, marquise de Stael Holstein :

'[love letters represent the only subject women] 'should ever attempt to write about. Madame de Stael even I will not except from this general rule; she has done a plaguey deal of mischief, and no good, by meddling in literary matters, and I wish to heaven she would renounce pen, ink, and paper for ever more.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Matthew Lewis Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : unknown

Wednesday 14 February: '10 days recumbent [with headache], sleeping, dreaming, dipping into oh dear how many different books, how capriciously: Thackeray, Young's travels in France [...] then a book a day from the Times [Book Club], Berners, Selincourt & a stout life by Neale of Q. Elizabeth which pretending to impartiality emphasises the double chin & the wig of Mary at the critical moment: a fig for impartial & learned historians! All men are liars.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

J. E. Neale : Queen Elizabeth

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

T. S. Eliot : The Rock. A Pageant Play

'T. S. Eliot's The Rock. A Pageant Play had been performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre 28 May-9 June [1934] in aid of the Forty-Five Churches Fund of the Diocese of London, and was published at the same time. V[irginia] W[oolf] only read it, and expressed her views in a letter to Stephen Spender'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Ex-Detective Sergeant B. Leeson : Lost London. The Memoirs of an East End Detective

Thursday 30 August 1934: 'No letters at all this summer. But there will be many next year, I predict. And I dont mind; the day, yesterday to be exact, being so triumphant: writing: the walk; reading, Leeson, a detective, Saint Simon, Henry James' preface to P. of a Lady -- very clever, [word illegible] but one or two things I recognise: then Gide's Journal, again full of startling recollection -- things I cd have said myself.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

John Cowper Powys : Autobiography

Tuesday 2 October 1934: 'Books read or in reading [over summer 1934]: Sh[akespea]re. Troilus. Pericles. Taming of Shrew. Cymbeline. Maupassant. de Vigny. only scraps [the four French authors grouped by bracket in MS] St Simon. Gide. Library books: Powys Wells Lady Brooke. Prose. Dobree. Alice James.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Experiment in Autobiography

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Sylvia Leonora Brook, Ranee of Sarawak : Good Morning and Good Night

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Experiment in Autobiography

Wednesday 21 November 1934: 'I am reading, with interest & distaste, Wells'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Anne Isabella Thackeray : The Village on the Cliff. A Novel.

'I am reading "The Village on the Cliff", and cannot tell you how beautiful I think it. I am inclined to give up literature. [italics]I[end italics] can?t write like that. Never mind, [italics]je serai fidele [end italics].'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : John Knox and the Controversy about Female Rule

'I have been working all the morning at my second ?John Knox? proof, and got it pretty right, I fancy.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical, Proof copy of RLS's essay.

Robert Louis Stevenson : An Autumn Effect.

'I have also got ?An Autumn Effect? in proof: I shall send it to you to read, I think.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical, Proof copy of RLS's essay.

H.(Herbert) G. (George) Wells : The Wonderful Visit

'Strangely enough--about five months ago--when turning over the last page of the "Wonderful Visit" in the full impresion of the suggestive charm and full realism of that book, I remember reflecting--with contemptible bitterness--that a mind which could conceive and execute such a work was utterly beyond my reach.[...] I have only read the "Time Machine" the "Wonderful Visit" the "Bacillus" volume of short stories--and I am informed to day that "Dr Moreau " is just now on his way to my island. I expect to have the delight of his acquaintance tomorrow. Your book[s?] [presumably "Wonderful Visit" or all three texts mentioned as read] lay hold of me with a grasp that can be felt. I am held by the charm of their expression and of their meaning.' Thereafter follows several more lines of effusive commentary.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G. (George) Wells : The Time Machine

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G. (George) Wells : The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

George Lewis (Louis) Becke : By Reef and Palm

'I am sorry to miss making the acquaintance of Mr Becke. Strangely enough I have been, only the other day, reading again his "Reef and Palm". Apart from the great interest of the stories what I admire most is his perfect unselfishness in the telling of them.[...] I haven't seen yet the "The First Fleet Family" and have a great curiosity.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

George Lewis (Louis) Becke (and Walter Jeffrey) : A First Fleet Family

' I have read "The First Fleet Family"with interest tempered by disappointment.' Thereafter follow two pages of largely negative criticism.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

E.(Ethel) L.(Lilian) Voynich : The Gadfly

'What do you think of the "Gadfly"? I wrote what I thought to P.[presumably Sydney Pawling of Heinemann] who rejoined gallantly. But it comes to this, if his point of view is accepted, that having suffered is sufficient excuse for the production of rubbish.[...] I don't remember ever reading a book I disliked so much.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Experiment in Autobiography

Sunday 6 January 1935: 'We lunched with Maynard & Lydia [Keynes] [...] talked about [...] Wells -- [Maynard] had read his Au[tobiograph]y. Thought him a little squit [...] A lack of decency, said M. [...] Then he read us a long magnificently spry and juicy letter from Shaw, on a sickbed, aged 77. The whole of economics twiddled round on his finger, with the usual dives & gibes & colloquialities. The most artificial of all styles, I said, like his seeming natural speaking.'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: John Maynard Keynes Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : letter to John Maynard Keynes, 11 December 1935

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Maynard Keynes Manuscript: Letter

Annie S. Swan : My Life

Sunday 14 April 1935: 'Now for Alfieri & Nash & other notables: so happy I was reading alone last night [...] I read Annie S. Swan on her life with considerable respect. Almost always this comes from an Au[tobiograph]y: a liking, at least some imaginative stir: for no doubt her books, which she cant count, & has no illusions about, but she cant stop telling stories, are wash, pigs, hogs -- any wash you choose. But she is a shrewd capable old woman.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Howard Overing Sturgis : Belchamber

'Belchamber (1904) by Howard ("Howdie") Overing Sturgis (1855-1920), a prosperous American expatriate, has for its principal character "Sainty" -- the Marquis and Earl of Belchamber. V[rginia] W[oolf] read the "World's Classics" edition of 1935, with an introduction by Gerard Hopkins which draws a portrait of the author.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : Aaron's Rod

Thursday 9 May 1935: 'Sitting in the sun outside the German Customs. A car with the swastika on the back window has just passed into Germany. L[eonard]. is in the customs. I am nibbling at Aaron's Rod [by D. H. Lawrence, 1922]. Ought I to go in and see what is happening? A fine dry windy morning. The Dutch Customs took 10 seconds. This has taken 10 minutes already.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Emily Hilda Young : Miss Mole

Thursday 29 August 1935: 'Reading Miss Mole, Abbe Dunnet (good), an occasional bite at Hind & Panther'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Sir Charles Mallett : Anthony Hope and His Books

Friday 13 September 1935: 'Reading Love for Love, Life of Anthony Hope, &c.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : A Country Dance

'And now I have taken up an old story, begun years ago; and I have now rewritten all I had written of it then and mean to finish it. What I have lost and gained is odd. As far as regards simple writing, of course I am in another world now; but in some things, though more clumsy, I seem to have been freer and more plucky: this is a lesson I have taken to heart. I have got a jolly new name for my old story. I am going to call it ?A Country Dance?: the two heroes keep changing places, you know; and the chapter, where the most of this changing goes on, is to be called: ?Up the Middle, down the Middle?. It will be in six, or (perhaps) seven, chapters. I have never worked harder in my life, than these last four days. If I can only keep it up.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Earlier draft of one of his stories.

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : The Impenitent Thief

'The "Impenitent Thief" has been read more than once. I've read it several times alone and I've read it aloud to my wife. Every word has found a home.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Stuart P. Sherman : [article on Arnold Bennett]

'In the issue for December 23rd, 1915 of the NewYork "Nation" there is an extremely fine article on me by Stuart P. Sherman. On the whole I regard it as the best article I have seen on the subject. I should very much like to have seen this article reprinted, either with other by the same hand or alone, but I suppose that there is no chance of this.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltuikov : The Golovleff Family

'I don?t know whether the translation from the Russian, "The Golovleff Family", (published by Knopf out your way) is any good, but the book is great. I read it twice in French.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Sir Thomas Browne : unknown

Thursday 12 September 1919: 'Writing has been done under difficulties. I was making way with my new experiment, when I came up against Sir Thomas Browne, & found I hadn't read him since I used to dip & duck & be bored & somewhow [sic -- misprint?] enchanted hundreds of years ago. Therefore I had to break off, send for his books (by the way, I have read him fairly often, now I come to think of it) & start little stories.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Mrs Humphry Ward : A Writer's Recollections

Sunday 21 September 1919: 'By paying 5/ I have become a member of the Lewes public library. It is an amusing place -- full of old ghosts; books half way to decomposition [...] I could not resist Mrs Ward, & I stand in her unconscionably long hours, as if she were a bath of tepid water that one lacks the courage to leave [goes on to comment further on Ward's autobiography].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Mrs Humphry Ward : A Writer's Recollections

'A Writer's Recollections, by Mrs Humphry Ward, had been published in the autumn of 1918. V[irginia] W[oolf] had read it then'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Henry Festing Jones : Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835-1902): A Memoir

Sunday 28 December 1919, following illness with influenza: 'I've read two vast volumes of the Life of Butler; & am racing through Greville Memoirs -- both superbly fit for illness. Butler has the effect of paring the bark off feelings: all left a little raw, but vivid -- a lack of sap though [goes on to comment further on Butler and his biographer, Henry Festing Jones]]'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Harry J. Greenwall : The Strange Life of Willy Clarkson

Sunday 11 January 1936: 'A very fine day [...] I read Borrow's Wild Wales, into which I can plunge head foremost [...] then [...] to tea with Nessa [sister] [...] Home, & dine alone, & sleep over Mr Clarkson's memoirs. He had a sexual kink, & a passion for fish'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Sir Thomas Browne : letters

Friday 27 November 1936: 'Dined alone, read Sir T. Browne's letters.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [juvenile poems]

'if you have no [italics] odd things [end italics] lying about you which I daresay you do not lack there are many pieces among those you published in your youth which are I deem not much known and which I think extremely beautifull if you would deign to favour us with something of either the one class or the other you can hardly conceive how much it would oblige [italics] me [end italics] in particular and turn as it were every letter of our little repository into gold'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Unknown

J. H. Craig : Hunting of Badlewe, The

'By the by have you read my friend Mr Crag's [sic] "Hunting of Badlewe" published by Colburne. If you have not I wish you would and tell me punctually what you think of him, and the utmost that may be anticipated of him as a poet and dramatist'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Bristol Fashion Pt.2 in Saturday Review

'The "Bristol Fashion" business is excellently well put. You seem to know a lot about every part of the world and what's more you can say what you know in a most individual way.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Notes on the District of Menteith

'The Guide book simply magnificent Everlastingly good! [sic].I've read it last night having only then returned home.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Aurora la Cujini: A Realistic sketch in Seville

'This morning I had the "Aurora" from Smithers, No.2 of the 500 copies. C'est tout simplement magnifique yet I do not exactly perceive what on earth they have been making a fuss about.[...] I notice variations in the text as I've read it in the typewritten copy.This seems the most fnished piece of work you have ever done.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book, see additional comments

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Preface to: Mogreb-el-Aksa: A Journey in Morocco

'I return the pages "To Wayfaring Men". I read them before I read your letter and have been deeply touched.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Sheet, Presumably typewritten pages

Emmuska, Baroness Orczy : Scarlet Pimpernel, The

'Her reading as a child was voracious, although her late start in learning to read for herself left her with a cosy taste for being read to. Her governess hads read aloud to her the story of Perseus and "Jungle Jinks" and most things in between. Once she read for herself, she had a passion for George Macdonald: his Curdie was one of her heroes. She loved Baroness Orczy's "Scarlet Pimpernel", and E. Nesbit's books. She read Dickens exhaustively as a child and, as a result, could not read him as a young adult: "There is no more oxygen left, for me, anywhere in the atmosphere of his writings".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book

Henry Rider Haggard : She

'In a BBC talk of 1947 about the book that had most influenced her early years, she chose to talk about Rider Haggard's "She"; she came upon it at the age of twelve, "when I was finding the world too small". The descriptions of Kor, the great derelict city, caught her imagination. She "saw" Kor before she ever saw London: "Inevitably, the Thames Embankment was a disappointment".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Lara

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Corsair, The

'I have had such a pleasant morning perusing Lara to day that I cannot risist [sic] the impulse of writing to you and telling you so. The last Canto of it is much the best thing you ever wrote - there are many pictures in it which the heart of man can scarcely brook. It is besides more satisfactorily and better wind up [sic] than any of your former tales and the images rather more perceptible. You are constantly improving in this Your figures from the very first were strong without parallel but in every new touch of your pencil they are better and better relieved. In the first Canto there is haply too much painting of the same and too close on that so much dwelt on in the Corsair; Yet still as it excels the rest in harmony of numbers I am disposed to give it the preference to any of them [Hogg then advises Byron not to attempt writing drama] I have been extremely puzzled to find out who Sir Ezzelin is sometimes I have judged him to be some sea captain at others Medora's uncle or parent from whom the Corsair had stole her but I have at last pleased myself by concludoing thatg Lord Byron does not know himself - what a wretched poet Mr Rogers is You are truly very hardly set for great original poets in England at present when such as he must be extolled. I could not help smiling at his Jacqueline'.'I have had such a pleasant morning perusing Lara to day that I cannot risist [sic] the impulse of writing to you and telling you so. The last Canto of it is much the best thing you ever wrote - there are many pictures in it which the heart of man can scarcely brook. It is besides more satisfactorily and better wind up [sic] than any of your former tales and the images rather more perceptible. You are constantly improving in this Your figures from the very first were strong without parallel but in every new touch of your pencil they are better and better relieved. In the first Canto there is haply too much painting of the same and too close on that so much dwelt on in the Corsair; Yet still as it excels the rest in harmony of numbers I am disposed to give it the preference to any of them. [Hogg then advises Byron not to attempt writing drama] I have been extremely puzzled to find out who Sir Ezzelin is sometimes I have judged him to be some sea captain at others Medora's uncle or parent from whom the Corsair had stole her but I have at last pleased myself by concluding that Lord Byron does not know himself - what a wretched poet Mr Rogers is. You are truly very hardly set for great original poets in England at present when such as he must be extolled. I could not help smiling at his Jacqueline'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Hebrew Melodies

'The "Melodies" bear a few striking marks of the master's hand but there are some of them feeble and I think they must be Lady B's. He is not equal to Moore for [italics] melodies [end italics].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'Siege of Corinth, The'

'After an absence of 9 months in Yarrow I returned here the night before last when for the first time I found a copy of your two last poems kindly sent to me by Murray, the perusal of which have so much renewed my love and admiration of you as a poet that I can no longer resist the inclination of once more writing to you'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'Parisina'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'Parisina' and 'The Siege of Corinth'

'I am highly dilighted [sic] with your two last little poems. They breathe a vein of poetry which you never once touched before and there is something in "The Siege of Corinth" at least which convinces me that you have loved my own stile of poetry better than you ever acknowledged to me. Some of the people here complain of the inadequacy of the tales to the poetry I am perfectly mad at them and Mr Jeffery [sic] among the rest for such an insinuation. I look upon them both as descriptive poems descriptive of some of the finest and boldest scenes of nature and of the most powerful emotions of the human heart. Perdition to the scanty discernment that would read such poems as they would do a novel for the sake of the plot to the disgrace of the age however be it spoken in the light romantic narrative which our mutual friend Scott has made popular this is the predominant ingredient expected and to a certainty the reviewers will harp upon the shortcoming of it in your poems as a fault'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (canto III)

'I have had a great treat this morning in perusing L. Byron's 3d Canto - Considered as a continuation of Child-Harold [sic] it has some incongruities and perhaps too much egoism still it is a powerful and energetic work and superior to every long poem of my noble friend's - I have had only time to read two articles of the Review which I was in a great hurry to do because I knew the authors of both and was informed of their being in Giffords hand before they were put to press, but I hope all the other articles are better'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (canto IV)

'I have got the fourth canto to day - It is a glorious morsel!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

William Ernest Henley : unknown

'My poet writes good stuff; it is slack still and unequal, but I think some of it capital.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson

Henry Millon de Montherlant : [unknown]

'In 1937 she was having "a heavenly time" reading Montherlant, and writing a piece on him for the "New Statesman".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book

Guy de Maupassant : 'Yvette' [and other short stories]

'Maupassant never meant as much to her as Flaubert, or as Proust. She was reading collections of Maupassant's stories in mid-winter at Bowen's Court when she wrote to Virginia Woolf: "I suppose he had sharp sense but really rather a boring mind. You soon get to know his formula, but there is always the fascination: it's like watching someone do the same card trick over and over again. I did feel the fascination so strongly that I wondered if I were getting brutalised myself. There is a particularly preposterous story called 'Yvette'...."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen Print: Book

John Gibson Lockhart : 'Testimonium, A Prize Poem by James Scott, Esq.'

'I have not got all the Mag. read but think it is an exceedingly good one. I only wish the term [italics] Galloway Stott [end italics] had been left out of Scott's prize poem It is exceedingly shrewd and clever. New York I do not understand The poetry of Cunningham is perfectly beautiful'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Serial / periodical

John Gibson Lockhart : 'Dietrich Knickernocker's History of New York'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Serial / periodical

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : 'Letter to Peter Morris, M.D. On the Sorts and Uses of Literary Praise'

'I do not rank this Maga very high but would like much to know who this new village poet is this juvenile Crab Coleridge's letter is great stuff but correspondence of the Pringles continues to be excellent'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Serial / periodical

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Higginson's Dream

'"Higginson's Dream" is super-excellent. It is much too good to remind me of any of my work, but I am immensely flattered that you discern some points of similitude. Of course I am in complete sympathy with the point of view. For the same accomplishmnet in expression I can never hope--and Robert [Cunninghame Grahame] is too strong an individuality [sic] to be influenced by anyone's writing. He desired me to correct the proofs but the "Sat. Rev" people did not send me the proofs.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

William Ernest Henley : [poems]

'I have a poet in stock here, a poor ass in the infirmary with one leg off and the other more than shaky − scrofula you know − but [italics]bougrement[end italics] intelligent, and he writes straight enough verses, I think. He?s learning, you know. But he makes good songs [and] here and there has a good idea. His hospital sonnets are very true and boldly real − not realistic, a word I have now learned to hate.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson

Ford Madox (Hermann Ford) Ford (Hueffer) : Shifting of the Fire

'I have read "Shifting of the Fire". I have read it several times looking for your "inside" in that book; the first impression being that there is a considerable "inside" in you.The book is delightfully young.' [thereafter 30 lines of critical comment for what was Ford Madox Ford's first novel, written in his teens and later adapted by Edward Garnett.]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Mogreb-el-Acksa

'Your photograph came yesterday (It's good!) and the book [Mogreb-el-Acksa] arrived by this evening's post. I dropped everything--as you may imagine and rushed at it paper knife in hand. It is with great difficulty I interrupt my reading at the 100th page -- and I interrupt it only to write to you. A man staying here has been reading over my shoulder; for we share our best with the stranger within our tent. No thirsty men drank water as we have been drinking in, swallowing, tasting, blessing, enjoying, gurgling, choking over, absorbing, your thought, your phrases, your irony [...Then follows ten lines of enthusiastic praise for the book.]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Mogreb-el-Acksa

'Just a word or two about Robert's book. It is a glorious performance.Much as we expected of him. [...] Nothing approaching it has appeared since Burton's "Mecca" ["Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah" 1855] [...] The Journey in Morocco is a work of art, a book of travel written like this is no longer a book of travel--it is a creative work.[...] The book pulled at my very heart strings.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G. (George) Wells : The Invisible Man

'Thanks ever so much for "The Invisible Man". I shall keep him a few more days longer. Frankly--it is uncommonly fine.[Hence follows a long paragraph of appreciative comment comparing it favorably with "The War of the Worlds".] The letter ends with 'In reading this last ["The Invisible Man"], one is touched by the anguish of it, as by something that may one day happen to oneself.It is a great triumph for you'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G. (George) Wells : The Time Machine

'The trans: of the T.M.["The Time Machine"] is really first rate. What an admirably good thing it is, this T.M. How true,clever, ingenious, full of thought and beauty. I read on in the trans: neglecting my work.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : letter in Daily Chronicle "Pax Britannica"

'Today, from your kindness, I received the "Chronicle" with Robert's [Cunninghame Graham] letter. C'est bien ca -- c'est bien lui!' [Its good, that-- it's really him!]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Newspaper

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : 'A Paheka'

'The thing ["A Paheka" ] in "West.Gaz." is excellent, excellent.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

John Gibson Lockhart : Reginald Dalton

'I have read Reginald with great care and with great interest. It is a masterly work upon the whole, particularly in stile grouping and plot. In these its excellencies lie, and they are of a high class. But it strikes me that so masterly an architect might have made a far more imposing fabric on the whole. Its faults are these. A damned affectation of inserting short classical and French quotations without end and without measure which to common readers like me hurts the work materially - The work is too long for the materials two volumes would have been rather so - The plot is an excellent plot. I have seen nothing better concieved in the present age, and every thing bears upon it turning on it as a hinge. The author has prodigious merit in the conception of the plot, and therefore it is the greater pity that there is some manifest defects in the conducting of it. The final event is far too soon seen. From the moment that the Vicar tells the story of his sister-in-law's seduction it is palpable. I saw it perfectly, and my chief interest afterwards was incited by my anxiety to see how the author was going to bring it about. This is Sir W. Scott's plan, but it is not to be made a precedent of. In fact it will not do with any body but himself to let the events be seen perfectly through. However he could not have conceived such a true dramatic plot, all so perfecty in bearing; that he could not; but he could have made more of the characters and incidents; a great deal more. There is a fascination in the stile and in the abstract ideas that often delights me. The hand of a master is apparent there; and after all I think the sole failure is in the conducting of the plot, which you may depend on it will hurt the popularity of a grand work. There was great scope for pathos in it- there is not an item - several scenes of powerful impression seem just approaching - they pass over without taking due effect; and besides, the leaving out of the Christian name in the will was a misnomer unlikely enough for so much to hinge upon [Hogg critiques some further aspects of the plot].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

Susan Edmonstone Ferrier : Marriage

'I should like much to address a song ode or sonnet to the authoress of Marriage &c and if I do it shall be to her as the sister of David Wilkie. Never was there such a painter as she is (if a she it be of which I have strong doubts) Sir W Scott's portraits are sometimes more strongly defined but they are not more unique and rarely or never so humourous [sic]. He can paint an individual well the hero of the story But can he paint a group like the family of the Fairbairns? No I defy him or any [italics] man [end italics] alive save David Wilkie as for [italics] women [end italics] there's no saying what [italics] they [end italics] can do when men and children are the objects. In short if the author of MARRIAGE and THE INHERITANCE be a woman I am in love with her and I authorise you to tell her so.' [the letter has a postscript: 'You have sent the two [italics] first [end italics] vols of The Inheritance and I want the [italics] third [end italics] I return one']

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

Susan Edmonstone Ferrier : Inheritance, The

'I should like much to address a song ode or sonnet to the authoress of Marriage &c and if I do it shall be to her as the sister of David Wilkie. Never was there such a painter as she is (if a she it be of which I have strong doubts) Sir W Scott's portraits are sometimes more strongly defined but they are not more unique and rarely or never so humourous [sic]. He can paint an individual well the hero of the story But can he paint a group like the family of the fairbairns? No I defy him or any [italics] man [end italics] alive save David Wilkie as for [italics] women [end italics] there's no saying what [italics] they [end italics] can do when men and children are the objects. In short if the author of MARRIAGE and THE INHERITANCE be a woman I am in love with her and I authorise you to tell her so.' [the letter has a postscript: 'You have sent the two [italics] first [end italics] vols of The Inheritance and I want the [italics] third [end italics] I return one']

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

Christian Isobel Johnstone : Elizabeth de Bruce

'Of all the new works you have sent me I admire Gillies' stories by far the most. I have scarcely ever met with a work that pleased me better and was so truly congenial to my mind. The ease and simple elegance of the stile is exquisite. That work should certainly have a great circulation I have great faults with Mrs Johnston's work in which there is however great genius but the anachronisms are without end and the characters too much borrowed from Scott Beyond all the story is forced and confused beyond all measures. Our ladies were pleased with it beyond measure so it must have something very fascinating'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Book

William Beckford : Vathek, an Arabian Tale or The History of the Caliph Vathek

'In a little while came the books . [..] I've read Vathek at once. C'est tres bien. What an infernal imagination! The style is cold and I do not see in the work the immense promise as set forth by the introduction. Chaucer I have dipped into, reading aloud as you advised. I am afraid I am not English enough to appreciate fully the father of English literature. Moreover I am generally insensible to verse. Thereupon came "The Stealimg of the Mare" This I delight in. I've read it at once and right through. It is quite inspiring most curious and altogether fascinating.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book, Unknown

Henry Scott Ridell : 'Ode to the Harp of Zion'

'I enclose you two poems one by Mr Riddell which I have copied and corrected a sublime and beautiful thing, its only fault being a small shade of redundancy of thought but that I cannot help. It gives great promise and I want to bring him in as my [italics]assistant [end italics] and [italics]successor [end italics]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Serial / periodical

Caroline Bowles Southey : 'La petite Madelaine'

'The twin Magas are excellent with the exception of "La petite Madelaine" which to me is quite despicable! To slight your old friend for such feminine frible-frable! Wilson [TEAR] poem is most splendid but I have never been able to get straight through it nor I don't think any man ever will'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Hogg Print: Newspaper

T. S. Eliot : valedictory editorial article

Tuesday 17 January 1939: 'Yesterday I went to the London Library [...] read Tom [Eliot]'s swan song in the Criterion [...] home & read Delacroix journals; about whiich I could write: I mean the idea is that its among the painters not the writers one finds stability, consolation. This refers to a sentence of his about the profundity of the painter's meaning; & how a writer always superficialises.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Serial / periodical

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Mont Blanc

Tuesday 28 February 1939: 'I have just read [Shelley's] Mont Blanc, but cant make it "compose": clouds perpetually over lapping [sic]. If a new poem, what should I say? I think a great idea somewhere; but the language so nebulous, or rather words overlapping, like ripples, each effacing the other, partly: & a general confusion results.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

T. S. Eliot : The Family Reunion

Thursday 16 March 1939: 'Yesterday in Bond Street where I finally did lay out £10 on clothes, I saw a crowd round a car, & on the back seat was a Cheetah with a chain round his loins. I also found a presentation copy of Tom's Family Reunion; & sucked no pleasure from the first pages.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

T. S. Eliot : The Family Reunion

Wednesday 22 March 1939: 'Tom sent me his play, Family Reunion. No, it don't do. I read it over the week end. It starts theories. But no... You see the experiment with stylised chatter isnt successful. he's a lyric not a dramatic. But here theres no free lyricism. is caught back by the character [...] A clever beginning, & some ideas; but they spin out: & nothing grips: all mist -- a failure: a proof hes not a dramatist. A monologist.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Sir Edward Marsh : A Number of People

Wednesday 22 March 1939: 'Reading Eddie Marsh.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : private letter

'The other afternoon, as I was lying dozing in a brown study after dinner, a lord's lackey knocked at the door and delivered me a little blue parcel, requiring for it a ntoe of delivery. I opened it, and found two pretty stitched little books, and a letter from - Goethe! I copy it from the fractur [Gothic script] hand it was written in, and send it for your edification. The patriarchal style of it pleases me much.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Manuscript: Letter

Samuel Taylor Coleridge :

'I have brought Coleridge with me, & am [italics] doing [end italics] him & Wordsworth [-] [italics] fit place for the latter! [end italics]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron :

'I have done all my [italics] composition [end italics] of Ld B -, & done Crabbe outright since you left & got up Dryden & Pope - so now I'm all clear & straight before me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

George Crabbe :

'I have done all my [italics] composition [end italics] of Ld B -, & done Crabbe outright since you left & got up Dryden & Pope - so now I'm all clear & straight before me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : 'Deserted House, The'

'I like your expression of 'an unwritten tragedy'. It quite answers to the sadness which fills my heart as I look on some of those deserrted old halls. Do they not remind you of Tennyson's 'Deserted House' - 'Life and thought are gone away', &c.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : Autobiography

Wednesday 3 January 1940: 'I have just put down Mill's autobiography, after copying certain sentences in the volume I call, deceptively, the Albatross.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Henry Havelock Ellis : My Life

Thursday 7 March 1940: 'A fortnight -- well on Saturday it will be a fortnight -- with influenza [...] before getting into bed that bitter [previous Saturday] afternoon I read my epitaph -- Mrs W. died so soon, in the N.S. & was pleased to support that dismissal very tolerably [...] And read all Havelock Ellis, a cautious cumulative, teased & tired book; too pressed down with that very common woman, Edith [Lees, Ellis's wife]: so I judged her, but she was life to him [...] He's honest & clear but thick [illegible] & too like the slow graceful Kangaroo with its cautious soft leaps. But thats much due to influenza.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

A. B. Goldenveizer : Talks with Tolstoi

Thursday 22 March 1940: 'I read Tolstoy at Breakfast -- Goldenweiser, that I translated with Kot in 1923 & have almost forgotten. Always the same reality -- like touching an exposed electric wire. Even so imperfectly conveyed -- his rugged short cut mind -- to me the most, not sympathetic, but inspiring, rousing, genius in the raw [...] I remember that was my feeling about W. & Peace, read in bed at Twickenham. Old [Sir George] Savage [doctor] picked it up. "Splendid stuff!" & Jean [Thomas, owner of nursing home] tried to admire what was a revelation to me. Its directness, its reality. Yet he's against photographic realism.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : letters

Wednesday 29 May 1940: 'Reading masses of Coleridge & Wordsworth letters of a night -- curiously untwisting & burrowing into that plaited nest [...] Reading Thomas A'Quinas [sic] [1933] by Chesterton. His skittish over ingenious mind makes one shy (like a horse). Not straightforward, but has a good engine in his head.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

G. K. Chesterton : Thomas Aquinas

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : unknown

Saturday 22 June 1940: 'On the down at Bugdean I found some green glass tubes [...] And I read my Shelley at night. How delicate & pure & musical & uncorrupt he & Coleridge read, after the left wing group [...] how they compact; & fuse, & deepen.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Biographia Literaria

Friday 5 July 1940: 'Why should I be bothering myself with Coleridge I wonder -- Biog. Lit. & then with father's essay on Coleridge, this fine evening, when the flies are printing their little cold feet on my hands? It was in order to give up thinking about economy'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Sir Leslie Stephen : essay on Coleridge

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

F. L. Lucas : Studies French and English

Tuesday 17 September 1940: 'Yesterday in the Public Library I took down a book of Peter Lucas's criticism [...] London Library atmosphere effused. Turned me against all lit crit [...] Is all lit. crit. that kind of exhausted air? -- book dust, London Library, air. Or is it only that F.L.L[ucas] is a second hand, frozen fingered, university specialist, don trying to be creative, don all stuffed with books, writer? Would one say the same of the Common Reader [by Woolf]? I dipped for 5 minutes & put the book back depressed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

G. M. Trevelyan : History of England

Saturday 26 October 1940: '"The complete Insider" -- I have just coined this title to express my feeling towards George Trevelyan; who has just been made Master of Trinity: whose history of England I began after tea (throwing aside Michelet vol.15) with a glorious sense of my own free & easiness in writing now) [...] I like outsiders better. Insiders write a colourless English. They are turned out by the University machine.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

E. F. Benson : Final Edition, an Informal Autobiography

Friday 1 November 1940: 'My Times book this week is E. F. Benson's last autobigraphy [...] I learn there the perils of glibness.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Sir William Chambers : A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening

'I was yesterday at Belleim, the winter palace of the King [of Portugal] [...] The house is by no means fine, and did not the garden and other appurtenances atone for it, it would hardly be worth the trouble of going to see, but those indeed are well worthy of a traveller's Notice. This garden contains within it variety enough to satisfy a Sir William Chalmers [sic], and had I not read his account of what a garden ought to be, I should not venture to express all I saw under that single appellation, but tho' it is far from being so extensive as his plan, yet it contains a great deal more than his three natural notes of earth, air and water, water, earth and air.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Janet Schaw Print: Book

Thomas Noon Talfourd : Vacation Rambles and Thoughts

Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 6 January 1845: 'Have you read Mr Serjeant Talfourd's "Rambles & thoughts"? With some wordiness, & faults of taste otherwise, it is a very pleasant book & has set me on the desire of climbing to the top of Mont Blanc [...] It improves as you read.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Henry John Newbolt : Drake's Drum

'Father is rehearsing Drake's Drum for Wednesday'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book

Pierre Veron : Le Pantheon de Poche

'There is only one very good thing in the world: the acting of Sarah Bernhardt. I beg your pardon, there is another: Pierre Veron’s "Pantheon de Poche".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Arthur Hugh Clough : Ambarvalia

'I send you back 'Ambarvalia' with many thanks; I am also much obliged to you for sending me Mr Espinasse's prospectus, which had before excited my attention'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Alexander Crawford, Lord Lindsay : Lives of the Lindsays; Or, A memoir of the houses of Crawford and Balcarres

'If you want an agreeable book, read 'Lives of the Lindsays'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Oenone

[Gaskell tells John Forster of Samuel Bamford who knows many of Tennyson's poems by heart and recites them, but does not have his own copy - she later asks Forster if he could procure a copy for Bamford, signed by Tennyson] ''whenever he got into a house where there were Tennyson's poems he learnt as many as he could of[f] by heart; & he thought he knew better than twelve', - & he began Oenone, & then the Sleeping Beauty'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Bamford Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : 'Sleeping Beauty, The'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Bamford Print: Book

John Henry Newman : [possibly] Discourses to Mixed Congregations

'Suffice it to say that its who can revere Mr Newman most with Mr Darbishire, the Winkworths and myself, the book is absolutely simply the utterance of the man'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

John Henry Newman : [Sermons]

'I am going through a course of John Henry Newman's Sermons.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : [Poems]

''Tennyson' has arrived safe, without a shadow of damage and thanks without end for it. I have been half-opening the pretty golden leaves, and peeping here and there at old favourites since it came. But I have shut it up close again, that it may all properly stick togeher like a new bound book, before I take it to Bamford'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : 'Sleeping Beauty, The'

[Gaskell describes handing over the gift of a signed copy of Tennyson's poems to Samuel Bamford] 'I said, 'Look at the title page', for I saw he was fairly caught by something he liked in the middle of the book, & was standing reading it there in the street. 'Well! I am a proud man this day', he exclaimed, - then he turned it up and down, & read a bit, (it was a very crowded street), and his grey face went quite brown-red with pleasure [...] Then he dipped down into his book, and began reading aloud the Sleeping beauty, and in the middle stopped to look at the writing again, and we left him a sort of sleep[-]walking state, & only trust he will not be run over'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Bamford Print: Book

Caroline Emelia Stephen : Passages in the life of a Daughter at Home

'Do you know a little book written by a daughter of Sir Jas Stephens, called 'Passages in the life of a Daughter at Home'? It is very painful, and from the impression of pain which, despite its happy ending, it leaves upon one I think it must want some element of peace, but still it is very true, and [italics] very [end italics] suggestive; and a description to the life of the trials of many single women, who waken up some morning to the sudden feeling of the [italics] purposelessness [italics] (is there such a word) of their life. Do read it if it comes yr way.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Frederick Denison Maurice : [Sermon on 'Religion versus God']

'But I think you are probably seeing more of what has never fallen in my way exactly, but of what I read of in that striking and curious sermon of Mr Maurice's, entitled 'Religion versus God'. In which he spoke of the falseness of that religious spirit which led people to disregard those nearest to them, to wound or leave those whom God had placed around and about and dependent on them, in search of some new sphere of action.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown

William Whewell : Fraser's Magazine [review of Gaskell's 'The Moorland Cottage']

'Thank you for the Atlas. The Guardian (Puseyite) has been very busy praising M[oorland] C[ottage] too. I hope the Times will be so kind as to leave it alone; for I think it would be a disgrace to be praised by the man who wrote that review of Mr Thackeray. Dr Whewell wrote that review in Fraser I believe; and I have received a very complimentary note from him as well'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical

William Makepeace Thackeray : Henry Esmond

'they, the Scotts, where [sic] in a state of delight about Esmond, which Thackeray had given them'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: the Scotts Print: Book

Christian Charles Josias, Baron von Bunsen :

'She [Florence Nightingale] never reads any books now. she has not time for it, to begin with; and secondly she says life is so vivid that books seem poor. The latter volumes of Bunsen are the only books that she even looked into here'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Nightingale Print: Book

John Maynard Keynes : 'Memoir Club' paper

Monday 12 September 1937: '[At Memoir Club meeting] Maynard read a very packed profound & impressive paper so far as I could follow, about Cambridge youth; their philosophy; its consequences [...] The beauty & unworldliness of it. I was impressed by M. & felt a little flittery & stupid. Then he had to rest; it turned grey & cold. M. had to be slowly conveyed -- a bed made on the ground floor at Charleston. Nevertheless a very human satisfactory meeting.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Maynard Keynes Manuscript: Unknown

R. H. Tawney :

Sunday 3 September 1939: 'This is I suppose certainly the last hour of peace. The time limit is out at 11. P[rime]M[inister] to broadcast at 11.15 [makes various brief observations] [...] I believe little exact notes are more interesting than reflections -- the only reflection is that this is bosh & stuffing compared with the reality of reading say Tawney [...] One's too tired, emotionally, to read a page. I tried Tawney last night -- cd'nt concentrate [...] Its now about 10.33.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Jacques Emile Blanche : More Portraits of a Lifetime, 1918-38

Friday 6 October 1939: 'I compose articles on Lewis Carroll & read a great variety of books -- Flaubert's life, R[oger Fry].'s lectures, out at last, a life of Erasmus & Jacques Blanche.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Allan Park Paton : poem

Elizabeth Barrett to Allan Park Paton, 18 January 1845: 'I take shame to myself in the confession, that the first newspaper you sent to me, was sent in vain for the verses -- inasmuch as, being occupied at the moment, & aware of the usual worthlessness of poetical insertions in journals, I was satisfied with barely running my eye down the four sides & with coming to a hasty conclusion that the paper had been sent to me in mistake for another [...] [italics]This[end italics] time, I have read & considered!, & I may assure you that it shall never happen to me again to throw aside unread, any poem with the signature "Heather" in connection with it. -- The poem which I [italics]have[end italics] read, is, to my mind & ear, full of promise [...] there is unity in the conception [...] What I least like, in the way of [italics]execution[end italics] [...] is the burden of the whole. Where the metre changes, some sense of artifice in construction & defect in harmony seems to force itself on the ear.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper

Claude Francois de Meneval : Napoleon et Marie Louise: souvenirs historiques

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 February 1845: 'Do you know the "Napoleon et Marie Louise" of M. de Meneval, the secretary of the emperor? The three little volumes have interest in them -- and if you require (which you dont I hope) any further impulse towards hating the Austrian [Marie Louise], you will find it there [makes further comments] [...] Well might Napoleon shrink from speakng of her .. & from analysing the motives of her conduct! -- His [italics]silence[end italics], as Meneval describes it, strikes me as very affecting'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Anna Laetitia Barbauld : Lessons for Children, From Two to Three Years Old

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 February 1845: 'I do not know Charlotte Smith's books for children. I read myself Mrs. Barbauld's '"Come hither Charles -- Come to Mama --" 'oh! how I remember it, book & all! & Miss Edgeworth's Frank & Rosamond. They were my own classics, and those of my brothers and sisters.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

John W. Kaye : [possibly] Administration of the East India Company, The

'we, as a family, are going through a whole course of Indian literature - Kaye and Malcolm to wit; but I am afraid I read it for duty's sake, without taking as much interest as I ought to do, in all the out-of-the-way names & places, none of which give me any distinct idea'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Francis James Child : Ballads

'Is Mr Child married? I am always wanting to write & thank him for his Ballads, which I delight in' [she then deprecates her own letter writing style and says she is put off by the thought of having to write 'properly']

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Charles Eliot Norton : [articles in the 'Atlantic Monthly' on India and an exhibition]

'I mean to read the Atlantic soon; I find 2 numbers, one from you with names of authors, for the which thank you; the second no. has no such names, - & I'll tell you what I've read & liked. Your paper on India, - but then that was not fair, because I knew it was yours, - Floyd Ireson's ride VERY much. Turkey tracts, - yes, I did, & I just defy you, if you said you didn't; and Florentine Mosaics. I cd not read the other story, - and I did not care for Carlyle. I liked yr paper in the first no. on our Exhibition - only there [italics] was [end italics] one Duccio da Siena, & you say there was not.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical

Richard Monckton Milnes : 'Lucknow'

'Thanks for telling me about the articles. I always like to read anything of your writing, even when it is not of such supreme interest as 'Lucknow' because your style (may I say it?) has such a great charm for me. It is such pure beautiful English. I had heard of the forthcoming article on Buckle, without knowing whom it was by. Thank you for telling me'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown

Francis Henry Egerton : Apercu Historique et genealogique

'Can you tell me anything of a book, published or rather printed, by the late Earl of Bridgewater at his press in Paris. It was in the French language - & contained all the Egerton traditions, and papers relating to the Lord Chancellor Egerton. The Egertons of [italics] Tatton [end italics] know nothing of it. I do not know the present Lord Ellesmere well enough to ask him.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Joseph Conrad : Victory

'I do not think that "Victory" is anything like equal to "Chance". In fact it is not first-rate Conrad, "Chance" is. "Bealby" I have never read. Wells sends me all his books; but he didn’t send "Bealby" along, and I lost the list and didn’t get it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Joseph Conrad : Chance

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Bealby

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Gustave Flaubert : L'Education Sentimentale

'I doubt if you ought to call France & Flaubert "dry". "L’Education Sentimentale" ought to be read with ease. Ditto "Thais", & "La Rotisserie". Personally, though, I think France over-rated. You ought to read "Bubu de Montparnasse" of Charles Louis Philippe. This is a great little novel, one of the finest modern French novels. I think "Coeur simple" is the best thing Flaubert ever wrote, except his correspondence, which is his best work, & ought to be read. I tell you that Lytton Strachey’s "Eminent Victorians" is a most juicy & devastating affair, I thoroughly enjoyed it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Gustave Flaubert : Un Coeur Simple

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Charles Louis Philippe : Bubu de Montparnasse

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Lytton Strachey : Eminent Victorians

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : The Ipane

''I hold "Ipane". Hoch! Hurra! Vivat! May you live! And now I know I am virtuous because I read and had no pang of jealousy. There are things in that volume that are like magic and though space and through the distance of regretted years convey to one the actual feeling, the sights, the sounds, the thoughts; one steps on the earth, breathes the air and has the sensation of your past. I know of course every sketch; what was almost a surprise was the extraordinarily good convincing effect of the whole. [...] I have read it already three times.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Christian Karl Josias Bunsen : Lyra Germanica

'you will receive a Lyra Germanica from me the day after you get this letter, - I always wanted you to have it, & wished for your appreciation of Kate Winkworth's translation when we were at Heidelberg'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley : Three Introductory Lectures on the study of Ecclesiastical History

'Read Arthur Stanley's Three Introductory Lectures on the Study of Ecclesiastical History Parker Oxford - price [italics] perhaps [ed italics] 2s-6d, not more. I do so like them and so does Meta. And Dasent's Norse Tales, which are charming, & the introduction best of all and "Adam Bede" - you read Scenes from Clerical Life? did you not?'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Emily Gaskell Print: Book

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley : Three Introductory Lectures on the study of Ecclesiastical History

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : On Liberty

'after reading the dedication of your Essay on Liberty I can understand how any word expressing a meaning only conjectured that was derogatory to your wife would wound you most deeply. And therefore I now write to express my deep regret that you received such pain through me.' [Gaskell is referring to the printing of a letter about John Stuart Mill's future wife in her Life of Charlotte Bronte, to which he had reacted angrily].

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Frederick William Farrer : Eric

'Eric, - oh my dear Harrie I have always been meaning to read it,& never have. You see I was out of the house at Heidelberg when Marianne & Julia read it'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Marianne and Julia Gaskell Print: Book

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley : Historical Memorials of Canterbury

'(do you know how [italics] very [end italics] beautiful that Cathedral [at Canterbury] is, & do you know Arthur Stanley's memorials of Canterbury?)'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Virginians, The

'We rushed here for ten days on Monday; & last night your letter & Macmillan's Mag. followed us, and was received with a hearty greeting. 'We' are Meta, & Julia - for whose benefit we are come, as she has outgrown her strength - six inches in the last twelve months. - We are delighted with [italics] our [end italics] type, & that we don't print in double columns which is so trying to the eyes; we put the page of the Virginians by a page of Macmillan last night & you can't think how much more legible [italics] ours [end italics] was.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gaskell and her daughters 'Meta' and Julia Print: Book, Serial / periodical

George Eliot [pseud.] : Scenes from Clerical Life

'Since I heard, from authority, that you were the author of Scenes from "Clerical Life" and "Adam Bede", I have read them again; and I must, once more, tell you how earnestly fully, and humbly I admire them. I never read anything so complete, and beautiful in fiction, in my whole life before. [She then writes a bit about the imposture of Mr Liggins as the books' author, concluding] I should not be quite true in my ending, if I did not say before I concluded that I wish you [italics] were [end italics] Mrs Lewes. However, that can't be helped, as far as I can see, and one must not judge others. Once more, thanking you most gratefully for having written all - Janet's Repentance perhaps most especially of all, - (& may I tell you how I singled out the 2nd No of Amos Barton in Blackwood, & went plodging through our Manchester Sts to get every number, as soon as it was accessible from the Portico reading table - )'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book, Serial / periodical

George Eliot [pseud.] : Adam Bede

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book, Serial / periodical

George Eliot [pseud.] : 'Amos Barton'

'Since I heard, from authority, that you were the author of Scenes from 'Clerical Life' and 'Adam Bede', I have read them again; and I must, once more, tell you how earnestly fully, and humbly I admire them. I never read anything so complete, and beautiful in fiction, in my whole life before. [She then writes a bit about the imposture of Mr Liggins as the books' author, concluding] I should not be quite true in my ending, if I did not say before I concluded that I wish you [italics] were [end italics] Mrs Lewes. However, that can't be helped, as far as I can see, and one must not judge others. Once more, thanking you most gratefully for having written all - Janet's Repentance perhaps most especially of all, - (& may I tell you how I singled out the 2nd No of Amos Barton in Blackwood, & went plodging through our Manchester Sts to get every number, as soon as it was accessible from the Portico reading table - )'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical

Anthony Trollope : Framley Parsonage

'I extremely like & admire Framley Parsonage, - & the Idle Boy; and the Inaugural address. I like Lovel the Widower, only (perhaps because I am stupid,) it is a little confusing on account of its discursiveness, - and V's verses; and oh shame! I have not read the sensible & improving articles.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical

William Makepeace Thackeray : Lovel the Widower

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical

Charles Dickens : All the Year Round [article]

'In last week's No of All the Year Round is a repudiation (by Mr Dickens,) of having intended Leigh Hunt by Harrold Skimpole'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical

Henrietta Camilla Jenkin : Cousin Stella

'Mr & Mrs Clarke & Ly Coltman were all full of "Cousin Stella" & I had quite a reflected lustre from the fact that I knew & could tell them all about the authoress'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Charles Eliot Norton : New Life of Dante, An Essay with Translations

'my beautiful Vita Nuova, which only came yesterday, but which was more identified with [italics] you [end italics] and Italy than anything else; & which I so wished to have of my own, & in print, ever since you let me read it in MS. Thank you so [italics] very [end italics] much for it. I do so value it.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown

Sir J.P.K. Shuttleworth : Scarsworth

'Sir J.P.K. Shuttleworth seeks your acquaintance & society [because] he has a novel, - partly read to Mrs Nicholls the last time she was at Gawthrop, - partly to me, - [italics] wholly [end italics] to many of his friends - a novel of Lancashire society, whh is at present in MS & which he wants you to publish I have no doubt.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir J.P.K. Shuttleworth Print: Book

Thomas, Lord Macaulay : Biographies

'we are reading with [Florence] Macaulay's Biographies and Milman's Latin Xtianity and I don't think it is a bad thing for either Marianne, Meta, or myself to have an obligation to sit and settle to a little steady reading every day'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gaskell and her daughters Marianne, 'Meta' and Florence Print: Book

Henry Hart Milman : History of Latin Christianity

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gaskell and her daughters Marianne, 'Meta' and Florence Print: Book

Ivan Turgenev : A Desperate Character and Other Stories

'I wanted to thank you for the volume you've sent me. The preface is jolly good let me tell you. It is wonderfully good--and true. Thanks to you both.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Charles Eliot Norton : Notes of Travel and Study in Italy

'that brings me to say how very much I enjoyed during Meta's invalid days reading again & with deliberation your Art & Study in Italy, - thank you [italics] so [end italics] much for it'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : Elsie Venner

'we have just been reading Elsie Venner & we were altogether [italics] very [end italics] American yesterday'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gaskell and her daughter 'Meta' or Margaret Print: Book

Charles Eliot Norton : [paper on 'The Advantages of Defeat]

'I have been so ungrateful in never thanking you for your last - and for that [italics] beautiful] end italics] noble paper of yours on the Advantages of Defeat, - a paper which I have circulated far & wide among my friends, - and I only wish I had more of the same kind to show, - in order to make us English know you Americans better.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

H.G. Wells : The Plattner Story and Others

'I send you my affectionate thanks for the book ["The Plattner Story and Others"] and for the terms of the inscription on the fly-leaf; for the more I know of you--in our inconclusive talks--the more I feel that such should be the terms of our intercourse. I've of course read the book more than once. You get hold of one by your immense power of presentation, by your capacity to give shape, colour, aspect to the invisible.[...] ' Hence follows about twenty lines of appreciative comment and some negative criticism of one of the stories "The Cone".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne : [Letters]

'(I think what gave me the start [ on wanting to write a life of Mme de Sevigne] was the meeting with a supposed-to-be well-educated young lady who knew nothing about Madame de Sevigne, who had been like a well-known friend to me all my life.)'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

T. S. Eliot : unknown

'I have pleasure in stating that Mr. T.S. Eliot (whom I understand to be a candidate for a commission in the Quartermasters or Interpreters Corps) has an intimate knowledge of the French language. Also that he is a writer of distinguished merit, for whose work personally I have a great admiration.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett

William Wetmore Story : Cleopatra

'I hope that you will not measure my gratitude to you for so kindly sending the Cleopatra-poem, by my promptitude in writing to thank you for it. Please accept now my best thanks for it. I admired it as a whole quite as much as I had expected to do from the extracts that I had seen in the reviews. Cleopatra seems to be the special means of inspiration for Mr Story, for I think he has never in sculpture equlled his marble Cleopatra; and certainly this poem is by far the finest that he has ever written. Thanking you again for the pleasure I had in reading it'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth C. Akers : Two Summers

'Thank you so much for sending us those loose sheets of newspaper extracts. Who wrote [italics] Two Summers [end italics], a poem in the September No of the Atlantic, 1862.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Serial / periodical

Spencer Wilkinson : Sunday Times articles

'Do you read the Sunday Times? It is a poor paper, but has great military articles by Spenser Wilkinson, one of the foremost European authorities. This man does not in the least hide his notions about the running of the British Army by the old cavalry crew at the War Office.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Newspaper

Dorothy M. Richardson : Backwater

'Have you read Dolly Richardson’s "Backwater"? If not, do. It is a book.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : In a German Tramp

'[...] but now since I've received the "Sat. Review" I've something to write about. The "german Tramp" is not only excellent[...] but it is something more. Of your short pieces I don't know but this this is the one I like best. The execution has a vigour-the right touch-- and an ease that delight me.' Hence follows around ten lines of appreciative criticism including a reference to two other stories published in the Saturday Review in 1899.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

William Shakespeare : The Two Gentlemen of Verona

In a long letter to Edward Garnett, in which Conrad outlines some aspects of his family history, he writes that his father Apollonius N. Korzeniowski translated into Polish Victor Hugo's "La Legende des Siecles", "Travailleurs de la Mer" and " Hernani", Alfred de Vigny's " Chatterton", Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", "As You Like It", "Two Gentlemen of Verona", "A Comedy of Errors" and "Othello" . 'These I remember seeing in proofs when sent for his correction.[...] Some of these I've read when I could be no more than eight or nine years old.' [See also additional comments.]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Codex, Sheet, One page of his father's translation into Polish.

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Buta

'But as to "Buta" it is altogether and fundamentally good, good in matter--that's of course--but good wonderfully good in form and especially in expression.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Ivan Turgenev : The Jew and Other Stories

'Have you seen the last vol of Mrs Garnett's Turgeniev [sic]? There's a story there. "Three Portraits" really fine. Also "Enough" worth reading.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book, Serial / periodical

H. G. Wells : The Soul of a Bishop

'This is a very good number. The Wells review seems most just, but I haven’t yet finished the book. [The Soul of a Bishop]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Frank Swinnerton : Shops and Houses

'I should have read S.& H. [Shops and Houses] earlier, despite J. & P. , but I couldn’t get the book off Marguerite. Conjugal unpleasantness became so acute on the point that I was obliged to buy a second copy. I think this book shows marked development on the part of the author. There are about 150 pp. as good as the very best few pages of "On the Staircase", & some much better.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Frank Swinnerton : On the Staircase

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

E.V. Lucas : The Sane Star

'Pardon my frankness. This is most distinctly an idea for a play. And you have put everything into it except the play. [The Sane Star]... Play returned herewith. A.B.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown

James T. Fields : "On a Book of Sea-Mosses. Sent to an Eminent English Poet" in The Boston Book, being Specimens of Metropolitan Literature

'By the way, we all admire _very greatly_ your beautiful little poem in the Boston Book. I dare say you don't care for the opinion of we three "weaker vessels" [i.e. De Quincey's three daughters], though Papa, like the dutiful parent he is, and though a "vain man", admits that our judgment in such matters is equal if not sometimes better than his. However in this case we one and all came separately to the conclusion that there was exquisite poetic grace and beauty in the lines. Who is the Poet you sent the mosses too [sic]? for we don't know one who has spoken of Venice that has been living since you could have written this. My sister Florence says that with one or two exceptions in the case of Longfellow and that most beautiful of writers Hawthorne, yours is nearly the only good thing in the book. I have not had time to look it over yet.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence De Quincey Print: Book

Henry W. Longfellow : "Footprints of Angels" in The Boston Book, being Specimens of Metropolitan Literature

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence De Quincey Print: Book

James T. Fields : "On a Book of Sea-Mosses. Sent to an Eminent English Poet" in The Boston Book, being Specimens of Metropolitan Literature

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas De Quincey Print: Book

H.G. Wells : Love and Mr Lewisham

'Thanks for the vol. Chaffery is immense. The thing as a whole remarkable in its effects.' Hence follow five more lines of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : [poem]

'I was so sorry to see that Dr Wendell Holmes called England "The Lost Leader". - I went & read the poem to Meta, who did not know it; - & we did so grieve!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown

John Addington Symonds : Thoughts on Xmas. In Florence, 1863

'on their wedding journey they [John Symonds and Catherine North] have been writing a paper on Christmas, - which looks to me [italics] very [end italics] clever, & Mr Symonds wants to know if it can go into the Cornhill for January'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown

James Russell Lowell : Fireside Travels

'Will you ask Mr Lowell if he would [italics] give [end italics] me his Fireside Travels, with his writing inside? I was so entirely delighted with that book, and should [italics] so [end italics] like to have it [italics] from him [end italics].'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Cruz Alta

'I've read "Cruz Alta" four days ago. c'est tout simplement magnifique. I know most of the sketches, in fact nearly all, except "Cruz Alta" itself.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

James R. Lowell : Fireside Travels

'You can't think how much I shall value Fireside Travels, (which only reached me during this past week,) now that I have got it of my "very very own" (as the children say,) and with that charming little bit of writing from you at the beginning. I don't mean that I did not delight in the book from the very first time I read a page in it; but the sense of property in it gives a double value, and the sense of successful beggary is very charming, though perhaps I ought to be ashamed. Only I am [italics] not [end italics], because I [italics] am [end italics] successful. I have known you so long! I knew serious poems of yours long ago, - twenty years or so; but my personal knowledge of you began in Rome 1857, - when (did you know it?) you and one other went about with the dear Storys, and me and mine up and down Rome [in the sense, it seems, that Charles Eliot Norton spoke much of Lowell - this is elaborated on...] Well then the Bigelow papers - I think I could stand a Civil Service Examination in them; and we had three copies of our own, till a little daughter married, and carried off one.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

James R. Lowell : [poems]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown

James R. Lowell : Biglow Papers, The

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : The Cinque Ports

'Many thanks for the "Cinque Ports" which came today as a most agreeable surprise. In the matter of outward characteristics the book has substance, appearance an air of sober finish which to me is very pleasing. [...] Hueffer's talent has been from the first sympathetic to me. throughout his feeling is true and his expression genuine with ease and moderation.' Hence follow nine lines of restrained praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Olive Garnett : The Petersburg Tales

'I've read " Petersburg Tales". Phew! That is something! [...] That work is genuine, undeniable,constructed and inhabited. It hath [sic] foundation and life.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Frank Challice Constable : (letter)

'Many thanks for your letter. The enclosure was most intetesting. It reveals an original personality and to me attractive. It is at the same time a most flattering recognition of my qualities and shortcomings. I shall write to Mr Constable in a day or two.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Letter

William Robert Kennedy : Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor: Fifty Years in the Navy

'I have never had the pleasure of meeting him [Admiral Sir William Robert Kennedy] ; but I've read and admired his book.[...] I re-read Admiral Kennedy's book with gratitude and have a great affection for the man [...].' Interspersed are ten lines of rather nostalgic praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Vanished Arcadia

'I am altogether under the charm of that book ["The Vanished Arcadia"] in accord with its spirit and full of admiration for its expression.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Kubla Khan

'... some verses which I wrote turn out, on inspection, to be not quite equal to "Kubla Khan".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Julia Mary Cartwright Ady : The Life and Works of Edward Burne-Jones, bart.

'I am just finishing the Life of B[urne-]. J[ones]. which begins to bore me slightly-not the Life, which is excellent, but the man.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Alice Stopford Green : Town Life in the Fifteenth Century

'I am reading, 'Your Life in 15 Century' Mrs J. R. Green.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Austen Henry Layard : Nineveh

'I am reading, ... Layard's Nineveh.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G. (George) Wells : The Discovery of the Future

'The lecture is splendid. It is striking in its expression [...]and in its eloquence too [...].I call it scientific eloquence--that is eloquence appealing not to the passions like the eloquence of the orator but to the reason..[...] All the criticism I've seen (now after reading the lecture) strike me as extremely unfair --[...] '

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

(Enoch) Arnold Bennett : A Man from the North.

'The reading of the "Man from the North" has inspired me with the greatest respect for your artistic conscience. I am profoundly impressed with the achievement of style.[...] as you may suppose I've read the book more than once. Unfortunately I don't know how to criticise; to discuss however I am ready.' Hence follow about ten lines of constructive criticism of what Conrad calls the 'design' of the novel.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : The Making of Modern Verse

'Your paper in the "Academy" mutilated as it is by the mystic mind illustrates my meaning.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : Rossetti

'Thanks for the "Rossetti". My opinion of it you know but I am reading it carefully. It is good.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Elizabeth Martindale : Margaret Hever

'I'm sorry I kept the MS so long.[...] However I've read it more than once; the difficulty was to say something useful.[...] I do not want to deface the pages tho' I have meditated them.[...] The passages I have written on loose sheets embody my criticism which is concerned solely with the technique.' Hence follow five lines of constructive criticism.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Unknown

(Enoch) Arnold Bennett : Anna of the Five Towns

'But if I could not find time to write to you [to acknowledge receipt of the presentation copy] I had found time to read your book. I read it once, twice,then kept it upstairs for dipping into when I came up to bed.' Hence follow twenty lines of praise and an invitation to Pent Farm to further discuss the work.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Success

'I feel so dull and muddle-headed that I daren't even attempt to give you now an idea of the effect the little volume ["Success"] had produced on me.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : The Last of the Mohicans

'You have promised me to read these stories and I would recommend you to begin with "The Last of the Mohicans"-- then go on with "Deerslayer" and end with the "Prairie". I read them at your age in that order;[..] Thirty four years ago is a long long time to look back upon.' Hence follows further comments about the language and content.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : The Deerslayer

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : The Prairie

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

William Cox Bennett : Baby May and Other Poems on Infants

'Allow me, Sir, to return you my best thanks for your Lyrical ballad, "The Triumph for Salamis", which I have just received. It [italics] looks [end italics] most tempting, and I mean to take it with me to Bolton Abbey, whither I am on the point of going. But independently of the intrinsic value of the poem, there is the great pleasure of receiving marks of approbation and sympathy from distant and unknown friends; (and such I may call you, may I not?) especially from one, first known to me through "Baby May" two or three years ago, but every poem of whose has made me feel to know and like him better and better.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

William Cox Bennett : Triumph for Salamis, the: a lyrical ballad

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell : Bessy's Troubles at Home

'The children who like Bessy's Troubles are great geese, & no judges at all, which children generally are, for it is complete rubbish I am sorry to say'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: 'children', presumably known to Marianne Gaskell Print: Book

Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, Lord Mahon : [unknown]

'All evening that I have been reading Lord Mahon aloud I have been thinking how I could rush home via Strasbourg & Paris to see her [Julia, her daughter, who was unwell] for myself.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Rime of the Ancient mariner, The

'[whilst watching a boat race at Eton] Meta said she thought of the verse in the Ancient Mariner "A Seraph band" &c, - for each figure was motionless and bright, & the smooth current bore them past so noiselessly & still.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Emily (Meta) Gaskell Print: Book

E M Forster : The Eternal Moment

'I can't tell you what delight and happiness The Eternal Moment has been to me, and I can't thank you enough for your very great kindness in sending it to me. Even though I was undergoing the horrors of a bad attack of influenza, I realised what a wonderful book it is. Well, all I know is that "The Machine Stops" made me feel as though I had come out of dark tunnel in which I had always lived into an immense open space, and were seeing things living for the first time. I believe it is the most tremendous short story of our generation. But then the whole book has got every quality of beauty and truth and illumination. I do think "The Point of It" is such a wonderful story too, and "The Eternal Moment" is enough to frighten one out of one's wits - but not to frighten one only. It is, in a way, the most terrifying ghost story I have ever read. The strange thing about these stories is that every time one reads them and I've read them all several times already, one finds fresh beauties in them. They seem to have an inexhaustible store.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edith Sitwell Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : The Improvisatore: or, Life in Italy

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 19 March 1845: 'Mind you read Andersen's "Improvisatore." I have just finished it, -- & am charmed, -- though of story, there is none, & of character, not much more. But the sense of inner life throughout it, & the exquisite visions & breathings into Italy, quite take away one's breath for pleasure. And then, there is a memoir of the author which interests one in him, for a beginning. He is a real poet, .. this Andersen, -- & worthy of being a countryman of Hamlet ... the Dane par excellence.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne and Mary Gillies : A Story Book of Country Scenes

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 5 April 1845: 'For Mr Horne's storybook, I like some of the stories & think it a pretty book. A few children of six years old might be too old for it, -- but, in general, I do not quarrel with the fitnesses [...] I remember a little book which was a favorite in our nursery, called "A visit to a farm-house [by S.W.]," with precisely the same characteristics, & a better & more interesting general construction. There are a few touches more of poetry in this book, -- owing to Mr. Horne, of course, but the defect is the absolute want of reference to Deity, as creator, which the child looks for, .. which the first instinct of the child looks out to meet. Not that I advocate the teaching of theological systems to children of that early age; but that if the sense of beauty is to be educated, the sense of God should be educated also.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Henriette Etiennette Fanny Reybaud : Deux a deux

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 14 April 1845: 'We shall find no where on the earth, I believe, the climate of Paradise; -- not even at Hyeres. In Mdme. Charles Reybeaud's [sic] "Deux a deux," which interested me more than any book of hers I have read since, .. (I withdraw my praise of her, -- she is a weak commonplace writer, I think, --) there was some good praise of Hyeres & the orange trees.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : The Improvisatore: or, Life in Italy (extracts)

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, letter postmarked 30 April 1845: 'That book you like so, the Danish novel, must be full of truth & beauty, to judge from the few extracts I have seen in Reviews. That a Dane should write so, confirms me in an old belief -- that Italy is stuff for the use of the North, and no more: pure Poetry there is none, nearly as possible none, in Dante even [...] strange that those great wide black eyes should stare nothing out of the earth that lies before them!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical

Francois de La Rochefoucauld : Maximes

'The Frenchman who wrote Maxims says 'there is hardly anyone who does not repay great obligations with Ingratitude'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

Johan Christian Fabricius : Systema entomologiae

'I do not perfectly understand Fabricius always, but I think his Genera more natural than those of any other Author; it is indeed almost impossible to follow him in the smaller insects through all the minutia of his researches, but admitting him to be right in these, his Disposition and discriptions [sic] are accurate. I [grant his] obscurity and the greater Facility of the method of Linn[aeus], but I find much to be pleased with in the Systema Entomologica Fabia and frequently recur to it'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

Allan Park Paton : 'The Road Round by Kennedy's Mill'

Elizabeth Barrett to Allan Park Paton, 28 May 1845: 'For the newspapers, or rather for your verses in them, I thank you much [...] the stanzas on Kennedy's Mill road struck & pleased me so much, that I looked about vainly for your address contained in a mislaid note of yours, in order to write to you on the subject & advise you to choose some worthier medium with the public, than a provincial journal, .. though it were but a magazine. And now you write to tell me that you think of printing a book! -- to which I wish all manner of success [goes on to offer further advice on pursuing career as professional writer]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Newspaper

Elizabeth Barrett : An Essay on Mind

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, ?18 July 1845: 'I confess to you that [...] as soon as I read your "Essay on Mind" (which of course I managed to do about 12 hours after Mr [John] K[enyon]'s positive refusal to keep his promise, and give me the book) from preface to Vision of Fame at the end, and reflected upon my own doings in that time, 1826, I did indeed see, and wonder at, your advance over me in years'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : 'The Raven'

Richard Hengist Horne to Edgar Allan Poe, 17 May 1845: 'Miss Barrett has read the "Raven" and says she thinks there is a fine lyrical melody in it. When I tell you that this lady "says" [...] I mean "writes" -- for although I have corresponded with Miss Barrett these 5 or 6 years, I have never seen her to this day.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book

Samuel Jackson Pratt : Lower World, The

'Mr Pratt Author of a poem called "the Lower World" & of divers other works in prose & rhyme sent to me his Book with obliging direction where to find a Line of Panegyric in the Performance. This was flattering & yet (on the common principles of human Nature) calculated to move Envy & stir up the angry movements of the spirit for I had but one solitary line of applause, virtuous, to be sure was my Muse denominated, but the Muse of Marmion had 3 lines'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

Samuel Jackson Pratt : Sympathy; a Poem

'Mr Pratt & I began to write nearly about the same time & his Sympathy & my Village were [cancelled] nearly [ end cancelled] contemporaries, but this soon ceased & I was outrun in the first Season nor has his diligent Muse or whatever Spirit it be, ceased to prompt his ready Pen from that time to almost this present: The Lower World terminates his poetical career where Scott & Crabbe are handed down to'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Unknown

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The

'there is one Story if story it may be called, that Shape or Limb, Beginning or End has none, "The ancient Mariner or poets Reverie" written by a friend [of Wordsworth] (Mr Lambe?) & the Reason for my pointing it out to your notice if perchance you have not dwelt on its Singularities, is this that it does not describe Madness by its effects but by Imitation, as if a painter to give a picture of Lunacy should make his Canvas crazy, & fill it with wild unconnected Limbs & Distortions of features, & yet one or two of the Limbs are pretty'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : Alice, or The Mysteries

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, letter postmarked 15 August 1845: 'I have read those novels [i.e. Alice, and Ernest Maltravers, mentioned by Barrett in letter postmarked 13 August] -- but I must keep that word of words, "genius" -- for something different -- "talent" will do here surely.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : Ernest Maltravers

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : 'The Raven'

Elizabeth Barrett to Thomas Westwood, 6 September 1845: 'I shd. have written long since to you, if but to thank you for Edgar Poe's ballad .. of which [...] [italics]two[end italics] copies were lying by me when yours came, .. one from some anonymous American, & one from the author himself [...] For the ballad [...] I do not exactly know how to make up my mind to a conclusion about it. There is a certain power in it, no doubt, -- but if the writer had been mad .. professedly mad you know .. I shd. have appreciated the power better. It is not the madness of [italics]passion[end italics], I think .. it is as of an intellect dis[t]raught. There is a ludicrousness which tickles me through & through the melancholy. The "Sir or Madam" for instance! -- how do you bear [italics]that[end italics]?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Newspaper

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley : Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842 and 1843

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, letter postmarked 11 September 1845: 'Mrs Shelley found Italy for the first time, real Italy at Sorrento, she says. Oh that book -- does one wake or sleep? [...] Godwin's daughter and Shelley's wife, and who surely was something better once upon a time [...] the intrepidity of the commonplace quite astounds me [goes on to criticise specific passages] [...] once she travelled the country with Shelley on arm; now she plods it, [Samuel] Rogers in hand [...] I quarrel with her, for ever, I think.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Posthumous Poems

Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 19 September 1845: 'I began to write last saturday to thank you for all the delight, I had in Shelley [...] Besides the translations, some of the original poems were not in my copy & were, so, quite new to me. "Marianne's Dream" I had been curious about to no end -- I only know it now.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : 'Marianne's Dream'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance. By a Gentleman of the University of Oxford

Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, letter postmarked 1 October 1845: 'I have read to the last line of your Rosicrucian; & my scepticism grew & grew through Hume's process of doubtful doubts, & at last rose to the full stature of incredulity .. for I never could believe Shelley capable of such a book, (call it a book!) not even with a flood of boarding-school idiocy dashed in by way of dilution. Altogether it roused me to deny myself so far as to look at the date of the book, & to get up & travel to the other end of the room to confront it with other dates in the "Letters from Abroad" [...] & on comparing these dates in these two volumes before my eyes, I find that your Rosicrucian was "printed for Stockdale" in [italics]1822[end italics], & that Shelley [italics]died in the July of the same year[end italics]!! And unless the "Rosicrucian" went into more editions than one, & dates here from a latter one [...] the innocence of the great poet stands proved -- now does'nt it? For nobody will say that he published such a book in the last year of his life, in the maturity of his genius, & that Godwin's daughter helped him in it!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Henry Fothergill Chorley : Pomfret

Elizabeth Barrett to Henry Fothergill Chorley, ?14 November 1845: 'I have read your three volumes of "Pomfret" with interest & moral assent, & with great pleasure in various ways: -- it is a pure, true book without effort, which, in these days of gesture & rolling with the eyes, is an uncommon thing [...] The best character in the book I take to be "Rose" [...] He is so lifelike, with the world's conventional life, that you hear his footsteps when he walks'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Barrett : 'Past and Future'

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, 16 November 1845: 'Since I wrote what is above, I have been reading [...] that sonnet -- "Past and Future" -- which affects me more than any poem I ever read [...] is not that sonnet to be loved as a true utterance of yours?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Astolphe Louis Leonard Marquis de Custine : Le Monde comme il est

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 December 1845: 'I have been loitering over "Le monde comme il est" & think your thoughts of it. Good things, excellent things, admirable things are in it, but one cannot call it a success.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : Ballad Romances

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, 4 January 1846: 'I found Horne's book at home, and have had time to see that beautiful things are there -- I suppose "Delora" will stand alone still -- but I got pleasantly smothered with that odd shower of wood-spoils at the end, the dwarf-story [...] and there is good sailor-speech in the "Ben Capstan" [...] At one thing I wonder -- his not reprinting a quaint clever [italics]real[end italics] ballad, published before "Delora", on the "Merry Devil of Edmonton" -- the first of his works I ever read -- no, the very first piece was a single stanza, if I remember, in which was this line "When bason-crested Quixote, lean and bold," .. good, is it not?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : 'The Merrie Devil of Edmonton'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical

Richard Hengist Horne : 'Stanzas to a Ruined Windmill'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical

Richard Hengist Horne : 'The Monk of Swineshead Abbey'

Elizabeth Barrett to Roberrt Browning, 4 January 1846: 'When you get Mr. Horne's book you will understand how, after reading just the first & last poems, I could not help speaking coldly a little of it [...] I did think & do, that the last was unworthy of him, & that the first might have been written by a writer of one tenth of his facility. But last night I read the "Monk of Swineshead Abby" & the "Three Knights of Camelot" & "Bedd Gelert" & found them all different stuff, better[,] stronger, more consistent, & read them with pleasure & admiration.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : 'The Three Knights of Camelott: a Fairy Tale'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Richard Hengist Horne : 'Bedd Gelert'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury : Zoe: The History of Two Lives

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?7 January 1846: 'Zoe [...] I have been reading at last. An extraordinary book certainly. I should take the author to be a free-thinker, by a copious interpretation of the word. The power, & liberty of utterance, are undeniable generally -- but parts of the book are very inferior.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : The Sorrows of Young Werther

Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 15 January 1846: 'Papa used to say .. "Dont read Gibbon's history -- it's not a proper book -- Dont read "Tom Jones" -- & none of the books on [italics]this[end italics] side, mind -- So I was very obedient & never touched the books on [italics]that[end italics] side, & only read instead, Tom Paine's Age of Reason, & Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, & Hume's Essays, & Werther, & Rousseau, & Mary Woolstonecraft [sic] .. books, which I was never suspected of looking towards, & which were not "on [italics]that[end italics] side" certainly, but which did as well.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book

Oliver Goldsmith : Deserted Village, The

'my dear father told thee that Goldsmith's would now be the [italics] deserted village [end italics]; perhaps thou dost not remember this compliment, but I remember the ingenuous modesty which disclamed it. He admired the Village, the Library, & the Newspaper exceedingly, & the delight with which he read them to his family could not but be acceptable to the Author, had he known the sound judgment & the exquisite taste which that excellent man possessed.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Shackleton Print: Book

Amelia Alderson Opie : Father and Daughter, The: a Tale in Prose, with an Epistle from the Maid of Corinth to her Lover, and Other Poetical Pieces

'I went to Norwich & past two Days with Mrs Opie who has written some pleasant books, particularly the [italics] Father & Daughter [end italics].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

Henry Gally Knight : Alashtar, an Arabian Tale [?]

'A Mr Gally Knight the Author of a Book of very fair Poetry, told me a Story which He thought would suit me [as the basuis of a poem]'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

'I like the books which we purchased though the Physiological Botany is rather too minute & supposes the Reader a Learner indeed. The Travels are I think really good & good humoured. Faust was not so terrific as I apprehended from the seduction of a Philosopher by an evil Spirit. I verily think that Business is conducted better (than in far more ostentatious works) in the Arabian Tales, (not Nights) where a pious old Lady is wrought upon by her Vanity into Compliance with a Devil who takes the Character of a pious old Man:I want this second part of these strange Tales & to have done with the Subject of Books I treated myself with Warton's History of Poetry: I have long wished for it, but the Quarto edition was so dear £ 5 that I waited for a Octavo & it is just published: it has a great deal of dull Matter but with much Information & Amusement & moreover it is in the way of my Vocation. There is a good Print of the Author & John having seen that, I believe has no wish to look a page further.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

Johann C. Spurzheim : Phrenology

'I have been engaged by Spurzheims new Edition of his Phrenology: he does not write English Accurately & even where I understand, I cannot always agree & that in Assertions which do not immediately relate to the Science to which I lean sceptically.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg : Ausführliche Erklärung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche

Look here, you had better get hold of G.C. Lichtenberg’s "Ausführliche Erklärung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche": Gottingen, 1794 to 1816 (it was published in numbers seemingly. Douglas the publisher lent it to me: and tho’ I hate the damned tongue too cordially to do more than dip into it, I have seen some shrewd things. If you cannot get it for yourself, (it seems scarce), I daresay I could negotiate with Douglas for a loan.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Louis Napoleon : Letter to Edgar Ney

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 2 October 1849: 'The [French] President's letter from Rome has delighted us -- A letter worth writing and reading! We read it first in the Italian papers (long before it was printed in Paris) and the amusing thing was, that where he speaks of the "hostile influences," (of the cardinals) they had misprinted it "orribili influenze", which must have turned still colder the blood in absolutist readers. The misprint was not corrected until long after -- more than a week, I think.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Newspaper

Thomas Burbidge and Arthur Hugh Clough : Ambarvalia

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 December 1849: 'We have had the sight of Clough & Burbidge, at last. Clough has more thought, Burbidge more music .. but I am disappointed in the book as a whole. What I like infinitely better, is Clough's "Bothie of Topernafuosich" a "long-vacation pastoral" written in loose & more-than-need-be unmusical hexameters, but full of vigour & freshness, & with whole passages & indeed whole scenes of great beauty & eloquence. It seems to have been written before the other poems [...] Oh, it strikes both Robert & me as being worth twenty of the other little book, with its fragmentary, dislocated, inartistic character. Arnold's volume has two good poems in it .. "The Sick King of Bokhara" [sic] & "The deserted Merman" [sic]. I liked them both -- But none of these writers are [italics]artists[end italics] whatever they may be in future days.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book

Arthur Hugh Clough : The Bothie of Toper-Na-Fuosich

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Unknown

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton : The Caxtons. A Family Picture

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella Moulton-Barrett, 12 March 1850: 'Robert is reading "the Caxtons" & is much pleased with the book. [italics]I[end italics] am reading "Shirley", and am interested -- only it does not seem to me equally suggestive of power (so far) with Jane Eyre.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine : Les Confidences

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Isa Blagden, ?27 July 1850: 'I return the "Confidences" with thanks upon thanks. Both Robert & I began with a sort of interest & pleasure, & ended with a sort of sickness of the book & the man. Weakness & falseness are two bad things indeed.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book

Catherine Maria Fanshawe : poems

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 7 November 1850: 'Miss Fanshawe is well worth your writing of [...] as one of the most witty of our wits in verse, men or women. I have only seen M.S. copies of her verses, & that years ago, but they struck me very much'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Manuscript: Unknown, copied

William Makepeace Thackeray : The History of Pendennis

'The History of Pendennis (2 vols, 1849-50) by William Makepeace Thackeray was published by Bradbury and Evans in twenty-four numbers (twenty-three parts) from November 1848 to December 1850 [...] The edition the Brownings were reading, which had been lent to them by Charles Eliot Norton (see letter 2893 [in source]) was probably the one being published in Leipzig by Bernhard Tauchniz. Issued in three volumes from April 1849 to December 1850, the second volume appeared in March 1850'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The History of Pendennis

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Isa Blagden, ?3 December, 1850: 'I send the first volume of Pendennis. We have one more which Robert is finishing'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book

Alfred Tennyson : In Memoriam

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Louisa Boyle, 5 December 1850: 'We live just as quietly as we used to do [...] One drawback is not being able to get new books till they are old -- in spite of which, we have just read "In Memoriam" -- how beautiful! -- how full of pathos, and subtle feeling & thought! [...] Then we have Carlyle's Latter day pamphlets .. powerful & characteristic -- and seventeen numbers of David Copperfield, which we both set down or rather set up as Dickens's masterpiece.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book

John Westland Marston : Review of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poems (1850)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Thomas Westwood, 12-13 December 1850: 'If you had not sent me the Athenaeum article I never should have seen it probably, for my husband only saw it in the reading room, where women dont penetrate, (because in Italy we cant read, you see) & where the periodicals are kept so strictly like Hesperian apples, by the dragons of the place, that none can be stolen away for even half an hour. So he could only wish me to catch sight of that article -- and you are good enough to send it & oblige us both accordingly.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical

John Westland Marston : Review of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poems (1850)

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Serial / periodical

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella Moulton-Barrett [sister], 16-19 December 1850, on 18 December: 'We have been reading together Tennyson's "In Memoriam" in the evenings. Most beautiful and pathetic. I read aloud, Robert looking over the page -- & we talked & admired & criticised every separate stanza. Now, we are going in like manner through Shelley.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book

Elizabeth Barrett Browning : sonnets ['from the Portugese']

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella Moulton-Barrett [sister], 12 January 1851: 'Now I am going to speak to you about those sonnets [...] The truth is that though they were written several years ago, I never showed them to Robert till last spring .. I felt shy about them altogether .. even to him. I had heard him express himself strongly against "personal" poetry & I shrank back. -- As to publishing them, it did not enter my head. But when Robert saw them, he was much touched & pleased -- & [...] could not consent, he said, that they should be lost to my volumes: so we agreed to slip them in under some sort of veil, & after much consideration chose the "Portugese" [goes on to explain reasons for choice]'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Manuscript: Unknown

William Lisle Bowles : Parochial History of Bremhill, The

'The reason for my not mentioning the History of Bremhill was this. I had not read at that time more than a very few pages: I knew nothing of Wansdike, nothing of Tanhill, and could not have told in what county, scarcely in what kingdom, were Avebury and Silbury [Crabbe details his activities whilst not reading the book] I am not a reader of topgraphy, though at one time I corresponded with John Nichols. I always had an opinion that it was extremely dull and I even now suspect that yours is not the genuine sort, for I understand you very well and to say nothing of the knowledge acquired, have been amused. The account of parishes and their "fat rectors" is most assuredly correct, lamentably correct [...] Your natural history and more especially your account of Kelloway rock revived in me the desire of seeng that part of the county [but, he says, his health prevents this] I read the more learned portion of the work with all the interest I could acquire and really by the time I had finished the notes on Chap. 2nd I conceived that I understood the matter like a contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine. I mean in its pristine glory. [Crabbe then praises Bowles for inspiring feeling in his readers, which is unusual for those who write on monuments] But seriously, though I like your book the better because it engages me by subjects which I partly understand, yet I dare not affirm that a rigid antiquary would approve any portion of the work, except that which I either do not comprehend or cannot relish....'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

George Crabbe : Lady Barbara

'So you have been reading my almost forgotten stories - Lady Barbara and Ellen! I protest to you their origin is lost to me, and I must read them myself before I can apply your remarks.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

George Crabbe : Ellen

'So you have been reading my almost forgotten stories - Lady Barbara and Ellen! I protest to you their origin is lost to me, and I must read them myself before I can apply your remarks.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book

George Crabbe : [sermons]

'I have not done much with the Sermons you sent me nor after the Bristol Huricanes Would you expect it, still I have not been altogether idle, for vamping old Sermons is to me no unpleasant kind of Employment.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Manuscript: Unknown

David Herbert Lawrence : [Letters]

'(Florence MacCunn. [italics] Sir Walter Scott's Friends [end italics] Wm. Blackwood 1909) I have just finished this enchanting book which for a time has entirely seduced me from both Lawrence and Carlyle. I read the whole of D.H.L's letters last week when in bed with a cold; felt completely in sympathy with him and a passionate desire to be on his side, no matter whom I deserted or decried. Began the whole book again, marking passages,meaning to re-read all his works and try and make him out. All this prompted by an article in [italics] L[ife] and L[etters] [end italics] that annoyed me. J. Soames, comparing him with Rousseau. Probably everything she said was true, but the whole tone was patronising and self-righteous. I wanted to explode a squib under her chair. Now I want to find if there's any likeness or not between Lawrence and Carlyle. But at the moment I am in revolt against L. Why does one veer about so with him?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : [works]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book

Joris Karl Huysmans : A Rebours

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 13 July 1902: '[italics]I[end italics] dribble on among Aristotle, golf & Byron. The last is a stiff job -- my God I've never read such trash as those Giaours and Corsairs. I had never read them before & assumed that they were nauseous, but I never imagined such feeble banalite as they contain. The letters however make up for a great deal & on the whole there is some amusement in steadily plodding through a whole author & really for once getting to know about one [...] I have also at last read [Joris Karl Huysmans'] A Rebours ... it [italics]is[end italics] diseased magnificence. The words simply dazzle me. I rather thought that sentence in the colossal chapter on the flowers & des Essintes' [sic] nightmare was in a way an epitome of Huysmans if not of all France. "Tout n'est que syphilis." Pish! I suppose everything is.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw :

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 2 January 1903: 'I don't think my December list of books read equals yours. It includes however Bernard Shaw, Schopenhauer, Barry Pain, Browning, D'Aurevilly, Oscar Wilde, Flaubert, A Manual of Ethics & Shakespeare [...] I don't see how anyone, after reading Madame Bovary, can doubt which is the supremest of all novels -- though I now remember writing the same to you about Le Pere Goriot.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

R. B. O'Brien : The Life of Parnell

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 5 March 1905: 'De Vigny has come. I haven't read him all, but I'm rather disappointed: isn't he rather metallic? I read a good deal in odd moments, & a curious mixture, I think. A book I have always meant to do, I finished last week & could hardly put down at all, The Life of Parnell [...] Also the Life of Russell by the same man [R. B. O'Brien] & [Disraeli's] Coningsby which is absolutely preposterous, & [Voltaire's] La Dictionnaire Philosophique.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

R. B. O'Brien : The Life of Russell

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

E. M. Forster : Where Angels Fear to Tread

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 29 October 1905: 'The taupe sent his book to me last week. It is really extraordinary that it is as amusing as it is. It is a queer kind of twilight humour don't you think [...] What enraged me in the book was the tragedy. If it is supposed to [italics]be[end italics] a tragedy it's absolutely hopeless; if it's supposed to be amusing, it simply fails.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

Joris Karl Huysmans :

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 13 January 1906: 'I have practically settled down for two weeks here [...] it is one immense sea of hills [...] I walk out onto these & wander from about 7-9 every morning & from 4-6 every evening, the rest of the day I read Voltaire's letters, Huysmans & Henry James.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : Captain's Doll, The

'Read [italics] The Captain's Doll [end italics] [D.H. Lawrence] again (about the 8th time I think) and like it better than ever. Odd how again, though, the woman is more real than the man. The man is a mouthpiece for the right ideas but he doesn't quite [italics] exist [end italics]. Hannele exists yet the doll is oddly more alive than the Captain.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book

Rainer Maria Rilke : Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, The

'I have just been reading the record of a dangerous voyage, [italics] Malte Laurids Brigg [end italics]. Yet Rilke returned safely. I have seen a photo of him in a black coat and a watch chain standing in the gateway of a German castle. Where have I been from which there was any danger of not returning? Even from insanity I came back to find a name, a latchkey, a home, identifying friends. In writing I hug the shore all the time. Rilke's book hs affected me profoundly; given me the sense of being out of my depth, of a dazzling interconnection between two worlds in which one simultaneously moves. It has left me sensitised like a watch that has been too near a magnet. The effect was so violent that I had to lie down at intervals while I was reading it; I was shaking as if in a high fever.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book

Rainer Maria Rilke : Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, The

'It is strange that in poetry, when I was eleven, I had what I can only call my first revelation from which I emerged dazed, unable to fit the two worlds together. It has happened again now with the Rilke book'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book

Rainer Maria Rilke : [works]

'When I read Rilke I seem to understand her ['Roberta's] death... she really had carried it about with her, nourished it, achieved it' [alluding to story about Rilke's death on p.70]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book

Tom Hopkinson : I have been Drowned

'Every day I become more aware of the extraordinary interpenetration of people's lives. I think of the share Emily had in Djuna's book ['Nightwood'], of the share Emily will have in mine if I can write it, of the small share I have in hers and may have in Siepmann's, of the way I saw something in Tom's drowning story ['I have been Drowned'] of which he was unaware and which Emily brought to flower so that now he has written a quite extraordinary story, beyond anything he has done before and which gave me the same feeling of strangeness, delight, almost awe that Emily's two last poems, "Melville" and "The Creation" gave me'.

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Dejection: An Ode

'last night [Barker] read me Coleridge's "Ode on Dejection" which is very beautiful in parts. It exactly expresses those bad negative states in which one looks and sees nothing - the "grief without a pang".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Barker Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : Captain's Doll, The

'D.H. Lawrence draws so heavily on his own life - yet how often the best and freest part of his writing is his invention - like the wife in "The Captain's Doll".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book

Charles Montagu Doughty : Travels in Arabia Deserta

'[King] likes Doughty, Arabian Knights [sic], Froissart.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Cecil King Print: Book

Arthur Conan Doyle : [Sherlock Holmes Stories]

'I had hoped to have a clear head here - to get on with German, Italian, etc. and to read some history. But I have been so heavy and tired all the time that I can only manage snatches of [italics] War and Peace [end italics] and [italics] Sherlock Holmes [end italics]. I am supposed to have done a detailed criticism of Emily's book - I have skimmed through it but that is all.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book

Sir George Otto Trevelyan : The Competition Wallah

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 28 April 1907: 'Today my head is whirring with slight fever. Since I wrote that I have for the first time read The Competition Wallah. It is extraordinary; it might be the Northern Province in 1907 instead of Bengal in the sixties.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

E. M. Forster : The Longest Journey

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 7 July 1907: 'My brother sent me The Longest Journey. Don't you think it is an astonishing & irritating production? What a success he will be! For people will think it all so clever. I thought on every other page that he was really going to bring something off, but it all fades away into dim humour & the dimmer ghosts of unrealities. It might have been so magnificent & is a mere formless meandering. The fact is I don't think he knows what reality is, & as for experience the poor man does not realize that practically it does not exist. Still his mind interests me, its curious way of touching on things in the rather precise & charming way in which his hands (I remember) used to touch things vaguely.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

E. M. Forster : A Room with a View

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 25 November 1908: 'I have been reading Forster's last book [A Room with a View] & as last year, at about the same time, it has just stirred the fringe of my brain [goes on to describe having recently had to view, in official capacity, the body of a murdered native woman] [...] I had no idea before that the smell of a decomposing human being is so infinitely fouler than anything else. Is that reality according to Forster? I believe last year I thought that he thought it is. But this book which appears to me really rather good & sometimes thoroughly amusing is absolutely muddled, isn't it?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

G. E. Moore : 'Professor James' "Pragmatism"'

Leonard Woolf to G. E. Moore, 4 January 1909: 'I don't think you realize how pleased I was to get your letter & paper [...] I read your paper but to tell the actual truth I was disappointed, disappointed in the way in which most papers disappoint one. I want your opus magnum which will tell me what things are true much more than papers which tell me that Pragmatism, which I don't believe in, is false.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Unknown

Guy de Maupassant : 'tale'

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, postscript to letter postmarked 1 February 1909: 'I never thanked you for the books [...] they are a godsend especially as I have just got to the end practically of the last batch I ordered out. I suddenly thought I must read Maupassant again & when I reread the tale about the child who is pinched on the buttocks by the adulterating captain I thought I was right. I also read [the Earl of Cromer's] Modern Egypt & you can deduce my state of mind by the fact that I think it is the greatest book written in the last 25 years.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

John Henry Newman : Apologia pro vita sua

Leonard Woolf to Virginia Woolf, 13 March 1914: 'Another amusing book I looked at here is Hurrell Froude's Remains. I have read partly Newman's Apologia; he seems to me a self-sentimentalist.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

T. S. Eliot : Ash Wednesday

Leonard Woolf to T. S. Eliot, 5 May 1930: 'You are the only living poet I can read twice; only in your case I cannot stop at twice & go on rereading until something from outside intervenes to stop me. The usual thing happened to me the other evening with Ash Wednesday. It is amazingly beautiful. I dislike the doctrine, as you probably know, but the poetry remains & shows how unimportant belief or unbelief may be.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler : The King's English

Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey, 22 September 1918: 'V[irginia]. induced me to buy The King's English, a book which teaches you exactly how not to write. The difficulty is that that is precisely what it does do, and now I cannot write a sentence, because as soon as I get one down, I see that it is exactly like some horror of Miss [Marie] Corelli [popular novelist]'s quoted as a warning in that damned book.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leonard Woolf Print: Book

Leonard Woolf : article on 'the politician and the intellectual'

Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, Marquess of Crewe, to Leonard Woolf, 29 July 1940: 'I read your article on the Politician and the Intellectual, in the New Statesman of July 20th, and I hope that you will excuse a much older man who has enjoyed the company of many of both sorts for troubling you with a few observations on it [goes on to comment further].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes Print: Serial / periodical

Leonard Woolf : Empire and Commerce in Africa

Leonard Woolf to Margery Perham, 24 August 1955: 'Did you ever come across [Charles] Temple, who was in the Nigerian Civil Service [...] He read Empire and Commerce after his retirement and when he lived in Granada; hearing that Virginia and I were going to stay in the mountains above, he asked us to come and spend the night at his house. I had a long talk with him and he was very bitter against [Lord] Lugard [imperialist attacked by Woolf in text], claiming that a great deal of the credit for indirect rule etc., whicb Lugard claimed himself, ought to have gone to him, Temple.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Temple Print: Book

Matthew Pilkington : [letters]

'During my Stay in the Country, he wrote me a great many poetical Compliments, and subscrib'd himself, [italics] Amintas [end italics]: as they were really very elegant; my Mother, who always examined my Letters, exprest great Curiosity to know the Writer'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Laetitia van Lewen Manuscript: Letter

Matthew Pilkington : [letters to her daughter]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth van Lewen Manuscript: Letter

Henry St John Bolingbroke : [letters to Swift]

'[Pilkington tells how Swift cut out many pages of an edition of Horace and made her paste letters between the covers instead] 'I told him, I was extreamly proud to be honoured with his Commands: "But, Sir, may I presume to make a request to you?" "Yes", says he, "but Ten to One I shall deny it". "I hope not Sir, 'tis this; may I have Leave to read the Letters as I go on?" "Why, provided you will acknowledge yourself amply rewarded for your Trouble, I don't much care if I indulge you so far; but are you sure you can read?" "I don't know Sir, I'll try". "Well then begin with this". It was a letter from Lord [italics] Bolingbroke [end italics], Dated six o'Clock in the Morning; it began with a remark, how differently that Hour appeared to him now, rising cool, serene, and temperate, to contemplate the Beauties of Nature, to what it had done in some former Parts of his Life, when he was either in the midst of Excesses, or returning Home sated with them [Pilkington continues to summarise the 'moral philosophy' of the letter and professes herself delighted with all his other letters] Nor can I be at all surprized that Mr [italics] Pope [end italics] should so often celebrate a Genius who for sublimity of Thought, and elegance of Stile, had few Equals. The rest of the Dean's Correspondents were, the Lady [italics] Masham [end italics], the Earl of [italics] Oxford [end italics] [a long list of others, ending] Mr [italics] Pope [end italics], Mr [italics] Gay [end italics], Dr [italics] Arbuthnot [end italics]; A Noble and learned Set! So my Readers may judge what a Banquet I had. I cou'd not avoid remarking to the Dean, that notwithstanding the Friendship Mr [italics] Pope [end italics] professed for Mr [italics] Gay [end italics], he cou'd not forbear a great many Satyrical, or if I might be allowed to say so, envious Remarks on the success of the [italics] Beggar's Opera [end italics] The Dean very frankly own'd, he did not think Mr [italics] Pope [end italics] was so candid to the Merits of other Writers, as he ought to be. I then ventur'd to ask the Dean, whether he thought the Lines Mr [italics] Pope [end italics] addresses him with, in the Beginning of the [italics] Dunciad [end italics], were any Compliment to...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Laetitia Pilkington Manuscript: Letter

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury : Characteristics

'It is known to every learned Divine, that the Priests engross'd the whole Country of [italics] Egypt [end italics], as the eldest Son of ev'ry Priest was born a Priest, and therefore intitled to a tenth Part of the Land, upon which [italics] Joseph [end italics] who was not only an admirable Man, but an excellent Politician, and had a divine Revelation that the Land should suffer Famine ten Years, ordered the Priests to pay in all their Subsidies to the King, whereby in those ten Years of Dearth the King purchased at so low a Rate, as giving the People a little Corn, all the Lands in [italics] Egypt [end italics]. These are Remarks of the admirable Lord [italics] Shaftesbury [end italics], whose inimitable Style and clear Manner of Reasoning, carry Conviction with them. I never knew any Clergyman who quoted him, but to his prejudice, except Doctor [italics] Turnbull [end italics]: And yet I can't see why the Morality or the Preaching of it, should in any wise be offensive to a Christian'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Laetitia Pilkington Print: Book

Jean Paul Friedrich Richter : Leben Fibels

'Of Richter I yet know little; I have looked into his Herbst-Bluminen, his Flegaljahre, and am now reading his Fibel. It is easy to see already that next to Goethe (and Tieck?) he is the best man in Germany: but his extravagance and barbarism will render the task of selecting from him one of some difficulty.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Jean Paul Friedrich Richter : Herbst-blumine oder gesammelte Wekchen aus Zeitschriften

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Jean Paul Friedrich Richter : Die Flegeljahre

'Of Richter I yet know little; I havelooked into his Herbst-Bluminen, his Flegaljahre, and am now reading his Fibel. It is easy to see already that next to Goethe (and Tieck?) he is the best man in Germany: but his extravagance and barbarism will render the task of selecting from him one of some difficulty.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Anne Lefevre Dacier : [translations of and notes on Homer]

'And here give me Leave to observe, that amongst the Ladies who have taken up the Pen, I never met with but two who deserved the Name of a [italics] Writer [end italics]; the first is Madam [italics] Dacier [end italics], whose Learning Mr [italics] Pope [end italiocs], while he is indebted to for all the notes on [italics] Homer [end italics], endeavours to depreciate; the second is Mrs. [italics] Catherine Philips [end italics], the matchless [italics] Orinda [end italics], celebrated by Mr [italics] Cowly [end italics], Lord [italics] Orrery [end italics], and all the Men of Genius who lived in her Time. I think this incomparable Lady was one of the first Refiners of the [italics] English[end italics] Numbers; Mr [italics] Cowly [end italics]'s, though full of Wit, have somewhat harsh and uncouth in them, while her Sentiments are great, and virtuous; her Diction natural, easy, flowing, and harmonious. Love she has wrote upon with Warmth, but then it was such as Angels might share in without injuring their oringinal purity. Her Elegy on her Husband's Daughter, is a Proof of the Excellency and Tenderness of her own Heart, rarely met with in a Stepmother; nor could I ever read it without tears, a Proof it was wrote from her Heart'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Laetitia Pilkington Print: Book

Auguste Heinrich Julius Lafontaine : Raphael

'Could you learn for me which is Lafontaine's best novel in one moderate volume? I have read his Raphael (in French), his Rudolph von Werdenberg, and his Tinchen (in German): there is genius in all of these, but whether any of them is among the best of his half-a-century of works, I have no means of ascertaining.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Auguste Heinrich Julius Lafontaine : Rudolph von Werdenberg

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Auguste Heinrich Julius Lafontaine : Tinchen oder die Mannerprobe

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Jean Paul Friedrich Richter : unknown

'It is many a weary year since I have been so idle or so happy. I have not done two sheets of Werter yet; I read Richter and Jacobi, I ride, and hoe cabbages, and like Basil Montague, am "a lover of all quiet things"'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: BookManuscript: Letter

George Gordon, Lord Byron : unknown

'I went yesterday to Montreux and then changed and went in a funny funicular to a place called Gstaadt where we arrived at 7.30. I read Byron all the time.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Harold Nicolson Print: Book

Samuel Rutherford Crockett : The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion

E. M. Forster to Alice Clara Forster, 13 February 1898: 'Have you read Crockett's new book, the Adventures of Sir Toady Lion? It is splendid: a child's story, & reminds me of the times I used to have with Ansell & Frankie [neighbours].'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Edward Morgan Forster : "The Greek Feeling for Nature"

E. M. Forster to Laura Mary Forster, 3 March 1898: 'I have just read a paper to the Classical Society on "The Greek Feeling for Nature"; everyone sat upon it very much, and disagreed with everything I said.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Manuscript: Unknown

Jabez Bunting Dimbleby :

E. M. Forster to Alice Clara Forster, ?summer 1899: 'I hear much of Mr Dimbleby, and have tried to read his books. I can't think how Maimie [i.e. Mary Aylward, family friend] is taken in. Scattered scraps of information such as "in 1903 there will be a second Flood: 'one of the continents' (!) will sink below the sea. In 1910 the world will probably be consumed in the tail of a comet, &tc." '"Dear me," says Maimie, "to think that we shall probably be alive to see it."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : plays

E. M. Forster to Alice Clara Forster, 5 November 1899: 'I have been reading Bernard Shaw's plays. Wonderfully clever & amusing, but they make me feel bad inside.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

George Macaulay Trevelyan : 'The Uses of History'

E. M. Forster to Laura Mary Forster, 27 February 1900: 'Last Thursday I went to Mr Dickinson's to hear Trevelyan of Trinity read a paper on "The Uses of History", & very good it was.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Trevelyan Manuscript: Unknown

Edward Morgan Forster : paper

E. M. Forster to Leonard Woolf, 1 January 1905: 'I was up [at Cambridge] for a fortnight, and read the Society [i.e. the Apostles] a paper, which, if I find it, I will send you [...] No one thought there was much in it (Strachey, Sheppard, Keynes, present). You may throw it away.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown

E. M. Forster : Where Angels Fear to Tread

'[George Macaulay] Trevelyan wrote to Leonard Woolf (December 1905 [...]) "I wonder whether you will have seen E. M. Forster's novel 'Where Angels Fear to Tread': it is worth reading, but some people like it a great deal, others, like myself, only rather."'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Trevelyan

E. M. Forster : works

E. M. Forster to Syed Ross Masood, 2 July 1909: 'Something exciting is coming on [...] The Minister for Foreign Affairs has read the works of your humble servant, has approved of them, & has asked me to dinner in consequence [...] I am looking forward to it, and am not in a funk, for Grey is not only charming, but simple, I hear: I do know his brother & sister a little.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Edward Grey Print: Unknown

Ernest B. Havell : Indian Sculpture and Painting ... with an Explanation of Their Motives and Ideals

E. M. Forster to Malcolm Darling, 10 February 1910: 'I left off the last [letter to Darling] saying that I was going to tell you something special in the next, and now for the life of me I can't remember what it is. It's a comment on our civilisation. This reminds me: of my story being read to the Rajah [...] I don't know why it should make me smile, but it does [...] Perhaps he would think it odd to read a book about Indian Art, as I have been doing -- by Havell. A little petulant in tone, but fascinating.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

John Carteret Pilkington : To Samuel Foote, Esq. on seeing his Englishman in Paris

[Jack Pilkington gives an introduction to his now deceased mother's third volume of memoirs, relating how he wrote a poem 'To Samuel Foote Esq, on seeing his Englishman in Paris' and sent it to him, proposing to insert it in the 'Daily Advertiser'; he received the following reply] 'It is impossible for me to thank you as I ought, for your inclosed Favour; and full as impossible for me, to answer the Contents of your obliging Letter; there is at present, such a Conflict in me, between Modesty and Vanity, that as neither can get the better, I must leave the destination of your elegant Piece, to your own Discretion'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Foote Manuscript: Unknown

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury : Philosophical Rhapsody, A

'Why sure every Person must acknowledge, that while [italics] he [Pope; end italics] is insulting [italics] his [end italics] Betters, his Ethic Epistles are little more than Lord [italics] Shaftesbury's [end italics] Rhapsody be rhym'd; his [italics] Windsor Forest [end italics] stollen [sic] from [italics] Cooper's [end italics] Hill; and his [italics] Eloisa and Abelard [end italics], the most beautiful Lines in it, taken from [italics] Milton's Il Penseroso [end italics]'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Laetitia Pilkington Print: Unknown

Sir Alfred C. Lyall : British Dominion in India

E. M. Forster to Syed Ross Masood, mid-January 1911: 'I am reading Lyall's hand book about the English in India -- the sort of thing I required [for preparation for travels in India]. Also I have failed to read another of Alice Parin's [sic] novels called Idolatry. The other I tried was good, but this is about missionaries & wicked Hindus and most tiresome.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Sir Alfred C. Lyall : Asiatic Studies: Religious and Social

'E[dward]M[organ]F[orster] was reading, as well, Lyall's Asiatic Studies: Religious and Social (1882) and G. F. I. Graham, The Life and Works of Syed Ahmed Khan (1909).'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

G. F. I. Graham : The Life and Works of Syed Ahmed Khan

'E[dward]M[organ]F[orster] was reading, as well, Lyall's Asiatic Studies: Religious and Social (1882) and G. F. I. Graham, The Life and Works of Syed Ahmed Khan (1909).'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The New Machiavelli

E. M. Forster to Malcolm Darling, 29 July 1911: 'I have been reading Kipling's child's history of England with mingled joy and disgust. It's a fine conception, but oh is it necessary to build character on a psychological untruth? In other words to teach the young citizen that he is absolutely unlike the young German or the young Bashahari -- that foreigners are envious and treacherous, Englishmen, through some freak of God, never --? Kipling and all that school know it's an untruth at the bottom of their hearts -- as untrue as it is unloveable. But, for the sake of patriotism, they lie. It is despairing [...] 'I couldn't on the other hand read the New Machiavelli, finding it too fretful and bumptious, and very inartistic, but must try again -- the more so as Wells, in an article in Le Temps has mentioned me among the authors qui meritent etre mieux connus en France [...] The best novels I have come across in the past year are Rosalind Murray's The Leading Note [...] and Wedgwood's Shadow of a Titan -- unfortunately written in an affected and unreadable style.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

A. Felix Wedgwood : The Shadow of a Titan

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

G. L. Strachey : Landmarks in French Literature

E. M. Forster to Jessica Darling, 6 February 1912: 'Before I get off books, I will put down the names of one or two that I have enjoyed lately. George Moore, Ave, William James, Memories & Studies, G. L. Strachey, Landmarks in French Literature (price 1/-, and oh so good), J. T. Sheppard, Greek Tragedy (also 1/-; Malcolm [Darling] knows him), Foemina, L'Ame des Anglais, Andre Chevrillon, Dans L'Inde, Forrest Reid, The Bracknels, Lascelles Abercrombie, Emblems of Love, Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

J. T. Sheppard : Greek Tragedy

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Mme Augustine Bulteau : L'Ame des Anglais

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Richard Barham Middleton : 'The Ghost Ship'

E. M. Forster to Forrest Reid, 19 June 1912: 'The day before yesterday I read The Ghost Ship by R. Middleton [...] I thought it very good, and it added to the other qualities I want in a supernatural story, the quality of good nature. The others in the same book did not look as interesting.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury : Characteristics

'Now I have mentioned this small but inimitable well wrote Book (Xenophon's 'Symposium'], which was recommended to me by Dr [italics] Swift [end italics], and which I in return commend to all such of my fair Readers as have a Taste for real Wit, in which the divine [italics] Socrates [end italics] as conspicuously shone, as he did in Purity of Life and Constancy in Martyrdom; that they peruse it with Care, as it will refine their Ideas and improve their Judgements, polish their Stile, shew them true Beauty, and lead them gently and agreeably to its prime Origin and Source. [LP then quotes from Milton's 'Comus' on beauty] I must here observe in my tracing Authors thro' each other, [italics] Zenophon [end italics] and [italics] Plato [end italics] borrowed from [italics] Socrates [end italics], whose disciples they were. [italics] Zenophon [end italics] acknowledges it as freely as I do the Instructions I received from Dr [italics] Swift [end italics]. Lord [italics] Shaftsbury's[end italics] Search after Beauty, is copied from [italics] Socrates [end italics]; Mr [italics] Pope's [end italics] Ethics stolen from both; and the leaned Mr [italics] Hutcheson[end italics]'s Beauty and Harmony, an Imitation of the great Philosophers and excellent Moralists first mentioned'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Laetitia Pilkington Print: Book

A.A. Milne : unknown

'My mother started to read to me when I was very young indeed. She read aloud beautifully and never got tired, and she would never, from the first, read anything that she could not enjoy herself, which cut out all the poor quality writing which every right-minded child loves when he can get it. Her only concession was one weekly comic, "Rainbow". But apart from that, I was reared on a fine mixed diet of Beatrix Potter, A.A. Milne, Dickens, Stevenson, Hans Andersen, Kenneth Grahame and Kipling – especially Puck of Pook’s Hill whose three magnificent stories of Roman Britain were the beginning of my own passion for the subject, and resulted in the fullness of time in The Eagle of the Ninth. Hero myths of Greece and Rome I had, in an unexpurgated edition which my mother edited herself as she went along, and Norse and Saxon and Celtic legends. There were Whyte Melville’s The Gladiators and Bulwer Lytton’s Last Days of Pompeii and Weigal’s Egyptian Princess; for my mother loved historical novels – history of any kind, though her view of it was always the minstrel’s rather than the historian’s.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosemary Sutcliff Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosemary Sutcliff Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosemary Sutcliff Print: Book

George John Whyte-Melville : The Gladiators

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosemary Sutcliff Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : Little Match Girl, The

'She did take to reading me The Little Matchgirl rather more frequently as time went on. Maybe she hoped that I would learn to read as a means of avoiding that particular story, but I have a nasty suspicion that it was done as a means of providing light relief for herself, because The Little Match Girl always made me cry.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosemary Sutcliff Print: Book

L.M. Montgomery : Emily of New Moon

'And then one day I found a book. It was a book called Emily of New Moon, about a little girl whose father died of consumption – that made a change, to start with - after which she was brought up by strict aunts in an old farmhouse somewhere in Canada. A Canadian story, not an American one; but I barely registered that at the time. What made it so different from other books of its kind I did not know, and I do not really know even now. But for me it was magic. I carried it off and kept it under my pillow or clutched to my bosom at bed-making time, and it seems as though I read it all that summer long, which can scarcely have been the fact; but I think I must have read it through, at first voraciously and then with slow and lingering delight, at least three times on the trot. And it was summer. On fine summer nights the beds remained out on the concrete strip all night, and I used to read, half under the bedclothes to evade Night Nurse’s eagle eye, until the last dregs of the light had drained away [...].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosemary Sutcliff Print: Book

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse : unknown

'Moreover, her train had arrived one-and-a-half hours before luncheon, so she had gone to the Paddington Hotel and sat in the lounge reading P.G.Wodehouse.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel Smyth Print: Book

Jean Baptise Honore Raymond Capefigue : Histoire de la Reforme, de la Ligue, et du Regne de Henri IV

'Imagine my delight to find a footnote in Capefigs thus conceived ... Immediately after, Capefigues talks of la grande flotte de Dracke.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

William Ernest Henley : Hospital Outlines: Sketches and Portraits

'My dear Henley, Sketches III line 11. More laughter comes from them than moan. IV As a whole. VII Both quatrains. VIII line 2. Extemporising a becoming gloom. IX Well, I don’t like it. Portraits I The sestett[sic] is not up to the mark, I think, but I don’t press this. IV Is a little broken, and the phrasing is a little imbecile. VII I don’t like. IX The first quatrain, and the words "does not feel his place" in the second. There is positively all I find….'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Probably proof.

Pierre de Ronsard : Sonnets pour Helene

'In years away from this when I am quite forgotten, maybe you will turn up some of these old letters & feel a little like saying "Ronsard m'a celebree Du temps que j'etais jeune!" But then i am not Ronsard! I never, indeed, remember to have read anything of R's, except that...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : [unknown article in French]

'I have just got my French article in print: it reads quite nicely'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Serial / periodical

Ford Madox Ford : [poems]

'The [underlined] whole [end underlining] trouble [in Bowen's relationships with her friends Phyllis and Clifford] is that Clifford doesn't admire your poetry!! so that somehow there is something lacking in their personal sympathy with me!!! And [underlined] I [end underlining] don't admire Clifford's, - tho' I try and dissemble a little - so you [underlined] see [end underlining]!! And this morning relations with P. were a trifle strained becaused she read me some poetry she'd written, for criticism, I said I thought there were always too many Stars & Pools & Buds in what she wrote, & she said I was so dreadfully sophisticated and affected!'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clifford Bax Print: Unknown

Ford Madox Ford : [letter to Stella Bowen]

'P.'s roving eye fell upon your letter of today, & read the beginning of the sentence about "Poor old Phyllis & her poems!" Which led to demands to know how it ended. Which led to strenuous refusals on my part & denials of her right to ask, and assurances of the trviality of the reference. Which led to really violent hysteria.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Phyllis Reid Manuscript: Letter

Herbert George Wells : Outline of History, The

As for me I am reading Wells on history! I think it wickeder than I did: but it's an amazing piece of book-making. When he gets past clerical & medieval times he's quite sound from a Left point of view till he gets to Napoleon! But [underlined] how [end underlining] jealous he is of all great men from Pericles and J. Caesar to everyone else. You see him saying: "No! I couldn't do what Alexander did. So I'll do for [underlined] his [end underlining] reputation!" And the joke of it is that he damns every one of them - Solomon, Mahomet, Alexander, Julius Caesar & the rest for being untrustworthy with women! I've never seen Satan so splendidly reprove sin.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Mr Bosphorus and the Muses

'I have been interrupted [in finishing a play] by getting back the m.s. of [underlined] Mr. Bosphorus [end underlining] which I have just gone through again, cutting it a little. I shall send it off again this afternoon.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Manuscript: Unknown

Herbert George Wells : Outline of History, The

'behind my back, E.J. is reading H.G.'s [underlined] Outline of History [end underlining] & making riotous comments on Amenhotep IV who she declares is a lidie with two heads'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Julia Ford Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Holbein

'I had a long conversation in the tram yesterday with an old maid who had just come back from Florence & talked about pictures, & when I said that I thought Giotto was more decorative than Holbein she... quoted my own "Holbein" against me, without knowing my name... But I think she had a shrewd suspicion that I was... Maurice Hewlett. For she said that someone in the Hotel Montfleuris had pointed me out as "writing" & immediately began to rave about [underlined] "Little Novels from Italy" [end underlining]. So I got off at the next stopping place - at little Africa.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Marsden Case, The: A Romance

'I am rather dithered after writing nearly all night & [underlined] then [end underlining] reading the [underlined] Marsden Case [end underlining] - not without satisfaction.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford

Ford Madox Ford : [several poems]

'I read "The Old Houses of Flanders" & "Clair de Lune", first half, & "Thank Goodness the Moving is Over" last night after my speech... & I was signing copies of my books for an hour an a half afterwards!'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford

Elizabeth Madox Roberts : Time of Man, The

'I am a little tired of writing eulogies. I wrote one of Asch the other day, and I am writing one of Lucy Madox Roberts whose book I immensely admire.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Good Soldier, The

'I was lately forced into the rather close examination of this book, for I had to translate it into French, that forcing me to give it much closer attention than would be the case in any reading however minute. And I will permit myself to say that I was astounded at the work I must have put into the construction of the book, at the intricate tangle of references and cross-references.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Good Soldier, The

'a fervent young admirer exclaimed: "By Jove, the [underlined] Good Soldier [end underlining] is the finest novel in the English Language!" whereupon my friend Mr John Rodker who has always had a properly tempered admiration for my work remarked in his clear, slow drawl: "Ah yes, it is, but you have left out a word. It is the finest French novel in the English language!"'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Good Soldier, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Rodker Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : [dedicatory letter to 'The Good Soldier']

'The last mail brought me your Dedicatory letter. I am [underlined] so [end underlining] touched & so very very proud. I don't know how to tell you how proud it makes me. It is lovely of you to want to pay me such a tribute. Of course I don't deserve a quarter of it. Some day I shall begin to tell you what [underlined] you [end underlining] have done for [underlined] me [end underlining]! I suppose you know me well enough however to guess that at the idea of your letter being [underlined] published [end italics] I am overcome by feelings of really awful - shyness, I suppose it is.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Gwendolyn, 'Stella' Bowen Manuscript: Letter

Ford Madox Ford : [unknown article about Ezra Pound]

'I read about your earlier dinner quite by accident in "Books" - & by the way I have never had the copy with your Stephen Crane article. I liked [underlined] very [end underlining] much the article about Ezra - I have read Hemingway's book - It seems pretty good. I like that hard clean sort of effect - but I think it gives also the effect of brittleness - or is that nonsense? It is also rather dazzling & tiring. He has touched me off rather nastily - rather on Jean's lines - So I feel very discouraged! Even you don't quite escape. Still its all of no consequence. Jenny had Violet's book lying about yesterday, which really [underlined] did [end underlining] rather upset me - The Envoi appears to say, that with someone who has had so [underlined] many [end underlining] final grand Passions there will [underlined] never [end underlining] be [underlined] any [end underlining] means of knowing who was really "the" one!

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Gwendolyn, 'Stella' Bowen Print: Serial / periodical

Isabel Paterson : [manuscripts]

'I was out like a lark at nine this morning to breakfast with Isabel Paterson - who did not expect me till one, Sunday breakfast here being alleesamee lunch. So she was not up and I sat and read manuscripts of hers till twelve and at one I had to go and give Capes lunch at the Nat Arts Club'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Manuscript: Unknown

Ford Madox Ford : Thus to Revisit

'I have inspected all the work the binder has done for you and as far as I can rember it seems to be what you ordered. He has put 'Hueffer' on the back of 'Thus to Revisit' having copied the jacket - but I suppose that is of no great consequence.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Gwendolyn, 'Stella' Bowen Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Last Post, The

'first let me say how splendid I think the "Last Post" is. (By the way, Duckworth has acknowledged receipt of MSS, so that's all safe). Mark's death is a lovely poem. And poor Valentine! But all that is a bit too near the knuckle. Still I'm the only person who is going to feel that, and it doesn't make it less wonderful art. I'm glad you didn't have a scene betwen Helen Luther and Valentine. I let Bradley read the MSS before sending it to Duckworth and he is awfully enthusiastic. He thinks it is a wonderfully sustained finish to the whole series. Only he expected a tragic denouement and was taken aback by the capitulation of Sylvia! So was I, rather. But I don't think you've ever in your life done anything better than you've done in this book. There is nothing better anywhere in Literature than Marie Leonie, Mark on Women, and the boy, and even Valentine's agonies even if she [underlined] is [end underlining] so beastly normal! Anyway that is my opinion.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Gwendolyn, 'Stella' Bowen Manuscript: Unknown

Ford Madox Ford : Last Post, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown

Ford Madox Ford : New York is Not America

'I am not half so pleased [as with "The Last Post"] with "New York is not America", the American proofs of which I am now wading through. The sentences seem to be so dreadfully long.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: page proofs for American edition

Ford Madox Ford : Last Post, The

'on Saturday the English proofs of Last Post descended on me and on Monday the American one's and I literally could do nothing else as Boni's wanted the proofs back on Monday night. That however was impossible, but I got them finished yesterday and then was too exhausted to do anything. In addition I have any amount of reading to do for the Collier's serial'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: page proofs for American edition

Ford Madox Ford : Last Post, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: page proofs for English edition

Edward Morgan Forster : Aspects of the Novel

'[After lunch] I shall come back and begin an article I am to write about the technique of the novel for Canby - suggested by a book of E.M. Forster's, which is pretty bad'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Last Post, The

'I am very touched by all the tributes in your New Year's letter, & enormously pleased with The Last Post. I don't believe you have any last idea how much I admire your genius, & how proud it makes me of my association with you [Stella then talks about her own painting] But your letter, & the "Last Post" together, seem to mark the end of our long intimacy, which did have a great deal of happiness in it for me, & which did involve us in a great deal of decent effort.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Gwendolyn, 'Stella' Bowen Print: Book

Harry Hensen : [untraced review of Ford's 'The Last Post']

'The Last Post has hitherto had rather a bad press. There were two most violent attacks - on that and N.Y.i. N. A. in the [underlined] Times [end underlining] last Sunday, for no discoverable reason, and the [underlined] Herald-Tribune [end underlining] was not very good. I have written nice things on everbody on that paper, so they can't very well employ their staff to write about me. So Irita - rather at my suggestion - got an English novelist called Macfee to do it, a sort of blighted person I wanted to give a job to. However, as a set off Harry Hensen of the World which has hitherto not liked me, gave it his column and as he is one of the most celebrated column-writers in the States that is not so bad.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Serial / periodical

Esther Julia Ford : [a short story]

'And you know she [Ford's daughter, Julie] acted about her story just like a grown-up I know: No, it was not good enough for me to see. She had not had enough experience. Perhaps one day when she had had experience. And she supposed no-one would print her silly story. And she went and read it to Fannie, and then to Mlle Renee and at last she let me see it and explained that it would look much better when she had made a clean copy.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Manuscript: Unknown

Esther Julia Ford : [a short story]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Julia Ford Manuscript: Unknown

Ford Madox Ford : [chapters from 'It Was the Nightingale']

'Many thanks for the 3 chapters - they look entrancing, but I haven't had time to do more than glance at them as I've had a sitter all day'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Gwendolyn, 'Stella' Bowen Manuscript: Unknown

Ford Madox Ford : [early chapters of what would become 'It was the Nightingale']

'Cape has seen the first 4 chapters [of what Stella calls 'Towards Tomorrow']. He finds them full of charm but says he could not make a better offer than Gollancz's, nor indeed such a good one.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Madox Roberts : Time of Man, The

'Mummy is now reading "[T]he Time of Man", so you can't have it back just yet: but you'll get it some day'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Gwendolyn, 'Stella' Bowen Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Great Trade Route, The

'I've just received "The Great Trade Route" this morning, and there's a gentleman on the cover who tells me that it is "bland, ironic humurous [sic] discursive, always amusing, throughly convincing" & I've been trying to find the place where I left off in the proofs but have just realized how futile such a search is & have gone back to the beginning.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Julia Ford Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : March of Literature, The

'I am loving your book [The March of Literature]: in fact I'm enjoying it even more than Great Trade Route. I do hope it's doing as well as it deserves'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Esther Julia Ford Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : [unknown]

'Sutton and Larkin grew steadily closer as they moved up through the senior school. Tiring of their childish reading, they turned to weightier matters, Larkin discovering D.H. Lawrence and Sutton "retaliating with Cezanne".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : [unknown]

'Sydney [Larkin's father] gave him free run of his library and his appetite for books grew enormously. "Thanks to my father", he wrote later: "our house contained not only the principal works of most main English writers in some form or other (admittedly there were exceptions, like Dickens), but also nearly-complete collections of authors my father favoured - Hardy, Bennett, Wilde, Butler and Shaw, and later on Lawrence, Huxley and Katherine Mansfield".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Larkin Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Larkin Print: Book

John Cowper Powys : [unknown]

'Sydney shaped Larkin's taste skilfully, leading him away from J.C. Powys and towards Llewelyn and T.F., towards James Joyce with no expectation that he would enjoy him, and towards poets who would remain favourites all his life: Hardy, Christina Rossetti and A.E. Housman. In late 1939, when Larkin discovered T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Edward Upward and Christopher Isherwood, Sydney also encouraged him - continuing, as he had always done, to make reading seem an independent activity, only tenuously linked to schoolwork.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Theodore Francis Powys : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Alfred Edward Housman : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Thomas Stearns Eliot : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Wystan Hugh Auden : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Edward Falaise Upward : [unknown]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Verlaine : [unknown]

'Throughout 1939 his reports speak of "improvements", and even though he still did "not much like" his English teacher he worked hard, widening his reading to include Verlaine and Lamartine as well as Auden and Eliot'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

William Kingdom Clifford : The Unseen Universe or Physical Speculations on a Future State

'My father has been quite sewed up for some days back, by Clifford’s article: (a fine article it was too);[…].'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical, Review article. Probably read in print after publication, but possibly in another earlier form since RLS was acquainted with its author.

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : A Vanished Arcadia: being some account of the Jesuits in Paraguay 1607-1767

'I have been reading again the "[A] Vanished Arcadia" - from the dedication, so full of charm,to the last paragraph with its ironic aside about the writers of books "proposing something and concluding nothing" - and its exquisite last lines..'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Henry-Durand Davray : unknown

'The "Mercure de France" notice is agreeable - and as he [Henry-Durand Davray] reproduces what I have been lately talking at him as to French fiction I am flattered.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Marcelle Tinayre : La Maison du Peché

'The book ("Maison du Peché") has arrived and is now half read. Without going further my verdict is that it is good , but is not "fort".' Thence follows five lines of moderately negative criticism.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

John Hay Athole Macdonald : election speech

'I read J. H. A. Macdonald's speech with interest.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson

Wystan Hugh Auden : Poems

'Although Larkin had first read them [Auden and Isherwood] at KHS [his school], it wasn't until he reached Oxford that he began fully to appreciate their irony and ebullient detachment (he described Isherwood's first novel, "All the Conspirators", as being like "life photographed"). Eventually Larkin would praise Auden as "the first 'modern' poet, in that he could employ modern properties unselfconsciously". Reading him in St John's during his first term he felt: "Auden rose like a sun. It is impossibly to convey the intensity of the delight felt by a ... mind reared on 'Drake's Drum', 'Westminster Bridge' and 'Ode to a Nightingale, when a poet is found speaking a language thrilling and beautiful, and describing things so near to everyday life that their once-removedness strikes like a strange cymbal. We entered the land, books in hand, like travellers with a guidebook... 'Poems', 'The Orators' and 'Look, Stranger!' seemed three fragments of revealed truth... To read 'The Journal of an Airman' was like being allowed half an hour's phone conversation with God".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Wystan Hugh Auden : Orators, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Wystan Hugh Auden : Look, Stranger!

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Wystan Hugh Auden : Journal of an Airman, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

Harold Joseph Laski : [unknown]

'When fairly launched into a subject, especially in a formal lecture in his favourite field, French political thought, these disquieting elements faded; and words and cadences flowed elegantly, engaging the imagination like themes in a romantic symphony - something not always present, alas, in his writing, which tended to be involuted and tantalisingly diffuse, defects of his supreme quality, a widely sweeping, impatient mind'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ralph Glasser Print: Book

Harold Joseph Laski : [unknown]

'Writing on liberty, arguing that its attainment was an inborn duty, he said that in order to divine its proper use one must "Listen to the still, small voice within you." The image was not original. Poe, among others, had used it; and in Laski's usage it expressed the world view of the Philosophes. Still, it was an engaging one, despite its naive assumption that clear sight, and goodwill, resided eternally in the noble savage within us - if we would only set him free'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ralph Glasser Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : unknown

'Your mention of Hawthorne puts me in mind to tell you what rabid [underlined] admirers we are of his [...] There is no prose write of the present day I have half the interest in I have in him, his style, in my mind is so beautifully refined and there is such exquisite pathos and quaint humour, and such an awfully [underlined] deep knowledge of human nature, not that hard unloving detestable, and, as it is purely one sided (or wrong [underlined] sided) false reading of it that one finds in Thackeray. He reminds me in many things of Charles Lamb, and of heaps of our rare old English humourists, with their deep pathetic nature--and one faculty he possesses beyond any writer I remember (not dramatic, for then I would certainly remember Shakespeare, and others on further though perhaps) viz. that of exciting you to the highest pitch without on any [underlined] occasion that I am aware of making you feel by his catastrophe ashamed of having been excited. What I mean is, if you have ever read it, such a case as occurs in the "Mysteries of Udolpho" where your disgust is beyond all expression on finding that all your fright about the ghostly creature that has haunted you throughout the volumes has been caused by a pitiful wax image! [...] And no Author I know does [underlined] try to work upon them [i.e. the passions] more, apparently with no [underlined] effort to himself. I cannot satisfy myself as to whether I like his sort of Essays contained in the twice told tales best, or his more finished works such as Blithedale romance. Every touch he adds to any character gives a higher interest to it, so that I should like the longer ones best, but there is a concentration of excellence in the shorter things and passages that strike, in force like daggers, in their beauty and truth, so that I generally end in liking that best which I have read last [...] There are beautiful passages in Longfellow, above all, as far as my knowledge goes in the Golden Legend, some of which in a single reading impressed themselves on my memory.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret De Quincey Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : The Golden Legend

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret De Quincey Print: Book

John Greenleaf Whittier : unknown

'By the way do you like Maud. I cannot say I do. It strikes me that if John Smith or Bill Jones had written it, they would have been put into an asylum. There are only those two parts beginning "Oh that it were possible" and "I have lead her home, my love, my only friend" that are not like ravings of a lunatic it strikes me, and yet my friends the Sellars say they admire it more than anything he has written [...] By the way I admire Whittier very much, and am very grateful to you for introducing him to me.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emily De Quincey

Henry Hope Reed : Lectures on History and Tragic Poetry as Illustrated by Shakespeare

'Did you ever happen to come across Professor Reed of Philadelphia. I think he was drowned in returning to America along with his sister-in-law. We have been reading his lectures upon "Shakspere," [sic] and upon "English Literature" and are all quite enchanted with them. I think his criticism of Shakspere [sic] is sometimes almost equal to Shakspere [sic] himself. I think Reed must have been a delightful person to have known. Since we have come across it, we have been hearing of it from all quarters. I suppose it must only have made its appearance in this country lately. I think that wherever he is read he must make a sensation as of the great lights of the world.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emily De Quincey Print: Book

Henry Hope Reed : Lectures on English Literature from Chaucer to Tennyson

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emily De Quincey Print: Book

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : A Convert (?)

'Your Saturday Review fling is first rate. Nothing I liked more since the gold-fish carrier story'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie; ou, la Nouvelle Heloise

'In my own day all mothers strictly forbade their daughters to read Rousseau's "Nouvelle Heloise", and all daughters, of course, longed to read nothing so much. I knew one young lady who owned to me that she stole a reading of it standing on the top steps of her father's library-ladder; and another, who procured it and carried it into the country with her on her wedding day, as the first fruits of being her own mistress. Yet within these few years I happened to hear a girl of very warm feeling, enthusiastic, romantic, just the person whose head it would have turned of old, declare she had tried to read it, but been so disgusted that she threw it away before she got through half the first volume'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie; ou, la Nouvelle Heloise

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie; ou, la Nouvelle Heloise

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: 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

H.(Herbert) G. (George) Wells : Mankind in the Making

'There is any amount of masterly pages. I have not read all of them as you may imagine. [...] Yes the "virtue" of the book is great.' Interspersed and following are several lines of warm praise for Wells's new book.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G. (George) Wells : Twelve Stories and a Dream

'An excellent volume. Last time I saw you , you spoke of it slightlingly-and this only adds to my envy of your astounding gift-for if this is the sort of thing you throw off while you whistle!-well!' Thence follow tweleve lines of praise for this collection of short stories.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

(Enoch) Arnold Bennett : Leonora

'You must think me a brute. I don't even attempt to palliate an inexcusable delay in thanking you for "Leonora".[...] Yes. you can do things; you present them with a skill and a language for which I wish to thank you as distinc[t]ly as possible, and with all the respect due to such a remarkable talent.[...] And here the first criticism that occurs is that there is not enough of Leonora herself. [...] And that's about the only objection that can be made to the book as a work. With the sheer pleasure of reading it, that-say-defect- does not interfere.' Thence follow sixteen more lines of constructive criticism.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

E.(Edward) D.(Dene) Morel : The Congo Slave State.

'I have to thank you for Morel's pamphlet which reached me from L'pool a few days ago.There can be no doubt that his presentation of the commercial policy and the administrative methods of the Congo State is absolutely true. It is a most brazen breach of faith as to Europe. It is in every aspect an enormous and atrocious lie in action.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Hernando de Soto: together with an account of one of his captains, Gonçalo Silvestre.

'Next to tell you that "H.[Hernando]de Soto" is most exquisitely excellent: your very mark and spirit upon a subject that only you can do justice to-with your wonderful English and your sympathetic insight insto the souls of the Conquistadores.' Thence follows half a page of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

J.[James] M.[Matthew] Barrie : The Little White Bird

'The reading of the "White Bird", apart from the sheer pleasure your work always gives, had a special interest for me as demonstrating once more your wonderful power to deal with fanciful and delicate conceptions; something much too perfect to be called skill.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Henri Jean François Borel : Wu Wei:A Phantasy Based on the Philosophy of Lao-Tse

'Arrived: A book with a Chinese title of Scandinavian authorship translated by Mrs Reynolds. I am touched and pleased indeed by the kind`attention. Have looked into it alreday with the translator alone in view. And that is all right. That's all I have to say. If I were to talk of skill and fluency and mastery and the rest of the journalese bosh you would not believe me and you would be right. But the thing will do and that's the most an honest man can say of any writing.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

W.(William) H.(Henry) Hudson : The London Sparrow in Kith and Kin: Poems of Animal Life ed. H.S.Salt

'Hudson's "Sparrow" is really first rate and just in the tone I expected. C'est une belle nature, which never falls short of its domain. One can depend upon him. The other volume I have been reading with a surprised admiration. It shall be an abiding delight-I see that much.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

W.(William) H.(Henry) Hudson : Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

F. G. Kitton : The Dickens Country

'However, to make up, the Times has sent me two trashy books, about Thackeray and Dickens and I may write 1500 words or so - Bruce Richmond is generous...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book

Sir William Sleeman : Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official

E. M. Forster to Laura Mary Forster, 19 February 1913: 'Do you know Sleeman's Rambles & Recollections of an Indian Official? It is a charming book to read in, but the best chapter, about a Suttee on the Nerbudda, you would perhaps be inclined to skip. I have also been reading The Private Life of an Eastern King by E. W. Knighton who was librarian to one of the Kings of Oudh, a very entertaining and intersting little book, and it rings true. It is certainly out of print, but may be in the L[ondon] L[ibrary].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Sir William Sleeman : Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official

E. M. Forster to Laura Mary Forster, 19 February 1913: 'Do you know Sleeman's Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official? It is a charming book to read in, but the best chapter, about a Suttee on the Nerbudda, you would perhaps be inclined to skip. I have also been reading The Private Life of an Eastern King by E. W. Knighton who was librarian to one of the Kings of Oudh, a very entertaining and interesting little book, and it rings true. It is certainly out of print, but may be in the L[ondon] L[ibrary].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: E. M. Forster Print: Book

E. William Knighton : The Private Life of an Eastern King

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: E. M. Forster Print: Book

John Adam Cramb : Germany and England

E. M. Forster to Malcolm Darling, 6 November 1914: 'I am not a Pro-German [...] I have read the White Paper, and Cramb, and some Bernhardi, and I am sure we could not have kept out of this war.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster

General Friedrich Adam Julius von Bernhardi :

E. M. Forster to Malcolm Darling, 6 November 1914: 'I am not a Pro-German [...] I have read the White Paper, and Cramb, and some Bernhardi, and I am sure we could not have kept out of this war.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

E. M. Forster : Maurice

E. M. Forster to Edward Joseph Dent, 6 March 1915: 'You can scarcely imagine the loneliness of such an effort as this [Forster's novel of homosexual love, Maurice] -- a year's work! [...] Carpenter has read and liked it, but he's too unliterary to be helpful [...] Roger Fry & Sydney [Waterlow] have also read the book, and their opinions, being totally unbiased, are interesting. R. agrees with you that it is beautiful and the best work I have done. S. finds it moving, and persuasive to all but bigots, admirable as a sociological tract, full of good things, but he finds the characters weighed down by these'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Carpenter Manuscript: Unknown

E. M. Forster : Maurice

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Fry Manuscript: Unknown

E. M. Forster : Maurice

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Waterlow Manuscript: Unknown

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

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

Anne Louise Germaine, Baronne de Stael : Dix Années d'exil

'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: 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

Anon [Apprently the father of the dead child] : [memorial on grave]

'[…] I’ve been to church and am not depressed − a great step. I was at that beautiful church my P.P.P.[Petit Poeme en Prose] was about. It is a little cruciform place, with heavy cornices and string course to match, and a steep slate roof. The small kirkyard is full of old gravestones; one of a Frenchman from Dunquerque, I suppose he died prisoner in the military prison hard by. And one, the most pathetic memorial I ever saw: a poor school-slate, in a wooden frame, with the inscription cut into it evidently by the father’s own hand.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Inscription carved on school slate.

Niccolo Machiavelli : The works of Nicholas Machiavel, secretary of state to the republic of Florence. Newly Translated from the Originals; Illustrated with Notes, Anecdotes, Dissertations, and the Life of Machiavel, Never before published; And Several New Plans ....

[Marginalia]: several pencil and ink annotations (some fading to illegibility) throughout text, usually of the form of a marked item within the text followed by annotation in the margin example(1) p.542 (v.1. The Prince chpt. VI) against the footnote "r" on religion and armed conflict is the marginal note "NB The hindoo religion refutes Machiavel's position"; (2)p. 690 (v.1. The Prince chpt XXV) has the marginal note "his Majesty first defined the word chance or fortune" against the translator's note "o".

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Drummond Erskine Print: Book

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

H.(Herbert) G.(George) Wells : Kipps:The Story of a Simple Soul

'Your first inst[alment] [of "Kipps"] in the PMM [Pall Mall Magazine] is jolly good. It turns up [sic] remarkably well. Coming upon it unexpectedly (the No.of PMM was sent to me) I gave a great gasp to see the story of which I had heard first so long ago now beginning at last. I don't know that I will read the other instalments. I should think not. I've been pleased and now I can wait. There is in that opening, my dear boy, a quality.' Hence follow eight more lines of praise, including a resolution to read the second instalment after all.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

H.(Herbert) G.(George) Wells : A Modern Utopia

'All I can say is that I am quite enthusiastic about the work ["A Modern Utopia"]. From the first line of the preface to the closing sentence I feel in touch with a more accessible Wells - a Wells mellowed, as it were in the meditation of the three books of which this last one is certainly the nearest to my understanding and the most commanding to my assent.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Progress and Other Stories

'This moment I receive "Progress", or rather the moment (last night) occurred favorably to let me read before I sat down to write. Nothing in my writing life[...] has give mre a greater pleasure, a deeper satisfaction of innocent vanity [...] than the dedication of the book so full of admirable things, from the wonderful preface to the slightest of the sketches between the covers.' Hence follow nine more lines of unqualified praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin : Hyperion

E. M. Forster to Edward Joseph Dent, 6 March 1915: 'I have not read Platen yet [...] German's a labour. I liked Holderlin's Hyperion -- I wish someone would translate it. Have you read The White Peacock by D. H. Lawrence? If not, do not, because you cannot, but read one chapter in it called A poem of friendship, which is most beautiful. The whole book is the queerest product of subconsciousness that I have yet struck -- he has not a glimmering from first to last of what he's up to.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : The White Peacock

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

James Arthur Balfour : 'What Our Fleet Has Done'

E. M. Forster to Malcolm Darling, 2 August 1915: 'I read (and sometimes write) the New Statesman [...] also the Morning Post [...] I enclose from it this jolly letter of Balfour's: it seems to me distinctly on the spot. Reventlow's was too much of a bore to send.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Newspaper

Count Ernst von Reventlow : 'A Year of Naval Warfare'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Newspaper

George Bernard Shaw :

E. M. Forster to Florence Barger, 2 July 1916: 'I talk to patients [at Red Cross centre, Alexandria]; with one of them -- a sensitive and intelligent fellow -- I have become real friends [...] He is, incongruously enough, a Ship's Steward [...] He is absolutely independent, but not with the theoretical independence of the Socialist. He devours masses of Dickinson [...] and Shaw.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Vicary Print: Book

Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson : The Meaning of Good

E. M. Forster to Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, 28 July 1916: 'I still like my work [as Red Cross worker tracing missing soldiers] and do the motherly to Tommies as you say, and I hope in one case the brotherly [...] I lent him books by you, and though he stuck in The Meaning of Good as "unlikely to help", John Chinaman he liked so much as to read part of it aloud to the rest of the ward. "They said What do you want to read that for? I said it's very interesting about the opium as showing what Europe's like. They said But what does it matter? Who cares?" [...] he grew up in respectable circles in the west of England'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Vicary Print: Book

Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson : Letters from John Chinaman

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Vicary Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : The Rainbow

E. M. Forster to Wilson Plant, 14 February 1917: 'Like you I am a great admirer of D. H. Lawrence [...] The Rainbow I picked up in a book shop during the brief period it was for sale and thought it looked dull. How I wish I had bought it now.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Racine :

E. M. Forster to Robert Trevelyan, 29 January 1918: 'I have been reading Racine and Claudel.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols :

E. M. Forster to Siegfried Sassoon, 3 August 1918: 'Re the poets you mention I have read some of them both. I liked Graves. Nichols not so much.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Unknown

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

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 Clinton 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.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book

Richard Lovell Edgeworth : [a narrative]

'We were very much pleased with Mr Lovell Edgeworth's narrative which Mrs Marcet showed us, a very little addition from your pen would have made a very delightful fashionable tale'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly

Charles Arthur Mercier : Sanity and Insanity

Gone on with Comparetti Vergilio nel Medio Evo. Bourget’s Physiologie de l’Amour. [next unclear] Dumas Nouveaux Entr’actes. Ribot Maladies de la Volonté. In Flaubert’s Correspondance. Mercier Sanity and Insanity. Zola La fortune des Rougon. Son Excellence ER. Loti Roman d’un Enfant. Zola La Curée. Mme Bovary. Manresa (Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius). Ribot. Hérédité Psychologique. Zola Nana. Bjornson. In God’s Way. Tolstoy Marchez pendant que vous avez la lumiere. In Mary Wilkins. Tolstoy Les fruits de la Science. Vacherot Science et conscience. Tolstoy. Ivan imbecile etc. Zola Au bonheur des Dames. Julius Caesar. In Numa Roumestan 2nd time. In Chartreuse de Parma 3rd time. Zola La Terre. Tolstoy & Bondareff. Le Travail. Ibsen Canard Sauvage & Rosmersholm. Goncourt Clairon. Meinhold Amber Witch. The Newcomes. Ibsen H. Gabler. Kingsley Alton Locke. Spencer etc Plea for Liberty. Arnold White Tries at Truth. Merimée Venus d’Ille & Ames du Purgatoire. [next unclear] Havelock Ellis The Criminal. Zola La Reine. Stevenson Cervennes. Maeterlinck Les Aveugles, L’Intruse. Maupassant Bel Ami. Fabre L’abbe Tigrane. Much Kipling – Meredith Beauchamp. Morris News from nowhere. Mill on the Floss.- Zola l’argent. Diderot Religieuse. Laveleye Luxe. Mary Marguerites. Spencer Ethics. Sand La Morceau Diable. La Petite Fadette. Guyau Morale sans obligation. In Hazlitt. Zola Pot Bouille. Balzac Paysans.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Vernon Lee Print: Book

Charles Henri Ford ( with Parker Tyler) : The Young and the Evil

'Thank you for sending me your novel. I think that there is much good writing, and that you have a strong visual sense, but I do get tired of the perpetual pillow fights. Frankly, don't either of you young men know anybody who is capable of getting into his own bed and staying there? If you do for goodness sake cultivate his acquaintance, and write about him next time for a change. Also, calling a spade a spade never made the spade interesting yet. Take my advice, leave spades alone, or if you must mention them, then mention the garden too. All the miners round here - they are not an expressive race- use words which recur over and over again on your pages. But I don't find they add anything to my consciousness. No, no, you[should] develop your talent along different lines, and let us have some more writing like that page about the girl and the sailor - with the last phrase left out. P.S I mean that our forefathers, though an ignorant lot in some ways, were no more ignorant of the process of excretion than are their descendents today. But apart from medical treatises, these things do not in themselves make interesting reading. The prose rythms of your book really do deserve a more worthy subject, next time.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edith Sitwell Print: Book

Albert Jean Michel de Rocca : Mémoires sur la guerre des Français en Espagne

'Mr Rocca's "Memoirs sur la guerre Des Francois en Espagne" [sic] is just out. I have only read a very few pages but they give me a great desire to read more, particularly as Sophie who took it up could not lay it down again, and in general a girl of fourteen is a pretty good judge of the interest'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Book

Albert Jean Michel de Rocca : Mémoires sur la guerre des Français en Espagne

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sophie Romilly Print: Book

Albert Jean Michel de Rocca : Mémoires Sur La Guerre Des Français En Espagne

'Since I wrote the first two pages of this letter I have read Eugene and Guilliaume, and quite agree with you. Pray correct Sir James Mackintosh's opinion [about "Waverley"], and for [italics] best [end italics] read [italics] worst [end italics] which was his opinion, altho' I was told the contrary. He is now I understand a little softened, and says it comes before Rokeby but after all the others. Have you read "Discipline" by Mrs Brunton? With many defects it is much above the common class, and the last Volume is very pretty indeed some scenes nearly as good as "Waverley" who I might have added to my list of Lovers belonging to Walter Scott one can take no interest in. - Have you read La Baume's act. of the Campaign in Russia? I am told it is very well done. I am sure you will be pleased with Mr Rocca's Book if you read it'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Book

August Wilhelm von Schlegel : [Essays]

'Mr Schlegel's Essays are most certainly worth reading, altho' you will not entirely agree with him in many of his opinions'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Book

Richard Lovell Edgeworth : Readings on poetry

'We have been much instructed by the readings on poetry and long for the Irish Tales'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Romilly Family Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Fare thee well

'I send you some lines which he [Lord Byron] printed but did not publish, and which were handed about [italics] confidentially everywhere [end italics]. The usual consequence has happened, they appeared in one of the Sunday newspapers, and of course were copied on Monday a hundred times over. I send you what were in the "Morning Chronicle" with an unintelligible preface, and a paragraph which appeared the next day, by which you will see what a persecution Lady Byron is enduring. Sir Samuel says that the "Farewell" is a greater instance of wickedness than he thought was possible could have existed in human nature - and that the "Sketch from Private Life" is a miserable blackguard production without merit. - Indeed I cannot help thinking that he has hurt himself more than Lady Byron by abusing the person of a Maid Servant who was Nurse to Lady Milbanke, and who is grown old in faithful service to the Family'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Sketch from Private Life, A

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Sketch from Private Life, A

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Romilly Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Fare thee well

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Romilly Print: Unknown

Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Aubin, comtesse de Genlis : [children's plays]

'For once I must think differently from Mr Edgeworth. I have none of the fears that he has for the fate of "Little Plays for Children". Those of Madame de Genlis have always been extremly [sic] successful, altho' not very good, and "Old Poz" has been most successful, and has been acted by many a happy little party'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Fare thee well

'His [Byron's] "Farewell" is miserable poetry, and the allusions to the intimacy of marriage are not only ungentlemanly, but unmanly. "The Domestick Sketch" is powerfully written. I have seen in the reports on mendicity that there are persons who teach the arts of abuse - His Lordship seems to have studied in this school, with great success'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Lovell Edgeworth Print: Unknown, either in newspaper or version circulated in society

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Sketch from Private Life, A

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Lovell Edgeworth Print: Unknown, either in newspaper or version circulated in society

Jane Haldimand Marcet : Conversations on Political Economy

'Have you not been delighted with Mrs Marcet? What an extraordinary work for a woman! Everybody who understands the subject is in a state of astonishment, and those, who like me know very little or nothing about it, are delighted with the knowledge they have acquired. One of our ci-devant Judges, Sir James Mansfield, who in his 83rd year devours all that is new in Literature, is charmed and laments extremely that he did not know as much as that Book has taught him when he was at the Bar'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Book

Jane Haldimand Marcet : Conversations on Political Economy

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Mansfield Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Manfred

'Have you read Lord Byron and his horrid Incantation? Can you doubt but that it is intended as a curse on his wife? Her nerves must be strong if she can read it without shuddering. He is in Italy travelling with two ladies in his Suite. In "Childe Harold" there is a novel enjoyment of a storm such I should think as a demon would feel, but I think that the stanza which describes the appearance of the morning after is beautiful. Sir Samuel says that he has lost his ear, and that his last poems are decidedly the worst he has written. Surely the man who wrote "Darkness" must be mad or nearly approaching to it. Is there not something exceptionally riduculous in the idea of the two men, who survived the rest, frightening each other to death at last by their ugliness, ''een of their mutual ugliness they died", that is the line I think'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Darkness

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [poems]

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Romilly Print: Book, Unknown

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [letters to his wife Harriet]

'His letters [PB Shelley's in relation to his desertion of his wife] were really curious. A more singular display of the total want of all moral feeling under the guise of liberality and enlightened sentiment I should suppose had never before been exhibited. The Cause was heard in the Chancellor's private room out of compassion to Mr Shelley and his family. The account which appeared in the papers must have been written by himself, or his friend Mr Hunt of the "Examiner" who was present, and they went so far that the Chancellor intimated that he would have a rehearing of the cause in public and they immediately became silent'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly

William Ernest Henley : Notes on the Firth

'Will you allow me to recommend you the accompanying sonnets? They are by Mr Henley, who wrote the “Hospital Outlines” in this month’s "Cornhill" − poems which have made a great sensation here, where the portraits are easily recognized; and though these have not the same extrinsic interest, they seem to me better as workmanship and more agreeable altogether. Henley is a singularly fine fellow, whose constancy under great trouble is as remarkable as his verse. Let me add that he is not the richest person in the world, so (should these sonnets suit you for the magazine) an early publication will be of great service to him.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Sheet, Unknown

William Ernest Henley : Hospital Outlines: Sketches and Portraits.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown, Probably a proof copy.

Thomas Stearns Eliot : 'Burbank'

'I have been thinking about Eliot and Jew hatred - a compassionate man one would say, cultured, civilised? and yet he can write poison like this: "The rats are underneath the piles. The Jew is underneath the lot." ' [quotation from Glasser's friend Bill Werner]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Bill Werner Print: Book

Melchor de Ortega : Felixmarte de Hircania

'Dr Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, who was long intimately acquainted with him, and has preserved a few anecdotes concerning him, regretting that he was not a more diligent collector, informs me, that "When a boy he was immoderately fond of reading romances of chivalry, and he retained his fondness for them through life; so that (adds his Lordship) spending part of a summer at my parsonage-house in the country, he chose for his regular reading the old Spanish romance of "Felixmarte of Hircania", in folio, which he read quite through. Yet I have heard him attribute to these extravagant fictions that unsettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profesion'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius :

'His figure and manner appeared strange to them [the company on the night of Johnson's arrival in Oxford]; but he behaved modestly, and sat silent, till upon something which occurred in the course of conversation, he suddenly struck in and quoted Macrobius; and thus he gave the first impression of that more extensive reading in which he had indulged himself'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

William Ernest Henley : [second series of] Hospital Poems

'Herewith you receive the rest of Henley’s hospital work. He was much pleased by what you said of him, and asked me to forward these to you for your opinion; the pencil marks are principally Payne’s. One poem at least, the “Spring Sorrow”, which seems to me the most beautiful, I hope you will communicate to Madame. I thank God for this [italics]petit bout de consolation[end italics], that by Henley’s own account, this one more lovely thing in the world is not altogether without some trace of my influence: let me say that I have been something sympathetic which the mother found and contemplated while she yet carried it in her womb. This, in my profound discouragement, is a great thing for me; if I cannot do good work myself, at least, it seems, I can help others better inspired; I am at least a skilful accoucheur.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown

Sylvia Townsend Warner : Lolly Willowes

Remarks in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book of 1926 include 'Nearly all novels go off at the end,' with examples including Sylvia Townsend Warner, Lolly Willowes ('how silly the book becomes when the witchcraft starts, how worse than silly when it culminates').

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

'[editor's words] without literary pretensions, Mrs Marshall had a genuine love of reading, and when no other engagement intervened, it was one of her domestic regulations, that a book should be read aloud in the evening for general amusement; the office of reader commonly devolved on Miss Hamilton, who was thus led to remark that the best prose style was always that which could be longest read without exhausting the breath. These social studies were far from satisfying her avidity for information; and she constantly perused many books by stealth. Mrs Marshall, on discovering what had been her private occupation, expressed neither praise nor blame, but quietly advised her to avoid any display of superior knowledge by which she might be subjected to the imputation of pedantry. This admonition produced the desired effect, since, as she herself informs us, she once hid a volume of Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism under the cushion of a chair lest she should be detected in a study which prejudice and ignorance might pronounce unfeminine'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters to his Son

'I remember when the [italics] Literary Property [end italics] of those letters [Lord Chesterfield's to his son] was contested in the Court of Session in Scotland, and Mr Henry Dundas, one of the counsel read this character [of the 'respectable Hottentot'], as an exhibition of Johnson, Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, one of the Judges, maintained with some warmth, that it was not intended as a portrait of Johnson, but of a late noble Lord, distinguished for abstruse science'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Dundas Print: Book

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke : Philosophical works

'On the 6th of March came out Lord Bolingbroke's works, published by Mr David Mallet. The wild and pernicious ravings, under the name of [italics] Philosophy [end italics], which were thus ushered into the world, gave great offence to all well-principled men.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

John Dryden : Epistles

'An hour won. Dryden's Epistles read for pleasure September night windy, dark, warm, and I have read the Epistles of Dryden [sic] 'Reading these Epistles which have no connection with my work and little with my ideas, have given me a happy sense of my own leisure. Who has the necessary time and vacancy of mind to read Dryden's Epistles for pleasure in 1927? or to copy out extracts from them into a Commonplace Book? Or to write out more often than is necessary the words: Dryden, Epistles, Dryden's Epistles? No one but me and perhaps Siegfried Sassoon.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

J. B. Priestley : article on E. M. Forster

'Elusiveness. Shut up always in the same carcase, one is puzzled by this charge, which is brought against me not only by an ill-bred-and-natured journalist Priestley in today's D.N. but by friendly and sensitive Leonard Woolf. Is it just that I am different to most people, or that, knowing the difference, I have developed to conceal it?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Newspaper

H. E. Wortham : Oscar Browning

Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book for 1927 include Oscar Browning's reflections, quoted in H. E. Wortham's biography of him, on the potential of the human mind, and the chances governing realisation, or non-realisation of this ('I have been drawn to think rather of the tens who have failed than of the units who have succeeded, and of the ore that lies buried in our social strata rather than of the bright coins which circulate from hand to hand').

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

E. M. Forster : short stories

'Peace has been lost on the earth and only lives outside it, in places where my imagination has not been trained to follow [...] [literature] has committed itself too deeply to the worship of vegetation. 'Re-reading my old short stories have [sic] forced the above into my mind. It was much easier to write when I believed that Wessex was waiting to return, and for the new belief I haven't been properly trained.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster

A. S. Eddington : Stars and Atoms

Passages transcribed into E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1928) include remarks on spatial relations between man, atoms, and stars, and on the effects of temperature on matter, from A. S. Eddington, Stars and Atoms (1927).

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

A. S. Eddington : The Nature of the Physical World

'Eddington (5.1.29). After reading his Nature of the Physical World as carefully as I can, the new ideas become more possible to me and therefore less wonderful. They degenerate into mathematical symbols which we are content to use without understanding.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

A. N. Whitehead : Science and the Modern World

Transcribed into E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1929): 'It does not mattter what men say in words so long as their activities are controlled by settled instincts. The words may ultimately destroy the instincts. But until this has occurred, words do not count. [Whitehead, Science & the Modern World.]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Ernest Hubert Lewis Schwarz : The Kalahari and its Native Races

Passages transcribed into E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1929) include anecdotes on pigmies from Ernest Hubert Lewis Schwarz, The Kalahari and its Native Races (1928) p.153, p.155.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

T. S. Eliot : 'Tradition and the Individual Talent'

' "Impressions and experiences which are important for the man may take no place in the poetry, and those which become important in the poetry may play quite a negligible part in the man, the personality." This [T. S. Eliot, Sacred Wood, p52] seems sound, but "emotions which he has never experienced will serve his turn as well as those familiar to him" is surely nonsense. He recovers in "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But of course only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from those things."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

F. L. Lucas : 'The Graces'

'Raw February Afternoon 2-30 [...] Reading Vaughan [quotes two stanzas beginning 'Thou art a moon-like toil'] [...] Reading F. R. Lucas also [quotes seven lines beginning with 'Your quiet altar after all was best']'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

John Cowper Powys : Wolf Solent

'Have been trying to read Solent Wolf [sic] again -- duck-weed and spittle unrelieved [...] No wonder that those Hardyesque fungi, the Powys [brothers T. F. and John Cowper], have never got anywhere. Patiently advertising their own decay and searching the hedgerows for simples. Can't go to bed with anyone, only talk and think it over, don't know that lust and tenderness bring relief.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

'At home there were daily Bible-readings in the family circle for many years, but secular reading aloud happily also found a place. Lucy was "A good reader" and gave them Scott and Thackeray and Tom Moore as well as Shakespeare; Edward read Pickwick.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Housman Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

'Sir, this book ("The Elements of Criticism", which he had taken up,) is a pretty essay, and deserves to be held in some estimation, though much of it is chimerical'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Robert Jenkin : Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion

'Jenkin's is the most copious and the best work I ever read in defence of divine revelation. It treats in a clear manner of the necessity of a divine revelation, antiquity of the scriptures, God's dispensations under the Patriarchs, Moses, Judges, Kings, and Christ; the wisdom and goodness of God is excellently displayed in the manner of the promulgation and preservation of the scriptures; various difficulties are cleared and objections answered. The author has, through the whole, discovered great depth of thought, a thorough knowledge of the history of the four great monarchies mentioned in the Old Testament, and of other ancient nations; which he has brought forward in confirmation of the truth of divine revelation. In reading this excellent learned production I could not help remarking the wonderful difference that therre is between this work and the poor superficial works of freethinkers.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Lackington Print: Unknown

Anatole France : Sur la pierre blanche

'If you don't know already it may interest you to know that in Anatole France's last book ["Sur la pierre blanche"] there are two allusions to you.' Hence follow eleven lines of clarification and discussion.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Anatole France : Abeille: conte

'I don't know whether I ought to mention my delight at your approval of "Abeille" [by Anatole France]. I put it in your hands with confidence and trust - but one never knows.[...] I must tell you in confidence that some time ago dear Jack [Galsworthy] sat upon me so heavily for my admiration of "Thais" that I promised to myself to walk very delicately in the way of recommending books for the future.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Anatole France : Thais

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Adonais

'During Preparation one wild autumn evening in St Monica's gymnasium, when the wind shook the unsubstantial walls and a tiny crescent of moon, glimpsed through a skylight in the roof, scudded in and out of the flying clouds, I first read Shelley's "Adonais", which taught me in the most startling and impressive fashion of my childhood's experience to perceive beauty embodied in literature, and made me finally determine to become the writer that I had dreamed of being ever since I was seven years old.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Unknown

A. E. Housman : Poem LII ('Far in a western brookland')

Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1930) include Poem LII ('Far in a western brookland') of A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Saint Joan

'Shaw's St Joan and Joyce's Ulysses into which I looked today (8-11-30) made me ashamed of my own writing. They have something to say, but I am only paring away insincerities.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

J. A. Symonds :

[entered in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1930), underneath quoted passage opening 'I wonder what morality is, whether eternal justice exists, immutable right & wrong, or whether law and custom rule the world of humanity, evolved for social convenience from primal savagery'] 'J. A. Symonds: but whence? copied into this book off an odd scrap of paper, and into an odd space in the book.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Manuscript: Unknown, Copied from earlier transcription in Forster's hand.

J. A. Symonds :

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster

Charles F. Richardson : 'Critical Introduction'

Passages quoted in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book, 1932, include this remark from Charles F. Richardson 'Critical Introduction' to The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe: 'It may be added that Poe stands supreme, even in the only morally pure national literature the world has ever seen, in the absolute chastity of his every word.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Frederick II King of Prussia : [unknown]

'On Tuesday, July 18, I found tall Sir Thomas Robinson sitting with Johnson. Sir Thomas said, that the King of Prussia valued himself upon three things;—upon being a hero, a musician, and an author. Johnson. "Pretty well, Sir, for one man. As to his being an author, I have not looked at his poetry ; but his prose is poor stuff. He writes just as you may suppose Voltaire's footboy to do, who has been his amanuensis. He has such parts as the valet might have, and about as much of the colouring of the style as might be got by transcribing his works." [Boswell tells how he repeated this to Voltaire, who was amused as he was on bad terms with Frederick the great]. But I think the criticism much too severe; for the "Memoirs of the House of Brandenbergh" are written as well as many works of that kind. His poetry, for the style of which he himself makes a frank apology, "[italics] Jargonnant un francois barbare [end italics]", though fraught with pernicious ravings of infidelity, has, in many places, great animation, and in some a pathetick tenderness.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Frederick II King of Prussia : Memoirs of the house of Brandenburg. From the earliest accounts, to the death of Frederick I.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

Frederick II King of Prussia : [poems]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

Walter Scott : The Antiquary

'Uncle Henry writes very superior Sermons. You & I must try to get hold of one or two & put them into our Novels; it would be a fine help to a volume; & we could make our Heroine read it aloud of a Sunday Evening, just as Isabella Wardour in the Antiquary, is made to read the History of the Hartz Demon in the ruins of St Ruth - tho I beleive, on reflection, Lovell is the Reader.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

James Edward Austen : unpublished manuscript story

'[James Edward Austen] read his two Chapters to us the first Evening; - both good - but especially the last in our opinion. We think it has more of the Spirit & Entertainment of the early part of his Work, the first 3 or 4 Chapters, than some of the subsequent...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Edward Austen Manuscript: Sheet

Robert Southey : Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo

'We have been reading the "Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo," & generally with much approbation. Nothing will please all the world, you know; but parts of it suit me better than much that he has written before. The opening - the Proem I beleive [sic] he calls it - is very beautiful. One cannot but grieve for the loss of the Son so fondly described. Has he at all recovered it?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile

'This violence [of Dr Johnson against Rousseau] seemed very strange to me, who had read many of Rousseau's animated writings with great pleasure, and even edification; had been much pleased with his society, and was just come from the Continent, where he was very generally admired. Nor can I yet allow that he deserves the very severe censure which Johnson pronounced upon him. His absurd preference of savage to civilized life and other singularities are proofs rather of a defect in his understanding than of any depravity in his heart. And notwithstanding the unfavourable opinion which many worthy men have expressed of his "Profession de Foi du Vicaire Savoyard," I cannot help admiring it as the performance of a man full of sincere reverential submission to Divine Mystery, though beset with perplexing doubts: a state of mind to be viewed with pity rather than with anger.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Discourse on Inequality

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

George, Lord Lyttelton : History of the Life of Henry the Second

'His Majesty then talked of the controversy between Warburton and Lowth, which he seemed to have read, and asked Johnson what he thought of it. Johnson answered, "Warburton has most general, most scholastic learning ; Lowth is the more correct scholar. I do not know which of them calls names best." The King was pleased to say he was of the same opinion; adding, "You do not think then, Dr. Johnson, that there was much argument in the case." Johnson said, he did not think there was. "Why truly, (said the King,) when once it comes to calling names, argument is pretty well at an end." His Majesty then asked him what he thought of Lord Lyttelton's history, which was then just published. Johnson said, he thought his style pretty good, but he had blamed Henry the Second rather too much.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Fanny Knight : Letters

'My dearest Fanny, You are inimitable, irresistable. You are the delight of my Life. Such Letters, such entertaining Letters as you have lately sent! - Such a description of your queer little heart! - Such a lovely display of what Imagination does. [...] I cannot express to you what I have felt in reading your history of yourself, how full of Pity & Concern & Admiration & Amusement I have been...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Manuscript: Letter

Thomas Secker : Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England

'In this state of affairs I sent to my late partners for Secker's Lectures on the Catechism, Gilpin's Lectures on the same, Wilson's Sermons, 4vols. and Gilpin's Sermons. These are very plain discourses, easy to be understood, and calculated to leave a very lasting impression on the mind. These excellent sermons Mrs L and I read together . . .'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James and Mary Lackington Print: Book

Elizabeth Hamilton : [poem - 'Is that Auld Age']

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] She had, however, dwelt long enough on the idea [of aging] to make it the subject of a sportive poem, which she one evening read with a smiling countenance to her little family circle' [the poem is reproduced].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Manuscript: Unknown

Samuel Carr : Sermons

'I meant to inform you, that besides those books already mentioned, I sent for Bishop Horne's Sermons, 4 vols. Carr's Sermons, Blairs Sermons, 5vols. Scott's Christian Life, 5vols. several leaned and sensible expositions of the Bible; Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, with the Fragments; Josephus' Works, Prideaux's Connections, 4vols. Mrs H. More's Works, and various other excellent Works. For some time one sermon was read on every Sunday, but soon Mrs L. began to like them, and then two or three were read in the course of the week; at last one at least was ready every day, and very often part of some other book in divinity, as Mrs. L said that she preferred such kind of reading far beyond the reading of novels.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Lackington Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

'When I talked of our [the Scots'] advancement in literature, "Sir, (said he,) you have learnt a little from us, and you think yourselves very great men. Hume would never have written History, had not Voltaire written it before him. He is an echo of Voltaire." Boswell "But, Sir, we have Lord Kames." Johnson. "You [italics] have [italics] Lord Кames. Keep him; ha, ha, ha! We don't envy you him. Do you ever see Dr. Robertson?" Boswell. "Yes, Sir." Johnson. "Does the dog talk of me ?" Boswell. "Indeed, Sir, he does, and loves you." Thinking that I now had him in a corner, and being solicitous for the literary fame of my country, I pressed him for his opinion on the merit of Dr. Robertson's "History of Scotland". But, to my surprise, he escaped.—" Sir, I love Robertson, and I won't talk of his book."'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

'Johnson proceeded :— "The Scotchman has taken the right method in his 'Elements of Criticism.' I do not mean that he has taught us any thing; but he has told us old things in a new way." Murphy. "He seems to have read a great deal of French criticism, and wants to make it his own; as if he had been for years anatomizing the heart of man, and peeping into every cranny of it." Goldsmith. "It is easier to write that book, than to read it." Johnson. "We have an example of true criticism in Burke's 'Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful'; and, if I recollect, there is also Du Bos; and Bouhours, who shews all beauty to depend on truth. There is no great merit in telling how many plays have ghosts in them, and how this Ghost is better than that. You must shew how terrour is impressed on the human heart.— In the description of night in Macbeth, the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of darkness,—inspissated gloom".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Murphy Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Oliver Goldsmith Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw : Hardyknute

'The ballad of Hardyknute has no great merit, if it be really ancient. People talk of nature. But mere obvious nature may be exhibited with very little power of mind.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Unknown

V. I. Lenin and Josef Stalin : (excerpted) writings on literature

Passages transcribed at length into E. M. Forster, Commonplace Book (1938) include 'Lenin-cum-Stalin on literature. Being a 2nd instalment of Les Grands Textes du Marxism.' Forster's accompanying comments include: 'Leninism less cultured than Marxism -- i.e. less interested in the creation and enjoyment of works of art. But it does not openly denounce individualism or recommend corporate emotion, as the Nazis do. There seems no reason why Communism, if left in peace, should not become civilised.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

General Sir Robert Thomas Wilson : History of the British Expedition to Egypt

Passages transcribed into E. M. Forster, Commonplace Book (1938) include General R. T. Wilson's account of five British sailors' purchase of a woman sold at auction by Arabs.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

F. M. Cornford : From Religion to Philosophy

Under heading 'Early Greek Science. -- And Lucretius': 'Farington (Science and Politics in the Ancient World) thinks that Ionia observed and experimented freely; that Science became conditioned by politics [...] 'Now I am reading Cornford (From Religion to Philosophy). I doubt whether Farington has. For Cornford proves that Ionian Science was conditioned by religion. This, though less exciting, is probable. 'I find these early speculations useful in clearing my own mind, and helping it to see how it has been twisted. And Farington recalls me to my proper job [...] I ought to think a little more, and not to slop about being diffident or charming.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Arthur Hugh Clough : Dipsychus

'Dispsychus -- read after many hesitations -- is not clear what world it opposes to the spirit: the world of action or the world of ambition greed & snobbery. So its effect is fumbly [...] Don't expect to pursue Clough beyond the anthology-pieces.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

John Emerich Edward Dalberg Lord Acton : A Lecture on the Study of History

Passages quoted in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1940) include remarks on value of cultural works for successive generations of civilised people from Lord Acton's Lecture on the Study of History ('A speech of Antigone, a single sentence of Socrates [...] come nearer to our lives than the ancestral wisdom of barbarians who fed their swine on the Hercynian acorns'). Forster responds with comment that 'Lord Acton is right, but [...] He forgot that that most people do not respond to culture or intellectual honesty [...] he appears to this generation as an old man lecturung in a cap and gown,' having also noted 'This afternoon (29-2-40) I was at Bishops Cross, where new born lambs were dying in the cold, and Hughie Waterson, a Nazi by temperament, was trying to save them [...] Him the ancestral wisdom inspired.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

George, first Lord Lyttelton : Dialogues of the Dead

'Lord Lyttelton's Dialogues he deemed a nugatory performance. "That man, (said he,) sat down to write a book, to tell the world what the world had all his life been telling him".' [account by Dr Maxwell, an Irish London priest friend of Dr Johnson]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

R. W. Ketton-Cremer : Horace Walpole: A Biography

Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1940-41) under heading 'Eighteenth Centuriana' include reported last words of Sir Robert Walpole and Sir Thomas Mann, from R. W. Ketton-Cremer's Horace Walpole: A Biography.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

H. A. L. Fisher : A History of Europe

Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1942) include remarks by H. A. L. Fisher beginning: 'Men wiser and more learned than I have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham : Rehearsal, The

'The conversation now turned on critical subjects. Johnson. "Bayes, in 'The Rehearsal', is a mighty silly character. If it was intended to be like a particular man, it could only be diverting while that man was remembered. But I question whether it was meant for Dryden, as has been reported; for we know some of the passages said to be ridiculed were written since 'The Rehearsal'; at least a passage mentioned in the Preface is of a later date." I maintained that it had merit as a general satire on the self-importance of dramatick authours. But even in this light he held it very cheap.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham : Rehearsal, The

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton : History of the Life of Henry the Second

'Boswell. "I rather think, Sir, that Toryism prevails in this reign." Johnson. "I know not why you should think so, Sir. You see your friend Lord Lyttelton, a nobleman, is obliged, in his "History", to write the most vulgar Whiggism".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Rene Aubert Vertot : Révolutions romains

' [Johnson said of Goldsmith] "Take him as a poet, his 'Traveller' is a very fine performance; ay, and so is his 'Deserted Village,' were it not sometimes too much the echo of his 'Traveller.' Whether, indeed, we take him as a poet,—as a comick writer,—or as an historian, he stands in the first class." Boswell. "An historian! My dear sir, you surely will not rank his compilation of the Roman History with the works of other historians of this age ?" Johnson. "Why, who are before him?" Boswell. "Hume, —Robertson,—Lord Lyttelton." Johnson. (His antipathy to the Scotch beginning to rise). "I have not read Hume; but, doubtless, Goldsmith's 'History' is better than the [italics] verbiage [end italics] of Robertson, or the foppery of Dalrymple." Boswell. "Will you not admit the superiority of Robertson, in whose 'History' we find such penetration—such painting?" Johnson. "Sir, you must consider how that penetration and that painting are employed. It is not history, it is imagination. He who describes what he never saw draws from fancy. Robertson paints minds as Sir Joshua paints faces in a history piece: he imagines an heroick countenance. You must look upon Robertson's work as romance, and try it by that standard. History it is not. Besides, sir, it is the great excellence of a writer to put into his book as much as his book will hold. Goldsmith has done this in his 'History'. Now Robertson might have put twice as much into his book. Robertson is like a man who has packed gold in wool: the wool takes up more room than the gold. No, sir; I always thought Robertson would be crushed by his own weight,—would be buried under his own ornaments. Goldsmith tells you shortly all you want to know: Robertson detains you a great deal too long. No man will read Robertson's cumbrous detail a second time; but Goldsmith's plain narrative will please again and again. I would say to Robertson what an old tutor of a college said to one of his pupils: 'Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.' Goldsmith's abridgement is better than that of Lucius Florus or Eutropius; and I will venture to say, that if you compare him with Vertot, in the same places of the Roman History, you will find that he excels Vertot."'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Dante Alighieri : Divine Comedy

'Johnson praised John Bunyan highly. "His 'Pilgrim's Progress' has great merit, both for invention, imagination, and the conduct of the story; and it has had the best evidence of its merit, the general and continued approbation of mankind. Few books, I believe, have had a more extensive sale. It is remarkable, that it begins very much like the poem of Dante; yet there was no translation of Dante when Bunyan wrote. There is reason to think that he had read Spenser".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

W. E. H. Lecky : History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne

[Following notes on 'squabble' between SS. Jerome and Augustine] 'Extracted from ch. iv of Lecky's "Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne", interesting, ill-indexed, strong on the Egyptian anchorites.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

John Neville Figgis : The Political Aspects of St Augustine's City of God

[Following heading 'St Augustine'] 'Some questions raised rather than solved in Figges' [sic] "Political Aspects of the City of God" [goes on to transcribe extracts and add own notes and queries].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

F. A. Wright : A History of Later Greek Literature

'Forster's material on the Sophists and others is drawn from part II ("Byzantium A.D. 313-565") of F. A. Wright's A History of Later Greek Literature from the Death of Alexandria in 323 B.C. to the Death of Justinian in 565 A.D. (Routledge, 1932).'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

E. H. Carr : Michael Bakunin

[following heading 'Bakunin (1814-1876)] 'Reading Carr's pitiless and ungenerous account of him, I am often carried outside it to contemplate the endless senseless torturing of Europe; the same places occur in the 18th cent, as in the 5th, and people are still being killed and thwarted, and beautiful and useful objects being destroyed. [makes further notes on text]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

A. P. Wavell : Allenby: Soldier and Statesman

Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1943) include anecdote about Boer prisoners and their guards being found asleep together, with Allenby's remark 'that will do more to end this stupid war than anything else,' from A. P. Wavell, Allenby: Soldier and Statesman.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Van Wyck Brooks : The Ordeal of Mark Twain

'The Ordeal of Mark Twain by a bothered and bothering American of the psychoanalysing 20s has succeeded in bothering me a bit [discusses text further, drawing comparisons between Twain's, and own, experiences of ageing and senses of failure].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

John Emerich Edward Dalberg Lord Acton : A Lecture on the Study of History

[under heading 'Lord Acton Some "shining precepts" for the historical student] E. M. Forster transcribes passage opening 'Keep men and things apart; guard against the prestige of great names,' and phrase 'The critic is one who, when he lights on an interesting statement, begins by suspecting it,' noting underneath: 'The above are from his lecture "The Study of History" [...] Transcribing them while the planes whirr, I wonder how far Liberalism might have progressed if the world had kept calm.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book

Sir William Jones :

'The [Tennyson] boys had one great advantage [as home-educated pupils], the run of their father's excellent library. Amongst the authors most read by them were Shakespeare, Milton, Burke, Goldsmith, Rabelais, Sir William Jones, Addison, Swift, Defoe, Cervantes, Bunyan and Buffon.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Tennyson children (boys) Print: Book

George Louis Leclerc de Buffon :

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Tennyson children (boys) Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : [unknown]

'In the late 1880s Gissing immersed himself in contemporary European fiction, as he had during previous periods of his life. Gissing's wide reading has been often noted but rarely assessed. Salient in any study of it would be his reading of Goethe and Heine in 1876 (and throughout his life), Eugene Sue and Henri Murger (in 1878 "Scenes de la Vie Boheme" was deepy influential), Comte (notably "Cours de Philosophie Positive" in 1878), Turgenev (in 1884 - but also constantly, for by the end of the decade he had read "Fathers and Sons" five times), Moliere, George Sand, Balzac, de Musset (whom he called indispensable" in 1885), Ibsen (in German, in the late 1880s), Zola, Dostoevski, the Goncourts (at least by the early 1890s). Gissing read with equal ease in French, German, Greek and latin, and these from an early age. Later he added Italian and late in life some Spanish'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Joseph Marie Eugene Sue : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Honore de Balzac : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Alfred de Musset : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Edmond de Goncourt : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Walter Savage Landor : Imaginary Conversations

'He [George Gissing] recommended [in letters to his siblings] books like Morris's "Earthly Paradise", a poem "abounding in the quaintest archaisms"; Ruskin's "Unto this last", which Gissing liked as a "contribution to - or rather onslaught upon - Political Economy"; Landor's "Imaginary Conversations", for its "perfect prose"; and Scott's "Redgauntlet", for the romantic situations of which he must "try to find parallel kinds in modern life". Gissing kept up the habit throughout his life: he was always reading and always recommending books to his friends and family. In the early 1880s he read a lot of German, and to his brother, Algernon, particularly recommended Eckerman's "Conversations with Goethe", "a most delightful book". Meanwhile his sister, Margaret, was reading Schiller under his direction'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Johann Peter Eckerman : Conversations of Goethe

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Paul Charles Joseph Bourget : [unknown]

'Now [after 1890] he [Gissing] read books that seemed to have had a direct impact on his development, turning him away from working-class subjects (to which he never returned) and making him more interested in the nihilistic or purely intellectual attitudes of his characters than in those of them who had a Walter Egremont type of social conscience. Thus, he re-read Bourget, on [his friend] Bertz's recommendation looked at J.P. Jacobsen's "Niels Lyhne" and "Marie Grube", reread Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" (for the seventh time), reread Dostoevski, whom he recomended to his brother but disliked himself, once again mulled over Hardy's "The Woodlanders" and "The Mayor of Casterbridge" (he later said that "Jude" was poor stuff by comparison with these), and began to ponder Ibsen, starting with "Hedda Gabler".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Jens Peter Jacobsen : Niels lyhne

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Jens Peter Jacobsen : Marie Grube

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Sir William Blackstone :

'[During summer 1831] Hallam was at Hastings [...] After his holiday Hallam returned to his reading of law, and enjoyed "the old fellow Blackstone," culling for Alfred [Tennyson] poetic words like "forestal."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Hallam Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meister

The Hon. Stephen Spring Rice to Alfred Tennyson, 27 November 1833: 'I have read Wilhelm Meister for the first time, with which I find as many faults and beauties as every one does.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: The Hon. Stephen Spring Rice Print: Book

Honore de Balzac : [unknown]

'Gissing, probably more than any of his contemporaries, knew well the main trends of European literature at that time, for he continued to read widely in both French and German, as well as English. During the eighteen-eighties, he re-read George Sand and much of Balzac; read Zola for the first time; purchased cheap German editions of Turgenev and read them all; was famiiar with Daudet, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and later de Maupassant; and read Ibsen as his work became available and in the late eighties saw his plays when they were performed for the first time in London'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Guy de Maupassant : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

Albert Henry Buck : Treatise on Hygiene and Public Health

'Gissing read as widely as ever, with the same unbridled curiosity as during his youth but now with an intelligence tempered by experience. Of course he continued to read the Latin, Greek, English and French classics, but of the particular titles he noted in his diary during the second part of 1889 there are a number that indicate fairly and squarely the direction in which his thoughts were carrying him. Besides books like J.P. Jacobsen's "Niels Lyhne" and Frederick [sic]Bremer's "Hertha", he also read Taine's "English Literature", Bourget's "Etudes et Portraits" as well as the "Essais Psychologiques", A.H. Buck's "Treatise on Hygiene", W. B. Carpenter's "Principles of Mental Physiology" and the books he just mentions as Ribot's "Hereditie".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

William B. Carpenter : Principles of Mental Physiology, With Their Applications to the Training and Discipline of the Mind

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book

James Burnett, Lord Monboddo : Of the Origin and Progress of Language

'He [Johnson] attacked Lord Monboddo's strange speculation on the primitive state of human nature; observing, "Sir, it is all conjecture about a thing useless, even were it known to be true. Knowledge of all kinds is good. Conjecture, as to things useful, is good; but conjecture as to what it would be useless to know, such as whether men went upon all four [sic], is very idle." '

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes : Annals of Scotland

' [Letter from Boswell to Johnson] Your critical notes on the specimen of Lord Hailes's "Annals of Scotland" are excellent. I agreed with you on every one of them. He himself objected only to the alteration of [italics] free [end italics] to [italics] brave [end italics], in the passage where he says that Edward "departed with the glory dne to the conqueror of a free people". He says to call the Scots brave would only add to the glory of their conqueror. You will make allowance for the national zeal of our annalist. I now send a few more leaves of the "Annals", which I hope you will peruse, and return with observations, as you did upon the former occasion. Lord Hailes writes to me thus: "Mr. Boswell will be pleased to express the grateful sense which Sir David Dalrymple has of Dr. Johnson's attention to his little specimen".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown

David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes : Annals of Scotland

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Manuscript: Unknown

David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes : Annals of Scotland

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: David Dalrymple Manuscript: Unknown

Robert Louis Stevenson : When the Devil Was Well.

'My discouragement is from many causes: among others the re-reading of my Italian story. Forgive me, Colvin, but I cannot agree with you; it seems green fruit to me, if not really unwholesome; it is profoundly feeble, damn its weak knees!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown

David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes : Annals of Scotland

'[Letter from Johnson to Boswell] I have at last sent back Lord Hailes's sheets, I never think about returning them, because I alter nothing. You will see that I might as well have kept them. However, I am ashamed of my delay; and if I have the honour of receiving any more, promise punctually to return them by the next post'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown

David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes : Annals of Scotland

'[Letter from Boswell to Johnson] Lord Hailes writes to me [...] "I am singularly obliged to Dr. Johnson for accurate and useful criticisms. Had he given some strictures on the general plan of the work, it would have added much to his favours". He is charmed with your verses on Inchkenneth, says they are very elegant, but bids me tell you he doubts whether " [italics] Legitimat faciunt pectora pura preces [end italics]" be according to the rubrick ; but that is your concern; for, you know, he is a Presbyterian.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes Manuscript: Unknown

George Eliot : Romola

'My desultory and totally unorganised reading of George Eliot, Thackeray, Mrs Gaskell, Carlyle, Emerson and Merejkowski made little impression upon this routine, though their writings offered occasional compensation for its utter futility. "The reading of 'Romola,'" enthusiastically records my diary for April 27th, 1913, "has left me in a state of exultation!"'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain

Philip Gilbert Hamerton : Art Essays

'I find here (of all places in the world) your Essays on Art, which I have read with signal interest.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Lady Georgiana Fullerton : Ellen Middleton

'Savile Morton wrote to his mother that he had "come across Alfred Tennyson." "We looked out some Latin translations of his poems by Cambridge men, and read some poems of Leigh Hunt's, and some of Theocritus and Virgil [...] I had no idea Virgil could ever sound so fine as it did by his reading....Yesterday I went to see him again. After some chat we sat down in two separate rooms to read Ellen Middleton, by Lady Georgiana Fullerton -- very highly spoken of."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Savile Morton and Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

W. E. Henley : Bric-a-Brac

'To console myself, I concluded, I had been re-reading one of our favourite fragments from W. E. Henley's "Bric-a-Brac":

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

Johan August Strindberg : unknown

'Once, in the midst of trying to read a Strindberg play, I felt ghostly fingers gently stirring my hair, and twice mysterious footsteps walked slowly up the ward, stopped opposite my table and never returned.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Unknown

Robert Hugh Benson : Vexilla Regis

'In my wooden hut, by means of a folding card-table and a remnant of black satin for tablecloth, I made a small shrine for a few of the books that Roland and I had admired and read together. "The Story of an African Farm" was there and "The Poems of Paul Verlaine", as well as "The Garden of Kama" and "Pecheur d'Islande". To these I added Robert Hugh Benson's Prayer Book, "Vexilla Regis", not only in honour of Roland's Catholicism, but because my mother had sent me some lines, which I frequently read and cried over, from Benson's "Prayer after a Crushing Bereavement":'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Helena

'[from] April 25th [...] [Tennyson] "copied out 'Maud' for the press, and read 'The Lady of the Lake,' having just finished Goethe's 'Helena.'"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century

'On his [Tennyson's] return [to Farringford] the evening books were Milton, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Thackeray's Humourists, some of Hallam's History and of Carlyle's Cromwell.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred and Emily Tennyson Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters to his Son

'Lord Chesterfield's letters being mentioned, Johnson said, "It was not to be wondered at that they had so great a sale, considering that they were the letters of a statesman, a wit, one who had been so much in the mouths of mankind, one long accustomed [italics] virum volitare per ora [end italics]".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : The Fifth Queen and how she came to court

'The blessed vol: ["The Fifth Queen"] arrived about 4 days ago - or is it a week? I've read it twice - thats all.[...] Here I'll add one more phrase bearing upon the most "sensible" general effect.[...] The pictorial impression of the whole is positively overwhelming.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : The Heart of the Country:A Survey of Modern Land

'[Ford's ] "The Heart of the Country" is out today and a very charming piece of writing it is.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G.(George) Wells : In the Days of the Comet

'The Comet appeared to my naked (and surprised) eye yesterday morning. By a great effort of will I stuck to my own task till lunchtime. I began my observations in the afternoon and continued at it far into the night. I've completed them this morning. It is indeed a phenomenon!' Hence follow 18 lines of preliminary commentary on the text.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G.(George) Wells : The Future in America: A search after realities

'And on the subject of Wells, his book on the United States is quite smart.He has understood a heap of fundamentally unintelligible things. That's the purpose of an imagination like his, aided by an intelligence as sharp as acid.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

John George Keysler : Travels through Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, and Lorrain

'Friday, April 7, I dined with him at a Tavern, with a numerous company. Johnson. "I have been reading Twiss's 'Travels in Spain', which are just come out. They are as good as the first book of travels that you will take up. They are as good as those of Keysler or Blainville: nay, as Addison's, if you except the learning. They are not so good as Brydone's, but they are better than Pococke's. I have not, indeed, cut the leaves yet; but I have read in them where the pages are open, and I do not suppose that what is in the pages which are closed is worse than what is in the open pages. It would seem (he added), that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do not find it introduced into his writings. The only instance that I recollect is his quoting '[italics] Stavo bene, per star meglio, sto qui' [end italics]".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville : Travels through Holland, Germany and Switzerland, but especially Italy, with maps

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

R. (Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : His People

'I've read your book ["His People"] with the usual delight and more than the usual admiration.[...] Three times I've gone through your pages so vigorous, so personal and so exquisite. What a "Return of the Native" you have given us! "His People" is a wonderful piece of description and an amazing piece of analysis.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Paul Gruyer : Napoleon, roi de l'ile d'Elbe

'I have been a few times to the Town [Montpellier] Library- with an object. And the object is reading up all I can discover there about Napoleon in Elba.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

'Johnson praised "The Spectator," particularly the character of Sir Roger de Coverley. He said, "Sir Roger did not die a violent death, as has been generally fancied. He was not killed; he died only because others were to die, and because his death afforded an opportunity to Addison for some very fine writing. We have the example of Cervantes making Don Quixote die.— I never could see why Sir Roger is represented as a little cracked. It appears to me that the story of the widow was intended to have something superinduced upon it; but the superstructure did not come."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes : Annals of Scotland

'[Letter from Johnson to Boswell] I have now three parcels of Lord Hailes's history, which I purpose to return all the next week: that his respect for my little observations should keep his work in suspense makes one of the evils of my journey. It is in our language, I think, a new mode of history which tells all that is wanted, and, I suppose, all that is known, without laboured splendour of language, or affected subtilty of conjecture. The exactness of his dates raises my wonder. He seems to have the closeness of Renault without his constraint. Mrs. Thrale was so entertained with your "Journal" that she almost read herself blind. She has a great regard for you'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown

Charles-Jean-François Henault : [history]

'[Letter from Johnson to Boswell] I have now three parcels of Lord Hailes's history, which I purpose to return all the next week: that his respect for my little observations should keep his work in suspense makes one of the evils of my journey. It is in our language, I think, a new mode of history which tells all that is wanted, and, I suppose, all that is known, without laboured splendour of language, or affected subtilty of conjecture. The exactness of his dates raises my wonder. He seems to have the closeness of Renault without his constraint. Mrs. Thrale was so entertained with your [italics] Journal [end italics] that she almost read herself blind. She has a great regard for you'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : [article on Galsworthy]

'I've read Hueffer's portrait of Mr John Galsworthy several times. It is interesting mostly as a portrait of Mr Hueffer himself. I have my own strong conception of J.G. I can't say I've been greatly edified. Looked upon abstractedly the thing is distinctly good.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland : [unknown text - letters?- presumably addressed to his associate George Sandys]

'Oct. 25. Wednesday. I went with the Prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke.—We walked round the palace, and had some talk.—I dined with our whole company at the Monastery.—In the library, "Beroald",—"Cymon",—"Titus", from Boccace.—"Oratio Proverbialis" to the Virgin, from Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys;—Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of Miscellanies.' [Boswell's footnote: 'He means, I suppose, that he read those different pieces, while he remained in the library'.]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes : Annals of Scotland

'[Letter to Boswell] I Have at last sent you all Lord Hailes's papers. While I was in France, I looked very often into Henault; but Lord Hailes, in my opinion, leaves him far and far behind'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown

Charles Jean François Henault : Abrege chronologique de l'histoire de France

'[Letter to Boswell] I Have at last sent you all Lord Hailes's papers. While I was in France, I looked very often into Henault; but Lord Hailes, in my opinion, leaves him far and far behind'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Jason de Nores : [edition of Horace with commentary]

'Boswell. "But, Sir, may there not be very good conversation without a contest for superiority." Johnson. "No animated conversation, Sir; for it cannot be but one or other will come off superior. I do not mean that the victor must have the better of the argument, for he may take the weak side; but his superiority of parts and knowledge will necessarily appear: and he to whom he thus shows himself superiour is lessened in the eyes of the young men. You know it was said, [italics] 'Mallem cum Scaligero errare quam cum Clavio recte sapere [end italics]' In the same manner take Bentley's and Jason de Nores' Comments upon Horace, you will admire Bentley more when wrong than Jason when right."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

George Lyttelton, First Baron Lyttelton : Dialogues of the Dead

' [Johnson said] "When Lord Lyttelton's 'Dialogues of the Dead' came out, one of which is between Apicius, an ancient epicure, and Dartineuf, a modern epicure, Dodsley said to me, 'I knew Dartineuf well, for I was once his footman.'" Biography led us to speak of Dr. John Campbell, who had written a considerable part of the "Biographia Britannica" Johnson, though he valued him highly, was of opinion that there was not so much in his great work, "A Political Survey of Great Britain," as the world had been taught to expect'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Dodsley Print: Book

Joseph Holden Pott : [sermons on church holidays]

' [Johnson said] The excellent Mr. Nelson's "Festivals and Fasts," which has, I understand, the greatest sale of any book ever printed in England, except the Bible, is a most valuable help to devotion; and in addition to it I would recommend two sermons on the same subject [of Christian holidays] by Mr. Pott, Archdeacon of St. Albans, equally distinguished for piety and elegance'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Unknown

Francisco de Morais : Il Palmerino d'Inghilterra

'Johnson had with him upon this jaunt, "Il Palmerino d'Inghilterra", a romance praised by Cervantes; but did not like it much. He said, he read it for the language, by way of preparation for his Italian expedition'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail : Les Exploits de Rocambole

'When last observed, he was studying with apparent zest the exploits of one Rocambole by the late Viscount Ponson of Terrail.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters to his Son

' [Johnson said] Lord Chesterfield's "Letters to his Son", I think, might be made a very pretty book. Take out the immorality, and it should be put into the hands of every young gentleman.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Samuel Sharp : Letters from Italy, describing the Customs and Manners of that Country

'I read (said he [Johnson],) Sharpe's letters on Italy over again, when I was at Bath. There is a great deal of matter in them.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes : Annals of Scotland

' [Johnson said] Lord Hailes's "Annals of Scotland" have not that painted form which is the taste of this age; but it is a book which will always sell, it has such a stability of dates, such a certainty of facts, and such a punctuality of citation. I never before read Scotch history with certainty.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : An English Girl

'In many respects and from an absolute point of judgement - the book ["An English Girl"] is simply magnificent.' Hence follows a page of almost unqualified praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

H.(Herbert) G.(George) Wells : The War in the Air

'The first instalment of your story in the PMM ["Pall Mall Magazine"] opens the year brilliantly. How good you are in presenting the human interest of a story in terms of jesting.' Hence follow about eight lines of praise and encouragement.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Memoirs and Last Letters

' [letter from Boswell to Johnson] What do you say of Lord Chesterfield's "Memoirs and last Letters"?'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

John Wilmot, Lord Rochester : [Poems]

'Talking of Rochester's Poems, he said, he had given them to Mr. Steevens to castrate for the edition of the poets, to which he was to write Prefaces. Dr. Taylor (the only time I ever heard him say any thing witty) observed, that "if Rochester had been castrated himself, his exceptionable poems would not have been written". I asked if Burnet had not given a good Life of Rochester. JOHNSON. "We have a good [italics] Death [end italics]: there is not much [italics] Life[end italics]".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

John Wilmot, Lord Rochester : [Poems]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Taylor Print: Book

Sidney Colvin : At the Land's End of France.

'The Brittany game is simply “on it”. There are no two ways of that. [ref.to Note 1] Look here, my young and lovely friend, if you overwork like that, your numskull will cave in again.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodicalManuscript: Letter

Florentius Volusenus [pseud.] : De Animi Tranquillitate

'[letter from Boswell to Johnson] Did you ever look at a book written by Wilson, a Scotchman, under the Latin name of Volusenus, according to the custom of literary men at a certain period. It is entitled "De Animi Tranquillitate" I earnestly desire tranquillity'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Sketches of the History of Man

'I looked into Lord Kaimes's "Sketches of the History of Man"; and mentioned to Dr. Johnson his censure of Charles the Fifth, for celebrating his funeral obsequies in his life-time'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

John Boyle, 5th earl of Orrery : Remarks on the life and writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift

'I found him at home in the morning. He praised Delany's "Observations on Swift ;" said that his book and Lord Orrery's might both be true, though one viewed Swift more, and the other less favourably; and that, between both, we might have a complete notion of Swift.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Allan Ramsay : The Gentle Shepherd

'No − my “Burns” is not done yet, it has led me so far afield that I cannot finish it ; every time I think I see my way to an end, some new game (or perhaps wild goose) starts up and away I go. And then again, to be plain, I shirk the work of the critical part, shirk it as a man shirks a long jump. It is awful to have to express and differentiate Burns, in a column or two. All the more as I’m going to write a book about it. "Ramsay, Fergusson and Burns: an Essay" (or "A Critical Essay" but then I’m going to give lives of the three gentlemen, only the gist of the book is the criticism) “by Robert Louis Stevenson, Advocate, MS., P.P.C., etc.” How’s that for cut and dry? And I [italics]could[end italics] write that book. Unless I deceive myself in a superior style, I could write it pretty adequately. I feel as if I was really in it, and knew the game thoroughly. You see what comes of trying to write an essay on Burns in ten columns.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book, Unknown

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon :

'JOHNSON. "Sir William Temple was the first writer who gave cadence to English prose. Before his time they were careless of arrangement, and did not mind whether a sentence ended with an important word or an insignificant word, or with what part of speech it was concluded". Mr. Langton, who now had joined us, commended Clarendon. JOHNSON. "He is objected to for his parentheses, his involved clauses, and his want of harmony. But he is supported by his matter. It is, indeed, owing to a plethory of matter that his style is so faulty. Every [italics] substance [end italics], (smiling to Mr. Harris,) has so many [italics] accidents [end italics].--To be distinct, we must talk analytically. If we analyse language, we must speak of it grammatically; if we analyse argument, we must speak of it logically". GARRICK. "Of all the translations that ever were attempted, I think Elphinston's 'Martial' the most extraordinary. He consulted me upon it, who am a little of an epigrammatist myself, you know. I told him freely, 'You don't seem to have that turn.' I asked him if he was serious; and finding he was, I advised him against publishing. Why, his translation is more difficult to understand than the original. I thought him a man of some talents; but he seems crazy in this".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Bennet Langton Print: Book

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon :

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

E M Forster : Alexandria: A History and Guide

'I cannot tell you with what delight I found your lovely history of Alexandria, and your most kind letter, awaiting me when I returned here on Thursday. ( I was delayed in London)the book has a beauty that makes one feel calmed -(at the moment I am reading the section on literature) as one feels calmed when looking at certain statues and listening to certain music. I am deeply grateful to you for sending it to me, and am proud to have it inscribed in your handwriting. I wish you could know what pleasure I feel in reading this book. Whilst I was in London, I found people tearing about, and declaring they could read nothing but newspapers. What a strange way of trying to retain one's sanity! For myself, I have been reading Nashe's Lenten Stuffe, and now I am reading Alexandria.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edith Sitwell Print: Book

William Michael Rossetti : Life of John Keats

'Owen turned to his third main interest, the earth sciences, doing his earnest but unscholarly best to tackle the Victorian debate between science and religion. He was soon "reading analysing, collecting, sifting and classifying Evidence" and "grappling as I never did before with the problem of Evolution". He read a statement of the Christian answer to Darwinism but contemptuously wrote "Shallow!" against its discussion of art. His conclusion was probably summed up in a comment he had marked in Keats's letters, "Nothing in this world is proveable"; when he met these words again in W.M. Rossetti's life of Keats, he added, "at least [italics] proved [end italics] W.O.".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Revolt of Islam, The

'He became especially interested in Shelley [and felt he could hear his 'music' in the Dunsden area] The "music" which he heard must have been that of "The Revolt of Islam", for he discovered in January 1912 from a biography of Shelley that "The Revolt" had been composed in a boat "under the beech groves" not far away. This poem was to remain in his mind for the rest of his life, providing him with the theme and title of 'Strange Meeting' in 1918'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

William Michael Rossetti : Life of John Keats

'Reading W.M. Rossetti's biography [of Keats] in 1912, he was overcome by its account of Keats's death: "Rossetti guided my groping hand right into the wound, and I touched, for one moment, the incandescent Heart of Keats".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

Alfred de Vigny : Chatterton

'In his copy of Vigny's "Chatterton" he marked the sentence, "En toi la reverie continuelle a tue l'action", and in Renan he marked a comment that the Celts knew how to plunge their hands into a man's entrails and bring out secrets of the infinite. What he always thought of as his Celtic strain would have been fascinated by "La Tentation de St Antoine", in which Flaubert meticulously describes the saint's visions of strange and dreadful beings. Owen read the book with care, underlining frequently. Tailhade had also marked it, writing "cretin!" against a criticism by the editor of the novel's "grands defauts". Evidently agreing with Tailhade, Owen went on to read at least two more of Flaubert's novels, "Madame Bovary" and "Salammbo". "Flaubert has my vote for novel-writing!", he exclaimed to Gunston in July 1915, and he told his mother that he was reading "Salammbo" "with more interest than the Communiques".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

James Walter Ferrier : Forrester

'Many thanks for your letter and the instalment of Forrester which accompanied it, and which I read with amusement and pleasure.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Letter

Philippe de Commines : Memoires

'I read […] Comines […]'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Jean Juvenal des Ursins : unknown

'I read […] Juvenal des Ursins, etc. [….]'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Unknown

Algernon Charles Swinburne : Poems and Ballads

'Owen seems to have started reading Swinburne in earnest in 1916. When he returned to the front in 1918, knowing that he would kill and probably be killed, he took volumes of both Shelley and Swinburne with him, but after he had been in action he sent the Shelley back to Shrewsbury, keeping only Swinburne's "Poems and Ballads", the one book of poetry still in his kit at his death'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [Poems]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

William Butler Yeats :

'Monro gave [Owen] access to new work that was to be invaluable to him in 1917-18 and may have drawn his attention to several established writers whom he had hitherto neglected (Yeats, Housman and Tagore, for instance, are mentioned in 1916 letters for the first time)'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

Alfred Edward Housman :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

Alfred Edward Housman :

'the two poets [Owen and Sassoon] probably talked more about literature than anything else. Owen found that they had been "following parallel trenches all our lives" and "had more friends in common, authors I mean, than most people can boast of in a lifetime". By chance, Sassoon was reading a small volume of Keats which Lady Ottoline [Morrel] had sent him. He shared Owen's interest in the late-Victorian poets, including Housman, whose influence is often apparent in his war poems, but Owen was surprised to discover that he admired Hardy "more than anybody living". No doubt Sassoon persuaded him to start reading Hardy's poems. In return, Owen showed him Tailhade's book'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Siegfried Sassoon Print: Book

William Dean Howells : Undoscovered Country

'I believe I have not written to you since I saw the end of the Undiscovered Country.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

John Hill Burton : History of the Reign of Queen Anne

'An old idea, first started while I was reading your history of Scotland, has just been revived over your Queen Anne, which I am in the heart of, with sincere pleasure.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Arthur Hugh Clough : Amours de Voyage

'I was pleased to see your quotation from Clough. I used it myself in an approximate form, and with doubtful attribution to C., in another article ..'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Unknown

John Oxenham [pseud.] : Vision Splendid, The

'[that civilians could believe soldiers were happy in the trenches] is evident from plenty of civilian verse, including, for example, a poem in John Oxenham's "The Vision Splendid" (1917), a book Owen had read at Craiglockhart'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

Herbert George Wells :

'Owen met H.G. Wells in November, one of the leading writers about the war and its politics, an advocate of internationalism, efficiency, the defeat of militarism by military means. Owen read at least two of his books in December'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book

Edward Bruce Hamley : Operations of War

'Gen. Robertson called and presented me with Hamley's Operations of War in which I am now drowned a thousand fathoms deep.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

James Fitzjames, 1st Duke of Berwick : Memoirs of the Marshall Duke of Berwick

'JOHNSON. "O! Mr. Dilly-you must know that an English Benedictine Monk at Paris has translated "The Duke of Berwick's Memoirs", from the original French, and has sent them to me to sell. I offered them to Strahan, who sent them back with this answer:--"That the first book he had published was the Duke of Berwick's Life, by which he had lost: and he hated the name."--Now I honestly tell you, that Strahan has refused them; but I also honestly tell you, that he did it upon no principle, for he never looked into them". DILLY. "Are they well translated, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, very well--in a style very current and very clear".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown

Edward Gee : A Treatise of Prayer and of Divine Providence as relating to it

'they lent me Mr Gee's booke concerninge prayer; he was minister at Eccleston. And upon the 15th day, Tusday, I was readinge in his booke, and in consideracion of the man's person and gravitie I was posesd with sadnes and composd these verses' [12 lines of verse extolling 'Renowned Gee' follow]

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Lowe Print: Book

John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquess of Lorne : Guido and Lita: A Tale of the Riviera.

'Figure to yourself, I wrote a review of Lord Lorne for "Vanity Fair" − a few pages of scurrility that I wrote laughing in an hour or two − and I got − guess! − I got five pounds for it and the price of the book! That was jolly, wasn’t it? Long live "Vanity Fair"!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Robert Browning : The Inn Album

'I have done rather an amusing paragraph or two for "Vanity Fair" on the "Inn Album". I have slated R.B. pretty handsomely.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book, Unknown

Theodore William Alois Buckley : unknown

'It is truly not for nothing that I have read my Buckley.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Unknown

George Bernard Shaw : Back to Methuselah

'Staying for a fortnight with Miss Heath Jones in Cornwall - where I read aloud to her a large selection of the works of Bernard Shaw, including the newly published "Back to Methuselah", but otherwise had plenty of time for reminiscent meditation - I realised that the past two years at Oxford were going to take a good deal of getting over; they had meant an effort so great that I had not calculated its cost until it was finished.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron :

Lord Dufferin to Alfred Tennyson [1858]: 'For the first 20 years of my life I not only did not care for poetry, but to the despair of my friends absolutely disliked it, at least so much of it as until that time had fallen in my way. In vain my mother read to me Dryden, Pope, Byron, Young, Cowper and all the standard classics of the day, each seemed to me as distasteful as I had from early infancy found Virgil, and I shall never forget her dismay when at a literary dinner I was cross-examined as to my tastes, and blushingly confessed before an Olympus of poets that I rather disliked poetry than otherwise. 'Soon afterwards I fell in with a volume of yours, and suddenly felt such a sensation of delight as I never experienced before. A new world seemed to open to me, and from that day, by a constant study of your works, I gradually worked my way to a gradual appreciation of what is good in all kinds of authors.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Selina Sheridan Blackwood Print: Book

F. D. Maurice : Friendship of Books

'I remember [...] [Tennyson's] reading with admiration this passage from Maurice's Friendship of Books. "If I do not give you extracts from any of Milton's specially controversial writings, it is not that I wish to pass them over because the conclusions in them are often directly opposed to mine, for I think that I have learnt most from those that are so."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : 'Edel sei der Mensch'

Alfred Tennyson to Lady Augusta Bruce, 12 May 1863, after being sent an 'Album' belonging to Queen Victoria, with the request that he write something in it before returning it: 'I had not time yesterday to overlook the volume which Her Majesty sent me. I did but see the inscription in the beginning by the Duchess of Kent and Goethe's "Edel sei der Mensch" in the Prince's handwriting -- a poem which has always appeared to me one of the grandest things which Goethe or any other man has written.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Manuscript: Unknown, Written by Prince Albert into Album belonging to Queen Victoria.

Alfred Tennyson : poetry

From William Allingham's 'Reminiscences' of Tennyson (1863-64): 'Oct. 3rd, 1863. Saturday. We drove to Farringford [...] Drawing-room tea [...] I wandered to the book-table where Tennyson joined me [...] In a book of Latin versions from his own poetry he found some slips in Lord Lyttelton's Cytherea Venus, etc.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Frederick the Great of Prussia : Testament Politique

'"I have just put down the "Testament Politique,"" G. was writing to me, as though by telepathy, only a week later, "and I turn to think ... of you reading it to enlighten you on the War, of you telling me of it in the punt on that day down stream on the Cher."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Sketches of the History of Man

'He [Johnson] said, "I have been reading Lord Kames's 'Sketches of the History of Man'. In treating of severity of punishment, he mentions that of Madame Lapouchin, in Russia, but he does not give it fairly; for I have looked at 'Chappe de l'Auteroche', from whom he has taken it. He stops where it is said that the spectators thought her innocent, and leaves out what follows; that she nevertheless was guilty".'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Sketches of the History of Man

'Looking at Messrs. Dilly's splendid edition of Lord Chesterfield's miscellaneous works, he laughed, and said, "Here now are two speeches ascribed to him, both of which were written by me: and the best of it is, they have found out that one is like Demosthenes, and the other like Cicero". He censured Lord Kames's "Sketches of the History of Man" for misrepresenting Clarendon's account of the appearance of Sir George Villiers's ghost, as if Clarendon were weakly credulous; when the truth is, that Clarendon only says, that the story was upon a better foundation of credit, than usually such discourses are founded upon; nay, speaks thus of the person who was reported to have seen the vision, "the poor man, if he had been at all waking"; which Lord Kames has omitted.'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon : History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Pupils at Marlborough College : Prize Poems

'May 2nd. [1866] Marlborough [...] In the evening the Bradleys had a large dinner-party. [George] Bradley [headmaster] knowing my father's love of science had asked masters interested in geology, botany and archaeology to meet him [...] At the request of Mrs Bradley he read "The Northern Farmer," and then criticised amusingly some of the boys' Prize Poems which Bradley had asked him to look through.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke : [alleged MS prose version of Pope's 'Essay on Man']

'shall insert as a literary curiosity. [The letter is given. It begins as follows] "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. DEAR SIR, In the year 1763, being at London, I was carried by Dr. John Blair, Prebendary of Westminster, to dine at old Lord Bathurst's; where we found the late Mr. Mallet, Sir James Porter, who had been Ambassadour at Constantinople, the late Dr. Macaulay, and two or three more. The conversation turning on Mr. Pope, Lord Bathurst told us, that "The Essay on Man" was originally composed by Lord Bolingbroke in prose, and that Mr. Pope did no more than put it into verse: that he had read Lord Bolingbroke's manuscript in his own hand-writing; and remembered well, that he was at a loss whether most to admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke's prose, or the beauty of Mr. Pope's verse..."'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Allen, 1st Earl Bathurst Manuscript: Unknown

Samuel Clarke : The Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons

'May 11. I read the lives of some moderne divines, and I was ashamed to find how short I came of such examples for zeale, and diligence. In Mr Stockton's life, whom I knew, I found that being soberly brought up he found not that change, which others, who were wicked, found at their conversion . . . '

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Isaac Archer Print: Book

Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle : Tragedies and Poems

'Johnson praised the Earl of Carlisle's Poems, which his Lordship had published with his name, as not disdaining to be a candidate for literary fame. My friend was of opinion, that when a man of rank appeared in that character, he deserved to have his merit handsomely allowed. In this I think he was more liberal than Mr. William Whitehead, in his "Elegy to Lord Villiers", in which under the pretext of "superiour toils, demanding all their care," he discovers a jealousy of the great paying their court to the Muses:-- "------to the chosen few Who dare excel, thy fost'ring aid afford, Their arts, their magick powers, with honours due Exalt;--but be thyself what they record".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Andrew Lang : French Peasant Songs.

'Lang’s French ballads is neatly enough ticked off.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

Charlotte M. Yonge :

F. T. Palgrave on a tour of the West Country with Tennyson in late summer 1867: 'Our way lay right across Dartmoor, desolate and eerie even under the brightest sun, to Princetown: a village gloomy in itself [...] The inn, rough and small but clean, was in accord with the surroundings. One bedroom with two huge four-posters was allotted us: and Tennyson lay in his with a candle, reading hard the book which on this trip he had taken for his novel-companion, and at every disengaged moment whilst rambling over the Moor. This chanced to be one of Miss Yonge's deservedly popular tales, wherein a leading element is the deferred Church Confirmation of a grown-up person. On Tennyson read, till I heard him cry with satisfaction, "I see land! Mr ** is just going to be confirmed, after which, darkness and slumber.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

John A. Carlyle : Thesis for medical degree "De Mentis Alientione" (On Diseases Of The Mind)

'I have read these leaves of your thesis; and really I find them very far beyond my expectation, which had satisfied itself with ranking your Latin (I now discover) far too little above the usual Grinder Latin. Some of these sentences are quite good. The sense too so far as it extends in these few lines is clear and flowing; and I have no doubt, if the rest in any way correspond to it, your Essay will be very far above the average.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Manuscript: Degree thesis

Giovanni Paolo Marana : Letters written by a Turkish spy, who lived five and forty years undiscovered at Paris: giving an impartial account to the Divan at Constantinople, of the most remarkable transactions of Europe: and discovering several intrigues and secrets ...

'BOSWELL. "Pray, Sir, is the 'Turkish Spy' a genuine book?" JOHNSON. "No, Sir. Mrs. Manley, in her 'Life', says that her father wrote the first two volumes: and in another book, 'Dunton's Life and Errours', we find that the rest was written by one Sault, at two guineas a sheet, under the direction of Dr. Midgeley".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

Hester Lynch Thrale : Letters

'A pleasing instance of the generous attention of one of his [Dr Johnson's] friends has been discovered by the publication of Mrs. Thrale's collection of "Letters". In a letter to one of the Miss Thrales, he writes,-- "A friend, whose name I will tell when your mamma has tried to guess it, sent to my physician to enquire whether this long train of illness had brought me into difficulties for want of money, with an invitation to send to him for what occasion required. I shall write this night to thank him, having no need to borrow".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book

Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle : Father's Revenge, The

'The Earl of Carlisle having written a tragedy, entitled "The Father's Revenge", some of his Lordship's friends applied to Mrs. Chapone to prevail on Dr. Johnson to read and give his opinion of it, which he accordingly did, in a letter to that lady. [the text of the letter is then given. The relevant parts of it follow:] "The construction of the play is not completely regular; the stage is too often vacant, and the scenes are not sufficiently connected. This, however, would be called by Dryden only a mechanical defect; which takes away little from the power of the poem, and which is seen rather than felt. A rigid examiner of the diction might, perhaps, wish some words changed, and some lines more vigorously terminated. But from such petty imperfections what writer was ever free? The general form and force of the dialogue is of more importance. It seems to want that quickness of reciprocation which characterises the English drama, and is not always sufficiently fervid or animated. Of the sentiments I remember not one that I wished omitted. In the imagery I cannot forbear to distinguish the comparison of joy succeeding grief to light rushing on the eye accustomed to darkness. It seems to have all that can be desired to make it please. It is new, just, and delightful. With the characters, either as conceived or preserved, I have no fault to find; but was much inclined to congratulate a writer, who, in defiance of prejudice and fashion, made the Archbishop a good man, and scorned all thoughtless applause, which a vicious churchman would have brought him".' 'The catastrophe is affecting. The Father and Daughter both culpable, both wretched, and both penitent, divide between them our pity and our sorrow.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown

Luis Vaz de Camoens : Lusiads

'In this letter [to Boswell from Mr Mickle] he relates his having, while engaged in translating the "Lusiad", had a dispute of considerable length with Johnson, who, as usual, declaimed upon the misery and corruption of a sea life, and used this expression:--"It had been happy for the world, Sir, if your hero Gama, Prince Henry of Portugal, and Columbus, had never been born, or that their schemes had never gone farther than their own imaginations". "This sentiment, (says Mr. Mickle,) which is to be found in his "Introduction to the World displayed", I, in my Dissertation prefixed to the "Lusiad", have controverted; and though authours are said to be bad judges of their own works, I am not ashamed to own to a friend, that that dissertation is my favourite above all that I ever attempted in prose. Next year, when the "Lusiad" was published, I waited on Dr. Johnson, who addressed me with one of his good-humoured smiles:--'Well, you have remembered our dispute about Prince Henry, and have cited me too. You have done your part very well indeed: you have made the best of your argument; but I am not convinced yet'."

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Luis Vaz de Camoens : Lusiads

'[william Mickle said] Dr. Johnson told me in 1772, that, about twenty years before that time, he himself had a design to translate the "Lusiad", of the merit of which he spoke highly, but had been prevented by a number of other engagements'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Helen Maria Williams : Ode on the Peace, An

'He had dined that day [30th May 1784] at Mr. Hoole's, and Miss Helen Maria Williams being expected in the evening, Mr. Hoole put into his hands her beautiful "Ode on the Peace": Johnson read it over, and when this elegant and accomplished young lady was presented to him, he took her by the hand in the most courteous manner, and repeated the finest stanza of her poem; this was the most delicate and pleasing compliment he could pay.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Unknown

Sidney Colvin : ‘A Greek Hymn’.

'Here I am, here. And very well too. And I read your hymn, which is a very good hymn. And I was delighted with how you patted Pater on the back and promised him some cake if he kept a good little boy till the holidays.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

'[letter to Hector MacNeil - H.M.] Do I not well remember hiding "Kaims's Elements of Criticism", under the cover of an easy chair, whenever I heard the approach of a footstep, well knowing the ridicule to which I should have been exposed, had I been detected in the act of looking into such a book?'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton Print: Book

Hester Lynch Thrale : Letters

'Mr. Walpole thought Johnson a more amiable character after reading his "Letters to Mrs. Thrale": but never was one of the true admirers of that great man'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Horace Walpole Print: Book

Jacques-Auguste de Thou :

'He seriously entertained the thought of translating "Thuanus". He often talked to me on the subject; and once, in particular, when I was rather wishing that he would favour the world, and gratify his sovereign, by a Life of Spenser (which he said that he would readily have done, had he been able to obtain any new materials for the purpose,) he added, "I have been thinking again, Sir, of "Thuanus": it would not be the laborious task which you have supposed it. I should have no trouble but that of dictation, which would be performed as speedily as an amanuensis could write'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : 'Ulysses'

[the curriculum at the Dragon School] included much memorizing of poetry, particularly Tennyson's 'Ulysses' and 'Morte d'Arthur'. John learned a lot of poetry by heart and won a prize for recitation'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Betjeman Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : 'Morte d'Arthur'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Betjeman Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :

'The poets John read at Highgate Junior School included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Thomas Campbell and Edgar Allan Poe'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Betjeman Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe :

'The poets John read at Highgate Junior School included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Thomas Campbell and Edgar Allan Poe'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Betjeman Print: Book

Philip James Bailey :

'[quotation from Maurice Bowra's Memoirs] The first time I met him [John Betjeman] he talked fluently about half forgotten authors of the nineteenth century - Sir Henry Taylor, Ebeneezer Elliott, Philip James Bailey, and Sir Lewis Morris'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Betjeman Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : La Nouvelle Heloise

'Rousseau says that the Man who finding his Affairs embarrassed - puts an end to his own Life; is like one who finding his House in Disorder sets it on Fire in stead of setting it to rights.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Hester Lynch Thrale : [verses on a dog named Pompey]

'When Doctor Parker had read the foregoing Poem [given - a long poem by Mrs Thrale on his dog Pompey] he wrote these verses upon it Impromptu. [the verses are given]'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Dr Parker Manuscript: Unknown

Theodore Leighton Pennell :

'My dear Miss Sorabji My husband & I were so distressed at the sad news contained in our paper today that I cannot refrain from sending you a few lines of sincere sympathy with you & yours in this great loss. I remember reading your brother in law’s book with much interest. Truly her & his wonderful influence will be most widely missed. Was your sister with him at the end? With my kind love Yours very sincerely Sibyl W Roffes'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sybill Roffes Print: Book

Hester Lynch Salusbury : 'Irregular Ode on the English Poets'

'[Mrs Thrale is about to give 'an Ode written when I was between sixteen and seventeen Years old'] As I read it over this Moment I resolved once to burn it, but recollecting that my poor Father had in his foolish Fondness given Copies to a Friend or two, I thought it might as well have a place here'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Manuscript: Unknown

Hester Lynch Salusbury : 'Irregular Ode on the English Poets'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Salusbury Manuscript: Unknown

Charles Dickens : Pickwick Papers

Read for the fist time June 1865. Macaulay took this volume more than once on our Easter trips.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

Alfred Lord Tennyson : Princess, The

'Oddly, I remember little of what must have been read to us in the 'poetry' lessons. Apart from a fragment or two of strictly abbreviated nursery rhymes, there was the fact that Young Lochinvar came out of the west, and through all the wide Border his steed was the best. If anyone suggested just where in the west Young Lochinvar came out of, I don't recall it. As we were children in a Cornish school, I had a hazy notion that it might have been Penzance, or possibly Land's End. Then there were the lines of Tennyson: The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy ummits old in story.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Causley Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

'It was at this time, too, in the 'silent' reading periods at school, that - conventionally enough, I suppose, for a bookish child - I came upon Stevenson's "Treasure Island", "Don Quixote", "David Copperfield", all in abridged versions'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Causley Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Causley Print: Book

Florence L. Barclay : Following of the Star, The

'amongst all else she [Causley's mother] found a little time for reading from a two-penny library: novels by the Cornish writers Silas and Joseph Hocking ("Rosemary Carew", by the latter, was a tremendous favourite) and "Stella Dallas" by the American Olive Higgins Prouty. She also had a few books of her own: "The Following of the Star" by Florence L. Barclay, "The Sorrows of Satan" by Marie Corelli, and the like. I tried them all, and enjoyed most: especially "Stella Dallas", which exercised a peculiar fascination over me. I re-read it constantly and with such devotion that she forbade me ever to read it again. I couldn't think why; and not until years later did it occur to me that the central character was a prostitute'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Causley Print: Book

Olive Higgins Prouty : Stella Dallas

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Causley Print: Book

Olive Higgins Prouty : Stella Dallas

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Causley Print: Book

Florence L. Barclay : Following of the Star, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Causley Print: Book

Robert Graves : [war poetry]

'Later in my teens, on a first visit to London, I bought for one-and-six in the Charing Cross Road, a red-covered copy of "The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon". it was my first clear view of my father's world of 1914-18, and I went on to read Graves, Blunden, Owen'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Causley Print: Book

Wystan Hugh Auden :

'I had by this time [his mid-teens] also struck up a friendship with a young, unemployed, linotype operator, six or seven years older than myself. He lived in a street at the back of the Lodging House, was a member of the Left book Club, and lent me (among much else) his copy of Orwell's "The Road to Wigan Pier". Somehow, too, I came upon the poems of Auden, Spender, Day-Lewis, MacNeice; Isherwood's "Goodbye to Berlin".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Causley Print: Book

Hester Lynch Salusbury : 'Verses on the Fall of the Great Ash Tree in Offley Park'

'[Mrs Thrale gives her 'Verses on the Fall of the Great Ash Tree in Offley Park'] This trifling performance brought Tears into my Uncle's Eyes, and Money into my Pocket for having celebrated so artfully I will own the virtues of a Woman he rememberd with Gratitude and Esteem. He read 'em to every body he saw I believe'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Salusbury Manuscript: Unknown

Hester Lynch Salusbury : 'Offley Park'

'[Mrs Thrale gives her long poem entitled 'Offley Park'] This little poem will be easily seen to have been written by way of Flattery to Sir Thomas Salusbury with whom I then lived - he was I well remember exceedingly pleased with it, and made me a handsome present'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Salusbury Manuscript: Unknown

George Bernard Shaw : Plays: pleasant and unpleasant

MS note at the end of "The man of destiny": "Dec 5 1926 Read aloud to C, [i.e. Lady Caroline Trevelyan] - as I once did to poor George Vanderbilt".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

Sir Robert Thomas Wilson : Private diary of travels, personal services, and public events ...

Marginal marks show signs of George Otto Trevelyan's close reading, as of a proof - he corrects errors, e.g. where the text says "many would prefer expatriating themselves forever to America to serving under the Buonaparte dynasty", GOT crosses through "Buoanparte" and substitutes "Bourbon".

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

Edmund Gosse : 'Timasetheos' in The Cornhill Magazine

'Your last poem in the Cornhill was first class.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

John Addington Symonds : unknown

'The other day I borrowed a volume of Symonds's poems from himself and returned it to him without a word of comment.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : The poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

This book has marginal marks and dried acanthus leaves, with the MS note: "Acanthus leaves from Shelley's grave. Rome. Nov 21 1886".

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

Mary Boykin Chesnut : A diary from Dixie

Marginal marks and MS notes throughout,including p.xiii: "[The author's husband] deeply disapproved of her pleasure-seeking ways at such a time [...] Her hospitality had in it a strong dah of sheer gluttony; and she was a reckless, and most ill-natured gossip." Also, very critical of the editing: "The editing is bad. Chapter X ought to end about page 143." Dates of reading: "Oct 25 1910 Uncle Tom's birthday [i.e. Lord Macaulay] - the battle of Agincourt"; August 8 1921; March 15 1925; Jan. 4 1924; July 4 1928.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

John Lothrop Motley : History of the United Netherlands

MS annotations and marginal marks incl. v.1 p.503, in reply to the author's comment "we must now throw a glance to the external", Sir George writes: "High time that you did. Seldom has so able a writer been so swamped and mastered by his materials." Describes ch. 6 as "Terribly lengthy. Such masses of extracts ... are out of place in such a book as this." V.4 p.530 in reply to the author's wish to have fostered through his work a "love of freedom of thought, of speech, and of life" Sir George writes "This is a true claim on the part of Motley, and is the prime merit of his history". "Motley on the whole has raised himself by this volume [2]. He has a fine enthusiasm for liberty and public right." "The fourth volume ... is deeply interesting, and, in some respects, better constructed and written than the other three. Welcombe. May 26. 1916". Dates of reading include: "Nov 3 1915 - Wallington" and "June 28 - with C[aroline] Wallington 1921."

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

Charles James Fox : Memorials and correspondence of Charles James Fox

MS notes throughout, mainly taken for Sir George's own research into Charles James Fox. One reads (v.2.p.376): "I am glad he liked shooting as much as I do."

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

John Lothrop Motley : The rise of the Dutch republic: a history

MS notes and marginal marks throughout the book, in the hand of Sir George Otto Trevelyan. Dates of reading include "Sept. 21 1914 Aloud to C[aroline]"; "Dec 30 1920 with C". One note alludes to the First World War: when Motley writes of a "train of unforeseen transactions", Sir George comments: "We have enough of that just now. Aug . 31 1915".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

Marcus Tullius Cicero : M. Tullii Ciceronis Opera

MS notes in all vol. other than I, XI and XVI. Some are copied from Macaulay's own copy of Cicero which he read between 1835-7: "transferred by me from his Bipontine edition [to] the outside margin of the Delpin"; "Macaulay's notes are marked with M". Sir George's dates of reading incude: 1899; 1903; "June 18 1904 Chamonix"; "Nov 17 1909 Rome A heavy day of rain & the break up of our long spell of fine weather"; "Wallington Oct 12 1916"; "Christmas Day 1918 Welcombe"; 1919; "June 21 1921 Wallington"; 1923. Sir George responds to Macaulay's comments: "I understand my uncle's feelings about it in India, and his reservations twenty years afterwards." V.3: "On the whole I agree with Macaulay about the comparative value of the Third Book [...]". Vol. 12 draws historical parallels: "It is strange to read these letters. Cicer's cruel anxiety about the course to be taken [...] were like out anxieties about America, the Balkans, and the Scandinavian States. Then, as now, the whole civilised world was in question" [written in 1915].

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

Julius Caesar : Opera omnia

MS notes in vols. I and II, including some copied from Lord Macaulay's copy of the text. Dates of reading include: "May 28 1917 Welcombe The most interesting military story I ever read, as told by the hero of it. If Pharsalia had gone the other way the Kaiser and the Czar would now be called "Pompey". An anonymous piece has the MS note: "This is far and away the worst Latin I have ever read of the great Ciceronian age of prose. The text is mortally corrupt; but besides that, the style is detestable. And yet I read it with interest." In this Sir George echoes Macaulay's comment on the same piece: "It is dreadfully corrupt."

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book

Fortune Hippolyte Auguste Castille (Boisgobey) : L'Equipage du Diable (Equipage of the Devil)

'Fortune has written another book, the Equipage of the Devil, which is fully worse than words can describe.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

A J Butler : Review in Athenaeum

'Who did the Athenaeum I know not, but it is very kind.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

Charles Grant Robertson : Kurum, Kabul and Kandahar: being a Brief Record of Impressions in Three Campaigns under General Roberts

'I have not finished re-reading your book, so I cannot say whether all is improved; but much is.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Algernon Charles Swinburne : Super Flumina Babylonis

'One late evening in the dim firelight of our rooms at Oxford after the War, she turned from reading aloud to me Swinburne's "Super Flumina Babylonis" - a favourite poem associated in her mind with war-time loss and all premature death - and opened the notebook which contained her copies of Bill's verses.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Winifred Holtby Print: Book

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham : Rehearsal, The

'We talked of Dryden - Buckingham's Play said I has hurt the Reputation of the Poet, great as he was; such is the force of Ridicule! - on the contrary my dearest replies Doctor Johnson The greatness of Dryden's Character is even now the only principle of Vitality which preserves that play from a State of Putrefaction'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham : Rehearsal, The

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book

Lady Jane Grey : 'Be Constant'

Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, verses by Lady Jane Grey beginning: 'be Constant be Constant Feare not for Pain'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

John Norris : Plato's Two Cupids

Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, John Norris, 'Plato's Two Cupids'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Sir Philip Woodhouse : Some Essays of Morality in prozaick Ryme upon Aristotles definition of friendly Loue

Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Philip Woodhouse, 'Some Essays of Morality in prozaick Ryme upon Aristotles definition of friendly Loue'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Sir Philip Woodhouse : an Essay of Morall fortetude according to Aristotle

Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Philip Woodhouse, 'an Essay of Morall fortetude according to Aristotle'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Sir Philip Woodhouse : Moralistic reflections in verse

Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Philip Woodhouse, 'Moralistic reflections in verse'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Sir Thomas Browne : Of Consumptions

Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Thomas Browne, 'Of Consumptions'.

Unknown

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton

W. B. Carpenter : 'The commonsense philosophy of Causation'

James Martineau to Hallam Tennyson (1893), recalling meetings of the Metaphysical Society: 'I remember a special interest shown by your father in a paper contributed by the Rev. F. D. Maurice on the meaning of the words "Nature," "Natural," "Supernatural," November 21st, 1871 [...] 'The other subjects on which papers were read in your father's presence were the following: 'July 14, 1869. The commonsense philosophy of causation: Dr W. B. Carpenter. 'June 15, 1870. Is there any Axiom of Causation? Myself. (Mr Tennyson in the chair.) 'July 13. The relativity of Knowledge: Mr Fred. Harrison. 'Dec. 13. The emotion of Conviction: Mr Walter Bagehot. 'July 11, 1871. What is Death? Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. 'July 9, 1872. The supposed necessity for seeking a solution of ultimate Metaphysical Problems: Mr F. Harrison. Nov. 12. The five idols of the Theatre: Mr Shadworth H. Hodgson. Dec. 16, 1873. Utilitarianism: Professor Henry Sidgwick. Feb. 12, 1878. Double truth: Rev. M. Pattison, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: W. B. Carpenter

Rev. F. D. Maurice : paper on meanings of words 'nature,' 'natural,' 'supernatural.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rev. F. D. Maurice

Hester Lynch Thrale : [MS 'character' of Johnson]

'When I shewed him [Johnson] his Character next day - for he would see it; he said it was a very fine Piece of Writing; and that I had improved upon [italics] Young [end italics] who he saw was my [italics] Model[end italics] he said; for my Flattery was still stronger than [italics] his [end italics], & yet somehow or other less [italics] hyperbolical [end italics].'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown

Jean Jacques Rousseau :

'I myself like Smollet's Novels better than Fielding's; the perpetual Parody teizes one; - there is more Rapidity and Spirit in the Scotsman: though both of them knew the Husk of Life perfectly well - & for the Kernel - you must go to either Richardson or Rousseau'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Edward Hyde, 1st earl of Clarendon : Continuation of the Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon

'For Sublimity & at the same time Familiarity with Life Nothing strikes one more than Clarendon's Account of the Fire of London - De Foe's Plague is still stronger but that is a Romance'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Hester Lynch Thrale : [translation of Voltaire's 'A Madame de Chatelet']

'having shewed her [Sophia Streatfield] the other day three Translations of a few Verses written by Voltaire She immediately guessed one of them to be mine, and pitched upon the right. The Verses are very like some in Parnell, but rather better in my Opinion' [the translation of 'A Madame de Chatelet' follows]

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Sophia Streatfield Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau :

'Was I to make a Scale of Novel Writers I should put Richardson first, then Rousseau; after them, but at an immeasurable Distance Charlotte Lenox, Smollet & Fielding. The Female Quixote & Count Fathom I think far before Tom Jones or Joseph Andrews with regard to Body of Story, Height of Colouring, or General Powers of Thinking. Fielding however knew the Shell of Life - and the Kernel is but for a few.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Richard Knolles : The generall historie of the Turks

[List of books read to Sir Thomas Browne by Elizabeth Lyttelton]. Headed in commonplace book: 'The books which my daughter Elizabeth hath read unto me at nights till she read ym all out'. The books are: 'all Plutarch's Lives, folio; all the Turkish historie, folio ; all the three added of ye Turkish emperours by Rycaut, fol.; all Rycaut's books of ye Turks, fol; all Baker's Cronicle of England, fol; all ye history of China by Semedo, fol; all the history of Josephus, fol; all fox his book of Martyrs, fol; all the Travills of Olearius & Mandelilo, fol; all the Travells of Taverniere, fol; all the Travells of Petrus della valle, fol; all the Travells of Vincent Le Blanck, fol; all the Travells of Pinto, fol; all the Travells of Gage, fol; the Travells of Terre, octavo; all the Historie of the life of Monsieur d' Espernoon, fol; all the historie of naples, fol; all the historie of Venice, fol; all the historie of Queen Elizabeth by Camden, fol; all the history of Herodian, fol; all the history of Procopius, fol; all Sands his Travells, fol; all Olaus Magnus of the Northern Countrys, fol; all Camerarius his observations, fol; all Suetonius of the Twelve Caesars, fol; all appians warrs, fol; all Speed's Cronicle to the life of King James, fol; So some parts of Purchas his Relations; some hundreds of Sermons. Many other Books, Treatises, discourses of severall Kinds, which may amount unto halfe the quantety of halfe the books in folio, which are before set down.'

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

S.J. Alvaro Semedo : The History of China

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Adam Olearius : Travels of the Ambassadors sent by Frederic, Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of Muscovy and the King of Persia

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Fernão Mendes Pinto : Pilgrimage of Fernam Mendez Pinto in which is told the many and very strange things he saw and heard in the kingdom of China, in the one of Tartary, in the one of Sornau, usually called Siam, in the one of Calaminhan, in the one of Pegù...

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Rudolf Jakob Camerarius : De sexu plantarum epistola

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Sir Henry Wotton : On the Death of Sr Albertus Morton

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Henry Wotton, 'On the Death of Sr Albertus Morton.'

Unknown

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton

John Foxe : Book of Martyrs

Written in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand a translation of John Foxe's 'The Epitaph upon that Blessed Martyr Walter Mill at St Andrews in Scotland.'

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

John Taylor : There for a token I did thinke it meete

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of John Taylor, 'There for a token I did thinke it meete'.

Unknown

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton

Sir Thomas Browne (attrib.) : Verses beginning 'the Almond florisheth ye Birch trees flowe'

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of lines attributed to Sir Thomas Browne, beginning, 'the Almond florisheth ye Birch trees flowe'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Sir Thomas Browne : Fragment on meadowes

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Thomas Browne, 'Fragment on meadowes'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Sir Thomas Browne : Seignor verdero in his proper habitt,

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Thomas Browne, 'Seignor verdero in his proper habitt'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book

Sir Henry Wotton : Upon the Sudden Restraint of the Earl of Somerset then falling from favour

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Henry Wotton, 'Upon the Sudden Restraint of the Earl of Somerset then falling from favour'.

Unknown

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton

Sir Henry Wotton : The Character of a Happy Life

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Henry Wotton, 'The Character of a Happy Life'.

Unknown

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton

St Ignatius of Antioch : My Love is Crucified

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of St Ignatius of Antioch, 'My Love is Crucified'.

Unknown

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton

Sir Philip Woodhouse : Italian & French Proverbs rythmisd

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Sir Philip Woodhouse, 'Italian & French Proverbs rythmisd'.

Unknown

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton

Philippe Quinault : Autre

Transcription in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand of Philippe Quinault, 'Autre'.

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: libretto

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Sketches of the History of Man

'Lord Kaimes again tells us a wild Story of Savages who eat all their own children & have done so for six Hundred Years backward - he then begins gravely to argue about parental Affection, never reflecting that if the children were eaten the Race could not be continued'.

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon : Histoire Naturelle

'Goldsmith talks of cows shedding their Horns, & Thompson makes his Hens and Chicks to be Fed & defended by the fearless Cock. whereas the Cock hates the Chickens, & takes all their Meat from them. [Thrale continues to critique Goldsmith's knowledge of natural history] Pennant speaks most rationally about Natural History of any of our Countrymen, and among the Foreigners, Buffon makes amends to [italics] most [end italics] readers by his elegant Style & profound Ratiocination for his frequent Mistakes in the Facts.- Johnson in his Irene frequently mentions singing Birds though I believe the Birds about Constantinople are nearly mute: Thompson observes that in hot Climates the Birds scarce ever sing'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

John Vanbrugh : Provoked Husband, The

'The two [italics] wittiest [end italics] things in our Language in Verse & Prose are Dr Young's Conjectures on Original Composition I think, and Dr Swift's Ballad on the South Sea. The two Tragedies which go nearest one's Heart I think - in our Language I mean - are Southern's Fatal Marriage and Lillo's Fatal Curiosity. The two best Comic Scenes in our Language according to my Taste are the Scene between Squire Richard & Myrtilla in the Provoked Husband, and that between Sir Joseph Wittol, Nol Bluff and Sharper in the Old Batchelor - not the kicking scene but the friendly one. The two best [italics] Declamatory [end italics] Scenes where the Sentiments and Language are most perfect, seem to be the Scene between Juba and Syphax in Addison's Cato, & that between the two Ladies in Johnson's Irene. I know that both are unDramatic, the latter more peculiarly so, than ever was, or ever ought to have been hazarded - but for Language & Sentiment it is most Superb. - Superieure as the French say. Johnson says the finest Tragic Scene in our Language, for Drama sentiment, Language, Power over the Heart, & every Requisite for Theatre or Closet, is the Tomb Scene in the Mourning Bride. [italics] I [end italics] think, that trying to be [italics] every [end italics] thing it escapes being [italics] anything [end italics]'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Henry Esmond

'He [Tennyson] would always talk of Thackeray's novels, Esmond, Pendennis, and The Newcomes as being "delicious; they are so mature. But now the days are so full of false sentiment that, as Thackeray said, one cannot draw a man as he should be." He would read and re-read them as well as Walter Scott's and Miss Austen's novels. His comments on Walter Scott and Miss Austen were: "Scott is the most chivalrous literary figure of this century and the author with the widest range since Shakespeare. I think Old Mortality is his greatest novel. The realism and life-likeness of Miss Austen's Dramatis Personae come nearest to those of Shakespeare. Shakespeare however is a sun to which Jane Austen, tho' a bright and true little world, is but an asteroid."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Pendennis

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Newcomes

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson :

'In respect of contemporary novels he [Tennyson] had a very catholic taste. Latterly he read Stevenson and George Meredith with great interest: also Walter Besant, Black, Hardy, Henry James, Marion Crawford, Anstey, Barrie, Blackmore, Conan Doyle, Miss Braddon, Miss Lawless, Ouida, Miss Broughton, Lady Margaret Majendie, Hall Caine, and Shorthouse. He liked Edna Lyall's Autobiography of a Slander, and the Geier-Wally by Wilhelmina von Hillern; and often gave his friends Surly Tim to read, for its "concentrated pathos." "Mrs Oliphant's prolific work," he would observe, "is amazing, and she is nearly always worth reading."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Unknown

R. D. Blackmore :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Unknown

Lady Margaret Majendie :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Unknown

Frances Hodgson Burnett : Surly Tim: A Lancashire Story

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Unknown

J. G. Frazer : The Golden Bough

From Hallam Tennyson's journal (1890-91): 'May 28th. [1890] G. F. Watts left today, having done a fine portrait of my father [...] At the request of Watts, my father read the "Ode on the Duke of Wellington" [...] I read "The Golden Bough" and the "Story of a Balaclava Hero" to Watts and my father, while the portrait was in hand.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hallam Tennyson Print: Book

Sir Edward Reed : 'lines on the Fleet'

'My father spoke at this time [1891] warmly of the gallant spirit of Sir Edward Reed's lines on the Fleet in the St James' Gazette; and said he liked much of Wallace's Darwinism, which he was reading.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Serial / periodical

Alfred Russel Wallace : Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection with Some of its Applications

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book, Serial / periodical

William Ernest Henley : Athenaeum, 'The Poetry of Byron'

'I like your "Byron" well ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

William Ernest Henley : Cornhill Magazine 'Hector Berlioz: a Biography'

'I liked your ... "Berlioz" better.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

Joseph Gurney Bevan : Piety Promoted

E. Fry writes to her husband and daughter, Rachel, of the death of her sister, Priscilla Gurney, dated 25 Mar 1821: 'In the morning she appeared very full of love - put out her hand to several of us - showed much pleasure in your uncle Buxton's being here, and tried to speak to him but could not be understood - expressed her wish for reading, and from her feeling of love and fondness for the chapter and some signs, we believed she meant the thirteenth of 1 Corinthians, and we had a very sweet animating time together, and afterwards our dear brother Fowell spoke very sweetly to her; and besides the Bible she appeared to have some satisfaction in hearing other books read, as it has been her habit during her illness, just like mine when ill ... though she confined it to religious books, yet many of these were of an interesting nature; her hymns [Selection of Hymns, by P. Gurney] interested her much - she liked Samuel Scott's Diary - Piety Promoted - Accounts of the Missions - Watts and How - and many other books of that description ... I think her object in reading was gentle amusement and at times edification - she was very particular not to read the Bible except she felt herself in rather a lively state'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Priscilla Gurney Print: Book

Joseph John Gurney : Letter to a Friend on the Authority, Purpose and Effects of Chritianity

Journey into Scotland in Aug 1834 with husband and two daughters: 'At Kenmore, they enjoyed a quiet Sunday and tolerable highland accommodation. In the evening, anxious to turn the day to some good account, Mrs Fry invited the servants of the inn, to attend the reading she intended to have with her own family. Some ladies were polite enough to offer the use of their sitting room as it was more roomy; a large congregation of barefooted chambermaids, and blue-bonnetted hostlers, assembled. She read part of her brother Joseph John Gurney's letter to a Friend, on the evidences of Christianity; the people were very attentive and anxious each to possess a copy, that they might read the remainder of the book to themselves. The next day, some gamekeepers who came to the inn requested a similar gift, having heard from the people there all that had taken place.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Fry Print: Book

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire : The Sylph: a Novel

'her [Fanny Burney's] Scoundrel Bookseller having advertised the Sylph along with it [Evelina] lately, and endeavouring to make the World believe it [italics] hers [end italics]; Mrs Leveson runs about Town saying how clever Miss Burney must be! & what Knowledge of [italics] Mankind [end italics] She must have! Knowledge of Mankind! in good time; the Sylph is an obscene Novel, and more [italics] Knowledge of Mankind [end italics] is indeed wanting to't than any [italics] professed [end italics] Virgin should have.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Philippe Nericault Destouches : L'Homme Singulier

'[Mrs Thrale proposes writing a comedy, but] as I have not a Spark of Originality about me, I must take a French Model - it shall be "L'Homme Singulier".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Newcomers

'Stopped at home & read "The Newcomers" until nearly mid-night.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : Critic, The

'The Characters in the modern Comedies of Puff, Snake & Spatter are quite new, & peculiar to this age I think; it is to Novels & Dramatic Representations that one owes the History of Manners certainly, yet those which give one nothing else are paltry performances: witness Tom Jones and the Clandestine Marriage, yet they are the best in their kind acording to my Notion'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : School for Scandal, The

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Nicholas Rowe : Fair Penitent, The

'Johnson's newly written Lives are delightful, but he is too hard on Prior's Alma: he will be keenly reproached for his Toryism, but what cares he? he calls himself a Tory, & glories in it. he should have been more sparing of Praise to the Fair Penitent I think, because the Characters are from Massinger - I care not how much good is said of the language; but Old Phil: has the Merit of that Contrast, more happy perhaps than any on our Stage, of the Gay Rake, and the virtuous dependent Gentleman'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Nicolas Vauquelin Des Yveteaux : [a sonnet]

'The Sonnet of Mr des Yveteaux the odd Man who shut himself up with a Wench, & played Shepherd & Shepherdess when he was past threescore; beginning Avoir peu de parens, moins de Train que de rente &c. resembles both in its Style & Measure our Ballad of the old Man's wish - without Gout or Stone in a gentle decay. I wonder which was written first, or whether one of the Writers ever heard of the other - most probably not.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Unknown

Richard Fulke Greville : Maxims, Characters, and Reflections

'Greville draws Prose Characters incomparably well; that Man's book of Maxims &c. has not had credit enough in the World - Adrastus, Sicinius & Strabo are admirable in their kind; & shew a vast deal of thinking, besides perfect Knowledge of the gay World'.

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Samuel Joseph Sorbiere : Sorberiana

'Man's Life being divided into five Acts like a Play - in the Sorberiana - what an Affinity it has to Shakespear's seven Ages of Man!'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne : Letters

'My second Daughter Susan has a surprising Turn for Letter-writing; her Compositions are really elegant, & She delights - odd enough - in reading Voiture and Sevigne.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Susanna Arabella Thrale Print: Book

Vincent de Voiture : Letters

'My second Daughter Susan has a surprising Turn for Letter-writing; her Compositions are really elegant, & She delights - odd enough - in reading Voiture and Sevigne.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Susanna Arabella Thrale Print: Book

Jean de La Bruyere :

'I love Johnson's Prose better than Addison's, I like the Dunciad beyond all Pope's Poems; I delight in Young's Satires & in Rubens's Painting, Cowley captivates my Heart; & when I read Bruyere, I often catch myself kissing the Book for fondness of the Author['s] strong-marked Characters, glowing Colours, striking Sentiments - to please - H:L: T.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book

Arthur Hugh Clough : Mari Magno

From F. T. Palgrave's 'Personal Recollections' of Tennyson: 'Tennyson [...] said that Clough as he lay on the grass in some lovely valley near Cauteretz, had read aloud passages from his last and unfinished poem, the series of tales named "Mari Magno" [...] "When he read them his voice faltered at times: like every poet, he was [italics]moved by his own pathos[end italics]."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Hugh Clough Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : 'Nachgefuhl'

From F. T. Palgrave's 'Personal Recollections' of Tennyson: 'Tennyson often spoke of Goethe, in regard to his poetry. Much might be inferior: but as a lyrist certain pieces put him in the first rank. Among these favourites, which he gladly would read, were the "Nachgefuhl": "Der Abschied," admired for its exquisite tenderness: he had les larmes dans la voix by the time he reached the second stanza [...] and perhaps even more did he prize the beautiful song "An den Mond," where I find he has in my copy tremulously pencil-marked the last two stanzas'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : 'Der Abschied'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : 'An den Mond'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : poem on seeing Schiller's skull

From F. T. Palgrave's 'Personal Recollections' of Tennyson: 'Tennyson often spoke of Goethe, in regard to his poetry [...] Another poem, valued for its stately beauty and tender feeling for a friend, was that upon Schiller's skull; which he read out in the Inn at York (1853)'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire : [a Song]

'Two days ago somebody shew'd me a Song written by the Duchess of Devonshire which began thus Boy! bring my Flow'rs and bind my Hair: I could but laugh to think how her Grace had been studying Translations from Horace till She adopted a Style wch [italics] to her [end italics] must appear strangely unnatural'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Manuscript: Unknown

club members : The Suggestion Book

'Went to the Mechanics & then to the Yorick Club, not much in the Papers so I amused myself by looking through "The Suggestion Book" in which there were a great many sarcastic remarks some of which showed not over good feeling on the part of some of the members one to the other'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Manuscript: Codex

Benjamin Disraeli : Lothair

'During the day I read the War Supplement of the Australasian & made myself tolerably conversant with the particulars of the war so far as it has proceeded. Read also another portion of Lothair must confess with less pleasure than I felt in perusing some of the previous chapters. The part I read to-day related exclusively to the Wiles of the Roman Catholic Clergy in their strenuous efforts to ensnare Lothair in their toils & win him & his money over to the Church. It did not seem natural to me High Dignitaries of the Church within a step of the Pope himself would have condescended to plot as they are represented to Plot, nor that any one in his senses could have been imposed upon & made act so foolishly as Lothair is represented to have acted.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

Sir John Herschel : 'Book I. of the Iliad translated in the Hexameter Metre'

'The note by my father, that originally headed his blank verse translation from the Iliad beginning 'He ceased, and sea-like roar'd the Trojan host, 'ran: "Some, and among these one at least of our best and greatest, have endeavoured to give us the Iliad in English hexameters, and by what appears to me their failure have gone far to prove the impossibility of the task [...]" [...] This was written after reading Sir John Herschel's "Book I. of the Iliad translated in the Hexameter Metre," Cornhill Magazine, May 1862.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Serial / periodical

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

'I was sitting between one & two o'clock quietly enjoying a chapter in "Vanity Fair" when there was a bustling noise [?] to the Gaol. Polly looked out of the window & immediately called out "Mr Castieau there is some prisoners escaping."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

'I have been reading "Vanity Fair" again & found it even more enjoyable than when I read it for the first time. I really think I like the Book better even than any of those of Dickens. "Becky Sharp" is prodigious. I thought however it to be a great mistake to pull Mr Sedley down so quickly after his bankruptcy & make him so soon appear so dreadfully shabby, humble & contemptible, particularly as "Jos" did what was necessary to prevent his parents being in want as he is stated to have sent instructions to his agents to furnish what money was required. The description given of poor old "Sedley" is the most painful & most truthful description of a ruined man without hopes or friends but the fall to such a condition would be very gradual & Sedley had'ent the time given him to arrive at it any more than his glossy coats had had time to become white in the Seams & Greasy in the collars.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

'In the evening I went to "the Yorick" & had a look at the papers. Came home & went on reading Vanity Fair.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

'Came home & finished "Vanity Fair" before tea-time.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : School for Scandal

'Was pleased with Harry. This evening he read a scene with me from the School for Scandal & showed a good deal understanding'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harry Castieau Print: Book

Alain-Rene Le Sage : Gil Blas

'After Muster read "Gil Blas" for a while, then played "Bezique" with Polly.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

JMH Doring : Jean Paul Richters Leben

'I was very much obliged by your copy of Doering's Jean Paul and the manuscript sent along with it; whch tho' too late for assisting my printed critical labours I perused with great interest. My curiosity indeed was rather excited than satisfied by the strange 'string of shreds and patches' which Doering calls a Life; but Richter is a subject of such attraction that any account of him however meagre was peculiarly welcome.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Winifred Holtby : Virginia Woolf

'In some respects this little work of criticism is the profoundest of Winifred's books.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

Winifred Holtby : Mandoa, Mandoa!

'"I am going to call attention in this department," it ran, "to the fact that the most informing - and upsetting - book to read to-day on the Abyssinian crisis is "Mandoa, Mandoa!" I wrote the review in "Books"; this summer I bought the English edition to re-read in the light of present events. Heavens, how well it stood the test!"'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: May Lamberton-Becker Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence :

'I wrote endless imitations, though I never thought them to be imitations but, rather wonderfully original things, like eggs laid by tigers. They were imitations of anything I happened to be reading at the time: Sir Thomas Brown, de Quincey, Henry Newbolt, the Ballads, Blake, Baroness Orczy, Marlowe, Chums, the Imagists, the Bible, Poe, Keats, Lawrence, Anon., and Shakespeare. A mixed lot as you see, and randomly remembered'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Dylan Thomas Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Dylan Thomas Print: Book

St. John Ervine : God's Soldier

'She pinned it to her coat; and returned to London reading the 1349 closely-typed pages of St. John Ervine's recently completed biography of General Booth, "God's Soldier".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Winifred Holtby Print: Book

Thomas Edward Lawrence : Seven Pillars of Wisdom

'When "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" appeared at the end of July 1935, Winifred reviewed it in "Time and Tide".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Winifred Holtby Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : The Newcomes

'In the evening wrote a page in my Diary & dreamed away over "The Newcomes" until it was time to go to bed. The little girls & Harry stayed with me a good deal during the day & I read some little stories to them & Walter'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

Richard Harris Barham : Ingoldsby Legends

'I stayed at home amusing the children by reading a fairy tale to them. They seemed to take great interest inn the narrative & after I had finished it Flory went [smiling?] home & Sissy & Dotty went away good temperedly to bed. Read "Poor dog [Tray?]" out of ["Ingolitsby"?] to Harry & then sent him off to bed also'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

William Edmondstoune Aytoun : The Execution of Montrose

'While Darvall was with us this evening, Harry was anxious to show off his reading & so essayed a Piece. He was however so affected by mumps & Stammering, that his heart failed him & he declined to proceed. To please his mamma I read a dialogue with him. This he managed very well & so we read another then Harry was wound up & would have gone on forever, had I not let him gently down. I continued the entertainment by reading "The Execution of Montrose" & was by particular desire reading Byron's "Battle of Waterloo" when my sweet voice was closed by the arrival of Mr Hadley.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Eve of Waterloo)

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]

'Did not go out but read a little Byron & then played Bezique with Polly till it was bed time'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]

'I read a little Byron for my own amusement then a number of Aesop's Fables for the amusement of the youngsters. The evening seemed quite short in consequence of the employment & I was still busy reading when Polly & Sissy got back'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : Married Beneath Him

'Read a part of a very good novel, "Married beneath him". Heard Harry read & then played a Game of Bezique with Polly'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

'Harry this evening commenced reading McAuley's (sic) History of England. He is getting a great deal too fond of Plays & funny pieces & as he reads for marks I mean for the future to make him earn them with literature more solid & substantial. Polly amused herself this evening with the Family Herald & I read the Australasian until it was time to go to bed.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harry Castieau Print: Book

John Buckley Castieau : diary

'In the evening I read to the youngsters out of Peter [Parley?] & then heard Harry read a Page of Macauley. Went into the office & looked over some of the pages of my last year's Diary.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Manuscript: Codex

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

'In the evening I read to the youngsters out of Peter [Parley?] & then heard Harry read a Page of Macauley. Went into the office & looked over some of the pages of my last year's Diary.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harry Castieau Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : Guardian Angel

'I read a novel called the Guardian Angel to-day by the Author of "Elsie Vennor". It was quite up to the run of most novels & served to amuse me very well to-day. If it had not been for it & the papers I should have had dull times as I did'ent stir out at all.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

John Buckley Castieau : [article]

'Scribbled away for some hours at the Article I was writing. Altered the whole of the Introduction & then let Polly read the Paper. She approved & I felt a little excited & went away to the Argus office with my production at once.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Polly Castieau Manuscript: Sheet

Richard Harris Barham : Ingoldsby Legends

'While Polly was away I read to Harry & Dotty one of the Ingoldsby's Legends'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

G. B. Shaw : Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets About the War

'Speaking of the drama, you should read the preface to Shaw’s new book of plays. As a journalistic performance it is of the very highest order. Nobody can state a case like this fellow.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

George Moore : Avowals

'George Moore’s 'Avowals' is highly agreeable.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

'I stayed up very late to-night reading Thackeray's scraps contributed in the olden days to Punch & Frazer's Magazine. Some of them interested me very much though I was reading under difficulties for the book was one that had been ill used in the Gaol & it frequently happened that when I came to some particularly interesting point there was a leaf gone & the thread of the story lost in consequence'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : [unknown]

'Read some of Thackeray to Mrs Castieau & the youngsters this evening. The account of Master Augustus's visit to the pantomime delighted Harry very much & he could'ent help noticing a great similarity in his own manner with that of the young gentleman who accompanied Mr [Spee?] to the play.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book

H. G. Wells : The Outline of History

'The more I read of H.G.’s 'Outline' the more staggered I am by it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

John Buckley Castieau : [papers]

'Got on in the evening the best way that I could, amusing myself for an hour or more in looking up some old papers & reading through printed papers that I had published from time to time.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Unknown

Florence Barclay : unknown

‘Wayfarer’ expresses the ignorance of himself and his friends about the late Charles Garvice . . . He brackets Charles Garvice and Mrs Florence Barclay together. This he should not do. Charles Garvice had an immensely greater hold on the public than Mrs, Barclay . . . The work of Charles Garvice has little artistic importance; but he was a thoroughly competent craftsman.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

John Buckley Castieau : diary

'Commenced as soon as I had been through the Gaol to read some of my Diary for 1871'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Manuscript: Codex

George Moore : Avowals

'. . . There have been 2 supreme books since your regretted departure. G. Moore’s 'Avowals' and the letters of Chekhov . . .'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : School for Scandal

'Spent the evening reading with Harry & Sissy, both of these youngsters have some idea of dramatic reading & like very much to show off their capabilities. Sissy & I read a scene from the School for Scandal. Harry & I soared higher for we tried several Shaksperian (sic) pieces.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Castieau family Print: Book

Henri Frederic Amiel : Journal Intime

'it was during this year [1884] that she began her translation of Amiel's "Journal".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : Miss Bretherton

'[letter to Mrs Ward from Mr Creighton] I have read "Miss Bretherton" with much interest. It was hardly fair on the book to know the plot beforehand, but I found myself carried away by the delicate feeling with which the development of character was traced. The Nuneham scene, the death-bed and the final reconciliation were really touching and powerfully worked out. At the same time it is not a novel of my sort. I demand that I should have given me an entire slice of life, and that I should see the mutual interaction of a number of characters. Your interest centres entirely on one character: your characters all move in the same region of ideas, and that a narrow one.' [the critique continues at length; Creighton asks Mrs Ward] 'Have you read Sainte Beuve's solitary novel, "Volupte"? it is instructive reading.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Creighton Print: Book

Charles Augustin de Sainte-Beuve : Volupte

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Creighton Print: Book

Étienne Pivert de Senancour :

'[from a letter from Mary Ward to her father] I have been reading Joubert's "Pensees" and "Correspondance" lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed with the letters and some of the [italics] pensees [end italics] are extraordinarily acute. Now I am deep in Senancour, and for miscellaneous reading I have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a great dramatist! [she discusses this at length, concluding] I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic bungling'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Ward Print: Book

Henri Frederic Amiel : Journal Intime

'[letter from Mrs Ward's brother William Arnold] I served on a jury at the Assizes last week - two murder cases and general horrors. I sat next to a Mr Amiel - prounounced "Aymiell" - a worthy Manchester tradesman; no doubt his ancestor was a Huguenot refugee. I had one of your vols. in my pocket, and showed him the passage about the family. He was greatly interested, and borrowed it. Returned it next day with the remark that it was "too religious for him". Alas divine philosophy!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Amiel Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : Robert Elsmere

'After reading the first volume [of Mrs Ward's "Robert Elsmere"] he [William Arnold] wrote to Mrs Arnold, "You may look forward to finding yourself the mother of a famous woman!".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Arnold Print: Book

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : Ode

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 2 July 1792: '...& now in plain sober prose I am much obliged to you for your ode which I like very much. but why will you translate? It is a servile employment & not worthy of you. You want a metre you say for your next. You know Parnells Fairy tale? but I am the worst person to apply to as all my odes are irregular except Ignorance which you have. Gray's Spring & drownd cat are pretty I think — but I am not regular myself & detest regularity.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Thomas Gray Gray : Ode on the Spring

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Unknown

Thomas Gray Gray : Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes’

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Unknown

Tom Paine : The Rights of Man. Part the Second

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 21 October 1792: 'Now I am upon the republic system I must tell you that Bristol seems preparing for it. A pamphlet proposes the abolition of the corporation as unconstitutional & arbitrary & hints the same to all other corporate towns it is very well written — these little attacks sap the foundations of the citadel. If France models a republic & enjoys tranquillity who knows but Europe may become one great republic & Man be free of the whole? You see I use Paines words. But politics must not make us quarrel. You know the fable of the oak & the reed. I have been the oak & was pulled up by the roots & cast up. Let me try to be the reed.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey

Henry Evans Holder : Miscellaneous Poems

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 21 October 1792: 'Some poems have been lately printed here by the Revd. E Holder written between the age of 17 & 20. I only mention them as he happens to have translated two pieces one which you sent me & the other I think you have seen translated by your humble servant & an original by Bunbury & another of your own. Integer vitæ etc is the one. Gray on the grande Chartreuse the other. & seriously the printed ones are the worst of all.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

William Chamberlayne : Pharonnida, a Heroick Poem

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 4 December 1792: 'I have already said too much. I have an old poem of the heroic class before me. Pharonnida — one of the Cantos was finishd on the morning of the second battle of Newberry. [Quotes several lines of "Pharonnida"] This man would have written blank verse wonderfully well. he mistook his bent & in spite of an interesting story & a bold imagination Pharonnida is forgotten. you see he was a royalist...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : Translation of Horace, Odes, 2:14

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 6 December 1792: 'I have been reading Eheu fugaces & your translation this moment together. the three last stanzas are certainly best but altogether it is in my opinion very good — tho ‘th’unpardoning God’ I do not like the epithet is rather prosaic — (you see I will point out what appears to me as faulty) a better may easily be found. & now as I have picked your bone take mine to pick cum notis Sancti Basilii.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Mary Augusta Ward : Robert Elsmere

'Matthew Arnold wrote from Wilton, the Pembrokes' house, a week before his death (which occurred on April 15), that he found all the guests there reading or intending to read it [Mrs Ward's Robert Elsmere], and added, "George Russell, who was staying at Ashton Clinton with Gladstone, says it is all true about his interest in the book. He talked of it incessantly and said he thought he should review it for Knowles".

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: guests at Wilton Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : Robert Elsmere

'The book ["Robert Elsmere"] had moved him [Gladstone] prfoundly and he felt impelled to combat the all too dangerous conclusions to which it pointed. "Mamma and I", he wrote to his daughter in March, "are each of us still separately engaged in a death grapple with "Robert Elsmere". I complained of some of the novels you gave me to read as too stiff, but they are nothing to this. It is wholly out of the common order. At present I regard with doubt and dread the idea of doing anything on it, but cannot yet be sure whether your observations will be verified or not. In any case it is a tremendous book". And to Lord Acton he wrote: "It is not far from twice the length of an ordinary novel; and the labour and effort of reading it all, I should say, sixfold; while one could no more stop in it than in reading Thucydides".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gladstone Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : Robert Elsmere

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Gladstone Print: Book

Henri Frederic Amiel : Journal Intime

'[letter from Mrs Ward to Gladstone] Thank you very much for the volume of "Gleanings" with its gracious inscription. I have read the article you point out to me with the greatest interest, and shall do the same with the others. Does not the difference between us on the question of sin come very much to this - that to you the great fact of the world and in this history of man, is [italics] sin [end italics] - to me, [italics] progress [end italics]? I remember Amiel somewhere speaks of the distinction as marking off two classes of thought, two orders of temperament.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : David Grieve

'[letter from T.H. Huxley to Mrs Ward] You will think I have taken my time about thanking you for "David Grieve"; but a virtuous resolution to stick to a piece of work I have had on hand for a long time intefered with my finishing it before last night. The temptation was severe, and as I do not often stick to virtuous resolutions under these circumstances, I parade the fact. I think the account of the Parisian episode of David's life the strongest thing you have done yet. it is alive -every word of it - and without note or comment produces its ethical effect after the manner of that "gifted authoress", Dame Nature, who never moralizes'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Henry Huxley Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : David Grieve

'[letter to Mrs Ward from Edward Burne-Jones] The book has just come - and to my pride and delight with such a pretty autograph: so that to-day I am mightily set up. I cannot tell you how comforting the words read to me - and how sunny they have made this grey day'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Burne Jones Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : Bessie Costrell

'[letter from Henry James to Mrs Ward] I think the tale very straightforward and powerful - very direct and vivid, full of the real and the [italics] juste [end italics]. I like your unelambicated rustics - they are a tremendous rest after Hardy's - and the infallibility of your feeling for village life. Likewise I heartily hope you will labour in this field and farm again. [italics] But [end italics] I won't pretend to agree with one or two declarations that have been wafted to me to the effect that this little tale is the best thing you've done". It has even been murmured to me that [italics] you [end italics] think so. This I don't believe, and at any rate I find, for myself, your best in your deallings with [italics] data [end italics] less simple, on a plan less simple.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book

Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Aubin (Madame de Genlis) : Theatre de l'Education

Robert Southey to Charles Collins, 12-13 January 1793: 'Whether or not man has the stain of original sin I leave to theologians & metaphysicians. That education tends to give it him I do not even doubt. Rousseau's plan is too visionary — it supposes such unremitted attention in the tutor & such natural virtue in the pupil that I doubt its practability of this however when we read Emilius (an occupation I look forward to with pleasure) we will freely determine. Madame Brulerck (late Genlis) appears to me to have struck out a path equally new & excellent — the Emilius of L Homme de la Nature existed only in his imagination. but the two sons of Phillipe Egalitè are living proofs of her capacity.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Unknown

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Unknown

Mary Augusta Ward : Bessie Costrell

'[letter from Mr Morley to Mrs Ward] It was most pleasant to me to receive the little volume ["Bessie Costrell"] in its pretty dress, and with the friendly dedication. It will take its place among my personal treasures, and I am truly grateful to you for thinking of me. The story is full of interest to me, and in the vein of a true realism, humanising instead of brutalising. The "severity" of the poor dead woman's look, and the whole of that page, redeems with a note of just pity all the sordid elements'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Morley Print: Book

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : Ode

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 16-21 January 1793: 'Of your ode a few words before I set to transcribing. Before I read the last half sheet I wished you to lengthen it for only three authors are mentioned & only Shakespear of the first rank — Nature had so little to do with Dryden that I wonder at your ranking him with the Swan of Avon — Milton Spenser — Pope — Akenside Collins — Churchill — Beaumont — Fletcher would each afford a fine scope for your fancy & will you refuse one stanza to deck the unnoted grave of Chatterton? When this fault is noticed I have noticed all. If however (as I hope) you mean to lengthen it I would not wish you to fetter yourself in the chains of precedent — regular lyrics are like despotic monarchies they look stately but lose all the energy of freedom.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Mary Augusta Ward : Sir George Tressady

'[letter from Beatrice Webb to Mrs Ward about her novel "Sir George Tressady"] the story is very touching and you have an indescribable power of making your readers sympathise with all your characters, even with Letty and her unlovely mother-in-law. Of course, as a strict utilitarian, I am inclined to estimate the book more in its character of treatise than as a novel. From this point of view it is the most useful piece of work that has been done for many a long day. You have managed to give the arguments for and against factory legslation with admirable lucidity and picturesqueness - in a way that will make them comprehensible to the ordinary person without any technical knowledge'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Beatrice Webb Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Confessions, Book 12

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 31 July - 6 August 1793: 'I have just met with a passage in Rousseau which expresses some of my religious opinions better than I could do it myself. "Je ne trouve point de plus doux hommage a la divinite, que l’admiration enuette qu’excite la contemplation de ses œuvres. Je ne puis comprendre comment des campagnards, et sur-tout des solitaires, peuvent ne pas avoir de foi; comment leur ame ne s’eleve pas cent fois le jour avec extase a l’auteur des merveilles qui les frappent. Dans ma chambre je prie plus rarement & séchement, mais a l’aspect d’un beau paysage, je me sens emu. Une vielle femme, pour toute priere, ne savoit dire que ô! L’eveque lui dit: Bonne femme continuez de prier ainsi, votre priere vaut mieux que les notres. — cette meilleure priere est aussi la mienne." — '

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Quentin Durward

'Byron was a great genius. 'Don' Juan is a terrific work. But there is scarcely a page of it which does not show that an artistic conscience was not Byron’s strong point. . . . Not long since I re-read 'Quentin Durward'. What a book of hasty expedients, adroit evasions of difficulties, and artistic ‘slimness’.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Mary Berenson : [article on C18th architecture]

'Mrs Mary Berenson’s article on eighteenth century architecture in Spain most interestingly illustrates a principle which is capable of wide application. Our attitude towards architecture is far too much dominated by the aesthetic canons of the past.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

John Gillies : The History of Ancient Greece

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 29-30 October 1793: 'I have laid down Gillies to write to you the third letter in one fortnight. thank yourself for the intrusion — had my casette arrived I should have been otherwise employed, so to your negligence my industry must be attributed...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

: Economic Review of the Foreign Press

'I enclose in this envelope a copy of the 'Economic Review of the Foreign Press'. . . . I know the periodical very well as I have read it consistently for over three years.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

: Times Literary Supplement

'Can’t something be done to buck up the 'Lit. Suppl'.? It is getting duller & duller, though it always contains 1 or 2 good articles.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Philip Gibbs : Realities of War

I do not agree with you as to Gibbs’ book. . . . I have not yet seen a good war book. Doyle if course is ridiculous. I am sending you a copy of 'Polite Farces' by this post, It is no good, but as you want it you shall have it.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Arthur Conan Doyle : The British Campaign in France and Flanders

'I do not agree with you as to Gibbs’ book. . . . I have not yet seen a good war book. Doyle if course is ridiculous. I am sending you a copy of 'Polite Farces' by this post, It is no good, but as you want it you shall have it. '

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

George Gifforde : Sermons upon the Songe of Salomon

'After praier in the morninge, I, beinge not well, did heare Mr Rhodes read of Gyffard upon the songe of Sallemon: sone after I went to breakfast'

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Rhodes Print: Book

[n/a] : Bible

'In the morninge, after priuat praier, I brake my fast: soon after that I hard som chapters of the bible read'

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Hoby Print: Book

[n/a] : Bible

'when I had praied priuatly I did read of the Bible allmost vntell dinner time'

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Hoby Print: Book

[unknown] : [unknown]

'then I Came home and did studie my lector, and read a whill'

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Hoby Print: Book

[unknown] : [unknown]

'I walked and kept Mr Hoby Compenie almost tel dinner time: then I reed a litle, and praied, and so to dinner: after which I hilped to read of the book for the placing of the people in the church to Mr Hoby, and then we went to church'

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Hoby Print: Book

[unknown] : [a book of the pews in the church]

Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Hoby Manuscript: Codex

John Wilson Croker : The Battles of Talavera

The Duke of Wellington to John Wilson Croker, 15 November 1809: 'I am much obliged to you for your letter of the 20th October, and your poem, which I have read with great satisfaction. I did not think a battle could be turned into anything so entertaining.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington Print: Book

'a member of the Ursuline Community at Ash' : A Sketch of Irish History

Robert Peel to John Wilson Croker [undated], to accompany 'a collection of choice documents' on Ireland: 'The little volume called "A Sketch of Irish History" is a more infamous work than Cox's magazine [Irish nationalist publication described earlier in letter, a copy of which also enclosed]. I have the volumes from which it contains some excerpta. They contain a regular history of Ireland, and on the first page are these words, printed at the bottom, "Intended chiefly for the Young Ladies educated at the Ursuline Convents. By a member of the Ursuline Community at Ash." 'This work is written with great care -- most mischievous and inflammatory -- and yet it is thought to be impossible to convict the printer for libel. [...] 'Perhaps the most noteworthy and extraordinary document of all is the letter which I send you. It was written by a priest in Longford to one of his flock, whom he suspected of giving information. He admitted the writing of it to Major Wiles, a police magistrate, but he has not been convicted yet, and therefore names must not be used. Pray read it, it is very curious -- an admirable example of the purposes for which the priests of Ireland exert their spiritual influence.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Peel Print: Book

'a priest at Longford' : letter to parishioner

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Peel Manuscript: Letter

Horace Walpole : letters to Lord Hertford

Lord Liverpool to John Wilson Croker, 23 August 1824: 'I am very much obliged to you for the specimen which you have sent me of Horace Walpole's letters to Lord Hertford, which I return. I have been very much amused by it, but [...] I believe Horace Walpole to have been as bad a man as ever lived; I cannot call him a violent party man, he had not virtue enough to be so; he was the most sensuous and selfish of mortals [comments further].'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool

T. Crofton Croker : Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (vol. 1)

Walter Scott to John Wilson Croker, 26 March 1826: 'I enclose a letter for your funny namesake and kinsman, whose work entertains me very much.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : Sir George Tressady

'[Letter from Rudyard Kipling to Mrs Ward] I am delighted to have "Sir George Tressady" from your hand. I have followed him from month to month with the liveliest wonder as to how the inevitable smash in his affairs was to fall, and now that I have read the tale as a whole I see that of course there was but one way. Like all human books it has the unpleasant power of making you think and bother as one only bothers over real folk: but how splendidly you have done the lighter relief-work!'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rudyard Kipling Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson :

'[At Mrs Ward's Passmore Edwards Settlement] One class, too, she kept as her very own - a weekly reading aloud for boys between eleven and fourteen, in the course of which she read them a great deal of Stevenson and Kipling'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book

François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand :

'She had been reading much of Chateaubriand and Mme de Beaumont during the winter, and had felt her imagination kindled by the relationship between the two'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book

Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont :

'She had been reading much of Chateaubriand and Mme de Beaumont during the winter, and had felt her imagination kindled by the relationship between the two'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book

Alfred von Harnack :

'[letter from Mrs Ward to her husband describing an inept Cardinal's lack of knowledge about the crypt of St Peters, Rome] I said not a word - and came home and read Harnack!'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : [prefaces to Haworth edition of the Brontes' novels]

'[letter from M. Jusserand to Mrs Ward] 'I spent yesternight a most charming evening reading your essay [on the Brontes]. Shall I confess that I feel with Kingsley, having had a similar experience. I could never go beyond the terrible beginning of "Shirley" - and yet I tried and did my best, and the book remains unread, and I the more sorry as my copy does not belong to me, but to Lady Jersey, who charged me to return it when I had finished reading. I really tried earnestly: I took the volume with me on several occasions; it has seen, I am sure, as many lands as wise Ulysses, having crossed the Mediterranean more than once and visited Assuan. But there it is, and I see from my writing-table its threatening green cloth and awful back, with plenty of repulsive persons within. And yet I [italics] can [end italics] read. I have read with delight and unflagging interest Vol. I in-folio of the Rolls of Parliament, without missing a line. "Shirley", I cannot'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: M. Jusserand Print: Book

Hans Christian Andersen : Fairytales

'[report by Mrs Ward of the library at her Passmore Edwards Settlement] boys were sitting hunched up over "Masterman Ready", or the ever-adored "Robinson Crusoe"; girls were deep in "Anderson's [sic] Fairy Tales" or "The Cuckoo Clock", the little ones were reading Mr Stead's "Books for the Bairns" or looking at pictures'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: girls at the Passmore Edwards Settlement Print: Book

William Thomas Stead : [Books for the Bairns]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: young children at the Passmore Edwards Settlement Print: Book

Julia Ward Howe : Reminiscences

'[in Boston Mrs Ward] met the fine old veteran, Mrs Julia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", who had lately brought out her memoirs. Mrs Ward had been somewhat wickedly amused by certain passages in the latter: "Imagine Mrs Ward Howe declaring in public that a poem of hers, which a critic had declared to be in 'pitiable hexameters' (English of course) was not 'in hexameters at all - it was in pentameters of my own make - I never followed any special school or rule!' - I have been gurgling over that in bed this morning".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : 'Let women say'

'[letter from Lord Bryce to Mrs Ward] Thank you for your admirable article and for the copy of the Memorial, an effective repy to that of the Suffragist ladies'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Serial / periodical

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve :

'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta ward Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : David Grieve

'[letter from Mrs Ward to Reginald Smith] I heard such pleasing things about "David [Grieve]" from Lord Arran in Dublin the other day. He knows it absolutely by heart, and he says that when he was campaigning in South Africa two battered copies of "David" were read to pieces by him and his brother-officers, and every night they discussed it round the camp fires'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : David Grieve

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: army officers Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Julie, ou la nouvelle Heloise

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 6-8 November 1793: 'Were men what they ought to be — Rousseau would be canonized for a greater saint than any in the calendar. Read his Julia & tell me whence may we learn the most instructive lesson from the mistress of St Preux or the temptation of St Anthony. My comparison of the Man of Nature with Richardson would have been branded with the epithets of immoral atheistical & licentious. Clodius accuset moechos! Xtianity is less understood & less practised in this country than in the desarts of Arabia! Let him who is innocent cast the first stone was the judgement of the most moral of philosophers, to use no superior title.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Horace Walpole Bedford : MS verses

Robert Southey to Horace Walpole Bedford, 11 December 1793: 'Let me turn to more chearful subjects. your verses were particularly good — & they have the additional merit of novelty in manner & metre. write more. fame is a very late consideration — but let us remember that Pope acquired independance by his Homer. let me say Horace that Popes abilities were not above comparison. undertake some great work. it will take up your attention certainly — you certainly have abilities for any work. chuse either epic or a metrical romance. & in the intervals exercise yourself in the lower ranks for with us lyrics are very subordinate.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Anna Laetitia Barbauld : Ode to Spring

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c 26 December 1793: 'I take Milton to have introduced this kind of alcaics into the English language in his translation of Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa &c. it is since used most elegantly by Collins Mrs Barbauld — in the gent. of Devon & Cornwalls poems — & by my favourite Dr Sayers — so here I have strong authority.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Johann Wilhelm von Goethe : The Sorrows of Young Werther

Robert Southey to Horace Walpole Bedford, 24 January - 18 February 1794: 'I need not tell you with what pleasure my frequent perusals of Werter have been attended. for six months I was never without it in my pocket — the character is natural. at least it appeared so when tried by the touch-stone of my own heart. yet there are some minds upon which this would operate differently. to use a vulgar proverb “what's one man's meet [sic] is another man's poison". I consider suicide as a crime — as heinous as irrevocable. if you can suppose a man without connections friends or relations, still suicide would not be justifiable. while there is a possibility that life can be of service to society it is criminal to die.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

William Lisle Bowles : Fourteen Sonnets, Elegiac and Descriptive. Written During a Tour

Robert Southey to Robert Lovell, 5-6 April 1794: 'Have you ever seen Bowles’s poems & more particularly his sonnets? tho he be an Oxford man,[MS torn] name is little known here; & tho [MS torn] first poet the University can now boast. Allen has lent a [MS torn] copy of his sonnets, for he printed but few copies & they are a[MS torn] to be obtained. they pleasd me so much that I shall trans[|MS torn] your opinion.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : translations and verses

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 11-18 May 1794: 'Your Anacreon & Æschylus please me much — unluckily I have neither the one nor the other in the original — & let me add do not want them with such spirited translations. I will however read them as you desire. in your lines ‘Harder than the pointed spear’ the word harder strike me as inappropriate. does the Greek signify the same? something like resistless as the pointed spear, would be more consonant to the intended meaning — your ode Quique pii vates is with me but would be unfair to fill up my letter with transcribing your verses.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Horace Walpole Bedford : Ode to Indolence

Robert Southey to Horace Walpole Bedford, 7 June 1794: 'In return for your ode to Indolence I know nothing better than these strains to her eldest born. they immortalize a man who is the ne plus ultra of folly.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Robert Allen : Ludi Scenici (unpublished)

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 20-21 July 1794: 'When Coleridges work is published you will see a Latin Poem of Allens which did not gain the praise. the subject Ludi Scenici. of the execution you will judge for my own part I will not scruple to pronounce it very excellent. Coleridge means to translate it. he won the Greek Ode at Cambridge & I have promisd to translate it for his work, so you will have some memorial of us all.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Ode on the slave trade

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : Ode

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 21 August 1794: 'When your ode reachd me it reminded me of neglect & I blushed as I read.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Bishop of Canterbury : [unknown]

'after dinner ... hard Mr Rhodes read of Mr Cartwright and the Bushoppe of Canterberies booke'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Rhodes Print: Book

Charles Baxter : letter

'This [i.e. letter] had been lying a long while. I must send it off in proof I didn’t quite forget you. I saw yours to the Baronick, and was surprised at one piece of intelligence therein. Mine are always married before I begin, which simplifies things.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Letter

John Wilson Croker : Speech on the first Reform Bill, 4 March 1831

The Duke of Wellington to John Wilson Croker, 16 March 1831: 'I had read the Report of your speech in the newspapers; and I read it again last night with great satisfaction. 'It is a most able view of the plan of Reform; and dissects admirably some parts of the measure.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington Print: Unknown

John Wilson Croker : article on Robespierre

John Wilson Croker to Sir Robert Peel, 7 October 1835: 'I am glad you like Robespierre. It is only an essay, which you put me upon, and which I wrote at the seaside without a single book but the "Liste des Condamnes." When I came home I spent a couple of days in verifying, as far as I could, my recollections; but it is miserably short of what it ought to have been, and even of what it would have been, if I had written it at leisure and among my books.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Robert Peel Print: Serial / periodical

John Wilson Croker : article on British foreign policy

The Duke of Wellington to John Wilson Croker, 31 December 1840: 'I will not deny myself the satisfaction of telling you with what delight I have perused your article in the Quarterly Review on the Foreign Policy [...] I believe that there are few persons who know so much of what is called the Eastern Affair as I do [...] and I must say that I have not seen any statement of the case of the country, including that of Ministers, half so clear or strong as you have made out.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington Print: Serial / periodical

Mary Augusta Ward : Case of Richard Meynell, The

'[letter from Frederic Harrison to Mrs Ward] I am one of those to whom your book ["The Case of Richard Meynell"] specially appeals, as I know so much of the literature, the persons, the questions it dealt with. It has given me the most lively interest both as romance - as fine as anything since "Adam Bede" - and also as controversy - as important as anything since "Essays and Reviews". Meynell seems to me a far higher type than Elsmere, both as a man and as a book, and I am sure will have a greater permanent value'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederic Harrison Print: Book

Mary Augusta Ward : England's Effort

'[Having asked Lord Rosebery for a Preface to her "England's Effort"] Knowing that he was never strong, she fully expected a refusal, but found instead that he had already done what she asked, being deeply moved by the proofs that she had sent him'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery Print: proofs

Mary Augusta Ward : Fields of Victory

'[letter from General Hastings Anderson to Janet Trevelyan] What strikes me most in your mother's book ["Fields of Victory"] is her marvellous insight into the way of thinking of the soldiers - I mean those who knew most of what was really happening - who were actually engaged in the great struggle. One would say the book was written by one who had played a prominent part in the War in France, and with knowledge of the thoughts of the high directing staffs'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hastings Anderson Print: Book

George Moore : A Mummer's Wife

'. . . and I wish to tell you that it was the first chapters of 'A Mummer’s Wife' which opened my eyes to the romantic nature of the district that I had blindly inhabited for over twenty years. You are indeed the father of all my Five Towns books.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : The Heart of the Country: A Survey of Modern Land

'And of all the men who write today it is only Hueffer who writes for love[...]. I took up the "H[eart]of [the]C[ountry]" which was lying there and opening it at hazard I showed sentences here and there asking whether they could have been written from any other conceivable motive.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Frederick J. Edminson : [paper on Annie Wood Besant's 'An Autobiography']

'Mr Edminson then read a paper on Mrs Besant's autobiography. Some discussion folowed. Mr Morland gave a summary of Fairbairn's Christ in Modern Theology which also excited some remark. Mrs W.H. Smith also commented on some of the points in F. Harrison's Meaning of History in which she was joined by other members'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick J. Edminson Manuscript: Unknown

Annie Wood Besant : Autobiography, An

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick J. Edminson Print: Book

Andrew Martin Fairbairn : Place Of Christ In Modern Theology

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harold J. Morland Print: Book

Alfred Rawlings : [XII Book Club minutes]

'The Minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Manuscript: book

John Luther Hawkins : [paper of Stopford Brooke's 'Tennyson: His Art and Relation to Modern Life']

'Mr Hawkins then read a summary review of Stopford Brooke's Tennyson & his Art of Modern Life which was much appreciated'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Luther Hawkins Manuscript: Unknown

Alfred Rawlings : [Minutes of XII Book Club meeting]

'The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Manuscript: book

J. H. Jesse : (apparently) Selwyn and His Contemporaries

John Wilson Croker to J. H. Jesse, 5 December 1843: 'I am much obliged by your kind attention in sending me your Selwyn volumes: but to be candid with you, I can by no means approve of the publication of letters of so peculiarly a private, and in many instances, scandalous, character. I cannot, I honestly confess, understand what authority can exist for such a ripping up of private life. I am sorry also to observe some few considerable, and many small errors, in the notes. Some of them are probably typist errors, but some are not.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Wilson Croker Print: Book

John Wilson Croker : article on Parliament and Irish Catholics

Lord George Bentinck to John Wilson Croker, 30 June 1847: 'I have read your article in the Quarterly and think it quite admirable -- a complete stunner for the Peel party. You are quite right as regards a State provision for the Irish Roman Catholic Church'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord George Bentinck Print: Serial / periodical

John Wilson Croker : 'Peel Policy'

Lord George Bentinck to John Wilson Croker, 6 October 1847: 'I have got the Quarterly and am highly delighted with your contribution to it, which I esteem most admirable, and I feel confident that in the way you have put the statistics they cannot be disputed; indeed in my conscience I believe them to be substantially correct.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord George Bentinck Print: Serial / periodical

C. W. Vane, Marquess of Londonderry, editor : Correspondence, Dispatches, and other papers of Viscount Castlereagh, vols 1 and 2

Charles Arbuthnot to John Wilson Croker, 7 December 1848: 'That I had the greatest regard and affection for my departed friend Lord Castlereagh is most true. But I have not read his brother's memoirs of him, though I happened to see the first two volumes; but I did no more than just look at them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Arbuthnot Print: Book

John Wilson Croker : article on Thomas Babington Macaulay's History of England

The Bishop of Exeter to John Wilson Croker, 13 April 1849: 'I was not satisfied with one reading of your article. 'The repetition has more than doubled my gratification, and my sense of the effectiveness of your chastisement. 'The great point of all is that you have decidedly fixed Mr. Macaulay's position in the literary republic. He is a great -- a very great -- historical novelist, and can never more be regarded in the severe character of an historian.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Bishop of Exeter Print: Serial / periodical

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England, vols 1 and 2

John Gibson Lockhart to John Wilson Croker, 12 January 1849, on Macaulay's recently-published History of England: 'He has written some very brilliant essays [...] but he has written [italics]no history[end italics] [...] his bitter hatred of the Church of England all through is evident; it is, I think, the only very strong feeling in the book [...] 'Then his treatment of the Whig criminals Sidney and Russell, is very shabby [...] 'You will tell me by-and-bye what you think of this. I own that I read the book with breathless interest, in spite of occasional indignations, but I am now reading Grote's new volume of his "History of Greece," and, upon my word, I find the contrast of his calm, stately, tranquil narrative very soothing. In short, I doubt if Macaulay's book will go down as a standard addition to our [italics]historical[end italics] library, though it must always keep a high place among the specimens of English rhetoric.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Gibson Lockhart Print: Book

John Wilson Croker : review of Thomas Babington Macaulay, History of England

The Duke of Rutland to John Wilson Croker, 7 May 1849: 'I read with much interest your review of Macaulay's book. I cannot deny that I read the book itself with much amusement and gratification. But there are very many parts of it which I could not read without pain, and for the very reason which you give in the criticisms you have made upon it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Duke of Rutland Print: Book

Henry Richard Lord Holland : Foreign Reminiscences

Lord Aberdeen to John Wilson Croker, 21 February 1851: 'In reading Lord Holland's book, which I did very cursorily, I was more struck by its dulness than by any other quality. A senseless hostility to all legitimate Kings and Queens, and a ludicrous exaltation of "[italics]that great Prince[end italics]," Bonaparte, might have been expected; but it is wonderful how little the volume contains which has not either been long well known, or which is not worth knowing [discusses text further]'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Aberdeen Print: Book

John Wilson Croker : review of Lord John Russell, Memoirs of [Thomas] Moore

Lord Strangford to John Wilson Croker, 30 July 1853: 'You must think me an ungrateful brute not to have given you signe de vie on the subject of the last Quarterly beyond my brief acknowledgement of your kindness in sending me the revised sheets before its publication. 'On Tuesday, the 19th inst. I was stuck on a confounded Railway Committee in the House of Lords, and I have been nailed to my green morocco chair at the rate of seven hours per diem ever since [...] 'The article is quite admirable, and a model in the art of unmasking [...] I am glad, however, that you do not publish the supplementary pages [...] it would have been scarcely compatible with your dignity.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Strangford Print: revised (?proof) sheets

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex : Apology of the Earl of Essex against those who falsely and maliciously tax him to be the only hinderer of the peace and quiet of this kingdom

'I spent the after none in my Chamber and hard Mr Rhodes read a book that was mad, as it was saied, by my lord of Esex in defence of his owne Causes'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Rhodes Print: Book

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :

19 February 1854: 'After breakfast I walked with my boys [i.e. two of her sons] to Trinity College [Cambridge]. They took me through the Great Court [...] and thence into Neville's Court, where it was proposed to beat up Mr. [Charles] Schreiber's quarters, which were 3rd door from West corner on North side of court [...] there we found him, his toilet being only just completed [...] The boys went out to order dinner [...] The oak was forthwith sported to keep out strangers, and I was at peace. Mr. Schreiber meanwhile went on with his breakfast; I sat on the sofa behind him, with Longfellow, my own Longfellow, that I found on the shelves, in my hand.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Guest Print: Book

Signed as 'Q' : Review of 'German Romance' by Thomas Carlyle

'The German book is getting praise rather than censure: I was about sending Alick a copy of the last Examiner Newspaper, where it was rather sensibly criticised. The man praises me for this and that: but then, it seems, I am terribly to blame for condemning Voltaire and the Sceptics!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

H. G.(Herbert George) Wells : New Words for Old: A Plain Account of Modern Socialism

'Thanks ever so much for the book. One would want a long and warm talk about it.To set down the several trains of thought suggested by your pages would take many pieces of papers like this. I must resist the temptation.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : The Fifth Queen Crowned

'Thanks for the book. You know what I think of it in so far as I have been able to express it. I did not do it very well. There is a singular fascination about this last volume of the trilogy. I've been dropping into it ever since it came and I am as far as ever from discovering a particularly precise formula of my admiration.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Unknown

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : Mr. Apollo

' I have just finished the book ["Mr. Apollo"] which reached me this morning [...].It comes off magnificently.' Hence follow 14 lines of almost unqualified praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: BookManuscript: proofs

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex : Apology of the Earl of Essex against those who falsely and maliciously tax him to be the only hinderer of the peace and quiet of this kingdom

'I hard this day, after I had praied, Mr Rhodes read the booke of my lord Esixe treason, and I wrought: and so like wise in the after none Iohn Corrow and he did read by Course vnto me tell a litle before I went to priuat praier and medetation'

Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Rhodes Print: Book

Arnold Bennett : Some Impressions of my Elders

Many thanks for the book on Methuselahs. ['Some Impressions of my Elders']Shame to say, I’ve only read myself in it yet! The one point on which I would seriously oppose you is your statement that old people who have mannerisms always had them. Briefly, this is not so. In consideration of the generosity & insight you display in dealing with me I overlook the lapse from verity.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Geoffrey Lapage : Tommy Fidler

I am obliged for your letter and the enclosures. I return all the latter, together with my report and adjudication. . . . In my opinion the three best contributions, in order of merit, are: 1. Tommy Fiddler By “Muda” [may have been Lapage] 2. From Bondage By “Cinna” [Geoffrey Bullough] 3. The Best Policy By Kate Simmonds.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown

Geoffrey Bullough : From Bondage

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown

H. G. Wells : Men Like Gods

.. . . I have no prejudice against the young, rather the reverse, and yet I am looking in vain for a really good novel by that generation, and 'Men Like Gods', with all its limitations, seems to me to contain more fundamental ‘stuff’ than anything else I have read for a long time. I am very disappointed with Lawrence, who appears to me to have genius concealed somewhere within him. Joyce has enormous power and originality, but he lacks the balance which is essential to great work. George Moore can write the heads off any of you, and he is nearly 70. I will tell you the men you need for your paper- Lynd, Forster, MacCarthy, Tomlinson. Get them.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

H.M. Tomlinson : The Estuary

The Lawrence is magnificent. Pity he is falling more & more into the trick of repeating a word or a phrase. It irritates the reader & enfeebles the sturff. Also the connection between trees & human beings is not very strong. But really this article is the goods. The Tomlinson article is also magnificent. Not better stuff than this is being done. The K.M. story is excellently characteristic. Mr. Joiner is good; it halts at the beginning. . . . I think the number is simply splendid—especially for a first number. & you are to be seriously & gravely congratulated upon it.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

H.M. Tomlinson : The Estuary

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Katherine Mansfield : The Samuel Josephs

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical

Anatole France : Vie de Jeanne d'Arc

'I am keeping the "Jeanne d'Arc" until you return to town, unless you want me to send it out west to you. Upon the whole I think it is disappointing. One asks oneself why on earth A[natole]F[rance] wanted to touch that subject at all, and if he had to touch why in that way precisely.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Aldous Huxley : On the Margin

I’ll tell you what I think of ‘Golgotha’. I think it is a prodigious cataract of eloquence, managed with astonishing skill and verve, but too diffuse by far in its movement and somewhat naïve in its philosophy. Do you realise that the main ideas in it are the ideas that dominated such as myself 25 years ago? [Aldous Huxley] is a fine journalist, & I thought that the best things in 'On the Margin' were as good as such things could be. They were about equal to, though quite different from, the essays of that master, Robert Lynd.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Publius Papinius Statius : Thebaid

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 1 September 1795, '"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick". said Solomon. Statius says "quâ non gravior mortalibus addita cura Spes ubi longa venit" Grosvenor when you have lived upon that cameleon fare so long as I have done — you will acknowledge the wisdom of Solomon & feel the poetry of Statius.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Sir Philip Sidney : The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 1 October 1795, 'A good phrase of Sir P Sidneys for looking foolish. "he lookd like an Ape that had newly taken a purgation".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Jeanne Marie Roland de la Platiere : Appel a L’Impartiale Postérité

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 1 October 1795, 'Of Citoyenne Rolands appeal I have read the first only. at present the politics of France puzzle me — there is little ability at the head of affairs — Louvet may mean well — but the decree of 5th Fructidor is an oppressive one. Lanjuinais is almost the only man of whom I entertain a tolerable opinion. of all possible villains what think you of Barrere? have you read Helen Williams’ letters & Louvet account of his escape?'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Helen Maria Williams : Letters from France

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Robert Nares : Review of work by Southey

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 1-10 October 1795, 'I am obliged to Nares for a very handsome review. it is my intention next year to write a tragedy. the subject from the Observer. the Portuguese accused before the Inquisition of incest & muder. read the story.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Serial / periodical

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne : Essais

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 1-10 October 1795, 'I have got an old translation of Montaignes essays & hugely delighted am I with this honest egotism! buy Cottles poems for the mans sake — I love him so well that I would have you love whatever comes from him — read nothing but the monody — omne ignotum pro magnifico — & you will think him a first rate poet. it is a most masterly composition.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : verses on Hope

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 1-10 October 1795, 'Your stanza on Hope may be made excellent. your translation I have not yet compared with the Greek — when I have you shall have my remarks. you should study Pope & Dryden more for your versification.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: BookManuscript: Sheet

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : The Loves of Hero and Leander

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, c. 1-10 October 1795, 'If you print your Musæus print the Greek likewise. for my own part — I think the poem of too immoral a nature ever to advise its circulation — & this fault no excellence of diction or splendor of imagination can ever atone for...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Anatole France : Les Etrennes de Mlle. Doucine, and La Leçon bien apprise see also additional comments

'But "La leçon bien apprise" is really quite....And what is wrong with "Les Etrennes de Mlle. Doucine"? I don't like it most, but I think it most suitable owing to its humorous and sentimental characteristics. I recommend it strongly as perfectly fit for general reading and even seasonable [for the December issue of the "Review"]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Lope Felix de Vega Carpio : La Hermosura de Angelica

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, December 1795, 'I read the two languages [Spanish and Portuguese] with facility, & am now abridging the Angelica of Lope de Vega & extracting from it — the same with a most curious Portuguese poem — all this you will see if I escape that horrible Bay of Biscay. in the interim take these two fables from the Spanish of Yriarte'. [here follow some verses beginning 'Judge gentle reader as you will...']

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Harold J. Morland : [paper on William Morris]

'Mr Morland then read a paper on Wm Morris & his writings & gave illustrative readings assisted by Mrs Morland'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harold J. Morland Manuscript: Unknown

Bartolomè Leonardo de Argensola : sonnet

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 24 February - 2 March 1796 'Take a sonnet for the Ladies imitated from the Spanish of Bartolomè Leonardo, in which I have given the author at least as many ideas as he has given me. Nay cleanse this filthy mixture from thy hair And give the untrickd tresses to the gale!...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Luis Vaz de Camoëns : The Lusiad

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 23-27 April, 1796 'The Poetry of Spain & Portugal wants taste, & generally, feeling. I should have thought Camoens deficient in feelings if I had only read his Lusiad — but the Sonnets of Camoens are very beautiful. those given by Hayley in his notes to the Essay on Epic P. tho among the best are but a wretched specimen to the English reader. the translations are detestable — & the originals so printed as to be unintelligible. I bought some ballads in Spain in remembrance of Rio Verde — but they prove bad enough. but six months after my return I will tell you more.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Luis Vaz de Camoëns : Sonnets

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

E.[Edward] V. [Verrall] Lucas : Over Bemerton's: An Easy-going Chronicle

'I have tasted, sipped, and consumed the delectable nectar prepared surely with the milk of human kindness and spiced with your wit. [...]; This is delightful [...].' Hence follow 15 more lines of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Say : Economie politique

From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (1818): 'Tuesday, Sept, 22nd, 1818. 'Rose at 7. Read Say for a couple of hours. [...] 'Rose at 8. Breakfasted, and finished Say's "Economie Politique."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Say : Economie politique

From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (September 1818): 'Rose at 1/2 past 6 [...] read over again that part of Say's second volume which refers to consumption. It requires further meditation before I shall have thoroughly comprehended it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Say :

From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (autumn 1818): 'Thursday, October 8th. 'Rose soon after 6. Read the second chapter of Say's "Economie," and I wrote down on paper some remarks on production, after meditating the subject much, as some parts of it are very thorny. I had occasion to differ with some of Say's positions. 'Rose soon after 6. Read over again Say's chapter in capital, and put down some remarks on it in order to clear up my notions on the subject, as I found occasion to suspect the soundness of some I had before entertained [...] 'Rose at 1/2 past 6. Read some more Say on the Division of Labour.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Say :

From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (autumn 1818): 'Threadneedle Street, 14th October, 1818. 'Rose soon after 6. Read Say's chapter on Commercial Industry [...] After dinner read some of Schiller's "Don Carlos," then practiced on the bass from 1/2 past 7 till 9; at 9 I drank tea, then read some more of Say, on the mode in which capital operates.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Say :

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Say :

From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (autumn 1818): 'Thursday, October 15th, 1818. 'Rose at 6. Read Say's chapter on the Accumulation of Capital. Wrote some remarks on the meaning which he annexes to the word unproductive, in which I think he has fallen into some confusion. 'Rose at 6. Read Say's chapter on the Circulation of Commodities, which is admirable; equally deep and accurate.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Say :

From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (autumn 1818): 'Rose at 1/2 past 6 [...] Read Say and Turgot until 12, and put down some remarks on the manner in which accumulation takes place. Neither Say nor Turgot completely satisfy my mind on this subject [...] Dined alone. Read some scenes in Schiller's "Don Carlos." Considered as complete dramas, I think both "Don Carlos" and "Marie Stuart" are very defective. There is too much mixture of paltry and unimportant intrigue in each [...] There are, however, most masterly single scenes to be found in them [...] After reading this, I practised on the bass for about an hour, then drank tea, and read Adam Smith's incomparable chapter on the Mercantile System until 11, when I went to bed. 'Rose at 6. Read some more of A. Smith on the Mercantile System [...] Dined at 1/2 past 5. Read Don Carlos, and played on the bass for the next two hours, when I went and locked up [the family banking house]; drank tea at 1/2 past 8, and began some more of Say; but I found my mind languid, so that I was obliged to change my study, and took up a dissertation of Turgot, "Sur les valeurs et monnoies," which I read with considerable attention. Went to bed soon after 11.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Jean Baptiste Say :

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Laocoon

From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (1819): 'January, 1819. 'Sunday -- Rose about 9. After reading Ricardo for some little time, I set to and wrote down some stuff upon Foreign Trade [...] At 1 I mounted my horse and rode to the Park [...] Returned to dinner at 6, very tired; read some of Lessing's "Laocoon" [...] After tea set to at Ricardo again, but not finding my attention sufficiently alive, I dropt him, and looked over Melon's "Essai sur le Commerce," which I had had some curiosity to see. I found it the stupidest and most useless volume I ever opened.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : 'theological writings'

From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (1819): 'Dined at 1/2 past 5; played on the bass for 1 hour, and then read some of Lessing's theological writings'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

Anatole France : L'Ile des Pingouins

'Does the A[natole] F[rance] next book consist of the proofs you've let me see? And what on earth is one to write about it?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Sheet, Proofs

Henry Woodd Nevinson : The New Spirit in India

'The India book is most interesting. Nevinson is a dear. What is happening now there only shows that nations as well as men may find themselves in a bitterly false position.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Frederick J. Edminson : [paper on The Tempest]

'F.J. Edminson read an able and interesting paper on "The Tempest".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick J. Edminson Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller : Cabal and Love

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 31 July-2 August 1796: 'Have you read Cabal & Love? in spite of a translation for which the translator deserves hanging — the fifth act is dreadfully affecting.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Charles Collins : On Hastings Castle

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 29 August- 7 September 1796: 'Charles Collins wrote a Sonnet upon Hastings Castle — which Horace once showed me — it was ——— fourteen lines.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Manuscript: Sheet

Matthew ("Monk") Lewis : The Monk

Robert Southey to Horace Walpole Bedford, 29-30 August 1796: 'I have now read the Monk — & admire the delicacy of Lewis in criticising the Bible. there is genius in the book — but no good can possibly be produced by it. I would not have men distrust themselves...'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on Life of Edward Fitzgerald]

'The programme on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayham [sic] was as follows. Reading of the poem by Mrs Edminson and Mrs Rawlings Paper on the life of the poet by Mrs Smith Song from Omar by Mr Goadby Paper on Fitzgerald's Life and Omar's Philosophy by C.E. Stansfield Notes on Legalliennes Rhubaiyat [sic] by A Rawlings.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller : The Ghost Seer

Robert Southey to Horace Walpole Bedford, 29-30 August 1796: '[Matthew] Lewis's poetry is contemptible — except the Water King — & Alonzo & Imogine — of which the story is bad — & the most striking part very inferior to what appears to me its original the Franciscan monk at the marriage of Lorenzo in the Ghost-Seer of Frederick Schiller. an author compared to whom the sublimity of Eschylus & Shakespere is little have you read Fiesco? Stodhard of Christ Church is one of the translators. you may hear something of him from Collins — if you still retain his acquaintance: with friendship I believe him totally unacquainted.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller : Fiesco; or the Genoese Conspiracy: A Tragedy

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre : Paul et Virginie

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 25 September - 14 October, 1796: 'Have you read St Pierre? if not, read that most delightful work & you will love the author as much as I do.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre : Etudes de la Nature

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 25 September - 14 October, 1796: 'Have you read St Pierre? if not, read that most delightful work & you will love the author as much as I do.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Joseph Dacre Carlyle : Specimens of Arabian Poetry, From the Earliest Time to the Extinction of the Kaliphat, with some Account of the Authors

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 8 December, 1796: 'I have just read Carlyles Arabic Translations — Zounds what stuff is called Poetry!'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Robert Glasgow Brown : letter

'You are quite right, according to me, in being dissatisfied with my work; but not right at all in expressing your dissatisfaction as you did. I have never written rudely to you. Although hastily and curtly without doubt; and so you have no possible excuse for writing rudely to me. I shall give you the Feuilleton as far as I can without personal inconvenience. As for reading three volumes and writing an article in two days, I shall make an attempt this once without promising success; but I must ask you not to put me again in the same position […] As to the Whispering Gallery, it is only right to point out that one of your stories was in the "World" a month ago and in the "Queen" the week after.

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson

D. H. Lawrence : Jimmy and The Desperate Woman, in The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories

'By the way! 'Jimmy & the Desperate Woman' is fucking good! 'After he had given his lecture (it was on Men in Books and Men in Life: naturally men in books came first)...' Lawrence so good I daren't really read him.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book

D. H. Lawrence : unknown

'As Lawrence (+ sign of cross - not christian cross - no devil down in Hell: [Christian cross] (!!)) said 'The reason the English Middle Classes chew every mouthful 30 times is that a bite any bigger than a pea would cause stoppage in their narrow guts,' or words to that effect). Which I approve [...] I am reading Lawrence daily (like the bible) and with great devotion.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Unknown

David Herbert Lawrence : Kangaroo

'I have just read DH Lawrence's "Kangaroo". How I hated (in italics) it! Altho I think the Chapter about the War is well written, but it is so full of Spite, bitterness & nasty "cur" like ( in italics) snarly feeling. Odd again, for I never saw that side of him. have you read his "Letters"?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ottoline Morrell Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : [poetry]

'It was strange that, as a girl of fifteen, my greatest friend should have been this Colonel Berkeley. The thirty years difference in our ages did not seem to matter. He was fond of reading and we read poetry together, a great deal of Tennyson, and although I had read George Eliot's novels, I was surprised that she who produced the dry prose of "Daniel Deronda", should also have produced "The Spanish Gipsy".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Zoe Procter Print: Book

Luis Vaz de Camoëns : ‘Babylon and Sion’

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 1-7 January, 1797: '...the view is bounded by the accursed smoke of London. methinks like Camoens I could dub it Babylon & write lamentations for the “Sion” of my birth place, having like him no reason to regret the past [words scored out] except that it is not the present. it is the country I want. a field thistle is to me worth all the flowers of Covent Garden.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

William Lisle Bowles : Hope, An Allegorical Sketch on Recovering Slowly from Sickness

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 16 January 1797: 'I begin to think that our opinions upon poetry are not consonant. I am no friend to the harmony with which we have been cloyed since the days of Pope. Churchill is too rough: but there is a medium, & I am on the side of Bowles versus Reviewers: who by the by are in general a set of stupid fellows.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : The Loves of Hero and Leander

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 29 January 1797: 'I have received Bedfords book this morning — he has much amended it since I saw the manuscript.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

François Rabelais : [unknown]

'Although Mrs Craigie carried out her "duties" as a Roman Catholic, she took her religion lightly, and from her writings it was easy to read that she did not mind jests about the saints ... She told me that her conversion was entirely due to her reading Rabelais, which at the time I believed literally'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie Print: Book

Mary Hays : articles in the Monthly Magazine

Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 13 March 1797: 'When I was with George Dyer one morning last week Mary Hayes & Miss Christall entered, & the ceremony of introduction followed. Mary Hayes writes in the M. Magazine under the signature M.H. & sometimes writes nonsense about Helvetius there. she has lately published a novel — Emma Courtney — a book much praised & much abused; I have not seen it myself. but the severe censures passed upon it by persons of narrow mind, have made be curious, & convinced me that it is at least an uncommon work. Mary Hays is an agreable woman — & a Godwinite.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Serial / periodical

Ann Batten Cristall : Poetical Sketches

Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 13 March 1797: 'But Miss Christall. have you seen her Poems? — a fine, artless sensible girl, now Cottle that word sensible must not be construed here in its dictionary acceptation. ask a Frenchman what it means & he will understand it, tho perhaps no circumlocution define its explain its French meaning. her heart is alive. she loves Poetry — she loves retirement — she loves the country. her verses are very incorrect, & the Literary Circle say she has no genius. but she has Genius, Joseph Cottle! or there is no truth in physiognomy.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Sir William Blackstone : Commentaries on the Laws of England

Robert Southey to John James Morgan, 6 March, 1797: 'Blackstone & I agree better than perhaps you imagine. true it is that I should like to write Commentaries upon his Commentaries — but mine would be an illegal book. the study fixes my attention sufficiently, when my attention begins to flag, I relieve myself by employing half an hour differently, & then set to again with fresh spirits. '

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux : [plays]

'I kept my hours conscientiously, but when I had no work to do I read continuously. I read parts of "The Times", the "Standard" and the "Morning Post" ever day. The theatrical and policitcal news interested me more than anything else. The study was lined with book shelves, and besides all the classical writers there was a large section filled with the works of French dramatists. I read several plays by Marivaux, and found, to my astonishment, that a serial I had read in the "Girls' Own Paper" had its origin in one of his plays. Encouraged by this, I wrote a play which also derived from a play by Marivaux.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Zoe Procter Print: Book

Honoré de Balzac : [unknown]

'Pearl's conversation was always full of references to the works of the French novelists of the period, so I proceeded to read books by Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, Anatole France and Colette. I had to read the Italian poets in translation. All this was a great joy to me, and, as I have said, a wonderful education.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Zoe Procter Print: Book

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette : [unknown]

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Zoe Procter Print: Book

John Prior Estlin : The Nature and Causes of Atheism, Pointed Out in a Discourse, Delivered at the Chapel in Lewin’s-Mead, Bristol. To Which Are Added, Remarks on a Work, Entitled Origine de Tous Les Cultes, ou Religion Universelle. Par Dupuis, Citoyen François

Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 9 April, 1797: 'Mr Estlin has sent me his sermon — a most superb copy — tho not I have not the one he sent — for Johnsons man could not find it & so he gave me another. it is I think the best paper I ever saw. I wrote to day to thank him — & make a few remarks upon his book, freely & respectfully — therefore properly.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Unknown

Grosvenor Charles Bedford : The Rhedycenian Barbers

Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, c. 25 June, 1797: '“The Rhedycenian Barbers” is Grosvenor Bedfords — & a most incomparable parody it is.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Serial / periodical

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon : unknown

Robert Southey to John May, 26 June, 1797: '...the French never can have a good epic poem till they have republicanized their language; it appears to me a thing impossible in their metres; & for the prose of Fenelon Florian & Bitaubè — I find it peculiarly unpleasant. I have sometimes read the works of Florian aloud; his stories are very interesting & well conducted, but in reading them I have been felt obliged to simplify as I read & omit most of the similes & apostrophes. they disgusted me & I felt ashamed to pronounce them. Ossian is the only book bearable in this stile, there is a melancholy obscurity in the history of Ossian & of almost his heroes that must please — ninety nine readers in an hundred cannot understand Ossian & therefore they like the book. I read it always with renewed pleasure.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian : unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Paul Jérémie Bitaubè : unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Marie-Jeanne Roland de la Platiere : Appel a l’Impartiale Posteritè

Robert Southey to John May, 26 June, 1797: 'Have you seen Madame Rolands Appel a l’impartiale Posteritè? it is one of those books that makes me love individuals & yet dread detest & despise mankind in a mass.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

S.T. Coleridge : Poems, by S. T. Coleridge, Second Edition. To Which are Now Added Poems by Charles Lamb, and Charles Lloyd

Robert Southey to John May, 11 July, 1797: 'Cottle brought with him the new edition of Coleridges poems, they are dedicated to his brothe[MS torn] George, in one of the most beautiful poems I ever read. [MS torn] know S T Coleridge better than any existing being, & yet great part of his conduct is utterly inexplicable to me. last night I wrote to him, requesting some thing for insertion in Chattertons works that his name might appear in the proposals. I then told him that his brother had not known where he was till he learnt it from you. You will be delighted with his new edition, it contains all the poems of Lloyd & Lamb, & I know no volume that can be compared to it.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Bernando Tasso : Amadis of Gaul

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 19 July 1797: 'The old Lady Strathmore has some curious books. I hope to get from her library the Amadigi of Tassos father.if he had been a very bad poet Tasso would never have published his works — & I love every thing belonging to Amadis & Galaor.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Thomas James Mathias : The Pursuits of Literature, or What You Will. A Satirical Poem in Dialogue. With Notes. Part the Second

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 9 August 1797: 'I have only seen the former parts of the Pursuits of Literature. the author appeared to me to have the malevolence of Gifford without his wit. the lines on Darwin were however uncommonly good. if he has wiped me with civility he will serve the book, & the advertisement makes amends for the censure.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Sir William Blackstone : Commentaries on the Laws of England

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 9 August 1797: 'I have now gone thro Blackstone often & attentively, so repeatedly reperusing the more important parts, that I think I know the book well. nor does farther study of it now appear necessary or useful.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : La Lévite d’Ephraim

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 22 September 1797: 'Do you know Rousseaus Levite of Ephraim? if not — you will find a poem that has not a word too much.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Anna Letitia Barbauld : ‘To S. T. Coleridge, 1797’

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 22 September 1797: 'Mrs Barbauld has written some lines to Coleridge advising him to abandon metaphysics. the poem is not good. if however you are inclined to see it I will copy it for you.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Serial / periodical

Gregory Lewis Way : Fabliaux or Tales, Abridged from French Manuscripts of the XIIth and XIIIth Centuries by M. Le Grand, Selected and Translated into English Verse

Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 20 October 1797: 'I have procured an old translation of De Serres. but I am told the best account of the Maid [of Orleans] is in the Histoire de l’Eglise Gallican par Berthier,a book I have sought for in vain. in Weys book from Le Grand there is a note from the Journal of Paris at that period, relating to her, which furnished me with subject for some of my best lines — they relate to a place she frequented in Lorraine called the Fountain of the Fairies. do you know either of these books?'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Amos Simon Cottle : Icelandic Poetry, or the Edda of Saemund Translated into English Verse

Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 11 November 1797: 'Amos Cottles translation of the Edda is published, & I have brought over a copy for you. you know it was my intention to write him some lines that might be prefixed, & perhaps sell some half dozen copies among my friends. you will find them there. the book itself will not interest you. it is only calculated for those who study mythology in general, the antiquities of the north, or who read to collect images for poetry. it happens to suit me in all these points.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Mark Rutherford : The Novels of Mark Rutherford

'We have just had a new edition of the works of Hale White (Mark Rutherford). It is a miserable and ill-printed edition, but it exists, and I am reading him all over again. Hale White is a great writer who adopted a form which he never learnt how to use: the novel. His construction is usually naïf to the point of absurdity. But he is full of great stuff, and a most genuine stylist—one of the best, I think.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Johannes Ravisius Textor : De Memorabilibus et Claris Mulieribus: Aliquot Diversorum Scriptorum Opera

Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 14 December 1797: 'Your parcel & its contents arrived safe. I found it on my return from a library belonging to the dissenters — in Redcross Street; from which, by permission of Dr Towers one of the Trustees, I brought back books of great importance for my Maid of Orleans. a hackney coach horse turned into a field of grass falls not more eagerly to a breakfast which lasts the whole day, than I attacked the old folios so respectably covered with dust. I begin to like dirty rotten binding, & whenever I get among books pass by the gilt coxcombs & yet disturb the spiders. — But you shall hear what I have got. a Latin poem in four long books upon Joan of Arc. very bad — but it gives me a quaint note or two — & Valerandus Valerius is a fine name for a quotation. a small quarto of the Life of the Maid, chiefly extracts from forgotten authors, printed at Paris. 1612. with a print of her on horseback, & another on foot in the same dress & attitude as the one I have. A sketch of her life, by Jacobus Philippus Bergomensis — bless the length of his erudite name! — this is short but the most valuable of all, inasmuch as I have his authority for her prediction of her death — & that he has given me matter for a noble speech in Book 3. (I write in the spirit of prophecy for its nobleness.) by saying that her first vision was in a ruined church, where the weather drove her to pass the night with her flock. there are more treasures in this library — & I go there again on Monday next.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Giacomo Filippo Foresti da Bergamo : De Claris Mulieribus

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book

Havelock Ellis : The Dance of Life

On your recommendation I have just bought 'The Dance of Life' and am reading it. It repayeth perusal, & I thank thee. (But I have been an admirer of Havelock for 30 years.)

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Wilhelm Stekel : Peculiarities of Behaviour

'I am reading "Peculiarities of Behaviour" by Wilhelm Stekel. It is curious how these psychoanalysts boil everything down to food urge or sex urge.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Kitching Print: Book

Richard Doddridge Blackmore : Lorna Doone

'I get "Lorna Doone". It is a good book so far.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Kitching Print: Book

Edward Jenner : Signs of Rain

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. Transcription of 'Signs of Pain: An excuse for not accepting the Invitation of a Friend to make a Country Excursion', beginning 'The hollow winds begin to blow,/ The clouds look black, the glass is low...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group:

St. George Tucker [attrib.] : Days of my Youth

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. Transcription of 'Lines written on the Author's being asked why he ceased his Poetical effusions', beginning, 'Days of my youth - ye have glided away/ Hairs of my youth - ye are frosted and grey...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group:

E. C. Bentley : Trent's Last Case

'I go to the library; luckily there is no queue. I get "Trent's Last Case" - a grand book. I've read it at least three times in a previous existence.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Kitching Print: Book

Isabel Constance Clarke : Haworth Parsonage

'I am reading "Haworth Parsonage" by Isabel C. Clarke. I have never read a book on the Brontes before, although I have often passed Cowan Bridge, the notorious school, which caused the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Kitching Print: Book

Lennox Robinson : The White Headed Boy

'It is St Patrick's Day - there is a reading of "The White Headed Boy" by an Irish author with an Irish cast.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Kitching Print: Book

William Stephen Gilly : Waldensian Researches, during a Second Visit to the Vaudois of Piemont...

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. 'From Gilly's Waldensian Researches'. Transcription of several lines beginning '"A very little experience and observation will soon teach the travellor to conjecture, from the appearance of vegetation, the probable height of the mountains which he has ascended..."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Albin Comtesse de Genlis : Memoirs of the Countess of Genlis, Written by Herself

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. 'Translation of Madame la Countess de Genlis invocation at the beginning of her own history. London 1825'. This begins, 'If I were conscious in my heart of the slightest resentment - of any rancour against the persons of whom I am to speak...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Thomas Abercromby Trant : Two Years in Ava, from May 1824-May 1826

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. Transcription of information about the Burmese, 'Vid. 2 Years in Ava, 182'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Marie Blanche de Grignan : unidentified

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. Transcription of lines by '"Maria Blanche - eldest daughter of Madame de Grignan. She became a Nun in the Convent of St Marie D'Aix and died there at the age of 62."' The lines read: '"Would you know a soldiers life, it is this, when the army is on the march, we work like horses, when it halts nothing can exceed our idleness. We are always in extremes. For three or four days perhaps we do not close our eyes or else for three or four days we never quit our beds; we feast, or we starve."'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group:

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné : The Letters of Madame de Sévigné, to her Daughter and her Friends

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. 'March 1837'. Transcription of various of Madame de Sévigné's letters.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné : The Letters of Madame de Sévigné, to her Daughter and her Friends

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. 'Of M. De Glessir, Tutor to the young Marquis Grignan (Admirable advice!), "The Chevalier is of more use to the dear boy, than can easily be imagined; he is continually striking the full chords of honour and respectability, and takes an interest in his affairs, for which you cannot sufficiently thank him, he enters into everything, attends to every thing, and wishes the Marquis to regulate his own accounts, and incur no necessary expenses..." M. de Sevigne to Mad de Grignan Letter DCCCXXII. Vol. VL.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Crabbe : The Mother's Funeral

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. 'Then died lamented in the strength of life 1827 "Called not away, when time had loosed each hold/ On the fond heart, and each desire grew cold; / But when to all that knit us to our kind,/ He felt fast-bound, as Charity can bind..." Crabbe.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: C.M.G. [anon] Print: Book

Anna Brownell Jameson : Diary of an Ennuyee

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. Several pages are transcribed from the 'Diary of an Ennuyee'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: C.M.G. [anon] Print: Book

William Edward Hartpole Lecky : Map of Life

'Mrs Edminson then read an interesting paper on Lecky's Map of Life'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book

William Henry Smith : [Paper on Ruskin]

'Mr W. H. Smith then read a paper on the life of John Ruskin'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Rev. J.E. Hankinson : St Paul at Philippi

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. 'St Paul at Philippi, from the Seatonian Prize Poems. - By the Revd. J.E. Hankinson M. A. - 1833.' A poem beginning 'Twas a lone spot, that shrine of prayer!/ Some river nymph's deserted haunt/ Whose sacred springlet diamond clear/ Welled bubbling from its rocky front...' is then transcribed.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: C.M.G. [anon]

Alfred Rawlings : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'the minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Manuscript: book

Red. G. Walker : sermon

From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. 'Given me by the Revd. G. Walker.' Follows transcription of a sermon on the history of the sects of the Church.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Sheet

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : poetry

'Mr Stansfield read an interesting paper on "Tennyson & his books" & in continuation of the subject readings were given by Mrs Reynolds, Mrs Edminson, Mr Cass & Mr Goadby. Mr Ridges also recited Sir Galahad and St Agnes Eve'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Reynolds Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : poetry

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : poetry

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: T.T. Cass Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : poetry

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Allan Goadby Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : 'Sir Galahad'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ridges Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : 'St Agnes' Eve'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ridges Print: Book

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on Burns as song writer]

'Three papers were devoted to aspects of Burns & his works. Mrs Goadby read a biographical sketch. Mrs Smith read a paper prepared conjointly with Mrs [?]on Burns as songwriter & Fred Edminson one devoted to Burns's personality. [various songs were performed] Mrs Stansfield read To a Mouse & To a Mountain Daisy Mrs Rawlings the Cotter's Saturday Night.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown

William Makepeace Thackeray :

'Miss Goadby then read a paper entitled "A View of Thackeray from the Roundabout Papers" & readings from the same author were then given by F.J. Edminson, C.L. Stansfield, Miss Pollard, T.T. Cass & S.A. Reynolds'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: T.T. Cass Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sylvanus A. Reynolds Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick J. Edminson Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Pollard Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Some Roundabout Papers

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Goadby Print: Book

Elizabeth von Arnim : Solitary Summer, The

'Mrs Ridges read an interesting paper on The Solitary Summer fully descriptive of the charm of the book.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Blanche Ridges Print: Book

Roger Martin du Gard : Jean Barois

I want you to tell R.M. du Gard how highly I esteem 'Barois'. When I first bought it, ages ago, I was so impressed by it that I had it charmingly bound, and I often read in it again. . . . I am very pleased with 'Amants, heureux amants', especially that last story; Valery’s best work, I think.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

J. (James) G. Gibbons Huneker : Egoists: A Book of Supermen

'I am extremely gratified by the arrival of your book of Supermen. [...] your pages can give nothing but pleasure to a man who loves "la littérature critique" (not literary criticism). According to my habit when a fascinating book comes in my way (a sort of angel's visit) I've read it at once,wilfully and of malice prepense, neglecting my daily task to entertain the rare visitor.' Hence follow eight lines of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Reginald Perceval Gibbon : Afrikander Memories

'I wrote yesterday to P[erceval] G[ibbon] about his Afrikander memories. I didn't quite tell him how good they are for fear he should think I was gushing. But really, in that short production, look at the poetic vision, the existence of simple language, the breadth and force of the effects.' Hence follow 15 lines of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Faith

'Its really good of you to have sent "Faith". Your magic never grows less; each of your prefaces is a gem and my enthusiasm is roused always to the highest pitch by your amazing prose. I have already read (the book arrived but two hours ago) "The Idealist" and "The Saint". Admirable in concepton and feeling are these two sketches.[...] This afternoon I shall sit down with the book and forget my miseries in the delight of your art so strong and human.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

F Yeats Brown : Golden Horn

'I read "Golden Horn" by F. Yeats Brown. He was a prisoner in Turkish hands for two-and-a-half years. As in all these prisoners biographies, they had much more latitude compared with us: they had money, luxuries (eg. drinks and good smokes), individual purchases of food and other commodities, opportunities of escape, and a reasonable rapport with their captors.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Kitching Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : Article on George Grote's History of Greece

George Grote to Harriet Grote (wife), 14 October 1853: 'I immediately sent for the "Edinburgh Review," and have read [italics]the[end italics] article with much satisfaction and even delight. 'It seems to me executed in John's best manner [...] It is certainly complimentary to me, in a measure which I fear will bring down upon me the hand of the reactionary Nemesis.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Serial / periodical

G. C. Lewis : articles on ancient history

George Grote to G. C. Lewis, 12 October 1857: 'I have received and perused your three numbers of "Notes and Queries;" which is an agreeable collection of matters to read when one comes across it, though I do not habitually take it in. 'Your remarks upon Niebuhr's description of Pyrrhus are most just and instructive, and the exposure of his inaccuracies complete [comments further].'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Serial / periodical

Paul Gauguin : The Intimate Journals of Paul Gauguin

'Finished reading "The Intimate Journals of Paul Gauguin". Very fresh mind - he at once joins the company of those whom we wish we could have met. Such a distinctive French book makes a Scot feel that he is rather a dog-collared dog. We cannot recall Mary Stuart without seeing the shadow of Knox at her back.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Soutar Print: Book

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon : [poems]

'Read "An Anthology of War Poems", introduced by Edmund Blunden. Owen's poetry stands well above all the others - his "Strange Meeting" is worth all the others put together - or nearly so. Branford's sonnets are conspicuous and Sassoon's work distinctive, but Owen has not only Branford's "high seriousness" and Sasoon's objectivity but also a sure craftsmanship - he is always the artist in full control of his medium. Beside his work, Sassoon's sounds almost hysterical and Blunden's slightly artificial. After laying down this book I realised for the first time that, notwithstanding the large company of our war poets, our really fine war poems are very few in number.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Soutar Print: Book

Lewis Grassic Gibbon : Sunset Song

'Finished "Sunset Song". No doubt at all about the richness, the routhiness of this book. Careless, often unnecessarily "course", to employ his own far too much over-worked word, but the humanity is there, and the bright objectiveness which is the need of modern art.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Soutar Print: Book

Gerard Manley Hopkins : [poems]

'What I gather from the few poems of Hopkins that I have read is that the passion in his verse is predominantly intellectual and has a tortured quality about it; indicative almost of an unnatural constriction of the body: and this may be so, as Hopkins was a Jesuit priest.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Soutar Print: Book

Lewis Grassic Gibbon : Grey Granite

'Finished reading "Grey Granite" by Grassic Gibbon. Hasn't the richness of "Sunset Song" but has much of its verve. One is ever conscious of a certain rank liveliness about G's work: much of it fermentive - like maure'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Soutar Print: Book

Hugh MacDiarmid [pseud.] : Red Scotland

'About 3.30, C.M.G. came striding in, resplendent in full Highland rig-out ... He had a number of MSS with him and read part of his "Red Scotland", which sounded quite convincing. As he read, he supported himself at an angle over my table, the angle increased with the reading until he was literally dropping cigarette ash and dialectical materialism all about me. I thought it might relieve the congestion if he removed his plaid - but discovered that it was part of the regalia.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Christopher Murray Grieve Manuscript: Unknown

John Middleton Murray : Keats and Shakespeare

'Finished reading Murray's "Keats and Shakespeare" again. This work to me was, and still is, a critical masterpiece: I can think of no other study - of this nature - carried through so consistently and with so keen an awareness: it is a classic of imaginative sensitivity.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Soutar Print: Book

Alfred Edward Housman : More Poems

'Having read again Housman's "More Poems", one is forced to the conclusion that his philosophic attitude had been definitely exploited in his previous two collections; and his self-awareness is shown in limiting his work to these.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Soutar Print: Book

Walter De La Mare : [poems]

'It is very difficult to assess the poetry of De la Mare. Compared with Davies and Housman (for example), he is the most comprehensive poet of the three, and has definitely created a world of imagination; but Davies and Housman have a reality in their poems which is often absent from De la Mare, and in the optimism of the one and the fatalism of the other we are ever conscious of listening to human utterance, the warmth of the flesh is in the words.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Soutar Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : articles 'upon the Principles of Utility'

George Grote to John Stuart Mill (January 1862): 'I have just been reading your three articles in "Fraser's Magazine," upon the Principle of Utility, having waited until I could peruse them all de suite. I consider the essay altogether a most useful and capital performance.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Serial / periodical

G. C. Lewis : 'book of Ancient Astronomy'

George Grote to G. C. Lewis, 9 February 1862: 'I ought before this to have written to thank you for your book of Ancient Astronomy. But I delayed doing so until I had read the book through; and having now done so, I can perform the task with more satisfaction. I can say, without the least exaggeration, that it is a truly useful and instructive exposition [...] You deserve every compliment for the example which you set of always producing authorities and giving copious references. 'Your chapters on the AEgyptian [sic] and Assyrian interpretations are also exceedingly valuable. I never knew so much about the Egyptian [sic] matters before.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

G. C. Lewis : 'Egyptological pamphlet'

George Grote to G. C. Lewis, 29 December 1862: 'Your Egyptological pamphlet is a very ingenious jeu d'esprit, and the general observations contained in the first pages of it are very instructive: the citations which you give out of Niebuhr are curious.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote

anon ('ancient writers') :

From Harriet Grote's diary (1868): 'Mr. Grote [husband] said he had, in the course of the last few months, taken down Gibbon's work and read occasionally therein; and, he added, he had been penetrated with admiration of the exactitude and fidelity of the references [...] Grote had tested Gibbon's trustworthiness, on several points, by reference to ancient writers, and invariably found his statements correct and candid. Dr. William Smith said that he too had compared the references in Gibbon with the works cited, and that he was affected by the same feeling of respect and admiration [comments further on George Grote's enthusiasm for Gibbon].'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book

George Grote : A History of Greece (vols 1-5)

'Sir William Gomm served for some time in India, and indeed had been commander of the forces there. Being at Simla, he occupied himself with the study of Grote's "History of Greece," having got hold of the first five volumes. He was so absorbed in the book, that he made copious notes upon portions of it; which I have since had the privilege of reading, and Mr. Grote also looked through them. The observations and comments indicate an attentive following of the author's text, especially in connection with the military incidents, on which Sir W.'s remarks are pertinent and even instructive.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Gomm Print: Book

Sir William Gomm : Annotations to George Grote, A History of Greece (vols 1-5)

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Grote

Sir William Gomm : Annotations to George Grote, A History of Greece (vols 1-5)

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote

Hester Piozzi : biography of Samuel Johnson

Lady Harriet Cavendish to her former governess, Selina Trimmer, 9 November 1803: 'I have at present a [italics]Johnson[end italics] mania upon me, which I hope you will allow is better than a [italics]novel[end italics] one. I have been [italics]re[end italics]-reading Mrs. Piozzi and Boswell. The latter I think very entertaining, and it is so long since I had read it that I had almost forgotten it. I have hardly patience with Boswell's conceit and pride and wish he would fancy himself a secondary personage [French], as he almost always prefers telling one what he thought and did, to Johnson, and he is too uninteresting to make it ever excusable.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Harriet Cavendish Print: Book

Carl Murrell Marris :

'You know Marris--the man of the East who wrote the letter I read to you? Well he is going back to his Malay princess wife and his kid, right away. I have asked him to come on Monday here for the day.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Letter

Jean Charles Leonarde Simonde de Sismondi : Italian Republics

'Looking at Sismondi's "Italian Republics" an odd fit of industry came over me in the morning.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Jean Charles Leonarde Simonde de Sismondi : Italian Republics

'Staid in all day for cold, but sketched some figures from window, and heard some of Sismondi's "Italian Republics", and my day has been rather profitable.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

John Henry Newman : The Grammar of Ascent

Books read by Oscar Wilde in Pentonville and Wandsworth Prisons, June - November 1895: St Augustine, "Confessions" and "De Civitate Dei"; Pascal, "Pensees" and "Provincial Letters"; Walter Pater, "Studies in the History of the Renaissance"; T. Mommsen, "The History of Rome" (5 vols); Cardinal Newman, "The Grammar of Ascent", "Apologia Pro Vita Sua", "Two Essays on Miracles" and "The Idea of a University".

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

John Henry Newman : Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Alain-Rene Le Sage : Gil Blas

'Read a little more of "Amelia", which is about the worst planned story I ever read - no plan at all in fact; "Gil Blas" has always some tangled connection and momentary interest; "Don Quixote" is so intensely amusing that the want of plan is easily forgiven; but to bring on a storm merely that a hero may escape in a boat is the kind of thing I had not expected to find in what is said to be one of the first of English novels. The irony is forced, and the feeling bad; but the characters are highly and equisitely finished, and clearly conceived.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

John Henry Newman : Two Essays on Miracles

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

John Henry Newman : The Idea of a University

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Gustave Flaubert : Madame Bovary

'At one time I knew entire pages of "Madame Bovary" by heart. But if "Madame Bovary" is a masterpiece "Salammbô" is close to a miracle. I well remember that when I was writing "[The]N[igger]of [the] N[arcissus]", "Salammbô" was my morning book.While taking coffee I would read a page or two at random--and there is hardly a page that isn't marvellous.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

James Galiffe : Italy and its inhabitants: an account of a tour in that country in 1816 and 1817

'Looking at Galiffe's tour - he has a curious theory that the language of old Rome was Russian.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Captain Frederick Marryat : Diary in America

'Marryat's diary on Continent gives many interesting anecdotes of animals, but I am afraid to remember them, lest they should not be true'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Gustave Flaubert : Salammbô

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Henry Hart Milman : History of the Jews

Books read by Oscar Wilde in Reading Gaol, July 1896-December 1896, taken from his list of books requested and then sent by his friends. Source text author notes that Wilde read and re-read everything available to him in prison. 'Greek Testament, Milman's History of the Jews; Farrar's St Paul, Tennyson's Poems (complete in one volume), Percy's Reliques (the collection of old ballads), Christopher Marlowe's Works, Carlyle's Sartor Resartus and Life of Frederick the Great, A prose translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, Keats's Poems, Chaucer's Poems, Spenser's Poems, Renan's Vie de Jesus and The Apostles, Ranke's History of the Popes, Critical and Historical Essays by Cardinal Newman, Emerson's Essays (If possible in one volume), Cheap edition of Dickens's Works.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Frederick William Farrar : Life and Works of St Paul

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Complete Poems

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Sir Archibald Alison : History of Europe

'I have begun Alison's "Europe" - a pompous title, by the by, for an account of the Bedlam devilries of the French revolution. Good deal of inaccurate English, but clever on the whole.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Joseph Ernest Renan : Vie de Jesus

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Joseph Ernest Renan : The Apostles

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Leopold von Ranke : History of the Popes

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Thomas Henry Newman : Critical and Historical Essays

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : Essays

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison

'Read the Clementina part of "Sir Charles Grandison". I have never met with anything which affected me so powerfully; at present I feel disposed to place this work above all other works of fiction I know. It is very, very grand, and has, I think, a greater practical effect on me for good than anything I ever read in my life.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Henry Hart Milman : History of Latin Christianity

Books read by Oscar Wilde in Reading Gaol, December 1896 - March 1897, taken from his list of books requested and then sent by his friends. Source author notes that Wilde read and re-read everything available to him in prison. 'Gaston de Latour by Walter Pater, MA (Macmillan), Milman's History of Latin Christianity, Wordsworth's Complete Works in one volume with preface by John Morley (Macmillan, 7/6), Matthew Arnold's Poems. One volume complete. (Macmillan, 7/6), Dante and other Essays by Dean Church (Macmillan, 5/-), Percy's Reliques, Hallam's Middle Ages (History of), Dryden's Poems (1 vol. Macmillan. 3/6), Burns's Poems ditto, Morte D'Arthur ditto, Froissart's Chronicles ditto, Buckle's History of Civilisation, Marlowe's Plays, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (edited by A. Pollard 2 vols 10/-) Macmillan, Introduction to Dante by John Addington Symonds, Companion to Dante by A.J. Butler, Miscellaneous Essays by Walter Pater, An English translation of Goethe's Faust'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Dean Church : Dante and Other Essays

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

John Henry Newman : Essay on the miracles recorded in Ecclesiastical History

'Curious essay of Newman's I read some pages of - about the ecclesiastical miracles; full of intellect but doubtful in tendency. I fear insidious, yet I like it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Henry Thomas Buckle : History of Civilisation

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Friend

'Read some of Coleridge's "Friend", which gives one a higher notion of him than even his poetry'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Serial / periodical

John Addington Symonds : Introduction to Dante

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Jean-Baptiste Dumas : Essai de statique chimique des étres organisés

'Read Dumas's "Essai de Statique Chimique" - clear but too short.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Archibald Alison : History of Europe

'Read a little Alison and much chemistry, but a little headachy and out of order.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Gustav Friedrich Waagen : [unknown]

'Read a little Plato; wrote a long letter to Brown; wrote a chapter of book; walked; read some Italian, and got some valuable notes out of Waagen, and then a game at Chess.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Alexis François Rio : De la Poesie chretienne dans son principle, dans sa matiere at dans ses formes

'Have done some Plato - some Pliny - looked for Genus Chara (in Freshwater basin of Paris) everywhere and couldn't find it - and a little bit of Rio.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Gustav Friedrich Waagen : [unknown]

'Read a little Italian. Finished first vol. Waagen.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Gustav Friedrich Waagen : [unknown]

'Got a good deal out of Waagen, but he is an intolerable fool - good authority only in matters of tradition.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Joshua Reynolds : The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds

'Read some Sir Joshua"

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Joshua Reynolds : The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds

'read a little Sir Joshua'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Hubert Griffith : Tunnel Trench

I have now read 'Tunnel Trench'. The copy which you kindly gave me got lost—I don’t know how, but I obtained another one. . . . Of course the play is not ‘nice’ reading, and of course we who never went to the front in a fighting capacity hate to be reminded by those who did so go that there ever was a war. But all that does not matter. My criticism of the play, or of myself, would be that I cannot quite find the central moral idea upon which it is based.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

George [?] Berkeley : Guardian

'I have been reading Berkeley's paper, no. 55, in the "Guardian". There is this curious inconsistency in it, that setting out with deprecating any intention to turn argument into satire, by attributing ill designs to his opponents, the writer yet uses no argument throughout but what is derived from designs supposed of one sort or another...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Serial / periodical

Margaret Kennedy : The Constant Nymph

I think the 'C.N.' is fine. It is bound to make you respected among those whose respect alone is a comfort in moments of depression. For myself, I have been more impressed by it than by any novel from a new writer for years.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Frederick Joseph Harvey Darton : Arnold Bennett

I venture to write a very few words about your book on me. It has given me great pleasure. . . . The book is incomparably better than Darton’s—at any rate than the first edition of Darton’s. I never read the second.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : [unknown]

'I staid in and read Byron'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

John Charles Ryle : [unknown]

'Anniversary of martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer. Curiously enough, I read J.C. Ryle's lecture on them in the morning, by chance, not knowing it was the day on which they both suffered.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Unknown

William Bell Scott : [memoir David Scott]

'Glanced today through the life and diary of David Scott, a Scotch painter: a poor bravura creature, one of the Greek worshippers: himself a mere bad imitation of the Germans, throwing heaps of muscles together and calling them men, and thinking a mass of vernicular attitudes composition.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson : Egypt

'read some of Wilkinson's "Egypt".'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Hans Christen Andersen : [tales]

'Wet all day. Read Andersen's tales. There is a strange mingling of false sentiment - unchildlike - with their delicate fancy and wit; too much of rosebowers and crystal palaces, prettily heaped together but without detail of parts or bearing on the story. On the whole, I am disappointed in him. The ugly duck is perfect; the "fat needle" very good. Nearly all the others, too much of opera nymph in them, or of pure ugliness and painfulness - the princess maing the nettle-shirts, and the "grand Klaus" killing his nurse, and many other such pieces, quite spoiling the tone of the book for me.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Alexandre ` Dumas : La Dame aux Camélias

'Read ".'Dame aux Camelias"

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Julia Cecilia Stretton : Lady of Glynne

'Read "Lady of Glynne" in evening.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Julia Cecilia Stretton : Lady of Glynne

'finished "Lady of Glynne".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Fortunes of Nigel

'Pleasant tea and "Nigel", but I much depressed all the afternoon.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Quentin Durward

'Chess and "Quentin Durward".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Quentin Durward

'Finished "Quentin Durward"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Ivanhoe

'Read "Ivanhoe" to end in evening.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : Lady Audley's Secret

'Strangely, instead of Plato, took up "Lady Audley's Secret" this morning.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Elizabeth Barret Browning : [poems]

'Looked at Mrs Browning's "last poems" in evening; not so good as I thought, depressing me with doubts of my own judgement.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin

Julia Cecilia Stretton : Lady of Glynne

'This morning, reading "Lady of Glynne".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

John James Ruskin : diary

'Looking back to my Father's diary - of which I have just 40 pages, which I shall page forthwith (and then dates of painters!) - I open it at 39. i. about Bp Bossuet's work; and intending to read Ezek. XXXIX again, read XXXVI instead.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex

Sir Arthur Helps : Conquerors of the New World

'Read chief part of Helps' "Conquerors of the New World".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

John James Ruskin : diary

'Read my Father's note of flowers at Chartreuse. 21.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex

John James Ruskin : diary

'Read my Father's note on St George. p. 26'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Manuscript: Codex

Francis Hackett : That Nice Young Couple

Now my sweet Francis I have read your book in this Alpine district. . . . There is not, really, much fault to be found with 'T.N.Y.C.' It is well-constructed; and the pace is maintained; I mean it doesn’t flag.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Christina Alberta's Father

I noticed strangely few misprints in 'C.A.’s Pa'. though I had my malicious eye open for them.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Harold Fielding Hall : Soul of a People

'At a meeting held at Grove House on Feb. 17 a discussion on the Soul of a People was opened by a paper by C. E. Stansfield. The comparison suggested by Fielding in his book of Christianity & Buddhism necessitated impartiality between the religions on the part of critic [sic]. The role of philosophic doubter assumed for the time by the writer added greatly to the interest of the paper & the discussion which followed. Mrs Ridges afterwards read from the Light of Asia & Mrs Stansfield from Dhammapada'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Mrs Henry Wood : East Lynne

'there is unlimited room for reading between these well-known and monotonous banks. The Prince set his mind on my reading "East Lynne", which I did at three sittings. Yesterday I stood a tolerable examination in it. A brisk cross-examination took place between H.R.H., A.P.S, Meade and Keppel. I came off with flying colours, and put a question which no one could answer: "with whom did Lady Isabel dine on the fatal night?"'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley Print: Book

D H Lawrence : Letters

'Dear Lady London,the Lawrence letters & Hogarth Living Poets have arrived......I am not half-way thro' it yet, as it takes turn with Shakespeare and Gibbon, & catching the English mail which leaves tomorrow.....The same night they arrived I had a huge fire in my shack outside & read nearly thro' the 'Living Poets'. Do not feel your kindness was wasted if I say I loved its company more than its contents. I loved its blue cover, crisp new paper & Londonish presence in my lonely Antarctic room. It took me back to London people and parties, the talk & the fashions & the jungle of reputations. This is how you solaced & delghted me for an evening by sending it......By adding the 'Poets' to the Letters you added a delicate melting sweet to a meal. It was just to my taste. The Lawrence letters are so far delightful. he is among the great letter-writers, of a lighter kind. I have been lately reading the Keats' letters you gave me in London. His matter is more searching and profound. His far greater fame attracts a far greater attention. How unbearably sad they are at the end. I had to to rush to the poems to reassure myself, that such a life was not a tragedy but a triumph.......Last night by a log-fire, I seemed the loneliest most contented man in the world. I was reading Romeo and Juliet and beginning this letter to you...'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter D'Arcy Cresswell Print: Book

Anne Isabella Milbanke : 'Lines Supposed to be Spoken at the Grave of Dermody' and other verses

'In 1809 [Anne Isabella Milbanke] wrote the Lines supposed to be spoken at the Grave of Dermody. It is one of the earliest of her compositions extant [goes on to quote 11 lines from poem, beginning with "Degraded genius! o'er the untimely grave / In which the tumults of thy breast were still'd, / The rank weeds wave...."] [...] These, with some other verses, were sent to Byron for his opinion, in 1812, by Annabella's cousin-by-marriage, Lady Caroline Lamb. He liked the Dermody lines "so much that I could wish they were in rhyme."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Manuscript: Unknown

Chester Francis Cobb : Mr Moffat

I have now read 'Mr Moffat'. If the author is very young I regard it as a pretty sound book. Fundamentally true throughout, with a good plot well constructed and improving as it goes on. . . . As for the alleged originality of technique, I cannot honestly agree that there is any. James Joyce has already done the ‘running accompaniment of thought’ business far more elaborately, realistically, and brilliantly than Mr. Cobb. And Joyce is already responsible for a school.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

William Gerhardi : The Polyglots

Thanks for your letter & 'The Polyglots'. I regret not to be able to agree with you as to the latter. I have read it, & though it is loose & contains some merely silly pages, I much enjoyed it. I think it is an original and diverting work, with power in many places, and un peu touchant.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Maurice Barres : Jardin de Bérénice

Barrès is all right sometimes. The 'Jardin de Bérénice' is his best work. You ought to read Charles Louis Philippe’s 'Bubu de Montparnasse'. And Roger Martin du Gard’s 'Jean Barois'. These books will hold you. I should suggest also Colette’s 'Chéri', only I gravely doubt if you would be able to follow its very difficult colloquialisms. . . . Roulette is a bit of a lark, but very dangerous. See the diary of Madame Dostoevsky on the subject of Feodor’s gambling mania. It is appalling.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Charles Louis Philippe : Bubu de Montparnasse

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Roger Martin du Gard : Jean Barois

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Anna Dostoevsky : Dostoevsky portrayed by his wife(?)

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

John Galsworthy : The Silver Spoon

I’ve read 200 pp of 'Clissold'. Formless & wordy, I agree (introductory note foolish); but so far I think the book is very good. It is full of brains, & very provocative & stimulating, & I enjoyed it. If you want to realise how positively good 'Clissold' is, read a bit of 'The Silver Spoon'. But I know you won’t. Coward!

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin : The Gentleman from San Francisco

I have never thought very well of Bunin. I say this with the greatest respect for your opinion, and I admit that you are much more likely to be right than I am. 'A Gentleman from San Francisco' I thought very crude indeed, and I could not get on with 'The Village'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin : The Village

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Adelaide Philpotts : Akhnaton

Be not vexed that I have only just read 'Akhnaton'. Of late months I have had so much in the way of absolutely imperative perusal that I’ve got frightfully behind. I am still six behind with friends' books.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Marmion

'In afternoon, the trance-teaching, and the reading of "Marmion" with companions...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Old Mortality

'Sound sleep after walk and long reading of "Old Mortality".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Louis Golding : Day of Atonement

I received your book some time ago, from the publishers. My life is made terrible by my 'Evening Standard' article. When I took the job on it was clearly understood that I should be absolutely free to review or not to review or not to review, just as I chose. I cannot read all the books which I ought to read, nor even 10% of them. Often I am so puzzled how to be fair that I ignore a whole lot of books and write about some general subject. It is a way out.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Frederick J. Edminson : [essay on Matthew Arnold]

'F.J. Edminson read a paper on Matthew Arnold with special reference to Literature & Dogma. Readings from both the prose & poetical works of Matthew Arnold were given by various members.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick J. Edminson Manuscript: Unknown

John Greenleaf Whittier : Meeting, The

'A short programme of selections from American authors had been arranged but time only sufficed for the reading of The Meeting by Whittier the rendering of which by Mrs Edminson was much appreciated'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book

Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree : Poverty, A Study of Town Life

'A discussion of considerable interest took place on Rowntrees Poverty. Doubt was thrown by Mr Ridges and others upon the correctness of the bases of the argument of the book which were defended by Mr Edminson and others but apparently neither section was convinced by the other. [a discussion ensued comparing Reading with Rowntree's York]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of the XII Book club Print: Book

Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree : Poverty, A Study of Town Life

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ridges Print: Book

Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree : Poverty, A Study of Town Life

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick J. Edminson Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson :

'The meeting at Ingleside on April 29 1904 was devoted to the life & works of Emerson. Mrs Ridges read a paper on his life & C.E. Stansfield on his philosophic standpoints. Selections from his writings were read by Miss Pollard, Edward Little & A. Rawlings'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Pollard Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Little Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Sir Thomas More : [unknown]

'Read Sir T. More in evening'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Fortunes of Nigel

'Playing chess, and marbles, with myself, and reading "Nigel" to Lollie.'

Unknown

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin

Horace-Bénédicte de Saussure : Voyage dans les Alpes

'Helped marvellously finding Wedderburn's entry in Vol. 3 of Saussure, and his cloud lightning on Col du Fours before Franklin! Then, helped infinitely by Alciat's four emblems'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Sir Walter Scott : Abbot, The

'Yesterday dined quietly with Diddie and Clennie came down to dessert, and I read the "Abbot" in the evening to them.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book

Radclyffe Hall : The Well of Loneliness

'I told Forster that I was prepared to stand absolutely for both the merits and the decency of the book.' [The Well of Loneliness]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

H. G. Wells : Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island

'Thoroughgood’s notice of Wells’s book was deplorable. ['Mr Blettsworthy on Rampole Island']. For one thing the book is magnificently written. To me it is the best novel Wells has written for years. Being a member of what are called ‘The Big Four’ I make a rule of never dealing with the work of the other three myself. It would not be becoming of me to do so. Moreover I could not possibly say what I think of Galsworthy.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Radclyffe Hall : The Well of Loneliness

On the conclusion of the 'Well of Loneliness' case, I propose to devote an article to it in the Evening Standard. I need not tell you that I am anti-police.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Honore de Balzac : Lost Illusions

'Wilde's love of French culture was intensified and perhaps even prompted by his reading. Three novels, which were written at the beginning of the nineteenth century by two acknowledged masters of imaginative realism, impressed him particularly - Balzac's "Lost Illusions" and "A Harlot High and Low" (whose hero is Lucien de Rubempre), and Stendhal's "Scarlet and Black", which featured Julien Sorel. Wilde would nominate the pair as the "two favourite characters" of his boyhood.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

Honore de Balzac : A Harlot High and Low

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

John Cowper Powys : Wolf Solent

Thank you for your appreciative letter. I am glad to have it. I did not say that 'A High Wind' would be the best book of the autumn. As for Powys, he is a friend of mine, but I could not get on with his book, and so I have said nothing about it. I think that you have touched its weak spot in saying that it is too abnormal.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

John Addington Symonds : Studies of the Greek Poets, vols 1 and 2

'The first volume of Symond's "Studies of the Greek Poets", issued in 1873, was "perpetually" in Wilde's "hands" at Trinity [Dublin]. The second volume came out in 1876, when he was at Oxford. On the title-page, he wrote "Oscar F.O'F. W. Wilde. S.M. Magdalen College, Oxford, May '76." The date indicates that Wilde purchased the book hot off the printing press.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book

John Pentland Mahaffy : Rambles and Studies

'Once again, Wilde assisted his mentor [Classical scholar John Pentland Mahaffy], this time by proof-reading "Rambles and Studies" before its original publication in 1876.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Manuscript: proofs

William Rothenstein : Men and Memoirs

I am returning your Memoirs. Technically they have practically no faults, except those of the typist. A few slips here and there. And also one or two places where I think a little cutting might be done. . . . Finally you need have no qualms about the book, either technically of as to its interestingness. As a fact you write a damned sight too skilfully for a painter.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: typescript

James Hanley : ?A Passion before Death

I have now read your story. I return it herewith. I think that it is very well done.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown

George Meredith : Evan Harrington

'Moby Dick'. The present vogue of Hermann Melville is mainly due to two English novelists, Frank Swinnerton and myself. We both of us have great opportunities for publicity and 8 or 10 years ago, in the Reform Club, we decided to convince the world that 'Moby Dick' was the greatest of all sea-novels. And we did! There is a lot more of Melville that you ought to read, if you have not already read it. Some of the ‘Piazza Tales’ are wonderful. And the novel 'Pierre', though while mad and very strange and overstrained, is really original and remarkable. Some of the still stranger books I have not yet read or tried to read. The trouble is that the esoteric books can only be obtained in the complete edition of the works. Happily I possess it. I believe that the original editions of 'Typee' and 'Omoo' are much better than the current editions, which have been expurgated. Please note that I think 'Evan Harrington' is better than 'Beauchamp’s Career' and 'The Woodlanders' better than the 'Mayor of Casterbridge'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

George Meredith : Beauchamp's Career

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Siegfried Sassoon : Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

A very fine book indeed, recently published, is Siegfried Sassoon’s 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer'. I thought that I could never tolerate another war book, but this one, after the first 30 or 40 pages is really extremely distinguished. It has style, wit, beauty and truthfulness.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Bruce Lockhart : Evening Standard

In the main, the reviews of I.P. [Imperial Palace] have been excellent. But it is curious that 2 out of 3 of Max’s papers were excessively rude about it, the third (Sunday Express) was fulsome. I wrote privately to the Editor of the Standard pointing out grave misstatements in fact in Bruce Lockhart’s article on it. He could offer no defence whatever. Similarly I protested to the editor of the Times Lit. Supplement about its assertion that I had been imitating Priestley’s fashion of length, for the sake of gain. . . . Maugham’s Cakes & Ale is 1st rate. But easily the finest of all recent novels is D.H. Lawrence’s The Virgin and the Gipsy. Nothing else exists by the side of it. Believe me. It is marvellous, truly.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Newspaper

Siegfried Sassoon : The Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

When you have read 'The Virgin and the Gipsy' you might get the volume of stories called 'The Woman who Rode Away' and read the title-story. After that 'The Rainbow'—if you can get it. It was suppressed here by the police and I have no copy. Some unprincipled friend has stolen it from me. I am delighted that you enjoyed 'Evan Harrington'. . . . I agree with you that 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' is an even better book than 'Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Siegfried Sassoon : The Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book

Howard R. Smith : [paper on H. G. wells's 'Mankind in the Making']

'A meeting was held at Whinfield [?] on Dec 8 1904 devoted to H.G. Wells's Mankind in the Making. Howard R. Smith gave a good resume of the political and social proposals and C.E. Stansfield of the Educational system suggested by the author. Both papers prompted considerable discussion'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Meredith's works]

'Geo Meredith's Diana of the Crossways was the subject of the evening. H.M. Wallis read an essay on the work of Geo Meredith as a whole & also two pieces of his poetry. This gave rise to considerable discussion. W.J. Rowntree gave a resume of Diana of the Crossways illustrated by copious extracts from the book & other members also read from the book & his poems'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Geoffrey Chaucer : Rhyme of Sir Thopas

'Mrs Edminson & C. E. Stansfield also read from the Canterbury Tales - The Prioress' Tale & the Rhyme of Sir Topas (Fit i) [i.e. section 1] respectively'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Geoffrey Chaucer : Prioress' Tale

'Mrs Edminson & C. E. Stansfield also read from the Canterbury Tales - The Prioress' Tale & the Rhyme of Sir Topas (Fit i) [i.e. Section 1] respectively'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [a biography of Keats]

'Mrs Smith then read an interesting biography of Keats which was followed by a reading of "I stood tiptoe upon a little hill" by Helen Rawlings. Howard R. Smith read from Endymion & Mrs Ridges the Ode to a Nightingale. Alfred Rawlings read a paper upon the poetry of Keats & Mrs Edminson some of the sonnets & H.M. Wallis a portion of "Isabella".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Samuel Taylor Coleridge :

'Annabella was now [in 1812] reading Cowper's Iliad and annotating every second line; she was studying Alfieri with the family-solicitor's daughter; for relaxation condescending to Evelina. In Evelina she was disappointed [...] There was study of Southey, Wordsworth and Coleridge as well, for everyone was reading them'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Milbanke Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'She [Anne Isabella Milbanke] read enormously [...] A list of her books makes the unregenerate blood run cold, though it did include some novels -- Miss Edgeworth's and Beckford's [sic] sensation-making Vathek, in which she detected the source of some passages in the Book of the Season, "Lord Byron's Childe Harold." Childe Harold's only rival in her poetic reading was The Faerie Queene.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Milbanke Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

'To Caroline Lamb, Queen of the Drawing-Rooms, a very early copy of Childe Harold was lent by Samuel Rogers [...] Instantly Rogers was summoned to Melbourne House, where the William Lambs were then living. '"I must see him -- I am dying to see him!" '"He has a club-foot," said Rogers, "and he bites his nails." '"If he is as ugly as Aesop, I must see him!"'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (cantos I and II)

'On March 15 [1812] [...] [Anne Isabella Milbanke] dined at Lady Melbourne's [...] [William Lamb] may have been genuinely tired of the principal topic as recorded in Annabella's journal -- Childe Harold, poem and poet, about both of whom his wife [Lady Caroline Lamb] had lost her head [...] 'Annabella could not join in that discussion, for she had not read Childe Harold. And she let another week go by before she did read it [...] on the following Sunday she surrendered to the spirit of the season, and began. Two days later she had finished the two cantos of which it then consisted; in her diary for March 24, she set down her opinion: '"It contains many stanzas in the best style of poetry. He is rather too much of a [italics]mannerist[end italics], that is, he wants variety in the turns of his expression. He excels most in the delineations of deep feeling, and in reflections relative to human nature." [...] 'Annabella met him the day after that entry in her diary.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Milbanke Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Giaour

'Annabella had [...] written to her aunt [Lady Melbourne; during autumn 1813], after having read the enlarged edition of the Giaour. "The description of Love almost makes [italics]me[end italics] in love ... I consider his [Byron's] acquaintance so desirable that I would incur the risk of being called a Flirt for the sake of enjoying it."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Milbanke Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : ode to Napoleon Bonaparte

Anne Isabella Milbanke to Lord Byron (1814): 'Your ode to Buonaparte was read in the company which I have just left. It was thought not perfectly lyrical -- of this I cannot judge, but it appeared to me like a spontaenous effusion.... I was amazed indeed when his "magic of the mind" melted into air. I rejoice in the hope of peace, yet could not join in the triumphant exultation over his fall -- a very serious, if not melancholy contemplation'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Milbanke

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lara

'At present [August 1814] she [Anne Isabella Milbanke] was reading Sismondi's Italian Republics. And she had read Lara.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Milbanke Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto III)

'[John] Murray [Byron's publisher] sent an advance-copy of the new Harold. She [Lady Byron] read the imprecation, supposed to be spoken in the Colosseum: '"... Let me not have worn This iron in my soul in vain -- shall [italics]they[end italics] not mourn?" '-- with the two lines which prophesied his immortality of personal rather than poetic fame: '"But I have that within me that shall tire Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire." 'She feigned indifference at first. "The passage was probably intended to make a great impression on [italics]me[end italics]. Whilst I am so free from disordered brains, this will at least be postponed." It was not long postponed. A day or two later she was "well, but very [italics]weak[end italics] ... The new canto is beautiful indeed"'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Don Juan

'Early in July [1819] appeared the first part of Don Juan. "The impression was not so disagreeable as I expected, wrote Annabella [Anne Isabella, Byron's estranged wife]. '"In the first place I am very much relieved to find that there is not anything which I can be expected to notice [...] I do not think that my sins are in the pharisaical or pedantic line, and I am very sure that he does not think they are, but avails himself of the prejudices which some may entertain against me, to give a plausible colouring to his accusations. I must however confess that the quizzing in one or two passages was so good as to make me smile at myself -- therefore others are quite welcome to laugh.... I do not feel inclined to continue the perusal. It is always a task to me now to read his works, in which, through all the levity, I discern enough to awaken very painful feelings."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book

David Herbert Lawrence : Lady Chatterley's Lover

'On the way up I read Lady Chatterley's Lover, in the new full continental edition a friend got from Germany. I now retract what I said that DHL's letters are more important than his novel. Lady C. is a vastly important book. I understand it. I understand it as necessary. It is delicate and pure. One of the purest things I have ever read. It is far too long. But the strong necessary teaching is there. In parts its as direct and simple as the Bible. Its an amazing love-song; no not a love-song, a life-song. It has given me confidence and courage. It could purge the world.Nevertheless I feel its a thing, a teaching, I must take and pass. I could not stay just in that region. That was Lawrence. But I feel that my goal is quite different. I salute Lady Chatterley, & I will not say leave it behind, but leave it aside. As I said in my last, sex is to art what sleep is to waking life. Full spiritual wakefulness is without sex & is a new innocence, a new childishness if you like.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter D'Arcy Cresswell Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

'Moore had owned that the Memoirs [of Byron] were of "such a low pot-house description" that [John Murray] could not have published them'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Moore Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

'There were conflicting voices among those who had read the MS. [of Byron's Memoirs]. Lord John Russell and Lord Holland said there were at most four or five indelicate pages [...] Lord Rancliffe told [John Cam] Hobhouse that "the flames were the fit place for it," and that no decent person could regret the destruction.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord John Russell Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Holland Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Rancliffe Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Giaour

'Early in 1831 there is the following entry in a diary [of Lady Byron's]: "Read to Ada the beautiful lines on Greece in The Giaour, the Fare thee well, and the Satire. With the first she was highly pleased, from its [italics]effusion-of-feeling[end italics] character; the 2nd she thought laboured and inferior in pathos; the 3rd very amusing though very unlike the person." This disproves once for all the legend invented by Teresa Guiccioli [Byron's last mistress] that Ada never heard of her father's poetry until a year before she died in 1852!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : 'Fare thee well' (lyric verses)

'Early in 1831 there is the following entry in a diary [of Lady Byron's]: "Read to Ada the beautiful lines on Greece in The Giaour, the Fare thee well, and the Satire. With the first she was highly pleased, from its [italics]effusion-of-feeling[end italics] character; the 2nd she thought laboured and inferior in pathos; the 3rd very amusing though very unlike the person." This disproves once for all the legend the legend invented by Teresa Guiccioli [Byron's last mistress] that Ada never heard of her father's poetry until a year before she died in 1852!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : 'the Satire'

'Early in 1831 there is the following entry in a diary [of Lady Byron's]: "Read to Ada the beautiful lines on Greece in The Giaour, the Fare thee well, and the Satire. With the first she was highly pleased, from its [italics]effusion-of-feeling[end italics] character; the 2nd she thought laboured and inferior in pathos; the 3rd very amusing though very unlike the person." This disproves once for all the legend the legend invented by Teresa Guiccioli [Byron's last mistress] that Ada never heard of her father's poetry until a year before she died in 1852!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book

Howard R Smith : [paper on the House of Lords]

'Howard R. Smith then read a paper on the history of the House of Lords which was followed by considerablee discussion. Mr Binns then followed with an exhaustive paper which was much appreciated & which also led to free expression of opinion'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Howard R Smith : [paper on life of RL Stevenson]

'An excellent programme illustrative of R.L. Stevenson's work was then proceeded with. A biographical paper was read by H. R. Smith & a critical appreciation of the works by J. Ridges & selections by several members.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Robert Louis Stevenson :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of the XII Book Club Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ridges Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

'Mr Smith read a paper on Shelley & Mrs Ridges selections from a paper by Dr Scott on the poet's literary characteristics while other members read selections from his works'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Smith Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley :

'Mr Smith read a paper on Shelley & Mrs Ridges selections from a paper by Dr Scott on the poet's literary characteristics while other members read selections from his works'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of the XII book Club Print: Book

William [?] Harris : [paper on W.S. Landor]

'Mr Binns then read a paper on W.S. Landor which was followed by a reading by Mrs Edminson, a paper by William [?] Harris & other readings by other members'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William [?] Harris Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

Walter Savage Landor :

'Mr Binns then read a paper on W.S. Landor which was followed by a reading by Mrs Edminson, a paper by William [?] Harris & other readings by other members'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Edminson Print: Book

Walter Savage Landor :

'Mr Binns then read a paper on W.S. Landor which was followed by a reading by Mrs Edminson, a paper by William [?] Harris & other readings by other members'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of the XII Book Club Print: Book

Jean Jacques Rousseau : Emile (vol. 1)

Harriet, Countess Granville, to her sister Lady Georgiana Morpeth, 24 September 1810: 'I am in the middle of [Rousseau's] "Emile." I think parts of it excellent, and the foundation of most of what has been since written on the subject of education. The parts I do not like seem to me more ridiculous than immoral [...] I have, however, only read one volume [...] He has too much of looking up to the sky with larmes dans les yeux, which, though it may be a part and certainly is the consequence of sincere and ardent piety -- I mean that sort of grateful emotion one feels in all the pleasures of fine weather and the works of Nature -- is but a sad loophole or dependance for those who consider it as the whole.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Countess Granville Print: Book

Horace :

Harriet, Countess Granville, to her sister Lady Georgiana Morpeth, 12 August 1818: 'Yesterday evening Granville [husband], Hart [her brother, the Duke of Devonshire] and I looked over books. A beautiful edition of Camoens, brown and gold, with D. and the coronet inlaid in diamonds. It is like a book in a fairy tale. The Duchess of Devonshire's editions of Horace's journey. The prints are from beautiful drawings, one by herself.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Duke of Devonshire and Lord and Lady Granville (his brother-in-law and sister) Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Don Juan

Harriet, Countess Granville, to her sister Lady Georgiana Morpeth, 22 July 1819: 'I think parts of "Don Juan" more beautiful than anything he has written, some wit and a great deal of bad taste.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Countess Granville Print: Book

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : School for Scandal

'I begin to find like Joseph Surface that too good a character is inconvenient.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : The Critic

'I don't know what I have done to gain so much credit for generosity but I suspect I owe it to being supposed, as Puff says, one of "those whom Heaven has blessed with afluence."'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott

Henry Mackenzie : The Man of Feeling

The whole three are sitting sewing in the most peaceful manner at my hand: our Mother has been reading the Man of Feeling and my last Paper (with great estimation) in the Edinburgh Review.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Carlyle Print: Book

Henry Woodd Nevinson : Sitting at a Play

'In the same No. [of Harper's Magazine] Nevinson has a story-- and Lord it is bad. The whole No. is so inept that I feel sick to see myself there.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

David Bone : The Brassbounder

'Your gift is none the less welcome because I read your book a few weeks ago. E[dward] Garnett, Duckworth's literary advisor sent it to me shortly after publication.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Francis Warrington Dawson : The Scar

'I didn't dare to look at your book ["The Scar"] till I finished a rather long thing which I was writing.[...] I have not been disappointed.There is power to begin with, and a great charm of style, a soberness of presentation which appeals to me extremely, [...] for as you can imagine I am not writing this after one reading only.' Hence follow nine lines of further praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Helen Sanderson (pseud. 'Janet Allardyce') : African Sketches and Impressions

'All these sketches have the quality without which neither beauty, nor I am afraid, truth, are effective, that is they are intetesting in themselves. I've spent all yesterday with your pages [...].' Hence follow almost two pages of constructive criticism.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Unknown

Ivan Turgenev : A Lear of the Steppes and Other Stories

'I have an idea dear Jack that any comment on your work can be nothing by now but ( in the words of the Pole in "[A] Lear of the Steppes"), "perfectly superfluous chatter". '

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Cain

Harriet Countess Granville to her sister, Lady Georgiana Morpeth, 1 January 1822: 'I think "Cain" most wicked, but not without feeling or passion. Parts of it are magnificent, and the effect of Granville [husband] reading it out loud to me was that I roared [i.e. wept] till I could neither hear nor see. The scene, too, in "Sardanapalus" where Myrrha says "Oh, frown not on me," and the speech, "Why do I love this man?" I think beautiful and affecting.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Granville Leveson Gower Print: Book

David (dr) Brewster : Recommendation

'I [ac]cordingly wrote off to St. Andrews; and the next day, to all the four winds in quest of recommendations. To Goethe, to Irving, to Buller, to Brewster &c &c. These same recommendations are now beginning to come in upon me: I had one from Brewster two days ago (with the offer of farther help); and this morning, came a decent testificatory letter from Buller, and a most majestic certificate in three pages from Edward Irving.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Manuscript: Letter of recommendation

George Gordon Lord Byron : Sardanapalus

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Countess Granville Print: Book

(Elizabeth Lydia Rosabelle) Mrs Henry de La Pasture : Peter's Mother

'The appeal to my literary opinion was not fair. Suppose I had been in one of my cantankerous hours when the book came. But I daresay you were confident. And with reason. No native or acquired cantankerousness could resist the charm of style, the delicate simplicity of expression[...].' Hence follow four more lines of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on English ballads]

'The subject of the evening - 'English Ballads' - was then discussed in two papers, by F.J. Edminson & H.M. Wallis, and illustrated by readings recitations & songs. Recitations were given by Rosamund Wallis & Mrs Ridges. Readings by H.M. Wallis, Mrs Smith & Mrs Edminson'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Herbert Ernest Bates :

[Lengthy, uncomplimentary quote from H. E. Bates on D. H. Lawrence] 'Perhaps you would like to know who is writing this? H. E. Ballocks. I mean H. E. Bastard. That is, H. E. Bates: [Quotes H. E. Bates comparing Lawrence unfavourably to Rilke]... No, I can't go on. When will these sodding loudmouthed cunting shitstuffed pisswashed sons of poxed-up bitches learn that there is something greater than literature? A bastard who can bastard well write bastard shit like that bastard well ought to be bastard well stuffed with broken glass, the bastard.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Thomas Hardy]

'The programme on Thos Hardy & his works was as follows Mr Binns read an interesting account of the author's life & H.M. Wallis one on the minor poems. F.E. Reynolds read selections from Tess & S.A. Reynolds from Under the Greenwood Tree'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

William Wymark Jacobs :

'The following was the programme for the evening Viz a paper by W.S. Rowntree on W.W. Jacobs' works. C.E. Stansfield, C.I. Evans & W.S. Rowntree gave illustrative readings from his works H.R. Smith read a paper on Pett Ridge & his works.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

William Wymark Jacobs :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Rowntree Print: Book

William Wymark Jacobs :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

William Wymark Jacobs :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Rowntree Print: Book

William Pett Ridge :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard Smith Print: Book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on parodies]

'The programme on parodies consisted of a paper by H.M. Wallis & C.I. Evans & readings by Miss Marriage, Mrs Evans, C.I. Evans, W. Binns, H.M. Wallis & Helen Rawlings'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: H.M. Wallis and Charles Evans Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'On a Cornelian Heart which was broken'

From the Commonplace Book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of '“On a Cornelian Heart that was broken" - Lord Byron', beginning 'Ill-fated Heart! and can it be,/ That thou should'st thus be rent in twain?'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'To My Daughter'

From the Commonplace Book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of '"To my Daughter" - Lord Byron'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

George Gordon Lord Byron : memoranda

Sunday, 20 November 1825 (first entry): 'I have all my life regretted that I did not keep a regular [journal] [...] I have bethought me on seeing lately some volumes of Byron's notes that he probably had hit upon the right way of keeping such a memorandum-book by throwing aside all pretence to regularity and order and marking down events just as they occurred to recollection. I will try this plan'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'Bright be the place of thy soul'

From the Commonplace Book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of '“Bright be the place of thy Soul” Lord Byron', beginning (first verse): 'Bright be the place of thy soul!/ No lovelier spirit than thine/ E'er burst from its mortal control,/ In the orbs of the blessed to shine.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

Sir Gilbert Eliot, first Earl Minto : poems

Friday, 23 December 1825: 'Sir Gilbert [the first Earl Minto] was indeed a man among a thousand. I knew him very intimately at the beginning of the century [...] He loved the Muses and worshipd them in secret and used to read some of [his] poetry which was but middling. One upon a walk with his lady which involved certain conclusions (most delicately couchd) but which it is not usual to allude [to].'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Gilbert Eliot, first Earl Minto

John Galt : The Omen

Thursday, 23 February 1826: 'Read a little volume called the OMEN very well written, deep and powerfull language [...] it is [John Gibson] Lockhart or I am strangely deceived -- it is passd for Wilson's though, but Wilson has more of the falsetto of assumed sentiment, less of the depth of gloomy and powerful feeling.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Captain George Longmore : Tales of Chivalry and Romance

Friday, 10 March 1826: 'Breakfasted with me Mr. Francks [...] and Captain Longmore of the Royal Staff. He has written a book of poetry, Tales of Chivalry and Romance, far from bad yet wants spirit'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

T. H. Lister : Granby

Tuesday, 28 March 1826: 'Reading at intervals a novel called Grandby [sic] one of that very difficult class which aspires to describe the actual current of society; whose colours are so evanescent that it is difficult to fix them on the canvas. It is well written but over labourd -- too much attempt to put the reader exactly up to the thoughts and sentiments of the parties -- The women do this better -- Edgeworth, Ferrier, Austen have all had their portraits of real society far superior to anything Man vain Man has produced of the like nature.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

J. G. Lockhart : review of Thomas Moore, Life of Sheridan

Sunday 9 April 1826: 'Lockhart's Review -- Don't like his article on Sheridan's Life. There is no breadth in it, no general views -- the whole flung away in smart but party criticism [...] he lets himself too easily into that advocatism of stile which is that of a pleader not a judge or a critic and is particularly unsatisfactory to the reader.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Serial / periodical

John Smith : Brambletye House

Tuesday, 17 October 1826: 'Read over Sir John Chiverton and Brambletye House, novels in what I may surely claim as the stile [quotes from Jonathan Swift, "On the Death of Dr. Swift," lls. 57-8] '"Which I was born to introduce Refined it first and showd its use." 'They are both clever books, one in imitation of the days of chivalry, the other by John Smith [...] dated in the time of the civil wars and introducing historical characters. I read both with great interest during the journey [to London].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Philip H. Wicksteed : Four Lectures on Henrik Ibsen

'The programme on Ibsen's work was opened by a reading on Peer Gynt by Helen Rawlings from P.H. Wicksteed's book on Ibsen. Kathleen Rawlings sang a song from Peer Gynt composed by Grieg. Helen & Margery Rawlings & the Secretary gave readings & Kathleen Rawlings another song from the same play. F.J. Edminson gave a few biographical details of Ibsen & a synopsis of the plot of the Doll's House followed by a reading from the play. Miss Marriage, H.M Wallis, W.S. Rowntree & Percy Kaye took part in a reading from Pillars of Society'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings Print: Book

H. G. (Herbert George) Wells : The New Machiavelli

' This is really great, great in every dimension. [...] I have read the book ["The New Machiavelli"] yesterday and this evening I re-read it from p.290-504. I don't know what a "masterpiece" may be --but I know what masterwork is when I see it. And this is it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

W.H.(William Henry) Hudson : A Shepherd's Life: Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs (probable)

'Thanks very much for the books. You are indeed very good to me. Hudson's volume is fine, very fine, infinitely loveable, and as one reads on, one feels one's affection increase at every page.' Hence follow 8 lines of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'If that high world'

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of '"If that high World" - Byron', beginning 'If that high world -- which lies beyond Our own, surviving love endears...'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

George Gordon, Lord Byron : To Mary

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of '"To Mary" - Byron', beginning 'RACK'D by the flames of jealous rage, By all her torments deeply curst, Of hell-born passions far the worst, What hope my pangs can now assuage'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

George Gordon, Lord Byron : The Bridge of Abydos

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of four lines lines from the "Bride of Abydos" [Byron].

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

Letitia Elizabeth Landon : L’Improvisatrice

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of four lines by LEL beginning 'It is the spirit’s bitterest pain / To love – to be beloved again'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

Rev. Francis Murray : Friendship

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of “Friendship” by the Revd Francis Murray.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

Richard Brinsley Sheridan : Verses

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of 'Verses by R. B. Sheridan Esq'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

Letitia Elizabeth Landon : On Sir Walter Scott

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of "On Sir Walter Scott" by LEL.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

Thomas Haynes Bailey : 'They may talk of scenes that are bright and fair'

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of “They may talk of scenes that are bright and fair by Thos Haynes Bailey Esq”

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

Thomas Haynes Bailey : 'In Happiness Hours'

From the Commonplace book of Mrs Austen of Ensbury: Transcription of '“In Happiness Hours” By Thos Haynes Bailey Esq'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Austen

(Francis) Warrington Dawson : unspecified

'I have read the MS. I have read it twice.' Hence follow 20 lines of quite strong but constructive criticism.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Unknown

Henri Ghéon : Nos Directions

'Thank you for the book. So judicious, so interesting, so touching--why shouldn't I say so when I have been touched?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

William James : Memories and Studies

'The book has arrived too. It was very kind of you to think of sending it to me. As everything that Professor [William] James ever wrote it's most suggestive and interesting and morally valuable.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

R. B. Sheridan : The Critic

Thursday, 4 January 1827: 'After tea I broke off work and read my young folks the farce of The Critic and "merry folks were we."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Christian Isobel Johnson : Elizabeth de Bruce

Tuesday, 23 January 1827: 'Betwixt dinner and tea while husbanding a tumbler of whisky and water I read the new novel Elizabeth de Bruce -- part of it that is'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Christian Isobel Johnson : Elizabeth de Bruce

Saturday, 27 January 1827: 'Read Elizth. de Bruce -- it is very clever but does not show much originality: the characters though very entertaining are in the manner of other authors and the finishd and filldup portraits of which the sketches are to be found elsewhere. One is too apt to feel on such occasions the pettied resentment that you might entertain against one who had poachd on your manor. But [...] a claim set up on having been the first who betook himself to the illustration of some particular class of characters or department of life is no more a right of monopoly than that asserted by the old buccaneers by setting up a wooden cross and killing an Indian or two on some new discovered Island.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Lord Frederick Leveson Gower : Tale of the Mill

Saturday, 10 February 1827: 'I got a present of Lord Frederick Leveson Gower's printed but unpublishd "Tale of the Mill" -- it is a fine tale of terror in itself and very happily brought out. He has certainly a true taste for poetry. I do not know why, but from my childhood I have seen something fearful or melancholy at least about a Mill [speculates on possible reasons for this] [...] So I enterd into the spirit of the terror with which Lord Frederick has invested his haunted spot.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Unknown

Sir James Melville : Memoirs

Saturday, 10 March 1827: 'About three o'clock I got to a meeting of the Bannatyne club [...] Thomson is superintending a capital edition of Sir James Melville's Memoirs. It is brave to see how he wags his Scots tongue and what a difference there is in the force and firmness of his language compared to the mincing English edition in which he has hitherto been alone known.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott

Captain Thomas Hamilton : The Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton

Sunday, 13 May 1827: 'Spent the day, which was delightful, wandering from place to place in the woods, sometimes reading the new and interesting volumes of Cyril Thornton, sometimes chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy which strangely alternated in my mind idly stirred by the succession of a thousand vague thoughts and fears'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Sir James Melville : Memoirs

Friday, 8 June 1827: 'I was fatigued and sleepy when I go[t] home [from business meetings] and nodded, I think, over Sir James Melville's Memoirs.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott

George Bernard Shaw : Collected Plays

Transcript of interview: 'The one [book] that I was given was Bernard Shaw. We went into a bookshop and my father said you can have any book you like which was very unwise because I plumped for the most expensive book in the shop which was 3 guineas, which was terrifically expensive when you think that someone got 2 pounds 3 shillings a week wage.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

Francis Brett Young : [novels]

Transcript of interview: 'We [Hilary and schoolfellows] used to recommend things to each other a lot, and we had crazes – Georgette Heyer, D.K. Broster, Cronin, Axel Munter, Hugh Walpole. And then there were F Brett Young and my own particular favourite Helen Waddell, Peter Abelard – I read that when I was about 15 and I read it almost every year for about 6 years afterwards. I loved it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book

John James Cooper : [Essay on life and work of Goldwin Smith]

'J.J. Cooper introduced the subject of the life and Work of Goldwin Smith in an interesting essay. F.J. Edminson dealt with his historical work & his position as an historian & A. Rawlings read some extracts from his Life of Wm Lloyd Garrison'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John James Cooper Manuscript: Unknown

Frederick J. Edminson : [Essay on Goldwin Smith as historian]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick J. Edminson Manuscript: Unknown

Mary Hayward : [paper on Henri Bergson]

'The subject of this evening's discussion was The Philosophy of Henri Bergson. Interesting papers were given by C.E. Stansfield who introduced the discussion; by Howard R. Smith & Mary Hayward who dwelt particularly on Bergson's views upon Instinct, Intuition & Intelligence.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Manuscript: Unknown

Howard R. Smith : [paper on Henri Bergson]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

George Bernard Shaw : Doctor's Dilemma, The

'The programme on G. Bernard Shaw & his work was then entered upon by C.E. Stansfield reading a paper on the man & his work. H.M. Wallis gave a reading from "The Doctor's Dilemma" & next F.J. Edminson, W.S. Rowntree & Percy Kaye a part reading from "Man & Superman" & C.I. Evans completed the programme by reading in the Introduction to Fabian Essays'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Fabian Essays

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Man and Superman

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick Edminson, Percy Kaye & Walter Rowntree Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

James Fenimore Cooper : Prairie

Monday, 28 January 1828: 'I have read Cooper's Prairie, better I think than his Red Rover in which you never got foot on shore and to understand entirely the incidents of the story it requires too much nautical language. It is very clever though.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Colonel W. F. P. Napier : History of War in the Peninsula (vol. 1)

Saturday, 31 May 1828: 'I have finishd Napier's War in the Peninsula. It is written in the spirit of a Liberal but the narrative is distinct and clear and I should suppose accurate [comments further on specific points in text] [...] Good even to him untill next volume which I shall long to see.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

John A. Carlyle : Letter dated 6th Feb, Munich

'We are greatly pleased with your sketches of 'German character'; your Oken, your pert Surgeon, your Schelli[n]g &c must surely be pictures from the Life. Becker says Oken and Wilhelmi are true portraits, as I described them from your letter. Above all I am glad to find both that you admire Schelling and know that you do not understand him.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Manuscript: Letter

H. U. Tighe : Historical Account of Cumnor ... illustrative of the Romance of Kenilworth

Saturday, 31 January 1829: 'Lookd over Cumnor Hall by Mr. Usher Tighe of Oxford.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

The Revd. Dr. R. Henry : History of Great Britain; from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the death of Henry VIII

Tuesday, 10 February 1829: 'I read over Henry's History of Henry VI and Edward IV. He is but a stupid historian after all.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Sir William Hamilton : 'On the size of the brain and the proportion of its parts, as affected by age, sex, or sexual mutilation.'

Monday. 16 February 1829: 'Went to the Royal Society. There Sir William Hamilton read an Essay, the result of some anatomical investigations, which containd a maskd battery against the phrenologists. It seems these worthies are agreed that the cerebellum is that part of the headpiece which influences the sexual organs and according to this hypothesis that same cerebellum should be stronger in men than in women, in adults than in children, in old men than in youths, in persons mutilated than in those who are in the natural state [...] But if Sir William's course of experiments are correct the very opposite is the truth.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Hamilton

The Revd. C. H. Hartshorne : Ancient Metrical Tales

Friday, 20 February 1829: 'I glanced over some romances metrical publishd by Hartshorne several of which have not seen the light. They are considerably curious but I was surprized to see them mingled with "Blanchflour" and "Florice" and one or two others which might have been spared. There is no great display of notes or prolegomena and there is moreover no glossary. But the work is well edited.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Will. J. Sharman : article in Young Folks

'Observe in the same number, how Will. J. Sharman girds at your poor friend ...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

William Ernest Henley : review of Vol 3 Letters of Charles Dickens in Athenaeum

'I had already spotted your Dickens; very pleasant and true.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

William Morris : translation of The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs

'Morris's Sigurd is a grrrrreat poem; that is so.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on historical setting of Browning's 'Sordello']

'Browning's Sordello was introduced by some prefatory notes by H.M. Wallis read by E.E. Unwin. H.M. Wallis then read a paper describing the historical setting of the poem. Selections were read by Miss Marriage and C.I. Evans'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Marriage Wallis : [prefatory notes to Browning's 'Sordello']

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [notes on Christian Science]

'Some notes on the subject of Christian Science by E.A. Smith were read & C.E. Stansfield described some of the literature on the subject. The Secretary read a letter of resignation of membership from W. Binns'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown

John James Cooper : [Paper on Robert Bridges]

'J.J. Cooper read a paper on Robert Bridges & some selections from his poetry. C.I. Evans dealt with Newbolt & E.E. Unwin with Masefield in a similar way. Alfred Rawlings gave brief readings from Beeching, Alice Maynell [sic] & Frogley's Voice from the Trees'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John James Cooper Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Paper on John Masefield]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Charles Beeching :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Adonais

'A programme devoted to Shelley was arranged which included readings from Adonais, the Skylark & Francis Thompson's Essay on Shelley'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Skylark, The

'A programme devoted to Shelley was arranged which included readings from Adonais, the Skylark & Francis Thompson's Essay on Shelley'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

Maurice, Count Maeterlinck :

'A series of readings from Maeterlinck were given by various members'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

John Millington Synge : Tinker's Wedding, The

'The Programme on Recent Irish Literature consisted of the following. 1. A reading of The Tinker's Wedding by Synge 2. A paper by E.E. Unwin on the neo-Irish theatre 3. A reading from the playboy of the Western World 4. Two Songs by E.E. Unwin 5. readings from Countess Cathleen etc.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

John Millington Synge : Playboy of the Western World, The

'The Programme on Recent Irish Literature consisted of the following. 1. A reading of The Tinker's Wedding by Synge 2. A paper by E.E. Unwin on the neo-Irish theatre 3. A reading from the Playboy of the Western World 4. Two Songs by E.E. Unwin 5. readings from Countess Cathleen etc.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

William Butler Yeats : Countess Cathleen

'The Programme on Recent Irish Literature consisted of the following. 1. A reading of The Tinker's Wedding by Synge 2. A paper by E.E. Unwin on the neo-Irish theatre 3. A reading from the Playboy of the Western World 4. Two Songs by E.E. Unwin 5. readings from Countess Cathleen etc.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

ernest E. Unwin : [paper on neo-Irish theatre]

'The Programme on Recent Irish Literature consisted of the following. 1. A reading of The Tinker's Wedding by Synge 2. A paper by E.E. Unwin on the neo-Irish theatre 3. A reading from the Playboy of the Western World 4. Two Songs by E.E. Unwin 5. readings from Countess Cathleen etc.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

Arthur Patchett Martin : Sweet Girl Graduate: A Christmas Story and Random Rhymes

It would not be very easy for me to give you any idea of the pleasure I found in your present….I can assure you, your little book, coming from so far, gave me all the pleasure and encouragement in the world...' [Note 1]Martin read RLS’s essay ‘Virginibus Puerisque’ in "Cornhill" for August 1876 and wrote to him expressing his pleasure.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

John J. Cooper : [paper on Oliver Wendell Holmes]

'The Life & Works of Oliver W. Holmes were then dealt with. John J. Cooper read an interesting biographical paper, concluding with a reading "Latter Day Warnings" for The Autocrat. Mrs Robson a reading from "The Poet at the Bt table" Mrs Evans [ditto marks] from "Elsie Venner" R.H. Robson read a paper dealing with the characters of "The Professor at the Bt table". The paper was illustrated by well selected readings from the book - making a most interesting communication. C.I. Evans read "The Chambered Nautilus" & "The Wonderful One-hoss Shay".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John J. Cooper Manuscript: Unknown

Oliver Wendell Holmes : 'Latter Day Warnings'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John J. Cooper Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : Poet at the Breakfast Table, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Robson Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : Professor at the Breakfast Table, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : Elsie Venner

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: K. Evans Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : 'Chambered Nautilus, The'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Oliver Wendell Holmes : 'Deacon's Masterpiece, Or, The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay: A Logical Story

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Ernest Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting were read'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest Unwin Manuscript: book

Alfred Russel Wallace : My Life; A Record of Events and Opinions.

'The Meeting then considered the Life & Works of Alfred Russel Wallace. Walter S. Rowntree gave us an account of Wallace's life from the autobiography reading a number of well chosen extracts. This was followed by a paper from Henry M. Wallis on his scientific work and one from Mrs Smith on his psychical work.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter S. Rowntree Print: Book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [Paper on A.R. Wallace's scientific writings]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [Paper on A.R. Wallace's psychical writings]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Alfred Russel Wallace : [psychical writings]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book

Alfred Russel Wallace : [scientific writings]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

John J. Cooper : [paper on Thackeray]

'The evening was given over to the consideration of Thackeray. A paper by J.J. Cooper was read by Miss Marriage followed by readings from his works Charles E. Stansfield from Pendennis Charles I. Evans from Newcomes Mrs W.H. Smith from Vanity Fair H.M Wallis from Roundabout Papers H.R. Smith from Esmond'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Marriage Manuscript: Unknown

William Makepeace Thackeray : Pendennis

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Newcomes, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Roundabout Papers

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Henry Esmond

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard Smith Print: Book

Captain Basil Hall : Fragments of Voyages and Travels

Wednesday, 13 April 1831: 'My nap [same afternoon] was a very short one and was agreeably replaced by Basil Hall's Fragments of Voyages. Every thing about the i[n]side of a vessell is interesting and my friend has the great sense to know this is the case.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

Peter Christen Asbjorsen : Round the Yule Log

'Thank you for your beautiful book, which I admired with my eyes and then read with great amusement.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Mary Russell Mitford : Belford Regis

Harriet, Countess Granville, to her brother, the Duke of Devonshire, 20 June 1835: 'Lord Fitzwilliam [...] and five offspring came [...] Meg took them under her especial care, hurried them off to a couch in the ball-room, got partners for the girls, offered her own two pretty little things up to the boys. But the youngest, Wentworth, preferred sitting all night in the drawing room, studying the comic annual, and, that done, beginning "Belford Regis."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Wentworth ?Fitzwilliam Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [paper on life and works of Richard Jefferies]

'The evening was then devoted to Richard Jefferies - Poet-Naturalist. Ernest E. Unwin read a paper dealing with his life & the main aspects of his work. In this it was shown how the changes in environment & in health affected the style of his writings & an attempt was made to give a critical appreciation of his work. This was helped by numerous readings given by H.M. Wallis, Rosamund Wallis, C.I. Evans, Ursula D. Unwin, Howard R. Smith, & Ernest E. Unwin'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

Richard Jefferies :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

Richard Jefferies :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Richard Jefferies :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis Print: Book

Richard Jefferies :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ursula D. Unwin Print: Book

Richard Jefferies :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Richard Jefferies :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard Smith Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

John James Cooper : [letter of resignation from XII Book Club]

'The secretary read the following letter from John James Cooper'. [the letter, of resignation from the club, is pasted in]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Letter

Miguel de Cervantes :

'The evening was then devoted to the consideration of Cervantes - his life & work. C.E. Stansfield read a paper & readings were given by Mrs Rawlings, Alfred Rawlings, Mrs Evans, Mr Robson & Mrs Robson'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Evans Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Robson Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

John James Cooper : [poem on the XII Book Club]

'The Secretary read the following poem which he had received from J.J. Cooper in reply to his letter.' [the poem is pasted in below]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Letter

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Meredith]

'The evening was devoted to Meredith. H.M. Wallis read a most interesting paper upon Meredith's works. This gave rise to considerable discussion. Mrs Evans read from Richard Feverel. Mrs Robson - The Egoist. C.E. Stansfield introduced us to the poems of Meredith. The evening closed with the reading of [Jerry in another hand] the Juggler by C.I. Evans. This poem came as a pleasant surprise after the more obscure & difficult poems to which we had been introduced & should certainly encorage some of us to dig deeper into his poetical works.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Lady Georgiana Leveson Gower : Ellen Middleton

Harriet, Countess Granville to her sister, Lady Carlisle 8 March 1844: '"Ellen Middleton" is no longer a secret and will be out in three weeks [...] Opinions given without her name being known have been more than gratifying, and Mrs. Sartoris read till four in the morning with intense interest that never flagged for a moment.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Sartoris

Lady Georgiana Leveson Gower : Ellen Middleton

Lady Georgiana Fullerton [nee Leveson Gower] to her mother, Harriet, Countess Granville [from letter enclosed in letter of 4 April 1844 from Lady Granville to her sister Lady Carlisle]: 'I am rather angry with Charles Granville for having shown the proof sheets [of Ellen Middleton] to Lord Clarendon, and I regret for my own sake that he praises it so extravagantly. I think it is like when a new beauty appears. Instead of prepossessing people in its favour, it will make them find fault with it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Clarendon Print: Unknown, In proof

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Mary Hayward : [paper on life of Lewis Carroll]

'The evening was then given over to the life & works of Lewis Carroll. Mary Hayward Life of Lewis Carroll. Songs. Well you walk etc Mrs Robson. Walrus & C. E.E.U. Speak gently. Mary Hayward. Readings by S.A. Reynolds, C.E. Stansfield, The Rawlings & Unwin families.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: BookManuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: BookManuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [paper on life of William Morris]

'William Morris - Craftsman - Socialist was the subject of the meeting. The Secretary read a paper dealing with the main currents of Morris's life & the parts that art & socialism took in determining his course in life. [the contents of the paper are summarised'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Francis Bret Harte : 'Waif of the Plains, The'

'The members then considered Bret Harte & his work. The committee overwhelmed by the inability (through health & other unavoidable circumstances) of 3 members to introduce the [underlined] Man [end underlining] to the Club boldly inaugurated a new procedure & in the capable hands of C.I. Evans became a great success [this was for every member to furnish some facts about him - these are redacted] We then had some readings from his works 'The Waif of the Plains' by Miss Wallis 'Luck of Roaring Camp' by Mrs Rawlings This last was the short story with which he leaped into fame as a short-story writer of Western mining life. Mr Evans read a story from the published biography - a book that seemed well worth reading, & Mrs Unwin read two of his poems. other members read poems & the discussion upon his work was continued. To many of us - the Secretary is one of these - the evening introduced us to a new novelist - we had heard of the short poems - 'Jim' & 'In the Tunnel' but The Luck of Roaring Camp & his other prose work are surely worthy to rank with the best.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Wallis Print: Book

Francis Bret Harte : 'Luck of Roaring Camp, The'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings Print: Book

Francis Bret Harte : [poems]

'The members then considered Bret Harte & his work. The committee overwhelmed by the inability (through health & other unavoidable circumstances) of 3 members to introduce the [underlined] Man [end underlining] to the Club boldly inaugurated a new procedure & in the capable hands of C.I. Evans became a great success [this was for every member to furnish some facts about him - these are redacted] We then had some readings from his works 'The Waif of the Plains' by Miss Wallis 'Luck of Roaring Camp' by Mrs Rawlings This last was the short story with which he leaped into fame as a short-story writer of Western mining life. Mr Evans read a story from the published biography - a book that seemed well worth reading, & Mrs Unwin read two of his poems. Other members read poems & the discussion upon his work was continued. To many of us - the Secretary is one of these - the evening introduced us to a new novelist - we had heard of the short poems - 'Jim' & 'In the Tunnel' but The Luck of Roaring Camp & his other prose work are surely worthy to rank with the best.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ursula Unwin Print: Book

Francis Bret Harte : [poems]

'The members then considered Bret Harte & his work. The committee overwhelmed by the inability (through health & other unavoidable circumstances) of 3 members to introduce the [underlined] Man [end underlining] to the Club boldly inaugurated a new procedure & in the capable hands of C.I. Evans became a great success [this was for every member to furnish some facts about him - these are redacted] We then had some readings from his works 'The Waif of the Plains' by Miss Wallis 'Luck of Roaring Camp' by Mrs Rawlings This last was the short story with which he leaped into fame as a short-story writer of Western mining life. Mr Evans read a story from the published biography - a book that seemed well worth reading, & Mrs Unwin read two of his poems. Other members read poems & the discussion upon his work was continued. To many of us - the Secretary is one of these - the evening introduced us to a new novelist - we had heard of the short poems - 'Jim' & 'In the Tunnel' but The Luck of Roaring Camp & his other prose work are surely worthy to rank with the best.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

Francis Bret Harte : [short poems]

'The members then considered Bret Harte & his work. The committee overwhelmed by the inability (through health & other unavoidable circumstances) of 3 members to introduce the [underlined] Man [end underlining] to the Club boldly inaugurated a new procedure & in the capable hands of C.I. Evans became a great success [this was for every member to furnish some facts about him - these are redacted] We then had some readings from his works 'The Waif of the Plains' by Miss Wallis 'Luck of Roaring Camp' by Mrs Rawlings This last was the short story with which he leaped into fame as a short-story writer of Western mining life. Mr Evans read a story from the published biography - a book that seemed well worth reading, & Mrs Unwin read two of his poems. Other members read poems & the discussion upon his work was continued. To many of us - the Secretary is one of these - the evening introduced us to a new novelist - we had heard of the short poems - 'Jim' & 'In the Tunnel' but The Luck of Roaring Camp & his other prose work are surely worthy to rank with the best.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Gilbert Murray]

'Gilbert Murray & his work was the subject for the evening & a paper was read by H.M. Wallis. This afforded an interesting & useful introduction to the evening's subject & it was followed by several readings from his work. Mrs Rawlings read from 'The Rise of the Greek Epic' & H.M. Wallis later also read from the same book. Miss Marriage also read some extracts from one of his volumes of translations'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Gilbert Murray : Rise of the Greek Epic, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Gilbert Murray : Rise of the Greek Epic, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings Print: Book

Gilbert Murray : [translations]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Francis William Bain : 'Bubbles of the Foam'

'The rest of the evening was devoted to Bain's Indian Stories. It is impossible for one, not steeped in Indian mythology & with no knowledge of Indian life, to do justice to these extraordinary books. That they are beautiful with the overpowering scents & colours of the East is too obvious - that the author has a wonderful power of description hardly a word out of place or a jarring note is also obvious - that they are unique in literature is very likely - but --- perhaps I had better give the programme. [all extracts from] Bubbles of the Foam by E.E. Unwin Ashes of a God " Rosamund Wallis Syrup of the Bees " Alfred Rawlings In the Great God's Hair " Miss Marriage Digit of the Moon " Mrs Reynolds The club is indebted to Alfred Rawlings for introducing us to a new type of literature and if it left some of us gasping as with asthma in its rather overscented & sensuous atmosphere so that we longed for the moors & the winds of Heaven - others, whose breathing organs can cope with this Eastern air & whose palates are tickled by The Syrup of the Bees will feel that a new star has entered their literary constellation.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

Francis William Bain : 'Ashes of a God'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis Print: Book

Francis William Bain : 'Syrup of the Bees'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book

Francis William Bain : 'In the Great God's Hair'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book

Francis William Bain : 'Digit of the Moon'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Reynolds Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [paper on Gissing]

'The meeting then entered the gloomy portals of New Grub St & attempted to follow the fortunes of George Gissing. The Book Club members were evidently in no mood to apreciate the side of life painted by Gissing. However the Secretary protests that there is need for all sides of 'Life' to be depicted & that we cannot obtain the all round knowledge so essential to a right understanding of the problems of living without our Gissings, Hardys. Kiplings & Masefields. The details of the programme included an introductory paper by E.E. Unwin New Grub Street by H.R. Smith The Odd Women by H.M. Wallis Private Papers of Henry Rycroft by C.S. Stansfield'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage I and II

Walter Scott to John Murray, 2 July 1812, with enclosed letter of appreciation to Lord Byron: 'I trouble you with a few lines to his Lordship [...] I hope he will not consider it as intrusive in a veteran author to pay my debt of gratitude for the high pleasure I have received from the perusal of "Childe Harold," which is certainly the most original poem which we have had this many a day'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Bride of Abydos

John Murray to Lord Byron (November 1813): 'I am so very anxious to procure the best criticism upon the "Bride [of Abydos]," that I ventured last night to introduce her to the protection of Mr. Frere. He has just returned, quite delighted; he read several passages to Mr. Heber as exquisitely beautiful. He says there is a simplicity running through the whole that reminds him of the ancient ballad. [...] I asked if it was equal to the "Giaour;" he said that the "Giaour" contained perhaps a greater number of splendid passages, but that the mind carries something to [italics]rest upon[end italics] after rising from the "Bride of Abydos." It is more perfect.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Giaour

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

John Murray to Lord Byron, 3 February 1814, on first reception of The Corsair: 'Never, in my recollection, has any work, since the "Letter of Burke to the Duke of Bedford," excited such a ferment [...] I sold, on the day of publication, -- a thing perfectly unprecedented -- 10,000 copies; and I suppose thirty people, who were purchasers (strangers), called to tell the people in the shop how much they had been delighted and satisfied. Mr. Moore says it is masterly, -- a wonderful performance. Mr. Hammond, Mr. Heber, D'Israeli, every one who comes [...] declare their unlimited approbation. Mr. Ward was here with Mr. Gifford yesterday, and mingled his admiration with the rest [...] Gifford did what I never knew him do before -- he repeated several passages from memory [...] I was with Mr. Shee this morning, to whom I had presented the poem; and he declared himself to have been delighted [...] I have the highest encomiums in letters from Croker and Mr. Hay'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Moore Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: ?Richard Heber Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Isaac Disraeli Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gifford Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Wilson Croker Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lara

John Murray to Lord Byron, 6 August 1814, on first reception of Lara: 'Mr. Frere likes the poem greatly, and particularly admires the first canto. I mentioned the passages in the second canto -- descriptive of the morning after the battle, which delighted me so much, and indeed Mr. Wilmot and many other persons. His [Frere's] remark was that he thought it rather too shocking. This is perhaps a little fastidious. Sir Jno. Malcolm [...] called to express his satisfaction; and by the way, I may add that Mr. Frere has been here this moment to take another copy with him to read again in his carriage. He told me that Mr. Canning liked it equally. Mr. Frere, and in his report, Mr. Canning, are the only persons who have spoken in praise of "Jacqueline"; but they say it is beautiful'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lara

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lara

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lara

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir J. Malcolm Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lara

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Bride of Abydos

Walter Scott to John Murray, 6 January 1814: 'I have read Lord Byron's "Bride of Abydos" with great delight, and only delay acknowledging the receipt of a copy from the author till I can send him a copy of the "Life of Swift."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Lara

William Blackwood to John Murray, 8 November 1814: 'Since I was a little better [following illness] I have been again reading "Lara," and the delight it afforded me was exquisite. The very incongruities which a number of our small critics have been nibbling at, afforded me the highest enjoyment.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Blackwood Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : poems

From recollections of John Murray junior: 'Sometimes, though not often, Lord Byron read passages from his poems to my father. His voice and manner were very impressive. His voice, in the deeper tones, bore some resemblance to that of Mrs. Siddons.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on child study]

'Child- Study then claimed our attention. Three papers (or contributions) were given first of all by Mrs Smith, Mr Evans & Mr Stansfield so as to give the remaining time to discussion. Mrs Smith in reading the opening paper quoted part of an extremely interesting article from 'The Spectator' - dealing with the child's mind & what the problems were about which the young members of society thought. [the discussion on the subject and Unwin's own opinions are then given at length]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ethel C. Stevens : [letter to XII Book Club]

'A letter from Miss Ethel C. Stevens offering to entertain the Book Club for the Sept meeting was read'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Letter

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on 'Mankind in the Making' by Wells]

'The meeting then considered the work of H.G. Wells. The chief item of interest was undoubtedly a paper by Henry M. Wallis upon Wells's romances but a better title would be 'A Critique of the Wells Method in Story-writing'. This was certainly one of the ablest papers which H.M.W. has contributed to the Book Club in recent years and gave rise to interesting discussion. R.H. Robson read one of the short stories to illustrate this side of Wells's literary works. Mrs Smith read a paper upon Mankind in the Making and Mary Hayward dealt with the novels, showing by extracts his views upon the English middle class, marriage, social life & religion.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Wells's 'Romances']

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Herbert George Wells : [a short story]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : [novels]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : Mankind in the Making

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : [novels]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : [extracts from novels]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Hayward Print: Book

Helen Maria Williams : Narrative of Events in France in 1815

Isaac D'Israeli to John Murray (1815): 'I have just finished Miss Williams's narrative [...] I consider it a [italics]a capital work[end italics], written with great skill, talent, and care; full of curious and new developments, and some facts which we did not know before. There breathes through the whole a most attractive spirit, and her feelings sometimes break out in the most beautiful effusions [...] it must be popular, as it is the most entertaining [book] imaginable; one of those books one does not like to quit before finishing it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Isaac D'Israeli Print: Book

Helen Maria Williams : Narrative of Events in France in 1815

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Isaac D'Israeli Print: Book

C. R. Maturin : Bertram

John Murray to Walter Scott, 25 December 1815: 'I was with Lord Byron yesterday. He enquired after you, and bid me say how much he was indebted to your introduction of your poor Irish friend Maturin, who had sent him a tragedy, which Lord Byron received late in the evening and read through, without being able to stop. He was so delighted with it that he sent it immediately to his fellow-manager [at Drury Lane theatre], the Hon. George Lamb, who, late as it was, could not go to bed without finishing it. The result is that they have laid it before the rest of the [theatre] Commitee; they, or rather Lord Byron, feels it his duty to the author to offer it himself to the managers of Covent Garden.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron

C. R. Maturin : Bertram

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: The Hon. George Lamb

John Wilson Croker : Stories for Children from the History of England (extracts)

John Wilson Croker to John Murray (1816): 'I send you seven stories [for 'Stories for Children from the History of England'], which, with the eleven you had before, brings us down to Richard III [...] I think you told me that you gave the first stories to your little boy to read. Perhaps you or Mrs. Murray would be so kind as to make a mark over against any such words as he may not have understood, and to favour me with any criticism the child may have made, for on this occasion I should prefer a critic of 6 years old to one of 60.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Murray Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Siege of Corinth / Parisina

John Murray to Lord Byron (December 1815): 'I tore open the packet you sent me, and have found in it a Pearl. It is very interesting, pathetic, beautiful -- do you know, I would almost say moral [...] I have been most agreeably disappointed (a word I cannot associate with the poem) at the story, which -- what you hinted to me and wrote -- had alarmed me; and I should not have read it aloud to my wife if my eye had not traced the delicate hand that transcribed it.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Murray Manuscript: Unknown, In hand of Anne Isabella, Lady Byron

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Siege of Corinth

Isaac D'Israeli to John Murray (December 1815): 'I find myself, this morning, so strangely affected by the perusal of the poem last night, that I feel it is one which stands quite by itself [...] There is no scene, no incident, nothing so marvellous in pathos and terror in Homer, or any bard of antiquity [comments further ] [...] Homer has never conveyed his reader into a vast Golgotha, nor harrowed us with the vulture flapping the back of the gorged wolf, nor the dogs: the terror, the truth, and the loneliness of that spot will never be erased from my memory [...] I never read any poem that exceeded in power this, to me, extraordinary production. I do not know where I am to find any which can excite the same degree of emotion.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Isaac D'Israeli Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Siege of Corinth

John Murray to Byron (c. January 1816): 'I enclose Ward's note after reading the "Siege of Corinth." I lent him "Parisina" also, and he called yesterday to express his mind at your hesitation about their merits [...] I lent Parisina to Mr. Hay (Mr. Wilmots friend) last night, and I enclose his note. I send the proof [...] I will send a revise of "Corinth" to-night or to-morrow.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Parisina

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Parisina

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Parisina

John Murray to Byron, 4 January 1816: 'Nothing can be more interestingly framed and more interestingly told than this story [Parisina] [...] I read it last night to D'Israeli and his family, and they were perfectly overcome by it [comments further on text].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Murray Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Prisoner of Chillon

Dr John Polidori, Byron's secretary, to John Murray, 10 July 1816: 'Since it has given you hopes of entering well into the literary world next winter, that "Childe Harold" has got another canto [...] you will be more pleased to hear of another poem of 400 lines called "The Castle of Chillon" [sic]; the feelings of a third of three brothers in prison on the banks of the Geneva Lake. I think it very beautiful, containing more of his tender than his sombre poetry.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Polidori Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold IV

John Murray to Byron, 12 September 1816, on William Gifford's response to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV: 'He has been exceedingly ill with jaundice [...] He said he was unable to leave off last night, and that he had sat up until he had finished every line of the canto. It had actually agitated him into a fever [...] He had persisted this morning in finishing the volume [...] He says that what you have heretofore published is nothing to this effort. He says also, besides its being the most original and interesting, it is the most finished of your writings; and he has undertaken to correct the press for you.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gifford Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Sketch from Private Life

'The "Sketch from Private Life" was one of the most bitter and satirical things Byron had ever written [...] Mr. Murray showed the verses to Rogers, Frere, and Stratford Canning. In communicating the result to Byron, he said:-- '"They have all seen and admired the lines; they agree that you have produced nothing better; that satire is your forte; and so in each class as you choose to adopt it [goes on to add readers' suggestions]."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Rogers Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Sketch from Private Life

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Hookham Frere Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Sketch from Private Life

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Stratford Canning Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Monody [on Sheridan]

John Murray to Byron, 12 September 1816: 'Respecting the "Monody," I extract from a letter which I received this morning from Sir James Mackintosh: "I presume I have to thank you for a copy of the "Monody" on Sheridan received this morning. I wish it had been accompanied by the additional favour of mentioning the name of the writer, at which I only guess: it is difficult to read the poem without desiring to know." 'Generally speaking it is not, I think, popular, and spoken of rather for fine passages than as a whole [...] Gifford does not like it; Frere does.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir James Mackintosh

George Gordon Lord Byron : Monody [on Sheridan]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gifford

George Gordon Lord Byron : Monody [on Sheridan]

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Hookham Frere

George Gordon Lord Byron : poems [apparently including Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III]

John Murray to Byron, 22 January 1817: 'I had a letter from Mr. Ward, to whom, at Paris, I sent the poems, and he is delighted; and Mr. Canning, most particularly so with the third canto [...] Walter Scott always mentions you with kindness in his letters, and he thinks nothing better than Canto III.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group:

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gifford

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group:

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott

Walter Scott : Review of George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III

Byron to John Murray, 3 March 1817: 'In acknowledging the arrival of the article from the Quarterly, which I received two days ago, I cannot express myself better than in the words of my sister Augusta, who (speaking of it) says, that it is written in a spirit "of the most feeling and kind nature."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Augusta Leigh Print: Serial / periodical

George Gordon Lord Byron : 'Swiss Journal [letter]'

Maria Graham to John Murray (March 1817): 'A thousand thanks, my dear sir, for the loan of the Journal, which I have perused with the greatest interest. A more superstitious age would certainly have believed him possessed of the [italics]art magic[end italics], so completely does he continue to force attention and sympathy wherever he pleases [comments further in praise of text and author] [...] I always forget myself when I think of our greatest genius [i.e. Byron]. Therefore I will hasten to thank you for the two dramas. The French one amuses me, the other does so for a different reason.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Graham Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV

John Cam Hobhouse to John Murray, from Venice, 7 December 1817: 'Your new acquisition is a very fine finish to the three cantos already published [comments further] [...] it is possible that all other readers may agree with my simple self in liking this fourth canto better than anything Lord B. has ever written. I must confess I feel an affection for it more than ordinary, as part of it was begot, as it were, under my own eyes; for some of the stanzas owe their birth to our morning walk or evening ride at La Mara.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cam Hobhouse Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Beppo

John Murray to Byron, 16 June 1818: 'Mr. Frere is at length satisfied that you are the author of "Beppo." He had no conception that you possessed the protean talent of Shakespeare, thus to assume at will so different a character.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Hookham Frere

George Gordon Lord Byron : Don Juan, Cantos I and II

'Lady Caroline Lamb informed [John] Murray [Byron's publisher]: "You cannot think how clever I think 'Don Juan' is, in my heart."'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Corsair

John Cam Hobhouse to John Murray, 22 October 1821, prior to publications of Byron's plays Cain, The Two Foscari, and Sardanapalus: 'If it be not presumptuous of me to say so, I should venture to assert that tragedy-writing is not Lord Byron's forte; that is to say, it will not turn out to be the best thing that he can do. According to my poor way of thinking, the "Corsair" and the Fourth Canto [of "Childe Harold"] will always bear away the palm.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cam Hobhouse Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Sardanapalus

'Mr. Hobhouse wrote that [Sardanapalus] interested him very deeply, though it might be thought fantastical and unnatural by some [goes on to quote letter from Hobhouse to Murray of 22 October 1821].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cam Hobhouse Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Cain, a Mystery

Walter Scott to John Murray, regarding Byron's Cain: 'I do not know that his Muse has ever taken so lofty a flight amid her former soarings. He has certainly matched Milton upon his own ground. Some part of the language is bold, and may shock one class of readers [...] But then they must condemn "Paradise Lost" if they have a mind to be consistent [comments further].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Cain, a Mystery

Sharon Turner (lawyer) to John Murray, 31 January 1822: 'Mr. Shadwell, whom I have just seen, has told me that he had read "Cain" some time ago, -- that he thinks it contains nothing but what a bookseller can be fairly justified in publishing, that it is not worse in many parts than "Paradise Regained" and in "Paradise Lost" [...] He is King's Counsel and a religious man. He thinks it can hurt no reasonable mind. He will lead the case.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Herbert George Wells : First and Last Things. Confession of Faith and Rule of Life

'The meeting then continued the discussion of H.G. Wells & his religious development. C.E. Stansfield had prepared an able paper dealing with this subject. He traced the growth of Wells' mind & thought as revealed in the series of published writings and showed by extracts from '1st & last things', 'God the invisible King' & 'The Soul of a Bishop' the striking development of his religious nature. Miss Hayward & Mrs Smith read extracts in support of this view.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : God the Invisible King

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : Soul of a Bishop, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Herbert George Wells :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Hayward Print: Book

Herbert George Wells :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Apology for Idlers

'The remainder of the evening was given over to R.L. Stevenson & his work. [the format of the evening's discussion on the question of whether Stevenson's work will live is explained] To enable us to review his work readings were given as under from the Essays - 'An Apology for Idlers' by Alfred vice Janet Rawlings Poems - 'Christmas at Sea' 'Tropic Rain' 'Vagabond' [all read by] Mrs W.H. Smith Travel Books - 'Travels with a Donkey' by E.E. Unwin Novels - 'Master of Ballantrae' by H.M. Wallis Letters - Mr & Mrs Evans. [some remarks on songs sung by various members] It is difficult for any one to sum up the results of the discussion - it was soon apparent that to some members his essays were the one & only thing worth having, to others his stories, 'Treasure Island', 'Island Nights Entertainments' & so on reveal his greatness: to others, his letters are the thing & so one might proceed'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred and Janet Rawlings Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : 'Christmas at Sea'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : 'Tropic Rain'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : 'Vagabond'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Travels with a Donkey

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Master of Ballantrae, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : [letters]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles and Katherine Evans Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: members of XII Book Club Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Island Nights' Entertainments

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: members of XII Book Club Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [paper on psychic phenomena]

'The evening was then devoted to the subject of Psychical Phenomena. The Secretary (Ernest E. Unwin] read a brief introductory paper, giving some indication of the way in which the subject had come under his notice, and one or two general fundamental points which he was prepared to accept. This was followed by a paper dealing with the sub-conscious mind by Mary Hayward. The very great importance of the subconscious - the way in which we can use it to free our minds of worry - the relationship between mind & mind or telepathy were clearly brought out. Then Mrs Smith read a paper which gave a deeper note to the subject. She dealt with communications from the spirit world with living people - giving personal experiences & experiences of her friends'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on the spirit world]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on an altar stone found near Carthage]

'Essays were then read. The Secretary does not feel able to do more than indicate the general nature of these essays. 1. Read by R.H. Robson. An essay written by H.M.W. about the remains of an altar stone found near Carthage. Vivid & interesting, bloodstained though the stone was, with human sacrifice. 2. Mrs Smith read a very interesting paper dealing with the mind & its training. 'My mind to me a kingdom is'. Considerable discussion followed. 3. Mr Stansfield read a fantasia (written surely by a historian. R.H.R.) relating the musings of Mendax II giving expression to a cynical prophecy of European politics if events evolved or devolved along present lines. We hope that the assassination of Ld. George by a Quaker pacifist & the suppression of L.P.S. will not be fulfilled. 4. E.E. Unwin read a paper entitled 'The Humours of Man' which consisted of a number of humorous stories lightly linked together'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Manuscript: Unknown

Elizabeth Ann Smith : [paper on the mind and its training]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [essay on 'The Humours of Man']

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper introducing Balzac]

'Balzac We were introduced by Henry M. Wallis to the novels of Balzac by an introduction to & readings from The Wild Asses Skin. A general discussion on the novel & the author followed and Mrs Unwin read some extracts from an article upon Balzac published some few years ago in 'Everyman'. [these extracts, summarising Balzac's career are quoted at length] Mrs Robson read from 'Le Pere Goriot' 'Old Goriot' Rosamund Wallis read 'Christ in Flanders' with its fine description of a ferryboat in a storm & the mysterious stranger who lead [sic] those who had faith walking over the waters to safety when the boat capsized'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Honore de Balzac : Wild Ass's Skin, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Honore de Balzac : Pere Goriot

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Robson Print: Book

Honore de Balzac : Christ in Flanders

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Thomas Walls Dutton : [writings on Nature of poetry]

'The Nature of Poetry. C.I. Evans brought before us the recent book by Henry Newbolt dealing with 'The Nature of Poetry' & gave as the final requisite [underlined] Rhythm [end underlining]. [This definition is discussed at length with quotation and contrary views from other members] Alfred Rawlings gave us Th. Walls Dutton's [?] ideas of poetry quoting him as expressing his own views almost entirely.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [essay on Keats]

'The subject of the evening's programme was John Keats. R.H. Robson read an essay dealing with his life. The main influences & friendships of his short life were well brought out. H.M. Wallis folowed with an appreciation written in the delightful style of which our Friend is so great a master & a reading of the Grecian Urn ode by Miss Marriage completed the first part of the programme. On our return from physical refreshment Charles I. Evans described the Poems of 1820 and some readings were given by Mrs Evans, Mrs Robson & C.E. Stansfield.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & confirmed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on the Comic]

'The evening then became a 'Comic One'. The chief contribution was a paper by H.M. Wallis on 'the Comic' as reflected in the works of the writers of last century. Readings were given & stories told as illustrations'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Leslie's 'The End of a Chapter']

'The main business of the evening was then proceeded with - 5 mins essays upon some book read recently. Mrs Evans read 'An English Lumber Camp' - from internal evidence it is probably true that this was an essay drawn from real life rather than from any book read. It was a magnificent literary effort in the author's best style. Perhaps more of 'H.M.W.' than 'Ashton Hillier'. Mrs Smith read a paper upon 'The Garden of Survival' a book by Alg. Blackwood. The paper gave rise to much interest. The extraordinary beauty of the extracts read from the book and the insight into the spiritual meaning of 'Guidance' displayed by the author impressed us all. Ernest E. Unwin read a paper on 'The End of a Chapter' by Shane Leslie - this paper was written by H.M. Wallis & introduced most of us to a new writer of power. The change in the world, in the balance of the classes & their future importance formed the theme of the book. Mary Hayward described her discovery of 'The Story of my Heart' by Richard Jefferies & read some extracts from it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin

'Another [woman prisoner] read and re-read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," till she must have known by heart every incident of that famous work. She was partial to telling the story to those women who were unable to read; and she would relate with such animation the villainies and atrocities of Legree, that considerable virtuous indignation would be aroused in the breasts of her listeners. "What an awful wretch that man must have been!" was the remark made on that personage, by a woman suffering a long sentence for the cold-blooded murder of her child.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Pigeon Pie

Books read by William Lygon, seventh Earl Beauchamp (politician, 1872-1938) to his daughters Lettice (1906-73) and Sibell (1907-2005) between June 1915 and December 1916 at Madresfield Court, Worcestershire: The Tapestry Room (Mrs Molesworth) The Pigeon Pie (Charlotte M. Yonge) Lilian’s Golden Hours (Eliza Meteyard) The Christmas Child (Hesba Stretton) Wandering Willie (from Scott’s Redgauntlet?) The Talisman (Walter Scott) Ivanhoe (Walter Scott) St Ives (Robert Louis Stevenson) Theodora Phranza (J. M. Neale) The House of Walderne (A. D. Crake) The Black Arrow (Robert Louis Stevenson) The Caged Lion (Charlotte M. Yonge) The Little Duke (Charlotte M. Yonge) The Jungle Books (Rudyard Kipling) The Maltese Cat (Rudyard Kipling) Boscobel (William Harrison Ainsworth) Puck of Pook’s Hill (Rudyard Kipling) Rewards and Fairies (Rudyard Kipling) The Armourer’s Apprentice (Charlotte M. Yonge) and some poetry.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Lygon, seventh Earl Beauchamp Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : St Ives

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Lygon, seventh Earl Beauchamp Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : The Black Arrow

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Lygon, seventh Earl Beauchamp Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Caged Lion

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Lygon, seventh Earl Beauchamp Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Little Duke

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Lygon, seventh Earl Beauchamp Print: Book

William Harrison Ainsworth : Boscobel

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Lygon, seventh Earl Beauchamp Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Armourer’s Apprentice

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Lygon, seventh Earl Beauchamp Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra : Don Quixote

'Since the age of five I have been a great reader [...]. At ten years of age I had read much of Victor Hugo and other romantics. I had read in Polish and in French, history, voyages, novels; I knew "Gil Blas" and "Don Quixote" in abridged editions; I had read in early boyhood Polish poets and some French poets, but I cannot say what I read on the evening [in September 1889] before I began to write myself. I belive it was a novel, and it is quite possible that it was one of Anthony Trollope's novels.It is very likely.My acquatance with him was then very recent. He is one of the English novelists whose works I read for the first time in English. With men of European reputation, with Dickens and Walter Scott and Thackeray, it was otherwise. My first introduction to English imaginative literature was "Nicholas Nickleby". It was extraordinary how well Mrs. Nickleby could chatter disconnectedly in Polish [...] It was, I have no doubt an excellent translation. This must have been in the year 1870.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz de Poraj : Pan Tadeuz

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Anthony Trollope :

'Since the age of five I have been a great reader [...]. At ten years of age I had read much of Victor Hugo and other romantics. I had read in Polish and in French, history, voyages, novels; I knew "Gil Blas" and "Don Quixote" in abridged editions; I had read in early boyhood Polish poets and some French poets, but I cannot say what I read on the evening [in September 1889] before I began to write myself. I belive it was a novel, and it is quite possible that it was one of Anthony Trollope's novels.It is very likely.My acquaintance with him was then very recent. He is one of the English novelists whose works I read for the first time in English. With men of European reputation, with Dickens and Walter Scott and Thackeray, it was otherwise. My first introduction to English imaginative literature was "Nicholas Nickleby". It was extraordinary how well Mrs. Nickleby could chatter disconnectedly in Polish [...] It was, I have no doubt an excellent translation. This must have been in the year 1870.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

'During the period that Mr. Moore had been in negotiation with the Longmans and Murray respecting the purchase of the Memoirs [of Byron], he had given "Lady Holland the MS. to read." Lord John Russell also states, in his "Memoirs of Moore," that he had read "the greater part, if not the whole," and that he should say that some of it was too gross for publication. When the memoirs came into the hands of Mr. Murray, he entrusted the Memoirs to Mr. Gifford, whose opinion coincided with that of Lord John Russell. A few others saw the memoirs, amongst them Washington Irving and Mr. Luttrell.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Holland Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord John Russell Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gifford Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Memoirs

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Luttrell Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : The Siege of Corinth

'When Murray was about to publish Byron's "Siege of Corinth" and "Parisina," he promised to send the early sheets to Blackwood, who proposed to hold a dinner in honour of the occasion, to which Scott, Erskine, and James Ballantyne were to be invited. Scott [...] unfortunately, could not accept the invitation for the day named; but, to secure his attendance, the dinner was put off for a week, and then he made his appearance with Erskine and Ballantyne. The poems were read, to the immense delight of the audience.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : Parisina

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Unknown

George Gordon Lord Byron : works

Maria Graham to John Murray, 2 November 1817: 'Pray what is the 4th Canto of "Childe Harold" doing? and where is Lord Byron? You know my admiration for his works, and my thoughts for the best, the very best, of the man [...] I have seen but one new book -- a Danish account of the north of Africa, interesting and curious [...] It is straight from the Baltic, having been comissioned by my good friend, Dr. Ross'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Graham Print: Book

Lady Caroline Lamb : Ada Reis

William Lamb to John Murray, 20 December 1822: 'The incongruity of, and objections to, the story of "Ada Reis" can only be got over by power of writing, beauty of sentiment, striking and effective situation, &c. [...] Mr. [William] Gifford [Murray's reader], I dare say, will agree with me that since the time of Lucian all the representations of the infernal regions, which have been attempted by satirical writers, such as Fielding's "Journey from this World to the Next," have been feeble and flat. The sketch in "Ada Reis" is commonplace in its observations and altogether insufficient [...] I think, if it were thought that anything could be done with the novel, and that the faults of its design and structure can be got over, that I could put her [i.e Lady Caroline Lamb] in the way of writing up this part a little, and giving it something of strength, spirit, and novelty, and making it at once more moral and more interesting. I wish you would communicate these my hasty suggestions to Mr. Gifford, and he will see the propriety of pressing Lady Caroline to take a little more time to this part of the novel. She will be guided by his authority, and her fault at present is to be too hasty and too impatient of the trouble of correcting and recasting what is faulty.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: The Hon. William Lamb Manuscript: Unknown

Frederick James Furnivall : Review in The Academy

'I knew I had forgot something: Furnivall is too free; it is permitted to be insolent, but not to be so strangely dull.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Hardy's life and work]

'The meeting then considered the works of Thomas Hardy. H.M. Wallis gave a paper outlining the main features of Hardy's life and gave some idea of the succession of works and a general criticism of his writing. The announced programme for the evening then came to an abrupt end - for health kept Mr Evans away & Mr Stansfield also was unable to come, and these two members had arranged to introduce the novels & poems of Hardy & also to start a discussion upon Hardy's religious views. We were very sorry to miss our friends & their contribution & hope that we may have another evening upon Hardy at some future time. To fill this gap in our programme H.M. Wallis told in his graphic way the short story called The 3 Travellers & Rosamund Wallis read the wife auction scene from 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' & the Secretary read a critique by Lawrence Binyon on the poems of Hardy'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Thomas Hardy : 'Three Travellers, The'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Thomas Hardy : Mayor of Casterbridge, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Violet Wallis : [paper on carols]

'Violet Wallis read a paper on Carols'. [the paper's contents are summarised]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Violet Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [paper on Miracle and Morality plays]

'The Secretary then read a paper upon English Miracle & Morality Plays. He described the Miracle Cycle at York with some illustrative readings from one or two of the earlier episodes. Then briefly traced the growth of the religious drama through the stages of its association with the Liturgy to its divorce from the Church & its elaboration by the city guilds. The development of Moralities was referred to & Mrs Unwin gave a reading from 'Everyman'.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: Unknown

John Wilson Croker : 'Colonial Government -- Head's Narrative [of his Administration in Upper Canada] -- Lord Durham's Report'

Sir Francis Knight to John Murray, 1 April 1839: 'I cannot help thanking you for having sent us such a shower of Quarterly Reviews. My Hens are quite delighted at the review of my "Narrative," and chuckle with great pride. Although I cannot presume to crow on the occasion, yet I may tell you that I feel deeply gratified at the view that has been taken of my services [...] It is certainly not only kindly but very ably done.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Francis Head and (apparently) female family members Print: Serial / periodical

Sir John MacNeill : 'England, France, Russia, and Turkey'

Sir Alexander Burnes to John Murray, 'On the Nile,' 30 March 1835: 'The Quarterly is lying before me [...] I have been reperusing the very article which treats of Mahommed Ali in that able essay regarding the encroachment of Russia. The Journal from which the quotations are made regarding the state and government of Egypt prove the writer to have been an accurate and an acute observer, but I do think that he has been too severe on the Pasha. To be sure he [Pasha] is a wholesale merchant and a wholesale oppressor, but compare him with his predecessors in this land of bondsmen, and then judge [comments further].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Alexander Burnes Print: Serial / periodical

Fanny Kemble Butler : Journal [of residence in America]

Lady Dacre to John Murray, 27 May 1835: 'Thousands of thanks, dear Mr. Murray, for allowing us to read those sheets of the wonderful Fanny's "Journal" in their rough state. I cannot tell you the entertainment they have proved to Lord Dacre, and how strongly they interest me, who have always been a greater enthusiast about her than he has. The depth of thought, the vigour of writing, the high tone of poetry in her descriptions, the absolute reality of all she portrays, make her work enchanting and piquant in the extreme [comments further] [...] The vigorous style shows the advantage of having studied the older authors as she has done. I wish she would not "progress." How I hate that word as a verb. A few more American expressions I would fain change for the honest English she delights in.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord and Lady Dacre Print: Unknown

Fanny Kemble Butler : Journal [of residence in America]

Sir Francis B. Head to John Murray, 2 July 1835: 'I have not had time to finish Fanny Kemble's book, but have seen enough of it to feel that she has been most unkindly and unjustly treated by the reviewers [...] I know of no subject I would more willingly undertake than her vindication. People say she is vulgar! So was Eve, for she scratched whatever part of her itched, and did a hundred things we should call vulgar. But the fact is, everything is vulgar now-a-days [...] Poor Fanny Kemble has fallen a victim to this tyranny. Her book is full of cleverness, talent, simple-heartedness, nature and nakedness. Her style is a little rough spot, but did you ever know a woman who was without one? I have no patience with the way she has been treated.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Francis B. Head Print: Book

Fanny Kemble Butler : Journal [of her residence in America]

Lady Callcott to John Murray (c.1835): 'Let me thank you for Mrs. Butler: very clever, very romantic, some excellent feelings, but (may I say) not as [italics]womanly[end italics] as I would have liked. A little too much of the tone of one living chiefly with men -- the green-room, in short. I have read a volume and a half [...] Mrs. Butler's "Journal" appears to me to improve as she goes on. The things to be objected to appear more seldom, and her criticisms on her own art and what is connected with it are so good that I should like to see tham separated and much enlarged. She is a clever, and moreover a shrewd observer; and setting apart the intentional descriptions, there are traits throughout that mark a strong and fine hand.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Callcott Print: Book

George Gordon Lord Byron : Don Juan

Caroline Norton to John Murray, 4 November 1837: 'I have received "Don Juan" and the October Quarterly [Review]. ... In thanking you for the two volumes of Byron belonging to the present beautiful edition, I must tell you that I had never read "Don Juan" [italics]through[end italics] before, which very few women in England of my age in England could say, -- and which I do not mind owning, since it adds greatly to the pleasure with which I perused the poem. I am afraid, in spite of the beauty, the wit, and the originality of the work, I think, with the Guiccioli [Byron's last mistress] -- "Mi rincrese solo che Don Giovanni non resti al inferno." It is a book which no [italics]woman[end italics] will ever like, whether for the reasons given by the author, or on other accounts, I will not dispute. To me the effect is like hearing some sweet and touching melody familiar to me as having been sung by a lost friend and companion, suddenly struck up in quick time with all the words parodied.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Caroline Norton Print: Book

H. Nelson Coleridge : 'Modern English Poetesses'

Caroline Norton to John Murray, 31 October 1840: 'I ought to have thanked you from Ventnor, instead of waiting till my return to town, for your kindness in sending me an early copy of the Quarterly, containing all that comfortable flattery respecting "The Dream" [comments further].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Caroline Norton Print: Serial / periodical

William Ernest Henley : 'A Note on Japanese Art' in Magazine of Art

'The Mag has come; the only thing I liked was your Japanese.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald : Life of George IV

'His Majesty, once more disobeying the Dook's orders, had granted to some creature an Irish peerage. 'I observe' wrote Arthur (I quote from memory), that your Majesty has been misinformed. I shall reserve the patent until I have an opportunity of learning your Majesty's pleasure upon it!!' O the groans of George, who knew his man, and whimpered under the rod.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

'C.E. Stansfield dealt in detail with Goethe's Faust. he showed that Faust started by Goethe at the age of 20 & finished when over 80 yrs is an expression of his own life & the influences which played upon it during the period of 60 years a period beginning in storm & stress & ending in calmness. The paper brought out very well the story of the bargain, the fulfilling of the terms & the final rescue of Faust by a horde of angels.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of the last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of the last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: book

Sir George Murray : 'article on Napier'

Lord Mahon to John Murray, 11 December 1836: 'I am much obliged to you for the early copy of the [Quarterly] Review which I am reading with great pleasure. The article on myself was very gratifying to me. Its approbation of the work is joined to so much knowledge of the subject as to make the former truly valuable. Pray, when you see Mr. Lockhart, tell him how highly I appreciate it. 'Lord Wellesley's letter is quite beautiful -- no less noble in sentiment than nervous in language [...] 'The third article on Napier makes me think the following no bad plan [goes on to suggest collection of all Quarterly Review article on this subject in a 'a pocket volume, for the use of the army']'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Mahon Print: Serial / periodical, 'early copy'

W. E. Gladstone : Church and State

Lord Mahon to John Murray, 7 December 1840: 'Mr. Gladstone's volume has of late engaged much of my attention. It is difficult to feel quite free from partiality where so amiable and excellent a man is concerned; but, if my friendship does not blind me, I should pronounce his production as marked by profound ecclesiastical learning, and eminent native ability. At the same time I must confess myself startled at some of his tenets; his doctrine of Private Judgment [sic] especially seems to me a contradiction in terms, attempting to blend together the incompatible advantages of the Romanist and of the Protestant principle upon that point.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Mahon Print: Book

Captain W. Cornwallis Harris : Wild Sports in South Africa

W. J. Broderip to John Murray, submitting Captain W. Cornwallis Harris's Wild Sports in South Africa, 8 April 1839: 'Capt. Harris's book is entertaining, and seems to be the work of an honest man devoted to sport, and not caring what he suffers provided he gets his shot [...] There is a little expression here and there in the Captain's book, that might be changed for the better -- such as a rhinoceros giving up "the ghost"!'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: W. J. Broderip Manuscript: Unknown

Michał Sędziwój : A New Light of Alchymy; Taken out of ye Fountain of Nature & Manual Experi-ence. To which is added a Treatise of Sulphur.

Included in Reading Notes of Edward Pordage (c.1710): Reading notes from the English translation of A New Light of Alchymy (1674) by Michał Sędziwój (Sendivogius).

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Pordage Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Howard R. Smith : 'Etaples & the Air raids'

'The following miscellaneous programme was then gone through. This change in the subject was caused by the imposibility of getting cheap copies of The Dynasts. 1. Pianoforte solo. Selection from Debusy [sic] Miss Bowman Smith 2. Reading. Modern Froissart Chronicles Mrs W.H. Smith 3. Reading. Migrations. Anon. Contrib. from Punch by Alfred Rawlings 4. Recitation. In a Gondola (Browning) Miss Cole 5. Song. 2 French Bergerettes. Mrs Unwin 6. Essay. 'The Pious Atrocity' R.B. Graham 7. Reading. Wedding Presents (Punch) Mrs Reynolds 8. Song. My dear Soul. Mrs Robson 9. Reading 'How the Camel got his Hump' W.H. Smith 10. Song. The Camel's hump. E.E. Unwin 11. Reading. The Man of the Evening (A.A. Milne Punch) Miss R. Wallis 12. Song. Hebrides Galley Song. Miss Bowman Smith 13. Reading. Arms of Wipplecrack S.A. Reynolds 14. Reading. Joints in the Armour. E.V. Lucas. H.M. Wallis 15. Song-Chant Folk Song [ditto] 16. Essay. 'Bad morality & bad art' R.H. Robson 17. Song. Winter. Miss Bowman Smith 18. Essay 'Etaples & the air raids' H.R. Smith 19. Recitation. These new fangled ways. E.E. Unwin 20. Song. Goodnight. Mrs Robson.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Browning's The Ring & the Book]

'the rest of the evening was devoted to Browning's The Ring & the Book. Henry M. Wallis read a masterly paper in introduction. This enabled those who had not read the long poem to understand the story & the way in which Browning treated the story. The success of the evening was largely due to this introduction. The story from several standpoints was then dealt with by members of the club. R.H. Robson read a description of the 1st Guido A. Rawlings read extracts from the book Capansacchi Mrs Evans [ditto] Pompilia Mr Gidham [ditto] Pope Mr Robson [ditto] Guido in prison'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

William Henry Hudson : Far Away and Long Ago - A History of My Early Life

'Miss R. Wallis described & read from the beginning of 'Long ago & far away' [sic] the autobiography: which was written during a convalescence, in which the past events of the author's life, long forgotten, floated before his eyes as he lay in a semi-trance. E. E. Unwin described his Naturalist writing & read from The Book of a Naturalist. Mrs Unwin read an extract from Hampshire Days. Mr Evans described his books dealing with life among the village [sic] abutting on Salisbury plain.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis Print: Book

William Henry Hudson : Book of a Naturalist, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

William Henry Hudson : Hampshire Days

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ursula Unwin Print: Book

William Henry Hudson : [naturalist writing]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

William Henry Hudson : [writing on Hampshire villages]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last two meetings read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Thomas Love Peacock]

'The subject before the meeting was Thomas Love Peacock, novelist & poet. H.M. Wallis read an introductory paper which gave us the facts of Peacock's life & a general account of his writings. Extracts from his works were read C.I. Evans The War Songs [sic] of Dinas Vawr Miss Cole Love & Age E.E. Unwin extracts from Nightmare Abbey R.B. Graham Some of the poems from his novels C.I. Evans Three men of Gotham'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Thomas Love Peacock : War Song of Dinas Vawr, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : Nightmare Abbey

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : Three Men of Gotham

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : [poems from the novels]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: R.B. Graham Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock : Love and Age

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Cole Print: Book

Thomas Love Peacock :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History

2 July 1876, from Brussels: 'After I went to bed I read over that wonderful part of Macaulay's History, the death of Charles II, and was quite excited by it, when I dropped asleep about 1 a.m.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Esmond

18 July 1876: 'Left Paris by tidal service at half-past nine, reaching London before seven... I am reading again, with great delight, Thackeray's Esmond. Since I left England [on ceramics-collecting expedition] I have read Dickens's Tale of Two Cities, Smollett's Peregrine Pickle and Mrs Elliot's Old Court Life in France, various in style, all in their way of much interest to me.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Humorists

[following journal entry for 1 November 1879] 'The next few days [following seven weeks' travels in Europe] were occupied unpacking, after which the Schreibers went to Canford, the railway journey from London being enlivened by Thackeray's Humorists.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Humorists

7 December 1879: 'I was a little chilly in the morning [...] and I feared I had taken cold, so I did not go out. Read over the fire. First Freeman's account of the Bayeux tapestry, then some of Thackeray's Humorists.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Print: Book

Francis Warrington Dawson : Le Nègre aux Etats-Unis

'And now more thanks for the book [" Le Nègre aux Etats-Unis"]. You have a most attractive French style--and very French it is too and yet with something individual-- and even racial--glowing through it and adding to the fascination of the perfectly simple diction.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

William Knox : Lonely Hearth

'Talking of Vixisse it may not be impertinent to notice that Knox (Footnote: William Knox), a young poet of considerable talent, died here a week or two since...His poetical talent - a very fine one - then shewd itself in a fine strain of pensive poetry calld I think the Lonely Hearth, far superior to those of Michael Bruce, whose consumption by the way has been the life of his verses.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Charity

'[...] the volume ["Charity"] which on my first visit to London in many months I carried off home. From the first word of the wonderful preface to the last short sketch of the Pampa as it was, it has been one huge delight. Of course some of these stries--gems--I've read (The incomparable "Aurora" is a long time ago first) but the cumulative effect is magnificent in its pictorial force and emotional power.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

E.(Edwin) A.(August) Bjorkman : Voices of Tomorrow:Critical Studies on the New Spirit of Literature

'I am delighted and honoured by your gift of an inscribed copy [presumably of "Voices of Tomorrow" but see additional comment]. It is with great pleasure that I discover in myself an intellectual (or perhaps instinctive) sympathy for what you say in your book with such force, clearness and conviction. In the article on myself what I see first is the generosity of your appreciation.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book, Serial / periodical, see additional comment

H.|Henry] M.[Major] Tomlinson : The Fog

'Thanks for the houseflags little book. I have marked in it all the ships I used to know--a good many of them.[...]. After you went away I re-read your Fog on the River paper. In the E.[nglish] R.[eview]. Jolly well done and rightly felt and artistically expressed. '

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Francis Warrington Dawson : The Sin

'If the novel at which he [Warrington Dawson] is working now and of which he read me the first four chapters is, as a whole, up to that sample then it is distnctly stuff that can be handled.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Warrington Dawson Manuscript: Unknown

By or on behalf of Edme-Patrice-Maurice MacMahon : [political manifesto]

'Sunday morning, as I was out getting chocolate, I found two new manifestoes on the walls. One from a private person, editor of a Radical journal, calling on the people to be calm, and rest on the weight of their majority. The other, a declaration of the President’s, which made me so mad that I could have broken his head if he had been within my reach. It was written, I firmly believe, with the intention of driving on the Republicans to extremities, and shook the cat in the air with a sort of paternal menace, that must have been maddening to the Opposition.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Poster, election posters.

William Ernest Henley : 'The Omadhaun at the Queen's'.

'"The Omadhaun" was very funny by the Lord; I saw Constable who said both Payn and Kegan Paul had very highly lauded you.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical, Account of an Irish melodrama by H.P. Grattan.

Francis Warrington Dawson : The Novel of George (published as The Pyramid)

'The novel --Good! Très fort!! As Pinker could not have done much with it before Easter I held it up here for a second reading.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Unknown

James Marie Hopper : Caybigan

'I had read some of your Philipino [sic] stories--and was looking for more of your work.I spotted it first in the old MacClure Mag.;certainly without any help from anyone.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

J. (James) G. (Gibbons) Huneker : The Pathos of Distance: A Book of a Thousand and One Moments

'I didn't write to thank you for the delightful volume ["The Pathos of Distance: A Book of a Thousand and One Moments"] as I hoped [...] to have the pleasure of seeing you here for a day.[...]. Je goute infiniment tout ce que vous écrivez. Apart from the temperamental sympathy I feel for your work the lightness of your surface touch playing over the deeper meaning of your criticism is very fascinating.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Sara Morgan Dawson : A Confederate Girl's Diary

'Just a word to tell you I have finished your Mother's book ["A Confederate Girl's Diary"]. Admirable.' Hence follow 14 lines of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Proofs (see letter and fn.3 p.243 of source text)

Francis Warrington Dawson : Grand Elixir (The Green Moustache)

'I am sending today the "Grand Elixir" to London.[...] That the story is clever, that the writing is in many respects admirable there can be no doubt.' Hence follow 12 lines of constructive criticism.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : A Hatchment

'That's why [an attack of gout] I did not write to thank you for your book ["A Hatchment"] (and the Ranee's) ["My Life in Sarawak"] as soon as I ought to have done. Upon my word it's a marvellous volume [...]. The Ranee's book is delightfully ladylike but her sentiment for the land and the people is so obviously genuine that all her sins of omission shall be forgiven her.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

(Lady) Margaret Brooke : My Life in Sarawak

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Howard R. Smith : [paper on Bunyan's life]

'The rest of the evening was devoted to John Bunyan. H.R. Smith read a paper dealing with the main episodes of his life. This was a valuable introduction and gave the right historical & religious setting of Bunyan. C.E. Stansfield read an Appreciation of Pilgrim's Progress & of the writing of Bunyan. He referred to Bunyan & Milton as the two writers who expressed most completely the Puritan ideal. He expected Pilgrim's Progress to live as it expressed the universal quest of mankind. There were several readings from Bunyan's works which added greatly to the interest. Mrs Smith read from 'Grace Abounding' the book which is his spiritual autobiography. R.H. Robson read the Fight with Apollyon C.I. Evans [ditto] The trial scene in Vanity Fair Mrs Unwin [ditto] The Interpreter's House. In the general discussion some doubt was expressed of C.E. Stansfield's opinion that the Pilgrim's progress will live. It was felt by some that the story will always be attractive to children, but that the puritan flavour & crude theology would prevent it becoming anything more than an interesting historical document for older people'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read and signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Maurice Hewlett : Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay, The

'The remainder of the evening was devoted to the writings of Maurice Hewlett. [C.I. Evans outlined a few facts of his life] H.R. Smith gave an account of The Forest Lovers - by giving an outline of the story with one or two extracts he was able to bring us into the story & to illustrate the strange archaic manner of writing adopted in this novel. E.E. Unwin introduced 'Richard Yea & Nay' as a fine study of personality. Two short extracts were read to show the style of vigorous writing with vivid word pictures. Queen's Quair was discussed by H.M. Wallis who carried us into a discussion of the history of Mary Queen of Scots. It was a very able contribution though it erred on the side of being more history than Hewlett. C.I. Evans described the modern novels & pointed out the increasing simplicity of his style & R.B. Graham read a part of an article recently published in 'The Nation' in which Maurice Hewlett makes great play of the wail of the Duke of Bedford for housemaids to keep up Welbeck House. This illustrated a modern development of Hewlett's writing for he seems to be very keen upon a right settlement of the land problem & indeed the whole social problem.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

Maurice Hewlett : Forest Lovers, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Print: Book

Maurice Hewlett : [article in The Nation]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: R.B. Graham Print: Serial / periodical

L.[Lancelot] Cranmer-Byng : A Lute of Jade: Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China

'Thanks too for the Chinese books. I have already looked at the introduction and certain sections of the "Lute [of Jade]". Very fine. Extraordinary subtle feeling I'll write more about them after getting the full taste.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Maurice Hewlett : Queen's Quair Or The Six Years' Tragedy

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Maurice Hewlett : Forest Lovers, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Print: Book

Maurice Hewlett : Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay , The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

Maurice Hewlett :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : Henry James:A Critical Study

'If we had telephonic communication I would call you up and hear me thump my chest and cry mea culpa for not having written to him [Ford Madox Ford] about the [Henry] James book for which the precise word is: delightful.' Hence follow 6 lines of praise for Ford's new book.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

A.[Andrew] C.[Cecil] Bradley : Shakespearean Tragedy:Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth

'I keep the two books a little longer. "Shakespeare" is good.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Raymond Swing : Harper's Magazine

'In puzzled words Raymond Gram Swing commented in "Harper's Magazine" on "the complete refusal of the British public to face the serious facts of their decline", while Harold Laski sustained this verdict by writing in "The Forum" on Britain's "prevailing temper of depression" and "widespread fatalism".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Serial / periodical

Winifred Holtby : South Riding

'Not until I read the fictitious account of this consultation four years afterwards in "South Riding" did I realise that the diagnosis then given her amounted to a verdict of early death, which she understood and accepted.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on History of Berkshire]

'5. The Club now considered the subject for the evening - Berkshire - & the opening paper was by H.M. Wallis who touched upon the History of the County in his inimitable way from the Piltdown race to Archbishop Laud. Alfred & his battles. Reading & the 35 religious houses & the breweries are prominent features of the story & may be responsible for the saying Piety Spiders & Pride. 6. Rosamund Wallis read a gruesome story from Thomas of Reading about a couple of Reading inhabitants who had murdered 60 people by the simple device of a trapdoor floor to the spare bedroom & a cauldron of boiling water below. 7. 3 Berkshire folksongs were then given by Mrs Robson & E.E. Unwin. 8. S.A Reynolds read a Ballad entitled 'A Berkshire Lady', though speaking as a mere male I doubt whether her conduct would be considered quite lady-like today'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Piltdown Woman]

'The rest of the evening concerned Prehistoric Man & Woman. H.M. Wallis read a paper entitled 'The Piltdown Woman'. This was a learned & valuable paper upon the problems of prehistoric man, problems of date, of mental capacity, of relationships & of ancestry. These were dealt with in an interesting way & the paper was assisted greatly by a number of drawings giving details of the skulls & the reconstructions of facial peculiarities.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Thomas de Quincey : Recollections of Charles Lamb

'De Quincey was the subject before the paper & number of extracts [sic] & two papers, one read by Mrs Rawlings & one by Miss Cole, gave a very interesting introduction to De Quincey & his literary work. The contributions were as follows. Mrs Rawlings. Paper on De Quincey prepared by Miss Cole Miss Wallis Reading from Suspiria De Profundis Miss Cole Paper with an account of his episode with Ann his protectress E.E. Unwin Reading from Recollections of Charles Lamb Miss Marriage [ditto] Confessions of an Opium Eater Miss Bowman Smith & Mrs Reynolds also gave reading [sic] Mrs Robson contributed a song.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Print: Book

Thomas de Quincey : Suspiria de Profundis

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Constance Wallis Print: Book

Thomas de Quincey : Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book

Thomas de Quincey :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Muriel Bowman-Smith Print: Book

Thomas de Quincey :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Reynolds Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'The Minutes of the last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read and signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Thomas Edward Brown : My Garden

'The subject of the meeting was 'Gardens' & all members were asked to bring contributions [...] The following is a list of the contributions. C.E. Stansfield a reading from 'Paradise Lost' followed by a short essay entitled "The Lost Art of Living - A Gardener's Life" Mary Hayward. Song "Now sleeps the crimson petals" C.I. Evans. Two Readings. Of an Orchard. Higson. The Apple. John Burrough. Mrs Robson. Song. "Thank God for a Garden" Miss Cole. Recitation. 'The Flower's Name'. Browning. E.E. Unwin. Song. "Come into the Garden Maud" Mrs Evans. Reading from "The Small Garden Useful" dealing with the Cooking of Vegetables. C.I. Evans. Reading. "My Garden" interval for supper Miss Wallis. Reading by Request 'My Garden' - a parody Miss Cole. Recitation. Gardens. by Kipling Miss Hayward. Song. R.H. Robson Violin Solo C.I. Evans. Reading. A ballad of trees & the master Mrs Robson. Song.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

W. H. (William Henry) Davies : either The Bird of Paradise and other Poems OR Nature

'Thanks very much for the book and the "Spectator" page.[...] These are all delightful pieces. You must autograph the book for me.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : EITHER Between St Dennis and St George: A Sketch of Three Civilisations OR When Blood is their Argument: An Analysis of Prussian Culture

'Many thanks for the book which is excellent and super excellent; even to the point of making me uneasy lest its true and vibrating notes be lost in the beating of the pans and (more or less) savage yowling of the market place.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

R.(Robert) B.(Bontine) Cunninghame Graham : Bernal Diaz de Castillo:Being Some Account of Him Taken From His True History of the Conquest of New Spain

' I've just finished "B[ernal] Diaz". The terminal pages of the preface are just lovely with their irresistable reference to the tempi passati. As to the book itself no personal friend of the old Conquistador could have put it together with greater skill and more tender care.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer) : The Good Soldier

'I was writing something so I refrained from looking at "The Good Soldier" (according to my time-honoured practice) till I got a few pages out of the way.' Hence follow six lines of praise for the novel.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Minutes of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [essay on Pepys]

'The rest of the evening was spent in the company of Samuel Pepys (Peeps) The Club was much indebted to H.M. Wallis and to H.R. Smith for able essays giving an outline of Pepys' life & an estimate of his character. From H.R. Smith we were introduced to Pepys as the competent official who by keenness made himself master of his job. Readings from the diary were given by Rosamund Wallis on "The Great Fire" Mrs Robson on Mrs Pepys E.E. Unwin on "The Plague" & R.H. Robson'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Howard R. Smith : [essay on Pepys]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on ballads]

'The subject of the evening, 'Ballads', now occupied attention. From an introductory paper prepared by Mary Hayward & from readings by Rosamund Wallis we learnt what a ballad is or was & is not. [this is summarised at length] The programme was divided into six parts dealing with the six main varieties of ballads. Some of these ballads were read & others were sung. Part 1. dealing with Magic Song The Two Musicians Mr & Mrs Unwin Reading The Demon Lover Mr Rawlings [ditto] Thomas the Rhymer Miss R Wallis Part 2. Stories of Romance Song Lord Rendel The Book Club Reading Edward Edward (Binnorie) R.B Graham Instead of Binnorie we were favoured by a rendering of a Berkshire version of this story by Mr Graham. In fact he broke forth into song & was assisted in the chorus refrain by the whole Club who sang with differing emphasis "And I'll be true to my love - if my love'll be true to me". part 3. Romance Shading into History reading Sir Patrick Spens Mr R.H. Robson [ditto] Bonnie house of Airly [sic] Mr H.R. Smith Part 4. Greenwood & Robin Hood Reading Nut Brown Maid Mr & Mrs Evans [ditto] Death of Robin Hood Mr Rawlings H.M. Wallis read at this stage an interesting paper upon the subject [contents summarised] Part 5. Later History Reading Battle of Otterburn Miss Marriage [ditto] Helen of Kirconnel H.M. Wallis Part 6. Showing gradual decline Song Bailiff's Daughter of Islington Mrs Robson Reading Undaunted Mary Mrs Rawlings Song Mowing the Barley All Song The Wealthy Farmer's Son Mr & Mrs Unwin'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Howard R. Smith : [paper on Boswell]

'The evening was then devoted to Samuel Johnson as seen through the biography of Boswell. Two papers were contributed. By Mr Burrow on "a Second Hand Book" which threw an interesting sidelight on Dr Johnson & By H.R. Smith who gave us an interesting account of the biographer. Readings from the biography were given by Mr Rawlings, Mr Unwin, Mr Evans & Mr Wallis, Mr Robson'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

J. (James) G. (Gibbons) Huneker : Ivory Apes and Peacocks

'The "[Ivory] Apes and Peacocks" book is good and immensely characteristic of our extremely "alive" friend.' Hence follow five more lines of praise.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ellen (Anderson Gholson) Glasgow : Life and Gabriella: The Story of a Woman's Courage

'I was delighted with Miss Glasgow's novel ["Life and Gabriella: The Story of a Woman's Courage"]; the insight, the mastery of her craft, the interest and charm of the narrative-- all this is of the very first order.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

(Basil) Macdonald Hastings : The Advertisement: A Play in Four Acts

'I read "[The]Advertisement" yesterday only--thrice over. très fort.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Arthur Symons : Figures of Several Centuries

'Ever so many thanks for the honour of the dedication; and for the copy [of "Figures of Several Centuries"] which reached me yesterday. I sat up with it of course. There are marvellous pages there.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting were read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

George Bernard Shaw : Candida

'The rest of the evening was devoted to a Play-Reading of Bernard Shaw's Candida.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII book Club Print: Book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on Laurence Housman]

'The rest of the evening was devoted to the works of Laurence Housman. Most of the members had seen & heard Mr Housman recently so there is no need to give any personal details & H.M. Wallis's encyclopaedic summary of Housman's artistic gifts & works put us in touch with the versatility of the man. "A charming man" says H.M.W. & so say all of us tho' I'm not sure whether someone did not say "a little effeminate". It was news perhaps to some to know that "An Englishwoman's Love Letters" published some years ago anonymously were by Housman. The bill of fare was varied & we were introduced to a novel, a St Francis play, a Victorian play & the Child's Guide to Knowledge. The choice whether conscious or otherwise gave us a rather curious result for in the main it dealt with the struggles & characters of women. Mrr & Mrs Evans dealt with The Sheepfold which relates the spirited history of a woman, 'Jane Sterling'. R.B. Graham chose out of all the St Francis cycle the coming of Sister Clair into the monkish community. Miss Marriage. E.E. Unwin & Alfred Rawlings gave a part-reading of "The Queen God Bless Her" which brought into prominence the foibles of Victoria and showed her in relation to two intimates, John Brown her favourite man-servant & Beaconsfield - her favourite minister. There was but little time left for R.H. Robson to display the fun of "A Child's Guide to Knowledge".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Ernest E. Unwin : [minutes of XII Book Club]

'Mins of last meeting read & signed'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest E. Unwin Manuscript: book

Ernest E. Unwin : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'The Minutes of the last meeting were read & signed'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: book

Mrs Barry Pain : 'A Lesson in Pearls'

'Mr & Mrs Unwin & Miss Bowman Smith gave a vivacious reading of a clever & witty sketch, "A Lesson in Pearls" by Mrs Barry Pain.'

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Ernest & Ursula Unwin & Muriel Bowman Smith Print: Unknown

Herbert George Wells : Modern Utopia

'My diary for October 5th, 1932, recorded the impression made upon me by the writer whose "Modern Utopia" had been a beacon light of my schooldays:'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

H. N. Brailsford : The New Clarion

'"We face a choice of evils," H. N. Brailsford had written in "The New Clarion" after the break-up of the Disarmament Conference.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Newspaper

Thomas Babington Macauley : Essay on Atterbury

21 August 1886: 'It is a great effort to me to think of moving; my feeling of desolation makes it difficult for me to decide on any change, and yet I am always eager to be at work. A passage in Macaulay's Essay on Atterbury struck me very much the other day. He says: "Grief, which disposes gentle natures to retirement, to inaction and to meditation, only makes restless spirits more restless." I am sure this is the case with me, I must be always doing something. My reading, this past summer, has chiefly been Macaulay's History. It has been of immense interest to me, but I forget it almost as fast as I read it. My chief time for reading is in the night if I happen to wake, or in the early morning.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Print: Book

Thomas Babington Macauley : History

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Print: Book

Charlotte Bertie Guest : journals of c.1833

3 April 1887: 'Today I have been tempted to open old journals of 54 years ago. Many of the circumstances to which allusion is made in them, are now forgotten, and all is painful.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Manuscript: Unknown

Charlotte Bertie Guest : journals

4 April 1887: 'Woke early and resumed the reading [from 3 April] of the old journal. What strikes me most is that I speak several times of being tired, and once of having a headache. I did not think I ever had one, and have no recollection of such a thing.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Charlotte Schreiber Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : New England Tragedies

'Only recently I discovered its origin in Longfellow's "New England Tragedies", read and re-read during my childhood when Longfellow and Matthew Arnold were the only poets in the parental library.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

Howard R. Smith : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'The Minutes of the last meeting were read & approved'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: book

Howard R. Smith : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'The Minutes of last meeting were read & agreed'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [parody of 'We are Seven']

'C.I. Evans read Geoffrey Young's [?] poem 'Mountain Playmates' & Mary Hayward read Leslie Stephen's account of the first ascent of the Rothorn. R.B. Graham circulated snapshots illustrating this reading & his own climb of the same mountain. After supper R.B. Graham gave a general chat on Mountaineering with views. A passage by Whymper on accidents was summarised by A. Rawlings who then read Whymper's account of an extraordinary accident he himself sustained. To conclude the Secretary read a parody of Wadsworth [Wordsworth?] 'We are Seven' composed by H.m. Wallis on climbing at Arolla'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Arthur Quiller-Couch : 'Once aboard the lugger'

'Mr Robson then gave us some short notes on Sir A.T. Quiller Couch and read us his short story "Once aboard the lugger". H.M. Wallis gave us an appreciation of 'Q's' work & read a tragic short story & poem. Mr Evans read from Couch's lecture on the Art of Writing an Interlude on Jargon. H.R. Smith read from the Mayor of Troy Mr Stansfield whose health unfortunately did not allow him to be present sent a short appreciation of Quiller Couch's novel Pho & Farrell [sic] and Miss Marriage read a short story (very sad). Perhaps the selection of his work put before us was a little one-sided for the club certainly got the impression of a writer too fond of the gloom & pain of life'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book

Arthur Quiller-Couch : [a short story]

'Mr Robson then gave us some short notes on Sir A.T. Quiller Couch and read us his short story "Once aboard the lugger". H.M. Wallis gave us an appreciation of 'Q's' work & read a tragic short story & poem. Mr Evans read from Couch's lecture on the Art of Writing an Interlude on Jargon. H.R. Smith read from the Mayor of Troy Mr Stansfield whose health unfortunately did not allow him to be present sent a short appreciation of Quiller Couch's novel Pho & Farrell [sic]and Miss Marriage read a short story (very sad). Perhaps the selection of his work put before us was a little one-sided for the club certainly got the impression of a writer too fond of the gloom & pain of life'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Arthur Quiller-Couch : [a poem]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Arthur Quiller-Couch : Interlude: On Jargon

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Arthur Quiller-Couch : Mayor of Troy, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Print: Book

Arthur Quiller-Couch : [a short story]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book

Arthur Quiller-Couch :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Arthur Quiller-Couch : Foe-Farrell

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book

Anna Laetitia Aikin : Poems

'[Lord Lyttleton] presented me with the works of Miss Aikin (now Mrs Barbauld). I read them with rapture; I thought them the most beautiful Poems I had ever seen, and considered the woman who could invent such poetry, as the most to be envied of human creatures.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Robinson Print: Book

Sabine Baring-Gould : John Herring

'H.R. Smith gave a brief outline of S. Baring Gould's Life following which H.M. Wallis read from "John Herring" a Dartmoor tale. He also gave us a short criticism of Baring Gould's work from which we learn that he wrote too fast for revision and his fiction was marred by many improbabilities. In short a maker of books rather than an artist. After supper Mrs Pollard read from The Broom Squire and E.A. Smith gave us an appreciation of our Author more favourable than H.M.W.'s perhaps because it dealt mainly with the archaeological side of his work. F.G. Pollard kindly took C.I. Evans' place (he had lost his voice) by reading from "Strange Survivals & Supersititions" & H.R. Smith read from "The Vicar of Morwenstow".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Sabine Baring-Gould : Broom Squire, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Pollard Print: Book

Sabine Baring-Gould : Strange Survivals and Superstitions

'H.R. Smith gave a brief outline of S. Baring Gould's Life following which H.M. Wallis read from "John Herring" a Dartmoor tale. He also gave us a short criticism of Baring Gould's work from which we learn that he wrote too fast for revision and his fiction was marred by many improbabilities. In short a maker of books rather than an artist. After supper Mrs Pollard read from The Broom Squire and E.A. Smith gave us an appreciation of our Author more favourable than H.M.W.'s perhaps because it dealt mainly with the archaeological side of his work. F.G. Pollard kindly took C.I. Evans' place (he had lost his voice) by reading from "Strange Survivals & Superstitions" & H.R. Smith read from "The Vicar of Morwenstow".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Pollard Print: Book

Sabine Baring-Gould : Vicar of Morwenstow, The

'H.R. Smith gave a brief outline of S. Baring Gould's Life following which H.M. Wallis read from "John Herring" a Dartmoor tale. He also gave us a short criticism of Baring Gould's work from which we learn that he wrote too fast for revision and his fiction was marred by many improbabilities. In short a maker of books rather than an artist. After supper Mrs Pollard read from The Broom Squire and E.A. Smith gave us an appreciation of our Author more favourable than H.M.W.'s perhaps because it dealt mainly with the archaeological side of his work. F.G. Pollard kindly took C.I. Evans' place (he had lost his voice) by reading from "Strange Survivals & Superstitions" & H.R. Smith read from "The Vicar of Morwenstow".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Print: Book

Sabine Baring-Gould :

'H.R. Smith gave a brief outline of S. Baring Gould's Life following which H.M. Wallis read from "John Herring" a Dartmoor tale. He also gave us a short criticism of Baring Gould's work from which we learn that he wrote too fast for revision and his fiction was marred by many improbabilities. In short a maker of books rather than an artist. After supper Mrs Pollard read from The Broom Squire and E.A. Smith gave us an appreciation of our Author more favourable than H.M.W.'s perhaps because it dealt mainly with the archaeological side of his work. F.G. Pollard kindly took C.I. Evans' place (he had lost his voice) by reading from "Strange Survivals & Superstitions" & H.R. Smith read from "The Vicar of Morwenstow".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Print: Book

Sabine Baring-Gould :

'H.R. Smith gave a brief outline of S. Baring Gould's Life following which H.M. Wallis read from "John Herring" a Dartmoor tale. He also gave us a short criticism of Baring Gould's work from which we learn that he wrote too fast for revision and his fiction was marred by many improbabilities. In short a maker of books rather than an artist. After supper Mrs Pollard read from The Broom Squire and E.A. Smith gave us an appreciation of our Author more favourable than H.M.W.'s perhaps because it dealt mainly with the archaeological side of his work. F.G. Pollard kindly took C.I. Evans' place (he had lost his voice) by reading from "Strange Survivals & Superstitions" & H.R. Smith read from "The Vicar of Morwenstow".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Ann Smith Print: Book

William Butler Yeats : Land of Heart's Desire

'Land of Heart's Desire by W. B. Yeats was read by members of the Club. The parts were distributed among the members as follows and those who read entered very charmingly into the spirit of the piece. Maureen Bruin by H.M. Wallis Bridget Bruin [ditto] F.E. Reynolds Shawn Bruin [ditto] R.B. Graham Mary Briuin [ditto] K.S. Evans Father Hart [ditto] Geo Burrow A Faery Child [ditto] E.A. Smith After supper Celia S. Burrow recited Down by the Salley Gardens & half a dozen short readings from Yeats poetry were given by the members which was followed by a desultory discussion on Irish Humour, Fairies &c.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: members of XII Book Club Print: Book

William Butler Yeats : [poetry]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: members of XII Book Club Print: Book

William Butler Yeats : 'Down by the Salley Gardens'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Celia Burrow Print: Book

Henry Marriage Wallis : [essay on Trollope, with extracts from his works]

'The rest of the evening was devoted to Anthony Trollope. C.E. Stansfield read an amusing passage from Dr Thorne. H.M. Wallis gave us a full & racy sketch of Trollopes life interspersed with short extracts from his works illustrative of his love of Fox hunting & his broad grasp of the social life of English upper class & clerical life. H.R. Smith read from "The Prime Minister" & F.E. Pollard gave a short appreciation of Trollopes work from which it appeared that he was not quite in the first rank of Victorian writers, he does not attempt the greatest problems but he does quite perfectly the job he sets out to do; his pictures of life are real his, [sic] characters are not mere puppets but are all alive. R.H. Robson read from the Warden & F.E. Pollard from "the three Clerks" bringing to a conclusion a delightful evening in which many renewed old acquaintances whilst others were introduced to much that was new to them.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Mazeppa

'H.R. Smith then gave some account of Lord Byron's Life. Mrs Burrough [sic] read part of Mazzeppa [sic]. C.E Stansfield then read a critique of Byron's work showing he belonged to the Romantic Movement especially as it was a Recoil of the Human Spirit against Tyranny. His work is witty & vitriolic full of energy & passion. Mr Robson expounded Childe Harold to us and Alfred Rawlings read to us from the same poem 4th canto. Mr Robson then read The Isles of Greece and Mr Pollard a stirring passage the Giaour'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Celia Burrow Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 'Isles of Greece, The'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Giaour, The

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Pollard Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : St Joan

'R.H. Robson opened the subject of Joan of Arc by giving a historical sketch of her life & then attempting to "Put her in her Place" which latter process involved a general & interesting discussion the substantial result being that she refused to be so put. Mrs Evans read a fervid passage from De Quincey & H.R. Smith & C.I. Evans gave some estimate of the Lives by Mark Twain & Andrew Lang & read short passages from these works. After supper Mr Graham Mr Pollard Mr Robson & Miss M.B. Smith read in parts most spiritually the first scene from Shaw's St Joan; Mr Evans read from the Epilogue, & another general discussion brought a most fascinating evening to a conclusion.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : St Joan

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Edward Morgan Forster : Passage to India, A

'The subject of Forster's "A Passage to India" was then taken Rosamund Wallis reading a notable paper on the problem of Anglo-India with citations from the book. F.E. Pollard followed giving more the Indian Attitude with a reading to explain this. After an interval for Refreshments there was an interesting discussion on these papers and on the Book and its problems. R.B. Graham read a good portion of the trial scene and Miss Marriage read a part of the last chapter bringing a most interesting evening to a conclusion leaving us more than doubtful as to how far we had fathomed the author's purpose & ideas.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Pollard Print: Book

Edward Morgan Forster : Passage to India, A

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: R.B. Graham Print: Book

Edward Morgan Forster : Passage to India, A

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Marriage Print: Book

Edward Morgan Forster : Passage to India, A

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis Print: Book

Mrs R.B. Graham : Lady of the Marsh, The

'Various anonymous essays by members of the Club were then read with the following titles and at the conclusion of the meeting whilst the authorship of some was quickly acclaimed others proved very difficult to locate. Some thoughts on Racing attributed to R. Wallis One Generation & the next or Jobson on False Freedom C.E. Stansfield Intimations of Immortality R.H. Robson The Lady of the Marsh Mrs R.B. Graham If Christianity had Won R.B. Graham The Revolt of the Innocents Geo Burrow Thoughts on the Construction of Cathedrals H.M. Wallis Revenge or Justice C Evans Five minutes Thoughts upon present Condition H.M. Wallis A Scandalous Affair [illegible symbol]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: members of XII Book Club Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Marriage Wallis : Thoughts on the Construction of Cathedrals

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: members of XII Book Club Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Marriage Wallis : Five minutes Thoughts upon present Condition

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: members of XII Book Club Manuscript: Unknown

James M. Barrie : Admirable Crichton, The

'A reading in parts of Barrie's "Admirable Crichton" was then given with considerable spirit & was much appreciated. The characters were read as follows [a list of 14 members and characters follows]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

Arthur Patchett Martin : Bret Harte in Relation to Modern Fiction.

'I wish I could lay my hands on the numbers of the "Review", for I know I wished to say something on that head more particularly than I can from memory; […] I was very much pleased with the article on Bret Harte; it seemed to me just, clear, and to the point.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical

George Eliot : Daniel Deronda

'Did you − I forget − did you have a kick at the stern works of that melancholy puppy and humbug Daniel Deronda himself? − the Prince of Prigs: the literary abomination of Desolation in the way of manhood: a type which is enough to make a man forswear the love of women, if that is how it must be gained….'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Arthur Patchett Martin : 'Noll and Nell'; 'England - 1877'.

'Of your poems I have myself a kindness for ‘Noll and Nell’. Although I don’t think you have made it as good as you ought: verse five is surely not [italics]quite melodious[end italics]. I confess I like the Sonnet in the last number of the "Review"− the ‘Sonnet to England’.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book, Serial / periodical, Both (2 poems, one in a book, one in a periodical).

J. G. Lockhart : Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk

'Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk was written by [J. G.] Lockhart, aided probably by one or more [...] clever young advocates [...] Sophia probably knew who its author was, and judged it favourably'.

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Sophia Scott

J. G. Lockhart : Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk

Charlotte Sophia Scott to Miss Millar (former governess), 5 July 1819: 'I would advise you to read a new book, which will be out soon called Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk. It is one of the most clever, and at the same time rather severe books that has been written for ages. That is Papa's opinion.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott

Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison

[?Sarah] Fielding to Samuel Richardson, 6 July 1754: 'Here are a set of young women endued with the most exemplary patience I ever met with; for Miss L---- and Miss B---- agree'd to read Sir Charles Grandison together, and really waited from time to time till they could meet, each honourably performing their covenant, and not so much as taking one unlawful peep in the absence of the other.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: 'Miss L----' and 'Miss B----' Print: Book

Samuel Richardson : Clarissa: or The History of a Young Lady.

'Please, if you have not, and I don’t suppose you have, already read it, institute a search in all Melbourne for one of the rarest and certainly one of the best of books − [italics]Clarissa Harlowe[end italics]. For any man who takes an interest in the problem of the two sexes, that book is a perfect mine of documents. And it is written, sir, with the pen of an angel. Miss Howe and Lovelace, words cannot tell how good they are! And the scene where Clarissa beards her family, with her fan going all the while; and some of the quarrel scenes between her and Lovelace; and the scene where Colonel Marsden goes to Mr Hall, with Lord M. trying to compose matters, and the Colonel with his eternal "finest woman in the world", and the inimitable affirmation of Mowbray − nothing could be better! You will bless me when you read it for this recommendation; but, indeed, I can do nothing but recommend [italics]Clarissa[end italics].'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book

Maximilien de Bethune de Sully : Memoirs

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 16 August 1751: 'I am still bewitched by the "Memoires de Sully" [...] I know none that shews the world in a more entertaining and instructive way, and numberless are the reflections that every page suggests to me.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle : Plays

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 23 December 1751: 'I want to talk to you of Fontanelle's Plays, have you seen them? They are incomparable. Truth, virtue, simplicity, and good sense, are the characteristics of his heroines, and there is besides something agreeably odd and uncommon in the whole manner.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Con. [Teresia Constantia] Phillips : An Apology for the Conduct of Mrs. T. C. Phillips

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter [c. July 1752, following illness with fever]: 'What have I been doing since I came here [a 'pretty place in Surry']? giving trouble and reading idle books to while away the hours of prescribed solitude [...] Dear, dear, with what companions have I been spending my lonely hours! Arlequin, a stupidissima Princess Mesirida, an infamous Con. Philips, and a ten times more profligate Jack Connor!'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Françoise d'Aubigné de Maintenon : Letters

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 17 December 1752: 'Did I ever tell you I was reading Madame de Maintenon's Letters? [...] She seems to have been both a great and a good woman. [comments further]'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de Sevigne : Letters (vol. 7)

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, from Cuddesdon, 21 July 1753, in account of a day excursion in the local countryside (around Oxford): 'Yesterday we set off soon after four [...] Our road lay through a most pleasant country. In the coach we amused ourselves with some of the seventh volume of Mad. de Sevigne's Letters, and some of Mrs Fielding's. 'Tis vexatious in the last-named book to find such a mixture of refinement a perte de vue proceeding from her inclination to support, I fancy, a false system [...] But where she writes naturally one loves and honours her extremely; there is a goodness of heart and a delicacy of sentiment that makes me think you happy in her acquaintance.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot and family Print: Book

Elizabeth Singer Rowe :

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 21 July 1753: 'I scarce know a greater pleasure than reading over a book one is fond of with persons of taste and candour, to whom it is entirely new. A great deal of this pleasure I have had lately. Mrs Rowe's excellent works were an undiscovered treasure to Mrs Berkeley, and she values them as they deserve. We read one night a certain Vision in the Rambler, that I saw fixed her whole attention.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Carlo Maria Maggi : Sonnet 'Care dell'alma stanca Albengatrici...'

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 10 June 1754: 'I will send you a sonnet that I am extremely fond of, from no modern author, but from one whom I am sure you never met with, because you never mentioned him, Carlo Maria Maggi [...] [reproduces sonnet opening "Care dell'alma stanca Albengatrici..."] Is not this sonnet perfect in its way? And is it not utterly untranslatable?'

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot

Richard Owen Cambridge : papers (i.e. essays)

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 10 June 1754: 'Your cousin [Richard Owen] Cambridge has writ many lively papers in the World this winter from the mere motive of charity; and some of them are very pretty.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Serial / periodical

Carlo Maria Maggi : Sonnet 'Care dell'alma stanca Albengatrici...'

Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 10 July 1754: 'I am beyond description charmed with the Italian sonnet you sent me. I am afraid your opinion is too well grounded of its being absolutely untranslatable, at least into our Gothic language.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Manuscript: Letter, Transcribed by Catherine Talbot in letter of 10 June 1754.

Anthony Ashley Cooper : Characterisks of Men, Manners, Times, Opinions, [volume 1].

Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 26 November 1754: 'I was going one day to have writ to you in a hurry to ask you whether I had dreamt it, or whether it was possible that I should ever have heard you mention that bigotted heathen Lord Shaftesbury with approbation? I have only looked into the first volume [...] but I have met with so many things that offend me excessively as to leave little little inclination to look further. Arrogance, bitterness, prejudice and obscurity, the falsest reasoning, the absurdest pride, the vilest ingratitude, the most offensive levity, disgrace whatever there was of elegant, and fair, and honest in some of the ideas, and whatever is easy and genteel in some parts of his style.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Anthony Ashley Cooper : Characterisks of Men, Manners, Times, Opinions.

Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 11 January 1755: 'It is very long since I read Lord Shaftesbury, and I only remember that I was in general charmed with his imagination and language, but thought him a very bad reasoner, and was greatly offended at his levity.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : The Outline of History

'They could no more accept it than they or any other powerful nation had ever accepted the teaching of his Master and Friend - for "to take him seriously", as H.G. Wells wrote of "this Galilean" in "The Outline of History", "was to enter upon a strange and alarming life, to abandon habits, to control instincts and impulses, to essay an incredible happiness...."'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

Henry Marriage Wallis : "The Price of his Soul"

'After refreshment Geo Burrow told us of Meinholt's [sic] book "The Amber Witch" & of witchcraft & Howard R. Smith read a story written by H.M. Wallis who was unable to be present entitled "The Price of his Soul" dealing with sin eating in Wales'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Johannes Wilhelm Meinhold : "The Amber Witch"

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow Print: Book

William Henry Hudson : Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest

'C.I. Evans read a short essay on W.H. Hudsons story Green Mansions H.R. Smith followed on Rates & Taxes & Geo Burrow read a short paper of H.M. Wallis on some points in recent Geology'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Howard R. Smith : [paper on "Rates and taxes"]

'C.I. Evans read a short essay on W.H. Hudsons story Green Mansions H.R. Smith followed on Rates & Taxes & Geo Burrow read a short paper of H.M. Wallis on some points in recent Geology'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Marriage Wallis : [paper on geology]

'C.I. Evans read a short essay on W.H. Hudsons story Green Mansions H.R. Smith followed on Rates & Taxes & Geo Burrow read a short paper of H.M. Wallis on some points in recent Geology'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow Manuscript: Unknown

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne : [letter]

'Letters & Letter writing were then proceeded with. Mrs Burrow read three letters of William Cowper characteristically interesting & amusing. Mrs C. Elliott read in French two amusing letters one by Madame de Sevigny & one by Victor Hugo C. I. Evans read two [?] Ladies Battle & K.S. Evans two by R.L. Stevenson F.E. Pollard read letters by G.B. Shaw & J.M. Barrie to Mrs Patrick Campbell on the death of her son killed in action. Geo Burrow read several characteristic epistles of Charles Lamb & Howard R. Smith part of a letter by Lord Chesterfield to his son. The Club were also much interested by seeing a number of Autograph letters from famous folk shown by various members of the Club.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: C. Elliott Print: Unknown

Robert Louis Stevenson : [letters]

'Letters & Letter writing were then proceeded with. Mrs Burrow read three letters of William Cowper characteristically interesting & amusing. Mrs C. Elliott read in French two amusing letters one by Madame de Sevigny & one by Victor Hugo. C. I. Evans read two [?] Ladies Battle & K.S. Evans two by R.L. Stevenson F.E. Pollard read letters by G.B. Shaw & J.M. Barrie to Mrs Patrick Campbell on the death of her son killed in action. Geo Burrow read several characteristic epistles of Charles Lamb & Howard R. Smith part of a letter by Lord Chesterfield to his son. The Club were also much interested by seeing a number of Autograph letters from famous folk shown by various members of the Club.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Evans Print: Unknown

George Bernard Shaw : [letter to Mrs Patrick Campbell]

'Letters & Letter writing were then proceeded with. Mrs Burrow read three letters of William Cowper characteristically interesting & amusing. Mrs C. Elliott read in French two amusing letters one by Madame de Sevigny & one by Victor Hugo. C. I. Evans read two [?] Ladies Battle & K.S. Evans two by R.L. Stevenson F.E. Pollard read letters by G.B. Shaw & J.M. Barrie to Mrs Patrick Campbell on the death of her son killed in action. Geo Burrow read several characteristic epistles of Charles Lamb & Howard R. Smith part of a letter by Lord Chesterfield to his son. The Club were also much interested by seeing a number of Autograph letters from famous folk shown by various members of the Club.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Pollard Print: Unknown

James Matthew Barrie : [letter to Mrs Patrick Campbell]

'Letters & Letter writing were then proceeded with. Mrs Burrow read three letters of William Cowper characteristically interesting & amusing. Mrs C. Elliott read in French two amusing letters one by Madame de Sevigny & one by Victor Hugo. C. I. Evans read two [?] Ladies Battle & K.S. Evans two by R.L. Stevenson F.E. Pollard read letters by G.B. Shaw & J.M. Barrie to Mrs Patrick Campbell on the death of her son killed in action. Geo Burrow read several characteristic epistles of Charles Lamb & Howard R. Smith part of a letter by Lord Chesterfield to his son. The Club were also much interested by seeing a number of Autograph letters from famous folk shown by various members of the Club.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Pollard Print: Unknown

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : [letter to his son]

'Letters & Letter writing were then proceeded with. Mrs Burrow read three letters of William Cowper characteristically interesting & amusing. Mrs C. Elliott read in French two amusing letters one by Madame de Sevigny & one by Victor Hugo. C. I. Evans read two [?] Ladies Battle & K.S. Evans two by R.L. Stevenson F.E. Pollard read letters by G.B. Shaw & J.M. Barrie to Mrs Patrick Campbell on the death of her son killed in action. Geo Burrow read several characteristic epistles of Charles Lamb & Howard R. Smith part of a letter by Lord Chesterfield to his son. The Club were also much interested by seeing a number of Autograph letters from famous folk shown by various members of the Club.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Print: Book

Molly Elliott Seawell : The Ladies' Battle

'Letters & Letter writing were then proceeded with. Mrs Burrow read three letters of William Cowper characteristically interesting & amusing. Mrs C. Elliott read in French two amusing letters one by Madame de Sevigny & one by Victor Hugo. C. I. Evans read two [?] Ladies Battle & K.S. Evans two by R.L. Stevenson F.E. Pollard read letters by G.B. Shaw & J.M. Barrie to Mrs Patrick Campbell on the death of her son killed in action. Geo Burrow read several characteristic epistles of Charles Lamb & Howard R. Smith part of a letter by Lord Chesterfield to his son. The Club were also much interested by seeing a number of Autograph letters from famous folk shown by various members of the Club.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book

Edward Verrall Lucas :

'The Club then listened to a variety of readings from modern poets as follows: A Rawlings Extracts from "The Art of Poetry" T.C. Eliott from Chesterton's "Lepanto" Mrs Evans some verses by Colin D. B. Ellis R. H. Robson from J. C. Squires "Birds" D. Brain from Noyes' "Torch Bearers" C. I. Evans from Thos Hardy G. Burrow poems by his brother F. E. Pollard from Siegfried Sassoon Mrs Pollard from W. Watson's "Lakeland" C. E. Stansfield from Rupert Brooke A. Rawlings from E. V. Lucas & Lang Jones'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book

Gilbert Keith Chesterton : 'Lepanto'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: T.C. Elliott Print: Book

Colin D. B. Ellis :

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Evans Print: Book

J. C. Squires : [poem possibly entitled 'Birds']

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Lord Dunsany : Fame and the Poet

'Four one act plays were then read: "Windows by J. Galsworthy, "the Dear Departed" by Stanley Houghton, "The Boy Comes Home" by A. A. Milne, "Fame & the Poet" by Lord Dunsany & a delightful evening was spent.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

Alan Alexander Milne : The Boy Comes Home

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book

M. B Synge : A Book of Discovery

"Mrs C. Elliott reviewed "A Book of Discovery" by N. B. [sic] Synge'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: C. Elliott Print: Book

Walter de la Mare : 'Sunken Garden'

'The subject of the evening "Gardens" was then taken. Geo Burrow reminded us that the world began in the garden of Eden. Miss Bowman-Smith played Debussy's "Garden Under the Rain" Miss D. Brain gave us an essay on Hampton Court gardens & their history. F.E. Pollard a song Summer Afternoon Rosamund Wallis read from Sir Wm Temple on Gardens Mrs F. E. Pollard read Michael Drayton's Daffodil Alfred Rawlings charmed us by showing a series of his Water Colour drawings "Gardens I have Known" Mrs Robson sang two songs June Rapture & Unfolding After supper Mrs Stansfield read a paper by Mr Stansfield who was prevented by a severe cold from being present on Gardening in which he showed how Gardening is one of the fine Arts in fact the noblest of the plastic Arts F. E. Pollard sang Andrew Marvell's "Thoughts in a Garden" Mrs Burrow read Walter de la Mare's Sunken Garden Mrs Stansfield read from The Story of my Ruin and in a concluding reading Geo Burrow brought our minds back to the Garden of Eden'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Celia Burrow Print: Book

Howard R. Smith : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'After supper the Secretary read the Minutes of the last Meeting'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: book

Howard R. Smith : [Minutes of XII Book Club]

'The Minutes of last Meeting were read & approved'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Manuscript: book

Hugh I'Anson Faussett : Tolstoy; The inner drama

'The subject of Tolstoy & his works was then taken. R. H. Robson gave a brief outline of his life. T. C. Elliott gave a reading from Faussett's "Inner Drama of Tolstoy". R. B. Graham gave an account of "Anna Karenina" with some short readings. After Refreshments Mrs Robson read a parable from "Master & Man" & Geo Burrow read from "The Cossacks". F. E. pollard read an essay of Tolstoy on the Russian Famine. Some general discussion of Tolstoy & his work but more especially of the man himself closed the evening'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: T. C. Elliott Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray : Essay on Jonathan Swift

'Geo Burrow then read portions of Thackeray's essay on Swift. H. R. Smith read several short extracts from the Journal to Stella. After supper Miss D. Brain read several passages from Gulliver's travels & T. C. Elliott read from the Drapers Letters & explained them Alfred Rawlings read from the Tale of a Tub'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow Print: Book

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu : Turkish Embassy Letters

[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 14 May 1763:] 'Some of [Carlo Maggi's] prose is delightful. Pray do not read the death of Adam. It is extremely fine, but so painful, that at first it gives one's thoughts a wrong turn -- one cannot get it out of one's head; yet if one thinks it thoroughly over, one may get a great deal of good out of it. We shall have a very different one after supper, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Letters. They are very amusing for that half hour, and I dare say genuine. Mrs Montagu whom I saw a few days ago, first told me of them.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot and family Print: Book

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock : Messiah

[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 28 November 1763:] 'Shall I send your subscription copy of the Messiah, or keep it till you come? I admire many things in it extremely, but am grievously hurt and disappointed at many more. I wish Dr Young had been the translator, and I the correctress.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Horace Walpole : Memoirs of Lord Herbert of Cherbury

[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 17 August 1764:] 'Pray has Mrs M. got one of Mr Walpole's Memoirs of Lord Herbert [of Cherbury]? So few copies are dispersed, that I know Lord Chesterfield was not able to get one, and it is so amusing I wish you had it to wear away a rainy evening.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

?Thomas Simon ?Gueullette : ?Peruvian Tales (vol 3)

[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 12 June 1766:] 'I have been reading your third volume of Peruvians with pleasure, and though the objection you made is just, it does not hurt me in these as in the Tales of the Genii. The Peruvian seems a patriarchal religion before it grew corrupted, but Christian piety with Mahometan doctrines, is "a jewel of gold in a swine's snout."'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Muhammad al-Qasim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Hariri : Six assemblies; or, ingenious conversations of learned men among the Arabians

[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 10 October 1767:] 'Pray, pray get on as fast as you can with your Arabic, that you may be fit to translate for us forty-four Assemblies, or ingenious conversations, by Hariri, the son of Himam; there are fifty of them, six just translated by a gentleman of Cambridge, and we are undone to know whether the whole fifty can be equally dull and unedifying. Did you ever read Noah? it seems to me even in the translation delightfully fine.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Rene Aubert de Vertot : Histoire des Chevaliers hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jerusalem

[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 31 May 1768:] 'This day I finish Pharamond: is Mrs Sutton still in town, that I may return it to her? if not, when you write, pray return my thanks for the amusement it has afforded me. This day I also begin Mrs Montagu's [copy of] "Chevaliers de Malthe." I rejoice to hear so good an account of her.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim : ?An Ecclesiastical History, ancient and modern, from the birth of Christ to the beginning of the present century

[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 16 October 1768, during a visit to the Cornwall family:] ''We found them here reading Mosheim. They are in the second volume, which we read in the evenings; and I have got the first in my room here studying it with great pleasure.' Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 23 October 1768: 'Mosheim has really convinced me that the desart [sic] unsociable system is a very wrong and a false one. In the main he seems a very sensible and candid writer -- now and then we differ, and I grumble over my book.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Talbot and Cornwall family Print: Book

Oswald Garrison Villard : Inside Germany

'In a lecture at Friends' House he spoke of a new Blitzkrieg timed to start on May 1st, and designed to overthrow England in Polish fashion by the end of the summer. His series of "Daily Telegraph" articles, subsequently republished as a small book called "Inside Germany", caused a sensation by supplying chapter and verse for this prophecy.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

Francis Warrington Dawson : The True Dimension

'The story you sent me (I'm glad to have it) I remembered of course very well. It isn't the sort of thing that is ever forgotten.'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad

Ivan Turgenev : Smoke

'The truth of the matter is that it is you who have opened my eyes to the value and quality of Turgeniev [sic]. As a boy I remember reading "Smoke" in a Polish translation (a feuilleton of some newspaper) and the "Gentlefolks" in French.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: newspaper supplement/magazine ('feuilleton')

Ivan Turgenev : A Nest of Gentlefolks

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

(Basil) Macdonald Hastings (and Eden Philpotts) : The Angel in the House

'I have been reading through your plays again. You are "très fait" as the French say. Tell me, had E[den] P[hillpotts] much to do with the "Angel"? It seems to me to be pure Hastings.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: probably an acting edition

Anna Laetitia Aikin : Essays [?on Various Subjects]

[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 4 May 1774:] 'I do not recall any late productions in the literary way, except a little volume of very pretty Essays by Miss Aikin, and Mr Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, of which I have read one volume in quarto. It is a work of immense learning and very great ingenuity, but has to me the fault of almost all the mythological systems I ever read, the want of sufficient proof [discusses text and author further] [...] I am told that the second volume is much more satisfactory than the first. I find it is a fashionable book, from which one would infer that this is an age of most profound literature, and from the very nature of his subject it is scarcely possible to discover what he means but by the assistance of Greek and Hebrew.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book

Helen Thomas Follett (and Wilson Follett) : Some Modern Novelists: Appreciations and Estimates

'Pray, when you see [Wilson] Follett, give him a warm greeting from me. His little book is one of these things one does not forget. I saw some time ago a study of Galsworthy by him (and a lady who must be either his wife or his sister) which within the limits if a magazine article was simply admirable for insight and expression.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield : Letters to His Son

[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 29 July 1774:] 'Lord Chesterfield's Letters are, I think, the most complete system of French morality that ever disgraced the English language. A system founded neither on principles of virtue, nor sentiments of heart, but upon those selfish motives, which aim at nothing higher than mere bienseance, and which never yet, through the general course of life, procured to any character, confidence, or esteem, or love [comments further].'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book

Anna Laetitia Barbauld : Hymns

[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 25 July 1779:] 'I do not wonder you were struck by Mrs Barbauld's Hymns. They are all excellent, but there are some passages amazingly sublime. Amongst these is the manner in which she introduces the Saviour, after the description of the devastations of death, as the restorer of life and immortality.'

Unknown

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter

?Thomas Francois ?Raynal :

[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 9 January 1782:] 'Alas, my dear friend, it is not a reflection on the writings or conversation of a licentious profligate infidel like the Abbe R---- that can compose the astonished mind amidst the awful terrors of a midnight storm, such as you so nobly describe: you well know that from sources such as these no solid comfort can be derived, why then will you idly spend your time in reading what ought never to have been written? But you do it, you say, merely for amusement: 'tis dangerous amusement to a mind like yours, indeed to any mind.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Vesey Print: Book

E.[Elliot] L. [Lovegood] Grant Wilson : The Mainland

'I only secured lately not so much the leisure as the proper freedom of mind, to read through and get on terms with your novel.[...] The book is captivatng enough in all conscience as a piece of writng and of course as a story too.' [Hence follow 9 lines of comment.]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

John Frederick Charles Fuller : article in the "Evening Standard"

'In the "Evening Standard", Major-General Fuller commented acidly that the gigantic forces being raised in America suggested preparation for the next war rather than this.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Newspaper, Unknown

Reginald Perceval Gibbon : article published in "Daily Chronicle"

'This morning [Reginald Perceval] Gibbon's corespondence [on the aftermath of the battle of Caporetto] in the "D[aily]C[hronicle]" was very reserved.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Newspaper

Robert Charles Kirkwood Ensor : Miniature History of the War

'According to R.C.K. Ensor's "Miniature History of the War", "the annihilating raid on Lubeck...and the raid of 1,130 bombers on Cologne...each marked an epoch" in Allied achievement.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke : Essays

[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 15 January 1755:] 'You have a very just opinion of St. John's works [...] As far as I have seen, and I read at Ember the last volume, which contains his essays, there is nothing in his objections but what has been published and answered over and over [...] I know not whether his system may be more properly called deistical, or atheistical; since, though in words he allows a God, he seems to make him such a one as Epicurus did; and to think that we are beneath his notice, or have very little to do with him. He laughs at all notions of revelation, or a particular providence, and reckons the present life the whole of man's existence. These essays, by the way, afford us abundant and irrefragable proof, that the plan of the Essay on Man was St. John's, and not Pope's [...] You have here the whole scheme, the thoughts and in many places the very words of the poem; and a more consistent scheme it is here, than it appears there, after the poet and the parson had laid their heads together to disguise and make it pass for a christian system [comments further].'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book

Henry Kirke White : The Remains of Henry Kirke White, of Nottingham

[From the diary of Elizabeth Firth, 22 May 1818:] 'Read Remains of H. K. White.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Firth Print: Book

G. S. Spinks : The Bases of Civilisation

'That autumn a friend sent me a booklet entitled "The Bases of Civilisation", by Dr. G. S. Spinks, one-time editor of the "Hibbert Journal". Reading it I found some sentences which, in the Quaker phrase, "spoke to my condition".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Booklet

Dorothy Thompson : [article in the "Sunday Chronicle"]

'My first real understanding of the "terrific sensation" came from an article published in the "Sunday Chronicle" on March 12th by the American columnist, Dorothy Thompson. [Brittain then proceeds to quote from the article.]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Newspaper

Oswald Garrison Villard : Last Plea for Europe

'From the United States Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard, inspired by the same thought, sent me an article called "Last Plea for Europe" which he had published in "The Christian Century".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: article published in a periodical

S. L. Solon : Article in the "News Chronicle"

On March 14th the "News Chronicle's" correspondent, S. L. Solon, had called Cologne "End-of-the-World City".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Newspaper

Jean Henri Merle D'Aubigne : "Letter"

[Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 31 March 1846:] 'I received the number of the Record you sent and despatched it forwards to Mr Young &c. am I right? I read D'Aubigne's letter -- it is clever and in what he says about catholicism very good -- the evangelical alliance part is not very practicable yet certainly it is more in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel to preach unity amongst Christians than to inculcate mutual intolerance and hatred'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Unknown

George Henry Lewes : Ranthorpe

[Charlotte Bronte (as 'Currer Bell') to G. H. Lewes, 22 November 1847:] 'I have now read "Ranthorpe." I could not get it till a day or two ago; but I have got it and read it at last; and in reading "Ranthorpe" I have read a new book -- not a reprint -- not a reflection of any other book, but a [italics]new book[end italics]. 'I did not know such books were written now. It is very different to any of the popular works of fiction; it fills the mind with fresh knowledge. Your experience and your convictions are made the reader's; and to an author, at least, they have a value and an interest quite unusual.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book

William Makepeace Thackeray :

Charlotte Bronte (as 'Currer Bell') to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 11 December 1847: 'I hardly ever felt delight equal to that which cheered me when I received your letter containing an extract from a note by Mr Thackeray, in which he expressed himself gratified with the perusal of "Jane Eyre." Mr Thackeray is a keen, ruthless satirist. I had never perused his writings but with blended feelings of admiration and indignation. Critics, it appears to me, do not know what an intellectual boa-constrictor he is [...] his is a most scalping humour, a most deadly brilliancy: he does not play with his prey, he coils round it and crushes it in his rings [comments further].'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Unknown

Richard Hengist Horne : Orion

Charlotte Bronte (as Currer Bell) to Richard Hengist Horne, 15 December 1847: 'You will have thought me strangely tardy in acknowledging your courteous present, but the fact is it never reached me till yesterday [...] 'I have to thank you, not merely for the gift of a little book of 137 pages, but for that of a [italics]poem[end italics]. Very real, very sweet is the poetry of "Orion"; there are passages I shall recur to again and yet again -- passages instinct both with power and beauty. All through it is genuine -- pure from one fault of affectation, rich in noble imagery [...] You could not, I imagine, have written that epic without at times deriving deep happiness from your work.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book

William Ellery Channing : Sermon on Spiritual Freedom

'very good, rather political in character'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Book

William Ellery Channing : Sermon on the Imitableness of Christ

'very good, with his peculiar views'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Book

William Ellery Channing : Sermons on Love to Christ

'good, with the Unitarian views'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Book

George Stillman Hillard : The Relation of the Poet to His Age

'a vague subject, but treated in the refined & elevated spirit peculiar to him'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Book

William Ellery Channing : Sermon on Dr Tuckerman

'the founder of the Ministry at large, excellent. I must have talk with Ly Byron about this subject, & the similar institution that has been set on foot here'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Book

William Ellery Channing : Lecture on the Present Age

'very interesting & able. I have read the entire contents of his published works, and every page has impressed upon me increased admiration, sympathy & veneration. I make of course the deduction which is to be set down to his Unitarian doctrines, though even with respect to these what I have read has led me to modify much that was uncharitable and ignorant'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Book

Gustave Flaubert : Madame Bovary

'You say [in Walpole's critical study "Joseph Conrad"(1916)] that I have been under the formative influence of "Madame Bovary". In fact I have read it only after finishing "A.[Almayer's] F.[Folly]" as I did all the other works of Flaubert; and anyway my Flaubert is the Flaubert of "St. Antoine" and "Ed[ucation] Sent[imentale]" and that only from the point of view of rendering of concrete things and visual impressions.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Sir William Hamilton : Review of Victor Cousin's 'Cours de Philosophie' (Paris, 1828) in Edinburgh Review, XCIV (OCt 1829), 194-221

'Did you read Sir W Hamilton on Cousin's Metaphysics in the last Edinburgh Review? And what inferences are we to draw from it? Pity that Sir W. had not the gift of delivery! He has real knowledge on those matters; but all unsorted, and tumbled topsy-turvy like a "bankrupt stock."'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

Theodore James Gordon Gardiner : The Reconnaissance

'I will confess at once that I have read the book ["The Reconnaissance"] once only, and that of course is not enough;[...].The subject in itself is certainly a very difficult one because of its deep nature and its necessarily superficial aspects.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Edric Cecil Mornington Roberts :

'Your R.A.F. paper is very good [...].'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad

John William Fortescue : History of the British Army: Extracts from British Campaigns in Flanders

'As to "The Hist[ory] of the British Army" it is "tout bonnement admirable!". No other phrase can do justice to it.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

John A. Carlyle : 'Animal Magnetism'

'I have read your Anim. Magnetism, and think it among the best in the Number; worthy indeed of a far better place. I durst bet, the Blacks have not paid you yet: they are among the worst payers in existence.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

Friedrich Henrich von der Hagen : Literarischer Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Poesie von der altesten Zeit, bis in das sechzhnte Jarhrundert

'Do you know Doven's and Hagen's Hist. of German Poetry? I have seen it in the Edinr College Library, but read only a few pages of it.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Patrick Fraser Tytler : History of Scotland

'I am much obliged to you for Tytler, which I have read with pleasure and not without profit: it is a smooth, easy Book; seems well-founded, accurate, authentic; and without pretending to be a classical History, may well enjoy several years of extensive popularity. I shall be very glad to see the First and all the other Volumes, when they appear.'

Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Henry James Mercier : Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred

[Charlotte Brontë to the grandson of Henry James Mercier, 1 June 1848:]

'I have read 2,500 with pleasure. It is a very clever and ingenious production, Your grandfather must have been an intellectual, clever and accomplished man.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book

John Stores Smith : Mirabeau: A Life History

[Charlotte Brontë, as Currer Bell, to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 15 June 1848:] 'I duly received Mirabeau from Mr Smith [...] When I have read the book, I will tell you what I think of it — its subject is interesting. One thing a little annoyed me — as I glanced over the pages I fancied I detected a savour of Carlyle's peculiarities of style. Now Carlyle is a great man, but I always wish he would write plain English; and to imitate his Germanisms is, I think, to imitate his faults.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book

Henry Major Tomlinson : Old Junk

'I write to thank you for the book [...]. I have already seen most of the papers composing your new vol. ["Old Junk"] and I have appreciated their graphic power, personal point of view and felicity of expression. I glanced in here and there with renewed pleasure.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Wilfred Scawen Blunt : My Diaries: Being a Personal Narrative of Events,1888-1914

'I return here the first volume with many thanks. It is very curious reading, but somehow one cannot take it very seriously.'

[Hence follow thirteen lines of mainly negative comments.]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

George Bradshaw (ed) : Bradshaw's Monthly General Railway and Steam Navigation Guide for Great Britain and Ireland

'I fully share your admiration for Bradshaw tho' I think he goes too much into detail so that all sense of reality is lost and the book produces the effect of being a mere fairy-tale. It's imposible to believe that all this takes place every day! The more popular and picturesque treatment of the same subject in the "A.B.C." carries more conviction to my frivolous mind.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Thomas James Wise : A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of Algernon Charles Swinburne (Part 1)

'Let me thank you for the Swinburne bibliography which I've read with the greatest interest.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham : Brought Forward

'I am just fresh from the second reading of your vol ["Brought Forward"]'. Hence follow twelve lines of admiring comment.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham : A Brazilian Mystic, being the Life and Miracles of Antonio Conselheiro

'Ever so many thanks too for the "Life and Miracles" which I have just read for the second time.There is no one but you to render so poignantly the pathetic and desperate effects of human credulity. It is a marvellous piece of sustained narrative and of intensely personal prose.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Robert Cortes Holliday :

'Thank you very much for Mr Holliday's book, which has certainly got a lot of good things in it and which I enjoyed greatly.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham : Cartagena and the Banks of the Sinu

'What to me [...] seems most wonderful in the Carthagena book is its inextinguishable vitality, the unchanged strength of feeling, steadfastness of sympathies and force of expresssion. I turned the pages with unfailing delight [...].

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Henry Fynes Clinton : Fasti hellenici: the civil and literary chronology of Greece

'Began Clinton's Introduction &c.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Henry Fynes Clinton : Fasti hellenici: the civil and literary chronology of Greece

'Bland — Clinton — a little Herodotus.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Henry Fynes Clinton : Fasti hellenici: the civil and literary chronology of Greece

Thucydides — Clinton — Public Lecture in Diff. Calc — reading it & Questions ...

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Henry Fynes Clinton : Fasti hellenici: the civil and literary chronology of Greece

Read Juvenal all the morning- (save that I now read a few verses of Greek Testament the first thing)- finished Clinton's Introduction.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Thomas William Lancaster : The harmony of the law and the Gospel with regard to the doctrine of a

[...] Stanley- Gisborne- Shelley- Lancaster: exceedingly desultory & alas exceedingly idle. Did a very few Lat. vss & Greek Iambb.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Thomas William Lancaster : The harmony of the law and the Gospel with regard to the doctrine of a

[Sunday] Chapel & Serm. mg & aft. Whateley. Lancaster. Sleepy. [...].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Thomas William Lancaster : The harmony of the law and the Gospel with regard to the doctrine of a

[Sunday] Short's Serm. Heard Buckley. Lancaster &c &C. [...].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Ewart Gladstone Print: Book

Stefan Zeromski : Dzieje grzechu

'I have just read through the Zeromski novel you mean: "History of a Sin". I don't think it will do for translation. The international murderess episodes take but a little space after all. The whole thing is disagreeable and often incomprehensible in comment and psychology. Often it is gratuitously ferocious. You now I am not sqeamish. The other work the great historical machine is called "Ashes" (Popioly). Both of course have a certain greatness.[...] [but] both take too much for granted in the way of receptivity and tolerance.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Stefan Zeromski : Popioly

'I have just read through the Zeromski novel you mean: "History of a Sin". I don't think it will do for translation. The international murderess episodes take but a little space after all. The whole thing is disagreeable and often incomprehensible in comment and psychology. Often it is gratuitously ferocious. You now I am not sqeamish. The other work the great hstorical machine is called "Ashes" (Popioly). Both of course have a certain greatness.[...] [but] both take too much for granted in the way of receptivity and tolerance.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Margaret Isabella Stevenson :

'Your last letter was very nice.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Letter

William Ernest Henley :

'At last, son of night, I receive a communication […] Oh no, it is not the penny. It is the one-volume story demanded by Hueffer for the New Tarterly [sic]. It’s a real story, damned fine; but the dénouementdoesn’t please me yet: the beginning is so good, that it is difficult to get up to that pitch again, and the story sort of dies away.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Letter

Francis Warrington Dawson : The Gift of Paul Clermont

'Now I have absorbed it I send you my thanks for "The Gift of Paul Clermont". It is a very charming and touching performance which one likes more the deeper one gets into it.'
[Hence follow nine lines of praise.]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Alfred Comyn Lyall :

'Many thanks for the book which has given me the greatest of pleasure. I have always had a great admiration for Sir Alfred [Lyall] whose verse and prose appeal strongly to my mind and feelings.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Basil Lubbock : The Colonial Clippers

'The book you sent me was a great pleasure to me. Some of the ships I knew personally.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

John Addington Symonds : Animi Figura

'Symonds, talking of cultshaw, has just written a book of sonnets, which I think really should interest and amuse a few of us.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Proof copy

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham : The Conquest of New Granada, being the Life of Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada

'I would have written to you before about my delight in "The Conquest of Granada" if it had not been for the beastly swollen wrist which prevented me from holding the pen.'
[Hence follow eight lines of praise.]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Fryniwyid Tennyson Jesse : The White Riband; Or a Young Female's Folly

'Ever so many thanks for the little book of fantasy and charm and sharp irony seasoning the tragic story of poor Loveday, who had no other name.[...] Its a gem in its way.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Jan Tadeusz Zuk-Skarszewski : Rumak Swiatowida:karykatura wczorajsza (Swiatowid's Steed: A Caricature of Yesterday)

'Will you please give my warm regards to your husband and tell him I have just finished reading the "Rumak" with the greatest possible interest. I think it's simply wonderful in its sustained power and charm of expression.[...] I haven't benn able as yet to find time to begin "Pustka.''

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

W. A. H. Mull : A True Story: Loss and Record of the Wreck of the Ship "Dalgonar" of Liverpool

'Thanks for the press cuttings. The accident on board that ship was an extraordinary one.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

Liam O'Flaherty : The Cow's Death

'I am sorry I put in an, apparently, unlucky form what I had to say about the two pieces of prose you sent me.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

David John Nicoll : "Commonweal": The Greenwich Mystery

'Thank you very much for your letter and the pamphlet in which I was very much interested.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Serial / periodical

William Henry Hudson : 153 Letters from W. H. Hudson

'I have been laid up for days and days and your volume of H[udson]'s letters was the most welcome alleviation to the worry and general horror of the situation. I think that your little introduction at the beginning is the most charming and touching thing that I ever remember having read. The letters themselves are of course particularly interesting.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

John Paris [pseud. Frank Trelawney Arthur Ashton-Gwatkin] : Kimono

'Have you seen Gwatkin? His novel is not bad and I can see now why it had that sale. Shall I send it to you or has he given you a copy?'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Enoch Arnold Bennett : Riceyman Steps

'I am wholly delighted with your "R.[iceyman] S.[teps]. Wholly. You will give me credit for not having missed any special gems but it is the whole achievement as I went from page to page that secured my admiration. [...] I closed the book at 7 in the morning after the shortest sleepless night of my experience [...]'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Anthony Trollope : Phineas Finn: The Irish Member

'I read with the greatest pleasure what you say about Trollope. I made his acquaintance full thirty years ago and made up my mind about his value then, as a writer of remarkable talent for imaginative rendering of the social life of his time, with its activities and interests and incipient thoughts.[ ...] I was considerably impressed with them [The "Palliser" novels] in the early eighties when I chanced upon a novel entitled "Phineas Finn". Haven't seen them since, to tell you the truth [...]'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Ford Madox Ford : Some Do Not

'As to the novel I think that between us two, if I tell you that I consider it "tout à fait chic" you will understand perfectly how much that "phrase de l'atelier" means to the initiated.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Edward Lancelot Sanderson : An Episode of Southern Seas

'As to your verses. May I keep them? Of course now you say you will not finish the poem — and it may be true — now.[...] But its charm and music are for me. I have read it more than once.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Manuscript: Unknown

Ivan Turgenev : A Lear of the Steppes and Other Stories

'In the vol entitled "Lear of the Steppes" only the first story is really worth reading. The other two ["Acia" and "Faust"] Turg[enev] wrote in French I believe first and they are not good specimens of his art.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

James Johnston Abraham : A Surgeon's Log: Being Impressions of the Far East

'Many thanks for the copy of your book which I have read with the greatest of interest and pleasure.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Juliet M. Soskice (Hueffer) : Memoirs from Childhood: Reminiscences of an Artist's Grand-daughter

'I ought to have thanked you before for Mrs Soskice's book. I remember it had a good press when it first appeared. It certainly has a quality but it is very much like the one-time Juliet.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

François-Marie Arouet Voltaire : Candide

'It is years since I have read "Candide" of course in French. I must tell you I have been immensely pleased by the particular quality of this translation.'
[Hence follow five lines of further praise for the translation.]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Léon Lanzac de Laborie : Paris sous Napoléon

'Throughout his career Conrad was haunted by the idea of writing a Napoleonic novel, for which he did a prodigious amount of background reading.[...] However it was not until June 1920 that he eventually started to write "Suspense", and early in 1921 he spent two months in Corsica to saturate himself in Napoleonic atmosphere, revive memories of harbours and sailors and do further background reading, as the list of books borrowed from the Ajaccio library, recorded by Jean-Aubry, indicates.' [see note 118, p.316]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Alfred Russel Wallace : The Malay Archipelago The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise

'At other times he would tell me about the Malay Archipelago and the Malays and show me pictures in A. R. Wallace's book about that part of the world.

[...]

He would read to me about far away places, explaining how the natives built their houses on poles driven into the river beds of eastern rivers.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

William Wymark Jacobs :

'At the foot of the bed was an oak "library table" [...]. There were several piles of books on it, W. W. Jacobs for light reading, de Maupassant, Flaubert, Galsworthy, Cunninghame Graham, various periodicals, and a book, which has always been a mystery to me, "Out of the Hurly Burly" by Max Adler. In the window stood an arm chair of cherry wood, lacquered black, on which my father often sat to read for half an hour or so before "turning in".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Max Adeler pseud. i.e Charles Heber Clark : Out of the Hurly Burly: or Life in an Odd Corner

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Gustave Flaubert :

'At the foot of the bed was an oak "library table" [...]. There were several piles of books on it, W. W. Jacobs for light reading, de Maupassant, Flaubert, Galsworthy, Cunninghame Graham, various periodicals, and a book, which has always been a mystery to me, "Out of the Hurly Burly" by Max Ad[e]ler. In the window stood an arm chair of cherry wood, lacquered black, on which my father often sat to read for half an hour or so before "turning in".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

John Galsworthy :

'At the foot of the bed was an oak "library table" [...]. There were several piles of books on it, W. W. Jacobs for light reading, de Maupassant, Flaubert, Galsworthy, Cunninghame Graham, various periodicals, and a book, which has always been a mystery to me, "Out of the Hurly Burly" by Max Ad[e]ler. In the window stood an arm chair of cherry wood, lacquered black, on which my father often sat to read for half an hour or so before "turning in".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham :

'At the foot of the bed was an oak "library table" [...]. There were several piles of books on it, W. W. Jacobs for light reading, de Maupassant, Flaubert, Galsworthy, Cunninghame Graham, various periodicals, and a book, which has always been a mystery to me, "Out of the Hurly Burly" by Max Ad[e]ler. In the window stood an arm chair of cherry wood, lacquered black, on which my father often sat to read for half an hour or so before "turning in".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

José Raul Capablanca : My Chess Career or Chess Fundamentals

'[...] two or three times a week after dinner we got out the chessmen and board and spent a couple of hours playing through the games in Capablanca's book. We played every game in the book, J[oseph] C[onrad] reading the moves, stopping where Capablanca had made a comment, so we could write down our own observations.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book

Gilbert Keith Chesterton : Backfile of his own articles published in the "Daily Herald."

'One Friday afternoon I went to the [italics] Daily Herald [end italics] office to call on a friend. As I entered the building a taxi stopped at the door and I found G. K. C. [G. K. Chesterton] by my side. "I have half an hour for my article," said he, rather breathlessly. "Wait here till I come back." The first sentence was addressed to himself, the second to the taxi-driver, but as we were now in the office the driver heard nothing. Chesterton called for a back file of the [italics] Daily Herald [end italics], sat down, lit a cigar and began to read some of his old articles. I watched him. Presently he smiled. Then he laughed. Then he leaned back in his chair and roared. "Good - oh, damned good!" exclaimed he. He turned to another article and frowned a little, but a third pleased him better. After a while he pushed the papers from him and sat a while in thought.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gilbert Keith Chesterton Print: Newspaper

John A. Carlyle : Review of Sir Walter Scott's 'Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, II'

'[I] read your Demonology and a Paper on St J. Long, the only thing by you in that [al]most quite despicable Magazine.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

John A. Carlyle : 'Some passages from the Diary of the late Mr St John Long'

'[I] read your Demonology and a Paper on St J. Long, the only thing by you in that [al]most quite despicable Magazine.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Serial / periodical

Herbert George Wells : Ann Veronica

'Saw most exciting smash of an aeroplane against the buildings and tents of the 13th. Squadron R.F.C. Machine turned turtle and nose dived. Pilot unhurt. Am doing a fair amount of reading. Enjoying "Ann Veronica" by H.G.Wells.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Lindsay Mackay Print: BookManuscript: Letter, Sheet

Edward Verrall Lucas : Mr. Ingleside

'Sunday 17th. Am pretty sure I will get back to the Battalion soon. Went to St. Pol, had lunch, bought some books. Stopped a staff car, and got back to Aubigny for tea. Shifted into a fine comfortable hut with a fire. Finished "Mr Ingleside".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Lindsay Mackay Print: BookManuscript: Letter, Sheet

Henry Marriage Wallis : War Time Tree Fellings

H. M. Wallis delighted us with an account of War Time Tree fellings

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Reginald H. Robson : The Abolition of the House of Commons

'A Meeting held at 9 Denmark Rd 13/11/1928 F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

8[.] Essays were read (1) Alfred Rawlings on Beauty (2) R H Robson on The Abolition of the House of Commons'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald H. Robson Manuscript: Unknown

H. B. Lawson : [An account of Plato's life and work]

'A Meeting held at Whinfell 21/1/29 Alfred Rawlings in the chair

1. Minutes of last time read and approved

[...]

4. The Subject of Plato was then taken F. E. Pollard explained briefly the subject and manner of "The Republic" following which Alfred and Janet Rawlings read one of the earlier dialogues. H. B. Lawson then gave us a most fascinatingly interesting account of Plato's life and work.

After supper Chas E. Stansfield read from Book 7 of the "Republic" "The Cave" this reading being illustrated by a diagram kindly made and explained by F. E. Pollard. F. E. Pollard then outlined for us the main thoughts of Platos [sic] Philosophy Ideas the true reality[.] The evening concluded by T. C. Elliott reading the affecting account of Socrates death in the Phaedo. Thus came to an end a most interesting evening.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: H. B. Lawson Manuscript: Unknown

Thomas C. Elliott : [An estimate of Vitor Hugo's verse and his position in French literature]

'A Meeting held at Oakdene 20/2/1929 S. A. Reynolds in the chair

1. Minutes of last Meeting read and approved

[...]

4. The Subject of the evening Victor Hugo was then taken[.] Howard R Smith gave a brief sketch of his life[.] Thos C. Elliott gave some estimate of Hugos verse & his position in French literature following this up by reading in French "Boaz" & Waterloo. after supper Mis Brain read from Les Miserables which was followed by some general discussion on Hugos work. R. H. Robson read from Toilers of the sea & H. B. Lawson read from Ninety three'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas C. Elliott Manuscript: Unknown

H. B. Lawson : [Humour]

'A Meeting held at Grove House May 3rd H. B. Lawson in the chair

Min 1. Minutes of last Read and approved

[...]

[Min] 4 The Subject of the evening "Humour" was then introduced by H. B. Lawson who fascinated us by his thoughtful attempts to define his subject[.] An interesting discussion followed in which the disputants backed their opinions by literary allusion and we were led to wonder if Humour flowed from F E Pollards heart & wit from R H Robsons head.

After Supper the Club settled down to enjoy the following selections chosen to represent English Humour in literature down the Ages[:]

Prologue of Chaucers Canterbury Tales The Prioress & Wife of Bath read by Howard R. Smith

Shakespeares Henry IV The Men in Buckram read by R. H Robson Fallstaff
[ditto] S. A. Reynolds Poins
[ditto] C. E. Stansfield Prince Hall [sic]
[ditto] Geo Burrow Gadshill
Jane Austin Pride & Prejudice Mr. Collins proposes
[ditto] Mrs Robson
Charles Dickens David Copperfield Mrs Micawber on her husbands career[?] Geo Burrow
Charles Lamb A Letter Alfred Rawlings
Lewis Carrols Alice in Wonderland The Lobster Quadrill Mary Reynolds
Jerome K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat Uncle Podger hangs a picture F. E. Pollard
Hilaire Belloc Cautionary Tales "George" recited by Howard R. Smith'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: H. B. Lawson Manuscript: Unknown

Jerome K. Jerome : Three Men in a Boat

'A Meeting held at Grove House May 3rd H. B. Lawson in the chair

Min 1. Minutes of last Read and approved

[...]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Pollard

Edna St. Vincent Millay : Renascence and Other Poems

'A Meeting held at Broomfield June 6 1929

Geo H Burrow in the chair

Min 1. Minutes of last time read and approved

[...]

5 The Subject of the evening Modern American Literature was then taken F. E. Pollard introducing us to a number of Authors in a short general Survey. Geo Burrows then read us several short examples in Verse[.]

Rosamund Wallis read two passages from "the Bridge of St Louis Rey" by Thornton Wilder[.]

Thos C. Elliott read an essay on "War" by George Santiana[.]

Chas E Stansfield read a poem "Renaissance by E. St Vincent Millay[.]

R. H. Robson gave us two readings from Sinclair Lewis’s Babbit'

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield

Reginald H. Robson : [essay on a family holiday]

'A Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 25th September 1929 C. E Stansfield in the chair

Min 1. Minutes of last time read and approved

2 Mrs T C Elliott was wellcomed to the club in a felicitous speech by the chairman

3 The Secretary read a letter of resignation of Membership from Muriel Bowman Smith he was directed unanimously to ask her to reconsider the matter.

[...]

7 Holiday Essays were read R H Robson a family holiday at Mort[?] Geo Burrow The Jamboree & thoughts thereon C. E. Stansfield on a Swiss Holiday whilst H M Wallis chatted on some aspects of Bordighera.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald H. Robson Manuscript: Unknown

Charles E. Stansfield : [essay on a Swiss holiday]

'A Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 25th September 1929 C. E Stansfield in the chair

Min 1. Minutes of last time read and approved

2 Mrs T C Elliott was wellcomed to the club in a felicitous speech by the chairman

3 The Secretary read a letter of resignation of Membership from Muriel Bowman Smith he was directed unanimously to ask her to reconsider the matter.

[...]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Manuscript: Unknown

Robert Story : The Poetical Works Of Robert Story

'Dear Sir,—I have received your beautiful volume, probably the finest bit of typography that ever came before me; and have looked over it with interest and pleasure—certainly with hearty good will to the amiable and worthy brother-man who sketches out in that manner his pilgrimage through this confused world, alongside me. A certain rustic vigour of life, breezy freshness, as of the Cheviot hills; a kindly healthiness of soul breathes every where out of the book. No one that reads it, I should think, but will feel himself better for its influences. I can honestly wish success to it; and to its author, peace and comfort for the days and years that remain. With many thanks and regards, I remain, yours sincerely. T. CARLYLE.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge : Religious Musings

'Your poems I shall procure forthwith. There were noble lines in what you inserted in one of your Numbers from Religious Musings, but I thought them elaborate. I am somewhat glad that you have given up that Paper - it must have been dry, unprofitable, and of "dissonant mood" to your disposition.'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Lamb Print: Serial / periodical, Extracts from poems in periodical.

Henry Marriage Wallis : Southern Baroque Art

'Meeting held at 70, Northcourt Avenue: 2. VI. 31 Charles E. Stansfield in the chair 1. Minutes of last approved [...] 7. The subject of the Sitwells was introduced by George Burrow who read spicy biographical extracts from Who's Who about the father Sir George Reresby, the sister Edith, and the brothers Osbert and Sacheverell. [...] Relieved by this happy if unexpected dénouement we settled ourselves in renewed confidence to listen to readings from the poetry of Edith. Alfred Rawlings read us parts of Sleeping Beauty & Celia Burrow the story of Perrine. Then for the work of Osbert and Sacheverell. H. M. Wallis gave us an amusing & tantalising paper entitled "Southern Baroque Art". This was followed by further reading from Mary Pollard, Alfred Rawlings, Charles Stansfield, & George Burrow.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

Osbert or Sacheverell Sitwell :

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Pollard

Osbert or Sacheverell Sitwell :

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings

Osbert or Sacheverell Sitwell :

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield

Osbert or Sacheverell Sitwell :

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow

John L. Hawkins : [A paper on the natural history of the neighbourhood of Reading]

Meeting held at School House, Leighton Park: 16. IX. 31. Victor Alexander in the chair
1. Minutes of last approved.
'Meeting held at School House, Leighton Park: 16. IX. 31. Victor Alexander in the chair 1. Minutes of last approved. [...] 4. John L. Hawkins then read us his paper on the Natural History of the neighbourhood [...] 6. After the interval Henry Marriage Wallis gave a vivid account of two or three bird nesting exploits undertaken with James Crosfield in Scotland.' [...] 4. John L. Hawkins then read us his paper on the Natural History of the neighbourhood [...]
6. After the interval Henry Marriage Wallis gave a vivid account of two or three bird nesting exploits undertaken with James Crosfield in Scotland.

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John L. Hawkins Manuscript: Notebook

Henry Marriage Wallis : [an account of two or three bird nesting exploits undertaken with James Crosfield in Scotland]

Meeting held at School House, Leighton Park: 16. IX. 31. Victor Alexander in the chair
'Meeting held at School House, Leighton Park: 16. IX. 31. Victor Alexander in the chair 1. Minutes of last approved. [...] 4. John L. Hawkins then read us his paper on the Natural History of the neighbourhood [...] 6. After the interval Henry Marriage Wallis gave a vivid account of two or three bird nesting exploits undertaken with James Crosfield in Scotland.' 1. Minutes of last approved.
[...] 4. John L. Hawkins then read us his paper on the Natural History of the neighbourhood [...]
6. After the interval Henry Marriage Wallis gave a vivid account of two or three bird nesting exploits undertaken with James Crosfield in Scotland.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

William Ewart Gladstone : England's Mission

[Letter] 'The two articles in the ''Fortnightly'' by Greg and Gladstone are very striking; I think the first G. so reasonable and cool and the second so fiery and full of elan.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Serial / periodical

William Rathbone Greg : Is popular judgement in politics more just than that of the higher classes?

[Letter] 'The two articles in the ''Fortnightly'' by Greg and Gladstone are very striking; I think the first G. so reasonable and cool and the second so fiery and full of elan.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Serial / periodical

Francis E. Pollard : [on the spirit of cricket]

'Meeting held at Fairlight: 9 Denmark Rd. 18th April 1932.

Francis Pollard in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved.

br/>[...]

4. F. E. Pollard then spoke on the spirit of Cricket, telling some good anecdotes to illustrate its fun and its art, both for those who play & those who frequently see it.[...]

5. Readings were then given by Victor Alexander from Nyren, by Howard Smith from Francis Thompson, & by R. H. Robson from de Delincourt's "The Cricket Match".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe :

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

8. After adjournment for supper, the Goethe evening was begun by Mary E Robson. She sang the song "Knowst thou the land". The music is by Beethoven. In this and her other songs Mary Robson was kindly accompanied by Caroline Pollard.

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

10. Reginald H. Robson read a paper on the life of Goethe. If there were any who had thought of Goethe exclusively as a poet, they must have been amazed at his vesitality. Philosopher, poet, statesman, scientist, he seems to have been "everything by turns and nothing long", except indeed a lover [...].

11. We had been much intrigued with Mrs Robson's description of the Sorrows of Werther, especially when our friend warned us that those who came under the spell of this book usually commited suicide after reading it. We felt accordingly grateful to Mrs. Robson who had read it on our behalf, and flirted with death for our sakes, and not a little apprehensive when Janet Rawlings read us an extract from it. All passed off well, however. [...]

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

16. Finally Charles E. Stansfield gave us his paper on Goethe. He referred to the lack of the political sense in the German people of those days, & showed Goethe as quite content to acquiesce in the paternal government of his small state. He described the influence of Herde[,] Klopstock, Lessing, Shakespeare, &, quaintly enough, of Goldsmith on Goethe. In speaking of the poet's scientific interests he told us of his discovery of the intermaxillary bone & of Goethe's ceaseless efforts to acquire truth.

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Pollard

Reginald H. Robson : [a paper on the life of Goethe]

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald H. Robson Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : The Sorrows of Young Werther

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary E. Robson Print: Book

Mary. E Robson : [a description of Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther]

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary E. Robson Manuscript: Unknown

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : The Sorrows of Young Werther

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Janet Rawlings Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Gefunden

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

Unknown

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Print: Book

Charles E. Stansfield : [a paper on Goethe]

Meeting held at Reckitt House, Leighton Park: 22.6.32

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of the last read. It was felt that Minute 6 needed some amplification, & Charles Stansfield was asked to do this. His more than kind amplification is appended.

[...]

9. A Reading from Goethe was next given by Mary S. W. Pollard.

12. George Burrow read a song from Goethe's Gefunden.

13. Mary Robson sang "My peace is o'er" from Faust.

14. A Reading from the same play was given by Elisabeth & Victor Alexander

15. Another song "Little wild rose, wild rose red." was sung by Mary Robson.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Manuscript: Unknown

Francis E. Pollard : [an account of the life of Walter Scott]

Meeting held at Ashton Lodge, Kendrick Rd., 13.x.32.

Henry M. Wallis in the chair

1. Minutes of last read & approved.

[...]

5. Francis E. Pollard then gave us an account of the life of Scott, interspersed with racy anecdotes. He gave us a lively picture of Scott's romantic outlook & of his keen historical interests.

6. Alfred Rawlings, who is endeared to us among other reasons as the stormy petrel of the Club, next launched an attack upon Scott as a poet, decrying his imperfections and slovenliness.

7. Henry M. Wallis then entertained us with the later work of Scott. Speaking as one wizard of another he almost succeeed in making us believe that he had been Scott's contemporary, & under his spell we caught something of the dazzling popularity of Scott's writings throughout the whole of Europe, and in particular of the cult for the Highlands and the Highlanders which sprang into being from his pen.

8. Towards the end of the evening we heard three readings, the first from Ivanhoe by Charles Stansfield who used the supper scenne in which Friar Tuch entertains the unknown knight, the second from the Heart of Midlothian by Frank Pollard in which Jeannie Deans pleads for her sister's life, & the third from Old Mortality by Rosamund Wallis describing the interrogation and torture inflicted upon the Covenanters.

All three readings held us enthralled, & all three papers aroused the maximum of discussion which a benevolent Chairman and a lenient hostess could allow. The time sped on beyond our usual hours, and as we took our leave we were still talking Scott.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Manuscript: Unknown

Henry Marriage Wallis : [on the later work of Walter Scott]

Meeting held at Ashton Lodge, Kendrick Rd., 13.x.32.

Henry M. Wallis in the chair

1. Minutes of last read & approved.

[...]

5. Francis E. Pollard then gave us an account of the life of Scott, interspersed with racy anecdotes. He gave us a lively picture of Scott's romantic outlook & of his keen historical interests.

6. Alfred Rawlings, who is endeared to us among other reasons as the stormy petrel of the Club, next launched an attack upon Scott as a poet, decrying his imperfections and slovenliness.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

XII Book Club Book Selection Committee : [List of twelve books proposed for purchase by the book club]

Meeting held at 30, Northcourt Avenue: 15.XI.32

Ethel C. Stevens in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

5. The Secretary then performed the invidious task of putting the dozen books favoured by the Selection Committee before the Meeting.

[...]

The other seeded books then underwent their ordeal and the subsidiary list was read a first time.

[...]

Nevertheless twelve books emerged with no less than 11 votes apiece. They are:

They were defeated R. Macaulay 8/6 E. T. Alexander
The Cruel Victorians Forty Authors 8/6 H. R. Smith
Flowering Wilderness J. Galsworthy 7/6 C. E. Stansfield
The New Morality G. E. Newsom 6/- G. Burrow
Sir W. Scott[?] Buchan 9/6 G. Burrow
Strawberry Roan A. G. Street 7/6 E. D. Brain
Bonnie Prince Charlie Wickinson 12/6 R. H. Robson
Nansen Reynolds 10/6 E. D. Brain
As we are E. F. Benson 15/- E. C. Stevens
Northern Lights Chapman 18/- M. S. Stansfield
Youth looks at the World Fletcher 7/6 H. M. Wallis
Land and Labour in China Tawney 7/6 S. A. Reynolds

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Manuscript: Unknown

XII Book Club Book Selection Committee : [Subsidiary list of books to be considered for purchase by the XII Book Club]

Meeting held at 30, Northcourt Avenue: 15.XI.32

Ethel C. Stevens in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

5. The Secretary then performed the invidious task of putting the dozen books favoured by the Selection Committee before the Meeting.

[...]

The other seeded books then underwent their ordeal and the subsidiary list was read a first time.

[...]

Nevertheless twelve books emerged with no less than 11 votes apiece. They are:

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Manuscript: Unknown

Henry M. Wallis : [Of a medium, a photograph, a Twentieth Century Officer & a suit of medieval armour]

Meeting held at Fairlight, Denmark Rd.: 21.iii.33

Francis E. Pollard in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved.

5. Eight anonymous essays were then read. In some of these the subject treated or the style of the author made recognition comparatively easy, but others were provocative of much ingenious speculation. A paper on English Justice proved to be the most discussed during the interval. Rival tipsters gave in confidence the names of Mrs. Stansfield & Robert Pollard as the author, one of them purporting to recognize - or coming perilously close to so doing - Mrs. Stansfield’s opinion of her fellow magistrates, while the other detected just that ingenious combination of Fascism and Bolshevism that Robert Pollard would enjoy putting up for the Club’s mystification. Further conflicting theories attributed the authorship to Henry Marriage Wallis or Howard Smith, & this last proved correct[....]

Another essay which stirred debate told of a medium, a photograph, a Twentieth Century Officer & a suit of medieval armour. It was told with that precision of detail that marks either the experienced writer of fiction or the worshipper of truth. And as if to darken counsel there was an open allusion to Bordighera. Suspicious though we were, & in spite of every appearance of our being right, we adhered to the view that the author must be H. M. Wallis.

Time & space do not allow adequate record of all the papers, but it must be mentioned that three of the eight came from the Rawlings family: a thoughtful essay by Alfred Rawlings needed a second reading if it were to be seriously discussed, some interesting reminiscences by Helen Rawlings made very good hearing, & Moroccan memories by Janet helped to make a most varied programme.

Other essays were "Safety First" by Charles E. Stansfield, and "The English - are they modest? " by Edgar Castle, both of which added some humorous touches to the evening.

A list of essayists, & their readers, follows.

Mrs Castle read a paper by Alfred Rawlings
Janet Rawlings read a paper by Helen Rawlings
Charles Stansfield read a paper by Henry M. Wallis
Reginald Robson read a paper by Howard Smith
George Burrow read a paper by Reginald Robson
Alfred Rawlings read a paper by Edgar Castle
Howard Smith read a paper by Janet Rawlings
Mrs Pollard read a paper by Charles E. Stansfield.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Manuscript: Unknown

Reginald H. Robson : [The life and writings of John Galsworthy]

Meeting held at Fairlight, Denmark Rd.: 21.iii.33

Francis E. Pollard in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved.

Other essays were "Safety First" by Charles E. Stansfield, and "The English - are they modest? " by Edgar Castle, both of which added some humorous touches to the evening.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow Manuscript: Unknown

Charles E. Stansfield : [Safety First]

Meeting held at Fairlight, Denmark Rd.: 21.iii.33

Francis E. Pollard in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved.

Other essays were "Safety First" by Charles E. Stansfield, and "The English - are they modest? " by Edgar Castle, both of which added some humorous touches to the evening.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Pollard Manuscript: Unknown

Charles E. Stansfield : [an introduction to 'Sumer Is Icumen In']

Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 28/4/1933

C. E. Stansfield in the chair

1 Minutes of last read and approved

2 For the Next Meeting's subject "The Jew in Literature" was chosen with Geo Burrow H. R. & E. B. Smith as committee

[...]

4 The evening's subject of Berkshire in Literature was then opened up by Charles E. Stansfield reading from Tom Browns School days a description of the Vale of the White Horse[.] He carried us into a quietude of time & space where a great lover of the Vale tells of the great open downs & the vale to the north of them.

Dorothy Brain told us something of Old Berkshire Ballads surprising us with their number & variety & read an amusing Ballad about a lad who died of eating custard, & the Lay of the Hunted Pig.

C. E. Stansfield read an introduction to "Summer is a Cumen In"which was then played and sung on the Gramophone.

H. R. Smith read a description of "Reading a Hundred Years Ago" from "Some Worthies of Reading"

F. E. Pollard introduced Mary Russell Mitford to the Club giving a short account of her life and Work quoting with approval a description of her as "A prose Crabbe in the Sun"

M. S. W. Pollard read "The Gypsy" from "Our Village"

Geo Burrows gave us a short Reading from Mathew Arnolds "Scholar Gypsy" and a longer one from "Thyrsis"[.] During this the Stansfield "Mackie" put in a striking piece of synchronization.

E. B. Castle read an interesting account of the Bucklebury Bowl Turner from H. V. Mortons "In Search of England".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Manuscript: Unknown

John J. Cooper : Some Worthies of Reading

Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 28/4/1933

C. E. Stansfield in the chair

1 Minutes of last read and approved

2 For the Next Meeting's subject "The Jew in Literature" was chosen with Geo Burrow H. R. & E. B. Smith as committee

[...]

Dorothy Brain told us something of Old Berkshire Ballads surprising us with their number & variety & read an amusing Ballad about a lad who died of eating custard, & the Lay of the Hunted Pig.

C. E. Stansfield read an introduction to "Summer is a Cumen In"which was then played and sung on the Gramophone.

H. R. Smith read a description of "Reading a Hundred Years Ago" from "Some Worthies of Reading"

F. E. Pollard introduced Mary Russell Mitford to the Club giving a short account of her life and Work quoting with approval a description of her as "A prose Crabbe in the Sun"

M. S. W. Pollard read "The Gypsy" from "Our Village"

Geo Burrows gave us a short Reading from Mathew Arnolds "Scholar Gypsy" and a longer one from "Thyrsis"[.] During this the Stansfield "Mackie" put in a striking piece of synchronization.

E. B. Castle read an interesting account of the Bucklebury Bowl Turner from H. V. Mortons "In Search of England".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard Smith Print: Book

Francis E. Pollard : [a short account of the life and work of Mary Russell Mitford]

Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 28/4/1933

C. E. Stansfield in the chair

1 Minutes of last read and approved

2 For the Next Meeting's subject "The Jew in Literature" was chosen with Geo Burrow H. R. & E. B. Smith as committee

[...]

Dorothy Brain told us something of Old Berkshire Ballads surprising us with their number & variety & read an amusing Ballad about a lad who died of eating custard, & the Lay of the Hunted Pig.

C. E. Stansfield read an introduction to "Summer is a Cumen In"which was then played and sung on the Gramophone.

H. R. Smith read a description of "Reading a Hundred Years Ago" from "Some Worthies of Reading"

F. E. Pollard introduced Mary Russell Mitford to the Club giving a short account of her life and Work quoting with approval a description of her as "A prose Crabbe in the Sun"

M. S. W. Pollard read "The Gypsy" from "Our Village"

Geo Burrows gave us a short Reading from Mathew Arnolds "Scholar Gypsy" and a longer one from "Thyrsis"[.] During this the Stansfield "Mackie" put in a striking piece of synchronization.

E. B. Castle read an interesting account of the Bucklebury Bowl Turner from H. V. Mortons "In Search of England".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Manuscript: Unknown

Mary Russell Mitford : 'The Gypsy', from Our Village

Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 28/4/1933

C. E. Stansfield in the chair

1 Minutes of last read and approved

2 For the Next Meeting's subject "The Jew in Literature" was chosen with Geo Burrow H. R. & E. B. Smith as committee

[...]

Dorothy Brain told us something of Old Berkshire Ballads surprising us with their number & variety & read an amusing Ballad about a lad who died of eating custard, & the Lay of the Hunted Pig.

C. E. Stansfield read an introduction to "Summer is a Cumen In"which was then played and sung on the Gramophone.

H. R. Smith read a description of "Reading a Hundred Years Ago" from "Some Worthies of Reading"

F. E. Pollard introduced Mary Russell Mitford to the Club giving a short account of her life and Work quoting with approval a description of her as "A prose Crabbe in the Sun"

M. S. W. Pollard read "The Gypsy" from "Our Village"

Geo Burrows gave us a short Reading from Mathew Arnolds "Scholar Gypsy" and a longer one from "Thyrsis"[.] During this the Stansfield "Mackie" put in a striking piece of synchronization.

E. B. Castle read an interesting account of the Bucklebury Bowl Turner from H. V. Mortons "In Search of England".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Pollard Print: Book

H. V. Morton : In Search of England

Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 28/4/1933

C. E. Stansfield in the chair

1 Minutes of last read and approved

2 For the Next Meeting's subject "The Jew in Literature" was chosen with Geo Burrow H. R. & E. B. Smith as committee

[...]

Dorothy Brain told us something of Old Berkshire Ballads surprising us with their number & variety & read an amusing Ballad about a lad who died of eating custard, & the Lay of the Hunted Pig.

C. E. Stansfield read an introduction to "Summer is a Cumen In"which was then played and sung on the Gramophone.

H. R. Smith read a description of "Reading a Hundred Years Ago" from "Some Worthies of Reading"

F. E. Pollard introduced Mary Russell Mitford to the Club giving a short account of her life and Work quoting with approval a description of her as "A prose Crabbe in the Sun"

M. S. W. Pollard read "The Gypsy" from "Our Village"

Geo Burrows gave us a short Reading from Mathew Arnolds "Scholar Gypsy" and a longer one from "Thyrsis"[.] During this the Stansfield "Mackie" put in a striking piece of synchronization.

E. B. Castle read an interesting account of the Bucklebury Bowl Turner from H. V. Mortons "In Search of England".

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edgar Castle Print: Book

Henry Marriage Wallis : My dear Twelve

Meeting held at Oakdene, Northcourt Av, 20.3.34.

Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved, in the teeth of one dissident.

[...]

5. We then proceeded to the anonymous essays and members felt on excellent terms with themselves at the prospect of hearing some attractive reading and of eluding or inflicting a good hoax or two.

The first essay opened discreetly without title on the theme of “Newcomers to Reading”, going on to a description of the neighbourhood, its beauties its quaint place names and historical associations. […]

6. Next came a paper on “Uniforms”. The writer was considered by one or two to show the observation of the masculine mind and the style of the feminine. […]

7. Then came a letter to "My dear Twelve" written with the unmistakeable touch of the practised writer. […]

8. We listened, too, with equal interest to a paper called “Canaries”, telling us something of the progress and perambulations of our latest migrant members. Moreover two or three of our number were able to follow their doings with particular appreciation, having mad much the same trip themselves. […]

9. All of us were a good deal non plussed by “Hors d’Oeuvres”, an essay not inappropriately named, for it contained a perplexing mixture of fare, and certainly stimulated our appetite. […]

10. Hardly less difficult was “Glastonbury”. Many of us had visited it, and so were able to follow closely the author’s points. But few of us knew enough of its history and legend to be sure whether or no our one professional historian had set his wits before us. So we gave up reasoning and just guessed. […]

11. Finally we heard “Spoonbill”. It was a noteworthy paper, combining the love of the naturalist for the birds he watches with the craft of the writer in the language he uses. […]

12. Here is the complete list. —

“Newcomers to Reading” by H. R. Smith, read by F. E. Pollard
“Uniforms” by Janet Rawlings, read by Elizabeth Alexander
“My dear Twelve” by H. M. Wallis, read by S. A. Reynolds
“Canaries” by C. E. Stansfield, read by Dorothy Brain
“Hors d’Oeuvres” by Dorothy Brain, read by R. H. Robson
“Glastonbury” by Mrs Goadby, read by H. R. Smith
“The Spoonbill” by W. Russell Brain, read by Mrs. Robson

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Sylvanus A. Reynolds Manuscript: Unknown

Charles E. Stansfield : Canaries

Meeting held at Oakdene, Northcourt Av, 20.3.34.

Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved, in the teeth of one dissident.

[...]

5. We then proceeded to the anonymous essays and members felt on excellent terms with themselves at the prospect of hearing some attractive reading and of eluding or inflicting a good hoax or two.

6. Next came a paper on “Uniforms”. The writer was considered by one or two to show the observation of the masculine mind and the style of the feminine. […]

7. Then came a letter to "My dear Twelve" written with the unmistakeable touch of the practised writer. […]

9. All of us were a good deal non plussed by “Hors d’Oeuvres”, an essay not inappropriately named, for it contained a perplexing mixture of fare, and certainly stimulated our appetite. […]

11. Finally we heard “Spoonbill”. It was a noteworthy paper, combining the love of the naturalist for the birds he watches with the craft of the writer in the language he uses. […]

12. Here is the complete list. —

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Brain Manuscript: Unknown, Notebook

Walter Russell Brain : Spoonbill

Meeting held at Oakdene, Northcourt Av, 20.3.34.

Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved, in the teeth of one dissident.

[...]

5. We then proceeded to the anonymous essays and members felt on excellent terms with themselves at the prospect of hearing some attractive reading and of eluding or inflicting a good hoax or two.

6. Next came a paper on “Uniforms”. The writer was considered by one or two to show the observation of the masculine mind and the style of the feminine. […]

7. Then came a letter to "My dear Twelve" written with the unmistakeable touch of the practised writer. […]

9. All of us were a good deal non plussed by “Hors d’Oeuvres”, an essay not inappropriately named, for it contained a perplexing mixture of fare, and certainly stimulated our appetite. […]

11. Finally we heard “Spoonbill”. It was a noteworthy paper, combining the love of the naturalist for the birds he watches with the craft of the writer in the language he uses. […]

12. Here is the complete list. —

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary E. Robson Manuscript: Unknown

Ethel C. Stevens : [an account of Kelmscott Manor]

Meeting held at 9 Denmark Road, 20 IV. 1934

F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read & approved with one correction, in the absence of the secretary.

[...]

4. Howard R. Smith told us of Morris’s life. The meeting gasped with unanimity and amazement to learn that he (Morris i.e.) had read all the Waverley novels by the age of seven; we gathered that the background of his life had been a blend of Epping Forest & shares in a coppermine, and that his appearance accounted for his lifelong nickname of Topsy. Of his friendships, his labours to restore beauty to Victorian homes, to prevent vandals from restoring cathedrals & other ancient monuments, his Kelmscott Press, his poems & prose romances, his turning to Socialism as the only way to a society in which men would find happiness in sound and beautiful work – of all these things and many more which made up his extraordinarily full and fruitful life, it is impossible to make a summary.

5. Mary S. W. Pollard read a short extract from Percy Corder’s life of Robert Spence Watson telling of a visit of Wm Morris to Bensham Grove. Members afterwards inspected his signature in the Visitors’ book.

6. Ethel C. Stevens read an interesting account of Kelmscott Manor, revealing other sides of this vigorous and many sided personality.

7. R. H. Robson gathered together the artistic & socialist aspects of Morris’s work, emphasised the greatness of the man, & read extracts from MacKail’s Biography. It was clear that Morris would wish to cancel out the last four hundred years & start again on different lines. Time was wanting to reveal all the varieties of opinion that this might have elicited, & we parted in united awe at the mans capacity for work, & his important contributions to our life & ideals.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel C. Stevens Manuscript: Unknown

Reginald H. Robson : [On the artistic and socialist aspects of William Morris’s work]

Meeting held at 9 Denmark Road, 20 IV. 1934

F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read & approved with one correction, in the absence of the secretary.

[...]

6. Ethel C. Stevens read an interesting account of Kelmscott Manor, revealing other sides of this vigorous and many sided personality.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald H. Robson Manuscript: Unknown

J. W. Mackail : The Life of William Morris

Meeting held at 9 Denmark Road, 20 IV. 1934

F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read & approved with one correction, in the absence of the secretary.

[...]

6. Ethel C. Stevens read an interesting account of Kelmscott Manor, revealing other sides of this vigorous and many sided personality.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald H. Robson Print: Book

[Acting secretary of the XII Book Club] : Minutes of meeting of the XII Book Club held 20 April 1934

Meeting held at 9 Denmark Road, 20 IV. 1934

F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read & approved with one correction, in the absence of the secretary.

[...]

6. Ethel C. Stevens read an interesting account of Kelmscott Manor, revealing other sides of this vigorous and many sided personality.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Manuscript: Notebook

Marjorie C. Cole : [letter expressing interest in the XII Book Club]

'Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue: 18. 6. 35.

Charles E. Stansfield in the Chair

1. Minutes of last read and approved.

2. The Secretary then read a letter from Marjorie C. Cole, expressing her interest in the Book Club and offering us a book “Gone Rambling” by Cecil Roberts which she had recently read with enjoyment. [...]

[...]

6. The large subject of London was then opened by Howard Smith. He spoke of the extraordinary insistence of the divergent views as its origin, leaning to the opinion that it owed its beginnings to to a variety of causes.

[...]

7. Extracts from Defoe’s Journal of the Great Plague were then read by Victor Alexander.

[...]

8. From Defoe we turned to Pepys, and Reginald Robson described the Great Fire.

[...]

9. We next enjoyed a delightful picture of old London which Edith Goadby gave us, making the acquaintance of Gabriel Bardon the locksmith, his pretty daughter Dolly and Simon the apprentice. It was all too short, but at least we left them happily seated before their jolly round of beef, their Yorkshire cake and quaintly shaped jug of ale.

10. A further scene was depicted for us by Ethel Stevens, old Crosby Hall, Chelsea Hospital, Cheyne walk as it used to be, and Carlyle’s house, where he entertained Tennyson in the kitchen. We were introduced to John Stuart Mill and his great concern over the loss of his fiend’s manuscript of the French Revolution, and we took glimpses at William de Morgan + Sir Thomas More.

11. Finally Charles Stansfield read us Wordsworth’s Sonnet composed on Westminster Bridge, and Henry Marriage Wallis quoted happily ten lines from William Morris.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Manuscript: Letter

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev :

'I ordered a Russian grammar from home. For some reason nearly all the translations of Russian writers in those days, at least in the Windlestone library [at Windlestone Hall, Durham, the Eden family's country seat], were into French. The single exception was Constance Garnett's brilliant translations of Turgenev. In my last visits to Windlestone and encouraged by my father, I had broken into the Russian novelists who soon proved a joyous revelation to me. It was then that I made up my mind to read them in their own language. Even an adjutant could find time heavy on his hands in winter in Flanders. My plan was to snatch at least an hour's study every day and in addition to learn by heart some grammar exercise every morning while shaving. I persevered for many weeks but then had to accept disappointment at my slow rate of progress.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Anthony Eden Print: Book

Reginald H. Robson : The Excursion – Saturday July 13th. 1935: Byways of the Chiltern Hills

Meeting held at School House, L. P. : 13.9.35

Francis E. Pollard in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved.

2. Account of the Excursion, contributed by R. H. Robson, read and approved.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald H. Robson Manuscript: Notebook, with photographs of the excursion pasted alongside the text.

H. A. L. Fisher : History of Europe

Meeting held at School House, L. P. : 13.9.35

Francis E. Pollard in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved.

2. Account of the Excursion, contributed by R. H. Robson, read and approved.

[...]

7. We then listened to a number of extracts from books read during the summer.

[...]

8. F. E. Pollard followed with an analysis of Dante and his philosophy from H. A. L. Fisher’s History of Europe. There was a rather arresting comparison between the journeyings of Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress + Dante’s Voyage of the Soul. Dante was portrayed as an aristocratic mystic and statesman, and the Roman Catholic Church appeared rather unexpectedly as a great mystical democracy owing to the melancholy relegation of several Pope to Hell.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book

Charles Lutwidge Dodson : Alice Adventures in Wonderland

'On the whole my experience of being read to by my parents was not a success. Alice in Wonderland was spoiled by my constant habit of asking questions and my intolerance of frustration. The mouse's tail made me feel, well, like the animals. Why was it dry? Who was Fury? Why? What was he furious about? Why did the mouse's tail get smaller later? Yes, but why do mice's tails...? My father was torn between the desire to be patient and the wish to get on with the book. "It gets better later", he said, but it did not.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Ruprecht Bion Print: Book

Frederick W. Farrar : Eric, or, Little by Little

'On Wednesdays the bells of St. Michael's Church on the neighbouring hill pealed for a service or, as some said, "choir practice". They filled me with dread, a reminder of Sunday yet to come. In Eric or Little by Little which I had begun to read, the bell was always tolling. Or the World of School it said, and in that school it seemed that the boys died off like flies.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Ruprecht Bion Print: Book

Frederick W. Farrar : Eric, or, Little by Little

'Religion was a sore trial ... Dean Farrar contributed to my suspicion of God, and my suspicion of God — "I haven't done anything; really I haven't" — gave ghastly reality to Eric's school in which the mortality should have attracted the attention of authority.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Ruprecht Bion Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : The Wife of Sir Eric Harman

'C. [David Lloyd George] is in very good spirits after a week-end rest. Yesterday I went down to W.H. [Walton Heath] & spent the afternoon with him, & we had a jolly time. We have both been reading Wells' last book The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman and C. thinks it is his most brilliant work. Wells has modified his views considerably, though, since he wrote Anne Veronica!'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Stevenson Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : Anne Veronica

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Stevenson Print: Book

Herbert George Wells : The Wife of Sir Eric Harman

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: David Lloyd George Print: Book

Francis E. Pollard : [Minutes of the meeting of the XII Book Club held 21 April 1937]

Meeting held at 30 Northcourt Avenue: 21.4.37.

Ethel C. Stevens in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved
[...]

6. V. W. Alexander read a paper on Jane Austen, half biographical sketch & half an appreciation of her style.

7. F. E. Pollard quoted from Lucy Harrison’s Literary Papers some telling and illuminating remarks, particularly about Fanny Price in Mansfield Park

8. Readings were then given
from Northanger Abbey by Celia Burrows
from Persuasion by Rosamund Wallis
from Sense and Sensibility by Francis & Mary Pollard
from Love and Friendship by Elizabeth Alexander
from Pride and Prejudice by Victor Alexander

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Manuscript: Notebook

Charles E. Stansfield : [a biographical sketch of Percy Bysshe Shelley with an estimate of his views and character]

Meeting held at School House, L.P. :- 28. v. 37.

C. E. Stanfield in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved

[...]

4. Charles Stansfield then read a biographical sketch of Shelley, followed by an estimate of Shelley’s views and character.

5. Readings were then given by the following
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty by Mary Pollard
Prometheus Unbound by Reginald Robson
Ode to the West Wind by Elizabeth Alexander
Adonaïs by Victor Alexander.

These were all discussed; and a further short reading, from William Watson’s poetry, was given by Alfred Rawlings.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Manuscript: Unknown

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Hymn to Intellectual Beauty

Meeting held at School House, L.P. :- 28. v. 37.

C. E. Stanfield in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved

[...]

4. Charles Stansfield then read a biographical sketch of Shelley, followed by an estimate of Shelley’s views and character.

These were all discussed; and a further short reading, from William Watson’s poetry, was given by Alfred Rawlings.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Pollard

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Prometheus Unbound

Meeting held at School House, L.P. :- 28. v. 37.

C. E. Stanfield in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved

[...]

4. Charles Stansfield then read a biographical sketch of Shelley, followed by an estimate of Shelley’s views and character.

These were all discussed; and a further short reading, from William Watson’s poetry, was given by Alfred Rawlings.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald H. Robson

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Ode to the West Wind

Meeting held at School House, L.P. :- 28. v. 37.

C. E. Stanfield in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved

[...]

4. Charles Stansfield then read a biographical sketch of Shelley, followed by an estimate of Shelley’s views and character.

These were all discussed; and a further short reading, from William Watson’s poetry, was given by Alfred Rawlings.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Adonaïs

Meeting held at School House, L.P. :- 28. v. 37.

C. E. Stanfield in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved

[...]

4. Charles Stansfield then read a biographical sketch of Shelley, followed by an estimate of Shelley’s views and character.

These were all discussed; and a further short reading, from William Watson’s poetry, was given by Alfred Rawlings.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander

Henry Marriage Wallis : [a paper on witchcraft]

Meeting held at Ashton Lodge :- 3. 7. 37.

Henry Marriage Wallis in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved

[...]

7. The Meeting then gave its attention to Witches.

H. M Wallis led off with a paper on Witchcraft and readings were given from the following books:- MacBeth – The Witch Scene[?] by Janet Rawlings, Dorothy Brain, & Dorothea Taylor with F. E. Pollard & V. W. Alexander as Banquo & MacBeth
Samuel – The Witch of Endor scene by Mary Robson
Westward Ho (Lucy), by Dorothy Brain
Trials for Witchcraft, by Howard Smith
Precious Bane, by Rosamund Wallis

Between all these items there was considerable discussion. Members were able to vie with one another in tale of mystery and eerie happenings, and if all the conversation was not strictly relevant at least the interest did not flag.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Marriage Wallis Manuscript: Unknown

J. M. Barrie : What Every Woman Knows

Meeting held at Hillsborough :- 14. 9. 37.

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved

2. Charles Stansfield then introduced the momentous question of the evening. Was the Book Club to end its existence? He had felt for some time that it was moribund. [...]

He referred to E. B. Castle who shared his concern and to a letter which he believed had been written to the Secretary by E. B. Castle.

3. The Secretary then read this; it supported the opinions expressed by C. E. Stansfield.

4. The subject was then discussed informally.

[...]

9. We then turned to the work of Barrie. Howard Smith gave us a chat – he would not call it a paper – on the plays he had seen.

[...]

A considerable part of “What every woman knows” was then read in which a number of people took part.

Charles Stansfield appropriately gave a reading from My Lady Nicotine.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of the XII Book Club Print: Book

J. M. Barrie : My Lady Nicotine

Meeting held at Hillsborough :- 14. 9. 37.

Reginald H. Robson in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read & approved

2. Charles Stansfield then introduced the momentous question of the evening. Was the Book Club to end its existence? He had felt for some time that it was moribund. [...]

He referred to E. B. Castle who shared his concern and to a letter which he believed had been written to the Secretary by E. B. Castle.

3. The Secretary then read this; it supported the opinions expressed by C. E. Stansfield.

4. The subject was then discussed informally.

[...]

9. We then turned to the work of Barrie. Howard Smith gave us a chat – he would not call it a paper – on the plays he had seen.

[...]

A considerable part of “What every woman knows” was then read in which a number of people took part.

Charles Stansfield appropriately gave a reading from My Lady Nicotine.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Print: Book

Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford : [article on submarine warfare in the "Weekly Dispatch"]

'Do you read Blatchford in the Weekly Despatch? He is very good this week on "The Danger of the Submarine" and warns us again.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry William Williamson Print: Newspaper

Edgar and Mignon Castle : [Letter of resignation from the XII Book Club]

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

1. The Secretary asked permission to reserve the reading of some of the minutes until after the literary part of the programme had been taken, as these minutes would bear directly upon the discussion which would necessarily follow as to the future of the Club. This permission was given and the other minutes were then read and approved.

2. Victor Alexander then gave a brief account of the career of William Fryer Harvey, followed by an appreciation and review of “We were Seven” which he had previously written for the Bootham Magazine.

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

9. The Secretary then read the minutes referring to last time’s discussion on the Club’s future, and also two letters of resignation. These were from Edgar and Mignon Castle and from Dorothy Brain.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Manuscript: Letter

William Fryer Harvey : Laughter and Ghosts

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings Print: Book

William Fryer Harvey : Caprimulgus

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth T. Alexander Print: Book

William Fryer Harvey : August Heat

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book

William Fryer Harvey : Patience

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Janet Rawlings Print: Book

William Fryer Harvey : Laughter and Ghosts

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Print: Book

William Fryer Harvey : Laughter and Ghosts

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings Print: Book

William Fryer Harvey : The Tortoise

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard Smith Print: Book

Edgar and Mignon Castle : [Letter of resignation from the XII Book Club]

'Meeting held at Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd. 23.10.’37

Alfred Rawlings in the Chair

3. Helen Rawlings read several of Harvey’s poems from the volume “Laughter and Ghosts[”].

4. Elizabeth T. Alexander read a chapter from “Caprimulgus”.

5. Frank Pollard read “August Heat” from Midnight House.

6. Janet Rawlings read “Patience” from Quaker Byways.

7. Charles E. Stansfield read two more poems from “Laughter and Ghosts”

8. Howard R. Smith read “The Tortoise” from Midnight House.

10. Discussion then followed.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Manuscript: Letter

[A committee of the XII Book Club] : [List of books suggested for purchase by the XII Book Club]

'Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue: 14. 12. 37
[...]
4. The Book list committee then submitted a list of twelve books with various alternatives. With one exception the original twelve were accepted by the Club[...].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of the XII Book Club Manuscript: Unknown

Charles E. Stansfield : [A detailed biographical sketch of Æ (AE, or George William Russell)]

Meeting held at St. Margaret’s, Shinfield Road: 20. 1. 38.

F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

6. C. E. Stansfield opened the proceedings on Æ [A-E ligature, the name adopted by George William Russell] by a detailed biographical sketch of some length, in the course of which we gained some idea of the contradictions and complexities of A. E.’s character. [...] An interesting personal touch was added to the sketch by F. E. Pollard who had been present at one of Æ’s “salon” receptions.

7. Extracts from A. E’s prose were then read by Mary S. W. Pollard on “Gandhi,” and by F. E. Pollard on “The one dimensional mind”.

8. Finally F. E. Pollard and V. W. Alexander read three of A.E.’s poems.

9. By this time most of us were more than ready for a little lighter matter, and we thoroughly appreciated some delightful touches from The Tinker’s Wedding by Synge which Rosamund Wallis gave with evident relish.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Manuscript: Unknown

George William Russell : Gandhi

Meeting held at St. Margaret’s, Shinfield Road: 20. 1. 38.

F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

7. Extracts from A. E’s prose were then read by Mary S. W. Pollard on “Gandhi,” and by F. E. Pollard on “The one dimensional mind”.

8. Finally F. E. Pollard and V. W. Alexander read three of A.E.’s poems.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Pollard Print: Book

J. M. Synge : The Tinker’s Wedding

Meeting held at St. Margaret’s, Shinfield Road: 20. 1. 38.

F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

7. Extracts from A. E’s prose were then read by Mary S. W. Pollard on “Gandhi,” and by F. E. Pollard on “The one dimensional mind”.

8. Finally F. E. Pollard and V. W. Alexander read three of A.E.’s poems.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis Print: Book

A. W. Lawrence : Lawrence by his Friends

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro

5. Mary S. Stansfield read from “Lawrence by his Friends” some interesting impressions contributed by some of these friends to a book edited by Lawrence’s brother. One passage by a man who knew Lawrence as a fellow aircraftman gave us a picture of him as a thoroughly likeable and popular hero, admired for his prowess as a motorcyclist.

6. Howard L. Sikes then read from Africa View by Julian Huxley. The passage concerned the respective advantages of Indirect and Direct Rule[...]. This reading produced considerable discussion on the same questions, and spread over on to the attitude of the French and the British toward their African dependant peoples, and members found something to ask or to say about almost every corner of Africa[...].

7. Elizabeth T. Alexander followed with an entertaining reading from Halliday Sutherland’s “A time to keep”. We shall carry in our minds for some time the dramatic appearance of Red William in his nightshirt urging the ladies in evening dress to run for their lives.

8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.

9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].

10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary S. Stansfield Print: Book

Benjamin Robert Haydon : Autobiography

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro

8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.

9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].

10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret L. LLoyd Print: Book

Benjamin Robert Haydon : Autobiography

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro

8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.

9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].

10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore Print: Book

Benjamin Robert Haydon : Autobiography

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro

8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.

9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].

10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore Print: Book

Benjamin Robert Haydon : Autobiography

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair. 1. Minutes of last read and approved [...] 4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro 5. Mary S. Stansfield read from “Lawrence by his Friends” some interesting impressions contributed by some of these friends to a book edited by Lawrence’s brother. One passage by a man who knew Lawrence as a fellow aircraftman gave us a picture of him as a thoroughly likeable and popular hero, admired for his prowess as a motorcyclist. 6. Howard L. Sikes then read from Africa View by Julian Huxley. The passage concerned the respective advantages of Indirect and Direct Rule[...]. This reading produced considerable discussion on the same questions, and spread over on to the attitude of the French and the British toward their African dependant peoples, and members found something to ask or to say about almost every corner of Africa[...]. 7. Elizabeth T. Alexander followed with an entertaining reading from Halliday Sutherland’s “A time to keep”. We shall carry in our minds for some time the dramatic appearance of Red William in his nightshirt urging the ladies in evening dress to run for their lives. 8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too. 9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...]. 10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore Print: Book

John A. Spender : The Comments of Bagshot

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro

8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.

9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].

10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book

John A. Spender : The Comments of Bagshot

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro

8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.

9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].

10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book

Kurt Von Stutterheim : Those English!

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro

8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.

9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].

10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book

Kurt Von Stutterheim : Those English!

February 15th was the date chosen for the next time and the subject “Books that people have been reading”

Meeting held at Oakdene: Northcourt Av.–15.2.38 Sylvanus A. Reynolds in the Chair.

1. Minutes of last read and approved

[...]

4. The first reading came from Reginald Robson who gave us an amusing extract from “Beasts & Superbeasts” by H. H. Munro

8. Roger Moore gave us some excellent fun in his reading from Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Autobiography, and we made some discoveries about Charles Lamb and Wordsworth too.

9. F. E. Pollard, greatly daring, then read from the “Comments of Bagshott” [sic] some shrewd remarks about the male and female of the human species[...].

10. H. R. Smith completed the programme with some well chosen paragraphs from “Those English” by Carl [i.e. Curt] von Stutterheim.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book

George A. Birmingham : Spanish Gold

Meeting held at Ashton Lodge: 14.3.38.
1. Minutes of last read and approved.
[...]
4. Readings from Irish Literature were then given as follows:-
C. E. Stansfield from G. A. Birmingham’s “Spanish Gold”;
H. R. Smith from a story about an illicit still;
Mary Robson from the preface of Bernard Shaw’s “John Bull’s Other Island;”
Rosamund Wallis[;]
Victor Alexander from Ross and Somerville’s “An Irish R.M.”[;]
Elsie Sikes from ? some Irish Bulls

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Print: Book

George A. Birmingham : Spanish Gold

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Print: Book

George Bernard Shaw : Preface to John Bull’s Other Island

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary E. Robson Print: Book

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt : The Shame of the Nineteenth Century: A Letter Addressed to the "Times"

'With Cockerell to Parkstone to see Alfred Russel Wallace, the Grand Old Man of Science ... He complimented me on my pamphlet, "The Shame of the XIXth Century" and expressed strong views on the pauperization of India. There was a number of the paper "Light" lying on his table, and I asked him if he still adhered to his belief in spiritualism, and he said very postively that he had not receded from it in the smallest degree.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Russel Wallace

Margaret Oliphant : Squire Arden?

'I bought for 3s. a novel by Mrs Oliphant, ''An English Squire'', with the same irritable young man one knows so well. A very clever description of the feelings of a widow on losing a dull husband she did not much care for...'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Book

Ralph Waldo Emerson : Unknown

'I am wading through Emerson, as I really wanted to know what transcendentalism means, and I think that it is that intuition is before reason (or facts). It certainly does not suit Wedgwoods, who never have any intuitions.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Book

George William Russell : "Shadows and Lights"

'I have just come across these lines by A. E., which I like, because the stars are your only companions on sentry duty in the trenches; and they seem filled with majesty and peace, as does the sunrise too [quotes stanza five of A. E.'s poem "Shadows and Lights"].'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Douglas Herbert Bell Print: Unknown

Harry Emerson Fosdick : The Meaning of Prayer

'The sergeant of the guard one day asked me to lend him a book to read. I said I was afraid I'd nothing he'd care for, but I'd look. This was my Detention Cell Library: Fellowship Hymn Book and Weymouth; Rauschenbusch Christianity and the Social Crisis; The Meaning of Prayer, The Manhood of the Master, and Prayers for Students (S.C.M.); Otto's and Hugo's German grammars; Luther's Testament, and Goethe's Faust!'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Corder Pettifor Catchpool Print: Book

Harry Emerson Fosdick : The Manhood of the Master

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Corder Pettifor Catchpool Print: Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Corder Pettifor Catchpool Print: Book

Charlotte Mary Yonge :

'My mother had a school-board pupil-teacher to read aloud to her during part of the winter; she wrote: ''I embarked with her in such a frivolous novel all about flirtations and lovers that I have changed it for Miss Yonge — all about scarlet-fever and drains.'''

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Book

Robert W. Service : Rhymes of a Red Cross Man

'Read "Barbe of Grand Bayon". Wound dressed. Head finished. Bath, read, cut dressings. Read "Rhymes of a Red Cross Man".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Frederick William Dunn Print: Book

Henry Seton Merriman : Barlasch of the Guard

'Read ... "Barlash [sic] of the Guard". Dressed & sat by the fire. Dominoes.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Frederick William Dunn Print: Book

Anthony Hope Hawkins : The Chronicles of Count Antonio

'Read. Wounds dressed ... Visit from Miss Davies and a friend (Miss Stevenson). She brought 8 books & chocs. Talked for 1/2 hour. Also a book of Camp Songs by Dr Walford Davies. Writing & read "Count Antonio". Made several trips around the ward on crutches.'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Frederick William Dunn Print: Book

George Otto Trevelyan : The Life and Letters of Lord Macauley

'Matheson is reading ''Macauley's Life'' to me, and his letters are delightful.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Book

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell : Cranford

'My reader is a great success. It is ''Cranford'', and ''D-n Dr Johnson'' comes in. She stopped dead and said ''a slang expression''. I can't perceive she is ever amused.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Book

A. J. Balfour : The Foundations of Belief

'I have finished Balfour. Of course I don't do the book justice, but the last two or three pages seem to me very inconclusive.'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Book

Anthony Hope Hawkins : Tales of Two People

'Read - book "Gallipoli" from Rev. Robt. Overton by post. Parcel cake from Mrs Scales. Wrote Reg ... Crib[bage] & read "Tales of Two People".'

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Frederick William Dunn Print: Book

Mrs Humphry Ward : The Coryston Family

'Read "The Coryston Family". Was again fitted with a uniform. Wrote to Mrs Davies.'

the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Hitchcock Print: Book

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred, Lord Tennyson Print: Book

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Charlotte Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Davies

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Clare Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Clare Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Mayett Print: Unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom Print: Serial / periodical

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elisabeth or Eliza Duncan

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Dugdale

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Bowly

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Bowly Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Bowly

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Bowly

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: I.G. Print: Book

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Hitchcock Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: I.G. Print: Book

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Hitchcock Print: Book

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Lincoln Print: Book

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Thomas Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Stancliff Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Savile Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book