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
'Mr Murphy's Grecian Daughter is I think unquestionably the best of all our modern Tragedies, & all its Merit is the Power it has over our Passions too; for nobody I believe ever dreamed of repeating a line on't:
Now though to move Terror & Pity those two throbbing Pulses of the Drama, be the first Thing required in a Tragedy; there are others which are necessary to make it complete, as Sentiment Diction &c. 'tis entertaining enough to observe the effect of each style separately - & we shall have Cato and Irene at one End; the Earl of Essex and George Barnwell at the other'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book
'April 1st. 1918. We came out of the line at night. Back to Arras. H.Q. in cellars in the Hotel de
Ville, or Town Hall. Poor Arras! It is in a worse condition than ever before. All our new
erections, Y.M.C.A., huts, transport lines, and canteens and officers club are no more. I
salvaged a copy of Jones' "Life of R. Browning" from the wreckage of the Y.M.C.A. Library. Our
quarters are damp, and they smell. There are also rats, and the place is dark. Some of the
Tommies had had a good time. There has been a bit of looting of such wine cellars and
estaminets as previous bombardments had left.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Lindsay Mackay Print: BookManuscript: Letter, Sheet
'This last week many little amenities have softened our lot; after a fornight's detention we had the good fortune to have our grand-motherly sergeant as chief of the guard. In our recent tour of the home counties under his superintendence we had established a certain authority over him by reason of his dependence upon us for remembering his documents, catching trains, and most principally, not losing ourselves! Thanks to this moral ascendancy, we were able to raid our kits and get almost anything we wanted — toilet things and books were the greatest desiderata — and since then I have been enjoying Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher. I hope to finish this and then do Sartor again, so as to take Browning's and Carlyle's philosophies of life with me to think over during the Scrubs [detention] months.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Corder Pettifor Catchpool Print: Book
