'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
' ... 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
' ... 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
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
'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
'An annotated copy of John Hart's "Orthographie" which undoubtedly belonged to [Gabriel] Harvey [...] is replete with his comments on spellings and punctuations [...] On sig. Diiir where the text states "a writing is corrupted when any worde or sillable hath more letters, than are used of voyces in the pronunciation" Harvey cites as examples: "Comptroller, Bloudde, Adde, Speake".'
Century: 1500-1599 / 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book
'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
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
'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
'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
'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
'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
'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
