'[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
[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
