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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

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Sydney Dobell

  

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Sydney Dobell : 'The Roman'

Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 25 October 1850:

'The box of books came last night [...] Jeffrey's Essays, Dr Arnold's Life, the Roman, Alton Locke [...] Already I have read the greatest part of the "Roman" — passages in it possess a kindling virtue such as true poetry alone can boast — there are images of genuine grandeur — there are lines that at once stamp themselves on the memory [...] this Sydney or Dobell speaks with a voice of his own, unborrowed — unwicked. You hear Tennyson indeed sometimes — and Byron sometimes in some passages of the "Roman" — but then again you hear a new note — nowhere clearer than in a certain brief lyric [...] a sort of dirge over a dead brother — that not only charmed the ear and brain — it smote the heart.'

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

  

Sydney Dobell : Balder

[Charlotte Bronte to Sydney Dobell, 3 February 1854:]


'"Balder" arrived safely. I looked at him, before cutting his leaves, with singular pleasure [...] I have read him. He impresses me thus: He teems with power; I found in him a wild wealth of life [...]


'There is power in that character of "Balder," and to me a certain horror. Did you mean it to embody, along with force, any of the special defects of the artistic character? It seems to me that those defects were never thrown out in stronger lines. I did not and could not think you meant to offer him as your cherished ideal of the true great poet; I regard him as a vividly coloured picture of inflated self-esteem, almost frantic aspiration; of a nature that has made a Moloch of intellect — offered up, in pagan fires, the natural affections — sacrificed the heart to the brain. Do we not all know that true greatness is simple, self-oblivious, prone to unambitious, unselfish attachments? I am certain you feel this truth in your heart of hearts.'

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

  

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