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

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John Gisborne : [a tale of Italy]

'I am anxious to thank S.G. [Signor Giovanni = John Gisborne] for the pleasure I have received from his tale of Italy a tale all Italy - breathing of the land I love - the descriptions are beautiful - & he has shed a great charm round the concentrated & undemonstrative person of his gentle heroine. I suppose she is the reality of the story. - Did you know her? - It is difficult however to judge how to procure for it the publication it deserves [Mary details the problems] But there arises a stronger objection from the length of the story - As the merit lies in the beauty of the details, I do not see how it could [be] but cut down to [underlined] one quarter [underlining ends] of its present length, which is as long as any tale printed in an Annual' [Letter to Maria Gisborne]

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley      Manuscript: Unknown

John Gisborne : The Vales of Wever, a Loco-Descriptive Poem

Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 25 May, 1797: 'This New Forest is very lovely. I should like to have a house in it — & dispeople the rest like William the Conqueror. of all land objects a forest is the finest. Gisborne has written a feeble poem upon the subject.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey      Print: Book

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