Letters on Mythology Addressed to a Lady by R. Morgan, 1 vol. A humourous and entertaining production, written in a light and easy style, to make it palatable to a lady's taste.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Weeton Print: Book
'[Burney was] 'not impressed by Samuel James Arnold's "The Creole", Lady Morgan's "The Missionary", Edgeworth's "Patronage", which she found "dull and heavy" or Hannah More's "Coelebs", which she found "monotonously without interest of ANY kind", despite her approval of its politics.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney Print: Book
'[Harriet Grove] enjoyed novels and plays: in 1809-10, she read with pleasure in a family group a number of popular bestsellers (which in the period means largely novels by women), including Lady Morgan's "The Novice of Saint Dominick", Agnes Maria Bennett's "The Beggar Girl and her Benefactors", Edgeworth's "Tales of Andrews", "Sir Charles Grandison" and "A Sentimental Journey"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Grove Print: Book
'I know not if there be a Goddess of Sloth - tho' considering that this of all our passions is the least turbulent and most victorious, it could not without partiality be left destitute - But if there be, she certainly looks on with an approving smile - when in a supine posture, I lie for hours with my eyes fixed upon the pages of Lady Morgan's France or the travels of Faujas St Fond - my mind seldon taking the pains even to execrate the imbecile materialism, the tawdry gossiping of the former, or to pity the infirm speculations and the already antiquated mineralogy of the latter.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
'I know not if there be a Goddess of Sloth - tho' considering that this of all our passions is the least turbulent and most victorious, it could not without partiality be left destitute - But if there be, she certainly looks on with an approving smile - when in a supine posture, I lie for hours with my eyes fixed upon the pages of Lady Morgan's France or the travels of Faujas St Fond ... What shall I say to the woebegone Roderick last of the Goths; and others of a similar stamp? They go through my brain as light goes thro' an achromatic telescope.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
?After having read the great champions for Christianity, I next read the works of Lord Hesbert, Tindal, Chubb, Morgan, Collins, Woolston, Annet, Mandeville, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, Williams, Voltaire, and many other Free-thinkers.?
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Lackington Print: Book
'I am confined Teusday 2nd. Read Rhoda - Pastors Fire Side - Missionary - Wild Irish Girls - The Anaconda. Glenarvon - 1st Vol Percy's Northern antiquities'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'I am confined Teusday 2nd. Read Rhoda - Pastors Fire Side - Missionary - Wild Irish Girls - The Anaconda. Glenarvon - 1st Vol Percy's Northern antiquities'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'S reads Lady Morgans "France".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book
'Read the little thief - walk. S reads "France".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book
'Read "France"'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Sunday July 23rd. Read Florence Macarthy all day by Lady Morgan which I finish.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book
'Saturday September 1st. [...] Finish Anastasius and begin Lady Morgan's Italy.
[...]
'Sunday Sept -- 2nd. [...] Read Lady Morgan's Italy --
[...]
''Monday Sept. 3rd. Finish [...] 1st. Vol. Lady Morgan's Italy'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book
'Monday Dec. 10th. [...] Read Lady Morgan's Italy'.
[further readings in this text recorded in journal entries for 11, 12, 14, 15, 25, 27 December
1821, with 'Finish Lady Morgan's Italy' recorded on 28 December].
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book
'read Florence Macarthy'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'I read Lady Morgan's Florence Macarthy. There is originality and genius in all she writes'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bury Print: Book
'Mr North has been reading Lady Morgan's "O'Donnel", and is delighted with it. He says he never read a book that amused him so much, and that it has the merit of being more interesting in the last than in the first volume'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr North Print: Book
'Plato and tact sounds like Plato and puppy, an incongruous mixture of ancient and modern, such as only suits the language of second-rate novels. Lady Morgan, I suppose, talked of tact in her "Ida of Athens".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
'How merciless and ungentlemanlike the"Quarterly Review" is upon Lady Morgan! It is the only thing that could have made me pity her, for she is very flippant and full of error from beginning to end'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Romilly Print: Book
'Here is an odd Book come out to prove Falstaff was no Coward, when says Dr Johnson will one come forth to prove Iago an honest Man?'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book
Tuesday, 14 March 1826:
'I have amused myself occasionally very pleasantly during the few last days by reading over
Lady Morgan's novel of O'Donnel which has some striking and beautiful passages of situation
and description and in the comic part is very rich and entertaining. I do not remember being
so much pleased with it at first -- there is a want of story always fatal to a book the first
reading and it is well if it gets the chance of a second [...]
'Also read again and for the third time at least Miss Austen's very finely written novel of Pride
and Prejudice. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and
characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with [...] What a pity
such a gifted creature died so early.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book
'The evening's subject of William de Morgan was introduced by Geo Burrow who gave some account of his life drawing attention to his whimsical nature & unpractical business methods. Mrs Rawlings read a powerful but sad scene of shipwreck from Joseph Vance. F.E. Pollard chatted on the novels emphasizing their apparent but not real shapelessness the author's great interest in problems of memory the reality of the conversations the way in which characters were drawn & well drawn in all kinds of situations & from all ranks of society. The ensuing discussion showed how the healthy & delightful tone of the books had been enjoyed. R.H. Robson & H.R. Smith read from Alice for short & Somehow Good & A. Rawlings gave some account of De Morgan's methods on his tiles & pottery.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings Print: Book
'The evening's subject of William de Morgan was introduced by Geo Burrow who gave some account of his life drawing attention to his whimsical nature & unpractical business methods. Mrs Rawlings read a powerful but sad scene of shipwreck from Joseph Vance. F.E. Pollard chatted on the novels emphasizing their apparent but not real shapelessness the author's great interest in problems of memory the reality of the conversations the way in which characters were drawn & well drawn in all kinds of situations & from all ranks of society. The ensuing discussion showed how the healthy & delightful tone of the books had been enjoyed. R.H. Robson & H.R. Smith read from Alice for short & Somehow Good & A. Rawlings gave some account of De Morgan's methods on his tiles & pottery.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book
'The evening's subject of William de Morgan was introduced by Geo Burrow who gave some account of his life drawing attention to his whimsical nature & unpractical business methods. Mrs Rawlings read a powerful but sad scene of shipwreck from Joseph Vance. F.E. Pollard chatted on the novels emphasizing their apparent but not real shapelessness the author's great interest in problems of memory the reality of the conversations the way in which characters were drawn & well drawn in all kinds of situations & from all ranks of society. The ensuing discussion showed how the healthy & delightful tone of the books had been enjoyed. R.H. Robson & H.R. Smith read from Alice for short & Somehow Good & A. Rawlings gave some account of De Morgan's methods on his tiles & pottery.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Print: Book
'The evening's subject of William de Morgan was introduced by Geo Burrow who gave some account of his life drawing attention to his whimsical nature & unpractical business methods. Mrs Rawlings read a powerful but sad scene of shipwreck from Joseph Vance. F.E. Pollard chatted on the novels emphasizing their apparent but not real shapelessness the author's great interest in problems of memory the reality of the conversations the way in which characters were drawn & well drawn in all kinds of situations & from all ranks of society. The ensuing discussion showed how the healthy & delightful tone of the books had been enjoyed. R.H. Robson & H.R. Smith read from Alice for short & Somehow Good & A. Rawlings gave some account of De Morgan's methods on his tiles & pottery.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Pollard Print: Book
'The evening's subject of William de Morgan was introduced by Geo Burrow who gave some account of his life drawing attention to his whimsical nature & unpractical business methods. Mrs Rawlings read a powerful but sad scene of shipwreck from Joseph Vance. F.E. Pollard chatted on the novels emphasizing their apparent but not real shapelessness the author's great interest in problems of memory the reality of the conversations the way in which characters were drawn & well drawn in all kinds of situations & from all ranks of society. The ensuing discussion showed how the healthy & delightful tone of the books had been enjoyed. R.H. Robson & H.R. Smith read from Alice for short & Somehow Good & A. Rawlings gave some account of De Morgan's methods on his tiles & pottery.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of XII Book Club Print: Book
'Meeting held at School House. 13th March 1944
J. Knox Taylor in the chair.
1. The minutes of the last meeting were read and signed.
[...]
4. The chairman informed us that the committee had decided that Kenneth
Nicholson’s discourse on ‘The Novel’ was likely to be sufficiently provocative, with
interruptions and comments, to occupy the whole evening. They had therefore
arranged a few readings from novels but no other 5 minute essays or speeches.
5. Kenneth Nicholson, protesting that he had most unwillingly, had this greatness
thrust upon him, proceeded to expound the most interesting theory that the novel,
as a form of literature, had been born in the middle of the 18th Century, flourished
through the C19th and declined in the C20th. He held that although a great number
of novels are still being written, they are of little worth and are being read less
and less by persons of culture & discernment. For the rising generation, the
wireless and the cinema have taken the place of the novel in providing such
entertainment, & what reading they do, is of a much less serious nature.
A lively discussion took place both during and after Kenneth Nicholson’s discourse,
in which many members both criticised and opposed his theories.
6. Frank Knight read from Wm. de Morgan’s “Alice for Short”. Although this book
was written in 1907 the reading was much enjoyed, & many members confessed to
a great liking for De Morgan’s novels.
7. Elsie Harrod read from “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier – an even more recent
publication — and again our interest was caught and held.
8. It was getting late, and asked to cho[o]se, for the last reading, between “How
Green was my Valley”, “Precious Bane” and “The ordeal of Richard Feverel”
members chose the latter. By request, Knox Taylor read the well known love
scene entitled ‘Ferdinand and Miranda’. This novel was written in 1859 when the
art of novel-writing was (according to the theory laid down this evening) at its
height. But somehow it touched our sense of humour instead of our deeper
emotions, and Knox Taylor finding himself unable to finish the chapter, the
meeting dissolved amid general laughter.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Knight Manuscript: Unknown
'Meeting held at Frensham. 6th Oct. 1943
Howard R. Smith in the chair.
1. Minutes of the last meeting were read & approved.
[...]
5. Kenneth Nicholson discoursed to us on ‘Style’. He confessed that the more he
had gone into the subject the further he had got out of his depth, but this fact was
not apparent, for what he said was most interesting and illuminating. He gave as
his four essentials for good style: Clarity, Rhythm, Sincerity and the Emergence of
Personality. Kenneth Nicholson illustrated these qualities by quotations from such
varied sources as: The Telephone Directory; an advertisement for Sanitas powder;
the Dean of Harvard; Charles Morgan; Walter Pater; C. E. Montague; G. K
Chesterton; H. G. Wells; T. E. Lawrence; a Leighton Park boy and a Press
reporter. In the discussion which followed, some members thought that good style
could be achieved without sincerity, and reference was made to the regrettable
absence of clarity in legal documents and official forms.
6. F. E. Pollard then read 7 examples of prose writing and we were asked to write
down the authors. It was only to be expected that Kenneth Nicholson, who had
been studying the subject, should come out top with 5 right answers. [...]
[signed as a true record by] A. B. Dilks
8.11.43. [at the club meeting held at 39 Eastern Avenue: see Minute Book, p. 165]'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Kenneth F. Nicholson
'Read "Alice for Short". Stayed in all day'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Vera Pennefather Print: Book
