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

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Anne Isabella Milbanke and Captain Boothby : Paradise Lost

'There was always poetry. Campbell, just then at the top of his short-lived vogue; Ossian, the unreadable of to-day; Milton -- and with the New Year of 1812 a Captain Boothby (met during the London season) as a visitor with whom to read the last, but not the other two. For he did not admire either Campbell or Ossian [...] They were reading Paradise Lost; he said that he "believed almost all the events in it." Only almost; and he went on to point out a passage in Book X which proves that, when diction was his theme, he knew what he was talking about [cites lines 'While yet we live, but one short hour perhaps, / Between us two let there be peace,' and notes Boothby's admiration of their simplicity].'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Milbanke and Captain Boothby     Print: Book

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