Record Number: 33948

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

‘And what do you think of the "Doctor"? And what do you think of [John Gibson] Lockhart’s wise conjecture, that I - even I - Hartley Coleridge, assisted by my father, am the author thereof? A great compliment doubtless. It is a book! a book indeed. It must be delightful to every one, and yet there are some touches that can only be felt by a few. I do, I confess, like the Pantagruelism and the narrative, and the love, better than the good advice, or the religion, or the politics, which may be all very good in their kind - (atho’ entre nous - the sort of sectarian Church of Englandism which it breathes is any thing but - no matter) but the contrast beneath the serious and comic parts seems to me too sharp. I mean to review it in Blackwood[’s Magazine], and shall throw out some sapient innuendoes respecting the author, just to lead wiseacres astray. ...’

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1834 and 24 Mar 1834

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

county: Cumbria

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Hartley Coleridge

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

19 Sep 1796

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Poet, essayist, teacher, biographer

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Robert Southey

Title:

The Doctor

Genre:

Fiction, Essays / Criticism, Miscellany / Anthology

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

1834

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

33948

Source:

Print

Author:

Hartley Coleridge

Editor:

Grace Evelyn and Earl Leslie Griggs

Title:

Letters of Hartley Coleridge

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1936

Vol:

n/a

Page:

159-60

Additional Comments:

Letter to Hartley's sister, Sara Coleridge, at 1 Downshire Place, Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London, from Greta Hall, dated March 24 (postmark 1834). Robert Southey’s The Doctor was published anonymously in 1834 and Hartley was one of the author’s to whom the work was originally ascribed by reviewers.

Citation:

Hartley Coleridge, Grace Evelyn and Earl Leslie Griggs (ed.), Letters of Hartley Coleridge, (London, 1936), n/a, p. 159-60, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33948, accessed: 25 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Hartley may have also reviewed The Doctor anonymously. Editors’ footnote: ‘Two articles on Southey’s Doctor, ‘The Doctor. First Dose’, and ‘The Doctor. Second Dose’, may, from internal evidence, be ascribed to Hartley. See Blackwood’s Magazine, August and October 1835. Concerning the authorship of the Doctor, the reviewer remarks: “Of all the ignorant guesses yet made, the most senseless is that which mutters the name of Hartley Coleridge. His papers in Maga [Blackwood’s], signed Ignoramus, and his Sonnets, show that he has genius and talent of a high order; but we, who know his wit well, know that he has no power over its expression to shape or modify it after the likeness of any other man’s speech.”’