'I am going to begin Strauss, and see what I can make of him. - Have you seen the Opium-Eater's papers on the Lakers in Tait? They are very interesting , but, it seems to me, the most tremendous breach of confidence ever committed; - particularly the giving an account of the "most sublime passage" of Wordsworth's great posthumous work. I wonder what you think of Chorley's "Lion". I don't think it can live, but that there is good enough in it to make one hope he may do something that will'.
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 21 June 1838:
'I have seen an extract from a private letter of Mr Chorley editor of the Athenaeum, which
speaks [italics]huge[end italics] praises of my poems. If he were to say a tithe of them in
print it wd be nine times above my expectation!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Letter
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 11 August 1839:
'I have read Mr Chorley's Lion [...] it is a work highly indicative of ability [...] brilliant with
allusion, yet not too dazzling to think by. A great part of the first volume & the greater part of
the third struck & interested me much'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 11 August 1839:
'Mr Chorley's Sea port town was brought to me a little while ago -- but not as Mr Chorley's.
Henrietta [sister] brought it from the circulating library -- The [italics] librarian had
recommended it![end italics] -- & I am so forced to be dumb & to abstain from continuous
attention to grave subjects, that amusing books of the class to which it belongs are necessary
to me sometimes. Well! I did not like the name of the book -- & was turning listlessly to the
title page with the words "I cant read this", -- when [italics]there[end italics], was Mr
Chorley's name! Of course I [italics]cd[end italics] read it immediately, -- & was much struck
by the power it indicated, & the constructiveness of the stories -- a rare characteristic, even in
these story telling days.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 22 July 1844:
'I have been reading for the second time, that interesting memoir of Mrs Hemans by Mr
Chorley -- full of interest certainly. Still I stand by my position, that she was too
conventionally a [italics]lady[end italics], to be a great poetess [...] I took up Blanchard's
memoir of LEL just after Mr Chorley's book, & was struck by an undeniable vulgarity spreading
all the way through it, in obvious contrast to the refinement of the other work.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Henry Fothergill Chorley, ?14 November 1845:
'I have read your three volumes of "Pomfret" with interest & moral assent, & with great pleasure in various ways: -- it is a pure, true book without effort, which, in these days of gesture & rolling with the eyes, is an uncommon thing [...] The best character in the book I take to be "Rose" [...] He is so lifelike, with the world's conventional life, that you hear his footsteps when he walks'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
