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

Click check box to select all entries on this page:

William Fairbairn : [remarks on 'North and South']

'Your kind and racy critiques both give me pleasure and do me good; that is to say, your praise gives me pleasure because it is so sincere and judicious that I value it; and your fault-finding does me good because it always makes me [italics] think [end italics]'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell      Manuscript: Letter

William Fairbairn : [letter offering his opinion of Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte]

'I don't think you know how much good your letter did me. In the first place I was really afraid that you did not like my book, because I had never received your usual letter of criticism; and in the second, it was the one sweet little drop of honey that the postman had brought me for some time, as, on the average, I had been receiving three letters a day for above a fortnight, finding great fault with me (to use a [italics] mild [end italics] expression for the tone of their compliments) for my chapter about the Cowan Bridge School.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell      Manuscript: Letter

Click check box to select all entries on this page: