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

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Mary Wells :  Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Sumbel, Late Wells; of the Theatres- Royal, Drury-Lane, Covent-Garden, and Haymarket: Including Her Correspondence

'I have heard of nothing good in the literary way; but I read three volumes yesterday of the strangest, dullest, and most incomprehensible trash imaginable, two or three passages in which made me laugh above measure, owing solely (I verily believe) to the writer's being half a fool and half a madwoman. It is the life of Mrs Wells, a ci-devant actress; in which, among other things, she proves that the Duke of [-] has given himself a vast deal of unnecessary trouble; a thing of which I never should have suspected him. [Lewis then criticise Wells's way of writing about marriage, her debts, etc].'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Matthew Lewis      Print: Book

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