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

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Marquise de Sevigne : Letters

Elizabeth Barrett to her uncle, Samuel Moulton-Barrett, November 1818: 'I have read "Douglas on the Modern Greeks." I think it a most amusing book ... I have not yet finished "Bigland on the Character and Circumstances of Nations." An admirable work indeed ... I do not admire "Madame de Sevigne's letters," though the French is excellent [...] yet the sentiment is not novel, and the rhapsody of the style is so affected, so disgusting, so entirely FRENCH, that every time I open the book it is rather as a task than a pleasure -- the last Canto of "Childe Harold" (certainly much superior to the others) has delighted me more than I can express. The description of the waterfall is the most exquisite piece of poetry that I ever read [...] All the energy, all the sublimity of modern verse is centered in those lines'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett      Print: Book

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