Record Number: 33948
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
Timen/a
Place:county: Cumbria
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: 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
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:The Doctor
Genre:Fiction, Essays / Criticism, Miscellany / Anthology
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Details1834
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:33948
Source: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: 10 February 2026
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.��
