Recollections of a Literary Life: Or, Books, Places, and People

by Mary Russell Mitford

Overview

Better known for her five volume portrait of English rural life, Our Village, Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855) was one of the most prolific female writers of her day. Part critical essay, part autobiography, Recollections consists of a series of sketches on and selections from Mitford's favourite authors, stemming from her desire 'to make others relish a few favourite writers as heartily as I have relished them myself'. The collection is arranged according to Mitford's own eclectic system of categorization including 'fashionable poets', 'cavalier poets', and 'poetry that poets love'. This second volume includes essays on Spanish ballads, Ben Jonson, Leigh Hunt, Shelley, Keats, and several others. Mitford wears her immense literary skill lightly and Recollections is masterfully written, full of lively wit and fascinating biographical detail. Published just three years before Mitford's death, it was based on earlier articles and letters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108020596
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/23/2010
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Literary Studies
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

1. Authors associated with places - Thomas Chatterton, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth; 2. American poets - Oliver Wendell Holmes; 3. Letters of authors - Samuel Richardson; 4. Fine single poems - Sir Walter Scott, &c.; 5. Authors associated with places - W. C. Bennett; 6. Irish authors - Gerald Griffin; 7. Mock-heroic poetry - John Hookham Frere; 8. Authors associated with places - Lord Clarendon, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Hughes; 9. Unrecognised poets - George Darley, the Rev. Edward William Barnard; 10. American prose writers - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 11. Old poets - Andrew Marvel; 11. Scottish poets - William Motherwell; 13. Great prose writers - Lord Bacon, John Milton, Jeremy Taylor, John Ruskin.