The common reader, p.32
The Common Reader, page 32
Harley, Robert, 1st Earl of Oxford, & Defoe, 51; & Swift, 68, 72–3; ref: 262
Harrison, William, poet & Tatler, 69&n6; mourned by Swift, 70
Harvey, Gabriel, & modem instinct, 10; his sister, 11&n, & Lord Surrey, 12, 13; diatribes v. Nash, letters to Spenser, 16; windy, wordy, obsolete, 17; proud & unpopular, 18; & the Queen, 18–19; & poetry, 19; his commonplace book, 20&n29; quoted, 21–23 passim; in old age, 22–3; & biography, 262
Harvey, Mercy, & Lord Surrey, 11&n4–14; her honour, 12; natural & noble, 14; who wrote so well, 15; & Gabriel’s pride, 18
Hazlitt, William, emphatically himself, 173; best prose, 174; painter, 174–5; favourite essay, 175&n9; youthful imagination, 176; not quite the best, 177; athletic, admirable, poetic, 178; his limitations, tethered by egotism, 179; contemporary, & convictions, 180; idiosyncratic, penetrating, 181; his criticism, 181–3; his harmony & unity, 184–5; Conversations of Northcote, 184&n30; Life of Napoleon, 184&n30
Hemans, Felicia, below-stairs,203
Henchard, Michael (fictional), Hardy’s character, 250, 251, 255, 256
Henchard, Mrs (fictional), 256
Herbert, Mrs Magdalen, & Donne, 32&n26, 33
Holcroft, Thomas, & Godwin, 157&n2
Homer, & Cowper, 144
Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 236
Howe, Lord (fictional), & Aurora Leigh, 210
Hume, Mr (model for Browning’s ‘Sludge’), 207
Huntingdon, Countess of (Elizabeth Stanley), & Donne, 32&n26
Imlay, Gilbert, & Mary Wollstonecraft, 159, 160, 163
Ingelow, Jean, below-stairs, 203; & C. Rossetti, 241
Ireland, Mrs Alexander, & G. Jewsbury, 186
Isham, Sir Justinian, & D. Osborne, 61&n, 62
James, Henry, never surprised, 247
Jewsbury, Geraldine, odd thing about, 186; her suffering, 187; & ‘dearest Jane’, 188; enlivening . . . exhausting, 189; visitor, 190; her love sincere, 191; & monstrous, 196; most intimate, 198, 200; & Mudies, 192–3; her first novel, 194; indecent, 194, 195; independent . . . absurd, 196; incorrigible, 197; & Jane’s death, 201; The Half Sisters, 197; Zoe, 194, 196
Joan of Arc, 21
Johnson, Esther (Stella), ambiguous woman, 67; hints & secrets, 68; knew Swift in & out, 69; no insipid slave, 71; last to press claims, 72; never alone, 73–4; & Vanessa, 74–6; mourned by Swift, 76–7
Johnson, Joseph, publisher, & M. Wollstonecraft, 158n2
Johnson, Dr Samuel, & Fanny Burney, tog; & Mrs Thrale, 116; coming to dinner, 118; difficult guest, & friend, 119–120; & Dr Burney, 120–1; & Mr Greville, waiting in silence, staring at fire, 123–4; sudden outburst, 125; rare critic, 269; ref 262; Rasselas, 109
Jonson, Ben, & Donne, 26; & Lady Clifford, 34
Judith (fictional), 21
Junius, letters of, & Hazlitt, 176
Keats, John, easier for him, 218; ref 198
Klaius (fictional), Arcadian character, 48
Knole, Lady Clifford etc, 34
La Bruyére, compared with Lord Chesterfield, 91
Lamb, Charles, & French Revolution, 156; highly intelligent, 157; & Hazlitt, 174, 175; reticent, composed, 177; Essays of Elia, 180
Lamb, Mary, & Hazlitt, 176
Lear, King (fictional), 266
Leigh, Aurora (fictional), & women’s education, 204, 205; & modern life, 209–10; Victorian daughter, 212
Leigh, Romney (fictional), 210, 212
London, fire of, 39; preferred by Swift, 72; left by Sterne, So; so small, 116; Gissing’s, 220, 221, 224; in biography, 261, 262; ref: 41, 75, 109, 120, 148, 181
Louis XIV, what did he feel?, 217
Lucetta (fictional), Hardy’s character, 250
Lyly, John, Euphues, 26&n8
Mahon, Lord, his Victorian viewpoint, 86&n
Marlowe, Christopher, & Donne, 26, no model for, 28
Meredith, George, & Donne, 26; & class, 214, 215; gallant explorer, 216; his reputation, 226; Forster on, 227; his first novel, 227–8; intellectual, lyrical, 229; extremely conventional, 230; brilliancy . . . excellence, 231; master of great scenes, 231–2, 233; no great psychologist, 232; too strident, too optimistic, too shallow, 233; imperfect novelist, deserves gratitude, 234; meretricious & false, 235; reminiscent of Shakespeare, muscular mind, great eccentric, 236; his wit, 252; & perspective, 260; The Adventures of Harry Richmond, quoted, 230&n6, 231&n10, 231–2&n11; ref: 229; The Case of Gennal Ople and Lady Camper, 214; The Egoist, quoted, 233&n12; The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, quoted, 229&n4; ref: 209, 228, 230
Micawber, Mr (fictional), resplendent figure, 222
Middleton, Clara (fictional), Meredith’s character, 231
Milton, John, & De Quincey, 134; Paradise Lost, not by a shopkeeper, 218; ref: 177
Molle, Henry, Dorothy Osborne’s cousin, 62&n9
Montaigne, read to Lady Clifford, 34; reticent, composed, 177; Hazlitt unlike, 179
Montgomery, Robert, below-stairs, 203
Moore, Thomas, poet, 104
Mopsa (fictional), Arcadian character, future hero?, 49; ref: 45
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 242
Mudie, Elizabeth and Juliet, & Jane Carlyle, 191–3, 196
Mudie’s Library, & Gissing, 221, 223
Musidorus (fictional), Arcadian character, 42, 44, 45, 47
Mytton, Jack, by no means estimable, 127; primeval man, 128; amazes peasantry, 129; sets himself alight, 130; dies, 131
Napoleon, 207
Nash, Thomas, & Harvey, 16&n19, 18&n23, 22, 23
Newcastle, Duchess of (Margaret Cavendish), Dorothy Osborne on, 60&n2
Newson (fictional), Hardy’s character, 255
Newton, Isaac, 112
Newton, Rev. John, & Cowper, 142&n4;
Nimrod (Charles James Apperley), sporting writer, 127&n1; on Mytton’s talk, 128; puzzled, 129; & Mytton’s destroying spirit, 130
Northumberland, Duke of, 14, 15
Oak, Gabriel (fictional), Hardy’s character, 249, 250, 251
Oedipus (fictional), 130
Ople, General (fictional), Meredith’s character, 214, 219
Osborne, Dorothy, reminiscent of Sidney, 43&n11; ‘would have written novels’, 60; records life, 61; born letter writer, 62; assuages spleen, 63; dreads ridicule, 63–4; her gift, 64; & marriage, 65; Swift’s ‘Mild Dorothea …’, 66&n25; The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple, 43&n11
Ottilia, Princess (fictional), Meredith’s character, 230, 231
Pamela (fictional), Arcadian character, 14, 45
Patmore, Coventry, The Angel in the House, 209&n23
Patmore, P. G., & Hazlitt, 184
Patterne, Sir Willoughby, Meredith’s character, 233&n12
Peacock, Thomas Love, his perspective, 53, 260; & Meredith, 236
Pembroke, Countess of (Mary Sidney), poet of merit, 33&n27; & the Arcadia, 40–1
Perne, Dr Andrew, & Harvey, 17&n20, 23
Phillotson, Richard (fictional), Hardy’s character, 250
Philoclea (fictional), Arcadian character, 44; legendary . . . alive, 45
Piozzi, Gabriel, & Burney’s party, 121; begins to sing, 122; Mrs Thrale mocks, 123; sleeps?, 124
Plangus (fictional), Arcadian character, 47
Plato, 207
Poetry, Elizabethan, 10; Donne’s shortest way to, 24, 26; pure liquefied, 32; saluting Rank, what is not . . ., 35; its role in the Arcadia, 47; Sterne’s, 79, pure . . ., 82; Woodforde’s poetic phrase, 95; & critics’ minds, 132; & D. Wordsworth, 167; & E. B. Browning, & ‘modern life’, 208, 209; the novel-poem, 208, 210 blank verse v. prose, 211, 212, 213; Tennyson’s dominion of perfection, 234; nothing to do with life, 241; miracle of, 244; the poet’s gift, 251; & biography, 261–2, 265–6; its impact, 264–5; newness & superficiality, 267
Poorgrass, Joseph (fictional), Hardy’s character, 249
Pope, Alexander, Lord Chesterfield on, 88; ref: 10, 262; Rape of the Lock, 86
Prior, Matthew, & Swift, 71
Prose, Elizabethan & utiliarian, 9, 10; Harvey’s, 17; Elizabethan aggrandised, by Dekker, 28, by Sidney, 43–4, 46–7; slow, subtle, novelists’, 33; Sterne & ‘the thick-set hedge of English prose’, 79; little criticised, beast of burden, 132; De Quincey: at odds with, 134; Cowper’s, 144; D. Wordsworth’s prosaic precision, 164, 167; Hazlitt’s best, 174; v. blank verse, 211, 212, 213; Hardy’s latin sonority, & Scott’s, 256
Proust, Marcel, the great writer, 53; & aristocracy, 217
Ptolemy, 105
Pyrocles (fictional), Arcadian character, 42, 44, 47
Racine, Jean, Phèdre, 267
Raleigh, Sir Walter, on C. Rossetti, 242&n4
Rawlins, T. J., sporting artist, 129&n3
Readers and Reading, summoning ghosts, in long succession, 40; the lonely battle, 52; ‘not reading’, 94; the reader & De Quincey, 133, 134; & class distinctions, 214; & personal suffering, 222; & freedom, 258; & the author, 259; & writing, 259–60; aims of reading, 263; the second part of, 207; & absolute value, 268; taste, responsibilities, & importance, 269; & the good, 270
Reardon, Edwin (fictional), Gissing’s character, 222, 225
Reform Club, roués of, 194, 195
Rembrandt, & Hazlitt, 175
Rich, Lady Isabella, & passion, 65
Richardson, Samuel, & Sterne, 81
Richmond, Harry (fictional), Meredith’s character, 231
Robin, Fanny (fictional), Hardy’s character, 248, 250
Rosalba, Madame (fictional), Brighton’s high diver, 126, 127, 131
Rossetti, Christina, & E. B. Browning, 202; her centenary, & biography, 237; instinctive poet, 238, 242, 243; & religion, & love, 239, 240; ‘I am . . .’, 240; mostly rejected, Swinburne on, 241; Saintsbury on, 241–2; Raleigh on, 242; her Pre-Raphaelite intensity, 243; immortal, 244; ‘A Birthday’, quoted, 244&n10; ‘From House to Home’, quoted, 243&n6; Goblin Market, 241; ‘Looking Forward’, quoted, 243&n8; ‘Song’, quoted, 244&n9; ‘Summer’, quoted, 243&n5
Rossetti, Maria, Christina’s sister, 238, 240
Rossetti (family), 237, 238
Rostov, Natasha (fictional), Tolstoy’s character, 253
Rousseau, J.-J., & confessions, 138; read by Hazlitt, 176, 179; La Nouvelle Héloïse, 179
Roy, Richmond (fictional), Meredith’s character, 230
Ruskin, John, huge & formless, 136
St John, Charles George William, sporting writer, 127&n1
St Paul’s, & fire of London, 39
Saintsbury, George, on C. Rossetti, 241–2&n3
Sand, George, & Carlyle, 200; E. B. Browning’s favourite, 207
Schweizer, Madeleine, & M. Wollstonecraft, 160
Scott, Sir Walter, his perspective, 53; analyst of the human heart, 138; Hazlitt’s criticism of, 182; unconscious writer, 247; & country humour, 249; & difficult style, 256; & perspective, 260
Seneca, 105
Shakespeare, William, & ordinary life, 10; strolling down Strand, 11; his coat-tails, 17; & Donne, 26; bold, erratic horseman, 127; Hazlitt &, 182; & class distinctions, 218; & country humour, 249; Hamlet, 11, 258; King Lear, 258, 267
Sharp, Becky (fictional), Thackeray’s character, 253
Shelburne, Lord, & Sterne, 83&n9
Sidney, Lady Mary Dudley, cold at nights, 10&n1; bad writer, 14, 15
Sidney, Sir Philip, & Harvey, 10, 20, 23; & Donne, 26; no model for, 28; Arcadia & escapism, 40–2; delights in words, 43; like any other novelist, 44, 45; his use of verse, 47; too careless, 48; seeds of English fiction, 49; his legacy, 50, 51; & biography, 262, 265; ref: 113, 114; The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, 26, 34, 40–50 passim, 51, 262
Skinner, Rev. John, between heroic past & corrupt present, 101–3; & Camalodunum, 104, 105; his diary, his confidante, 105; at fault?, his sons, & suicide, 106–7; ref: 100
Skionar, Mr (fictional), Peacock’s character, 278
Smith, Alexander, below-stairs, 203
Smith, Lady, & Mercy Harvey, 13&n12
Smith, Mr (Robert), marries lady, 62&n11
Smith, Sir Thomas, Harvey on, 10&n3
Smith, Elder, publisher, & Gissing, 221
Sophocles, 130, 131; Oedipus Tyrannus, 130&n4
South, Marty (fictional), Hardy’s character, 253
Southey, Robert, on Mary Wollstonecraft, 159&n11
Spenser, Edmund, & Harvey, 10, 16, 20, 23; his speech?, 17; sonnet on Harvey, 19&n28; & Donne, 26, no model for, 28; in Westminster Abbey, 34; & biography, 262; The Faery Queene, 34
Stanhope, Lady Hester, on Beau Brummell, 153
Stanhope, Philip, Lord Chesterfield’s little boy, 87; & the Graces, 88; did his best, died untimely, 91–2
Stendhal, his characters, 232
Sterne, Laurence, & sensibility, 78, 83; his style – is he responsible?, 79; always personal, 80; his shorthand, & modernity, 81; pure poetry of, 82; blunts sharpness, 84; Thackeray’s coward – a very great writer, 85&n11; A Sentimental Journey, 78, 82, 83, all levity & wit, 84; Tristram Shandy, 78, 83
Stevenson, Robert Louis, learnt from Meredith, 230
Stoddart, Sarah, & Hazlitt, 176, 177
Stukeley, Thomas, 22&n
Sunderland, Lady (Dorothy Sidney), as Mrs Smith, 62&n11
Surrey, Philip, Earl of, & Mercy Harvey, 11&n4–14
Surtees, Robert Smith, novelist, 127&n1
Swift, Dean, on Dorothy Osborne, 66&n25; his ‘little language’, 67; ‘t’other I’, omnipotent, 68; Presto & Stella, 69–70, 71; fiercely independent, 72–3; never alone . . ., 73–4; ref: 262; ‘On the Death of Mrs Johnson’, quoted, 71&n12, 72&n14, 15, 16, 77&n27
Swinburne, Algernon, on C. Rossetti, 241&n2
Tacitus, 104
Taylor, Sir Henry, his plays still & cold, 213
Taylor, Jeremy, & De Quincey, 134
Temple (Sir) William, & Dorothy Osborne, 62; his character, 64; his jealousy, & credit, 65; & Swift, 68; ref: 262
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, De Quincey &, 135; & country life, 207; ref: 10; Idylls of the King, 35
Thackeray, W. M., on Sterne, 85&n11; challenged by Mrs Browning, 210; no working men in, 217; his range, 252; Vanity Fair, 209
Thrale, Miss Henrietta, Burney’s pupil, 117
Thrale, Mrs Hester Lynch, great hostess, 116; full of sport, 117; Dr Johnson’s friend, 118; & why?, 119–20; says nothing, 122; mocks Piozzi, 123
Thucydides, read by Gissing, 225
The Times, newspaper, 126
Tolstoy, Leo, his impersonal gift, 80; & amazing intellectual power, 252
Trollope, Anthony, his lapses, 235; & perspective, 260; The Small House at Allington, perfect novel, 234&n13
Troy, Sergeant (fictional), Hardy’s character, 248, 249, 251
Unwin, Mary, & Cowper, 141&n2; his terror, 142; her love, 145; at play, 146; no simpleton, 147
Vanhomrigh, Esther (Vanessa), & Swift, 74, 75, 76
Vanhomrigh, Mrs, 74–5
Venn, Diggory (fictional), Hardy’s character, 250
Victoria, Queen, 210
Virgil, & Cowper, 144
Voltaire, 262
Vye, Eustacia (fictional), Hardy’s character, 251
Wales, Prince of, & Brummell, ‘49, 151
Walpole, Horace, conditions impossible for, 60; ref 262
Waring, Miss, chastised by Swift, 73
Wellesley, Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington, 264
Whitford, Vernon (fictional), Meredith’s character, 231
Wiggs, Miss (fictional), of Hampstead, & Proust, 53
Wildeve, Damon (fictional), Hardy’s character, 250, 251
Wilkinson, Tate, 264&n1
William III, & Defoe, 51
Wilson, Harriette, & Brummell, 152
Winterbourne, Giles (fictional), Hardy’s character, 253
Wollstonecraft, Everina, miserably married, 157
Wollstonecraft, Mary, & Godwin, & independence, 157&n2; & French Revolution, 157, 158; & Imlay, 158&n7, 159 & notes 8, 10; her physiognomy, her tempestuous life, 159; & Nature, & eros, 160; & suicide, 161; ‘passionately domestic’, 162; happy experiment, 163; & D. Wordsworth, 164&n1, 165, 172; A Vindication of the Rights of Men, 158&n6; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 158&n6; The Wrongs of Women: or Maria, 163&n24
Women, anonymous authors, 33; a Jacobean bluestocking, 34; & 16th century impediments, 60; writing slightly ridiculous in a girl, 108; M. Wollstonecraft & married life, 157, & A Vindication . . ., 158, & Godwin’s views, 161–2, The Wrongs of . . ., 163&n24; D. Wordsworth & ‘unwomanly behaviour’, 165; Victorian gentlewomen, 191; Jane Carlyle’s duty to, 197; ‘the George Sand species’, & Carlyle, 200; E. B. Browning & Victorian education, 204, 205; woman’s art & life, 206; true Victorian daughter, 212; Meredith’s, 228–9; Hardy’s, 250
Woodforde, Parson James, mystery of his diary, 93; neither writing . . . nor reading, 94; his single poetic phrase, 95; stuffed with food, 96; his uncrowded days, 97; magnifies Norfolk, 98; very uneasy, 99; untouched by change, 100, 101
Woodhouse, Emma (fictional), unmistakably a lady, 217
Wordsworth, Dorothy, & M. Wollstonecraft, & prosaic precision, 164; reading Nature, unwomanly behaviour, 165; & William’s work, 166; her suggestive power, prosaic visionary, 167; her indefatigable curiosity, 168; & William & Nature – a trinity, 169; & passers-by, 170; her inner visions, 171; observant, happy, 172
Wordsworth, William, & French Revolution, 156; & Dorothy, 164, 165; & exactitude, 166; & Dorothy & Nature – a trinity, 169; like a tramp, 171; ‘The Leech Gatherer’, 170&n26; The Prelude, quoted, 156&n1, 265–6&n8; ref: 267; ‘To A Butterfly’, 166&n12
Wotton, Sir Henry, his pompous style, 10&n2
