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

Delightfully detailed and surprisingly witty, this 1852 publication offers an eclectic mix of fiction, literary analysis and autobiography.

Mary Russell Mitford (Author)

9781108020596, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 September 2010

308 pages
21.6 x 1.8 x 14 cm, 0.39 kg

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 third volume includes chapters on Wordsworth, Richardson, Coleridge, Walter Scott, Chaucer, Hawthorne, Milton, 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.

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.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]