Reading diary and commonplace book, 1819-1822.

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Reading diary and commonplace book, 1819-1822.

Reading diary and commonplace book, 1819-1822.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/774690723

Detailed reading diary and commonplace book kept by a woman in Versailles during the Bourbon Restoration. A constant reader, the owner of this anonymous journal demonstrates a strong taste for fashionable British authors, especially Walter Scott. Perkin Warbeck, The Antiquary, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Abbott, The Lord of the Isles, Kenilworth, and the Poems (including "The Vision of Don Roderick") are all described in some detail with plot oultines, observations on character, and extracted passages. It appears that the works by Scott were read in French translations, as well as translations of Caroline Lamb (Glenarvon), Lady Morgan (Florence Macarthy, an Irish Tale), Southey, Byron, Burney, and Franklin. Her taste in French literature is mainly in historical memoirs and current journals such as Le Conservateur littéraire and the Journal des débats, but works by Chateaubriand, Cottin, Genlis, and Nodier are also described. The text occasionally includes some personal entries, such as the loss of a servant, the weather, an audience with the king (in the hope that one of her sons might be considered as a page), and an acquaintance with Sylvester Douglas, Baron Glenbervie, whose name appears several times and who made her the gift of a set of Madame de Staël (in 17 volumes) in 1821.

2 v. (1 box)

University of Pennsylvania Library