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Charles Cowden Clarke (1787-1877) and his wife Mary (1809-98) were born into literary and musical circles which deeply shaped their careers and supplied lifelong friendships with great artists and writers. Among Charles's closest school friends was John Keats, and his acquaintances later included William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, Coleridge and the Shelleys. Mary's childhood introduction to Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare led to a lifetime of Shakespearean scholarship, friendship with the Lambs, and her performance in several Shakespearean roles for the amateur company run by Charles Dickens. Wed in 1828, the Cowden Clarkes were, as Mary writes, 'among the happiest of married lovers for more than forty-eight years', publishing jointly and enjoying mutual friendships. Their insightful recollections of their literary friends, first published serially towards the end of Charles's life, were afterwards collected by Mary, together with many important letters, and published in this 1878 work.

Successors such as Wordsworth and Coleridge admired yet overshadowed William Cowper (1731-1800). Troubled by mental instability, he retreated from both the legal profession and the woman he had hoped to marry, seeking out a quiet existence in the country. In spite of his struggles, he made a translation of Homer's Iliad, produced a considerable body of poetry, and maintained many epistolary contacts. This four-volume biography, compiled by his friend and fellow poet William Hayley (1745-1820), appeared between 1803 and 1806, bringing together selected letters and unpublished poems to illuminate Cowper's personal and literary life. Volume 2 (1803) contains personal letters from the period 1791-4, accompanied by Hayley's biographical remarks. Also included are appendices of some of Cowper's original poems and translations from Latin and Greek, notably sections from Horace and Virgil.

Successors such as Wordsworth and Coleridge admired yet overshadowed William Cowper (1731-1800). Troubled by mental instability, he retreated from both the legal profession and the woman he had hoped to marry, seeking out a quiet existence in the country. In spite of his struggles, he made a translation of Homer's Iliad, produced a considerable body of poetry, and maintained many epistolary contacts. This four-volume biography, compiled by his friend and fellow poet William Hayley (1745-1820), appeared between 1803 and 1806, bringing together selected letters and unpublished poems to illuminate Cowper's personal and literary life. Opening with an essay, 'Desultory remarks on the letters of eminent persons, particularly those of Pope and Cowper', Volume 3 (1804) includes letters in which Cowper gives his frank opinions of contemporary literary figures, notably Samuel Johnson, interspersed with his characteristic flights of whimsy and enthusiastic remarks on gardening.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) described his adolescent discovery of the Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge as 'an absolute revelation of untrodden worlds, teeming with power and beauty'. The admiring letter he sent to Wordsworth led to friendships with him, Coleridge and Robert Southey. Relations soured over time, though, as De Quincey's opium addiction and debts increased. Following Coleridge's death in 1834, De Quincey began writing his 'Lake Reminiscences', published serially in Tait's Magazine up to 1840. Candid, occasionally bitter, and highlighting flaws such as Coleridge's plagiarism, the recollections offended the surviving poets and their families, yet these vivid portraits attract continued scholarly interest for both the light shed on the subjects and on the author himself. The collected essays, reissued in this 1863 printing of the 1862 first edition, certainly served to confirm the Lake Poets as leading figures of English Romanticism.

Successors such as Wordsworth and Coleridge admired yet overshadowed William Cowper (1731-1800). Troubled by mental instability, he retreated from both the legal profession and the woman he had hoped to marry, seeking out a quiet existence in the country. In spite of his struggles, he made a translation of Homer's Iliad, produced a considerable body of poetry, and maintained many epistolary contacts. This four-volume biography, compiled by his friend and fellow poet William Hayley (1745-1820), appeared between 1803 and 1806, bringing together selected letters and unpublished poems to illuminate Cowper's personal and literary life. Volume 4 (1806) is a collection of supplementary material, namely amendments to the previous volumes, additional letters and an index giving a short description of every letter's content.

Known as 'the great northern diver' to his crewmates, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) fell into the Arctic Ocean on three occasions during his voyage as doctor on a whaler, before becoming part of the harpooning crew. This adventure sets the scene for the remarkable variety of his later life. In his autobiography, first published in 1923, he details everything from that first voyage to his literary success, his collaboration with playwright J. M. Barrie (whose Sherlock Holmes parody is included), and his involvement in the setting up of volunteer groups during the First World War. He describes how the methods of Sherlock Holmes helped him solve several real-life mysteries and, in a touching counterpoint to this scientific approach, closes with a chapter on his belief in spiritualism. Characteristically astute and entertaining, this book will appeal to students of early twentieth-century history, Holmes fans and the curious general reader alike.

Best known now for his Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was also an astute and entertaining critic. In this collection of essays first published in 1907, he takes the reader on a tour of his own bookshelf and explores an eccentric range of topics, from the unreasonable opinions of Samuel Johnson to the deficiencies of Ivanhoe and the fascination of Treasure Island. While the importance of deep, intellectual reading is emphasised throughout, across an impressive scope of scientific and literary subjects, Conan Doyle is also firm in his belief that popular fiction is vital and that creativity should not be restricted by strict fact. Including sixteen illustrations, twelve essays and a full index, this book presents reading as a form of unlimited escape, a stance still at the heart of literary debate today, and will interest students of literary theory and the general reader alike.

The author of numerous popular novels, British author and poet Matilda Betham-Edwards (1836-1919) was also a dedicated Francophile. With books such as France of To-Day (1892), which describes contemporary French life to a British readership, she worked to promote a better understanding between the two nations. In recognition of her efforts, she was made Officier de l'Instruction Publique de France by the French government, and awarded several medals. In this autobiography, first published in 1898, Betham-Edwards recounts significant episodes of her life. She tells of her childhood and education, the publication of her first book in 1857, and her experiences as a female professional author, including meeting George Eliot and John Stuart Mill. Her travel narrative Through Spain to the Sahara (1868), and her editions of the writings of agriculturalist Arthur Young, are also reissued in this series.

Moncure Daniel Conway (1832-1907), the son of a Virginian plantation-owner, became a Unitarian minister but his anti-slavery views made him controversial. He later became a freethinker, and following the outbreak of the Civil War, which deeply divided his own family, he left the United States for England in 1863. He gained a reputation as the 'least orthodox preacher in London', and was acquainted with many figures in the literary and scientific world, including Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin. This memoir of Thomas Carlyle, another friend, was published in 1881 soon after Carlyle's death. Carlyle had not wanted to be the subject of a biography, and reluctantly authorised J. A. Froude to write one, but Conway rushed into print this somewhat hagiographical account because he was concerned, with reason, about the damage Froude's frank biography (published in 1882-4 and also reissued in this series) might do to Carlyle's reputation.

Published in 1847 by Joseph Cottle (1770-1853), this work recounts his relationship with Coleridge and Southey, whom he first met in 1794 as a successful bookseller in Bristol. Cottle went on to finance a number of the Romantic poets' publications, including Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads (1798), which is seen as marking the start of Romanticism. A reworking of Cottle's controversial Early Recollections (1837), Reminiscences was criticised upon publication for being exaggerated and misleading, coloured by the breakdown of the author's friendship with the poets, as well as revealing information about disputes, moneylending and Coleridge's opium addiction. In spite of its shortcomings, the work gives a uniquely valuable insight into the lives and characters of the Romantic poets by a member of their inner circle. Cottle's memoir has much to reveal about the poets' private lives and artistic influences during a key moment in the Romantic period.

This three-volume set brings together a diverse selection of essays by Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), author, philosopher and literary critic. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. He wrote critiques of many authors and works, which were published in periodicals such as the Cornhill Magazine (of which he was editor from 1871), Fraser's Magazine and the Fortnightly Review. The First Series, published in 1874, includes commentaries on the works of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Sir Walter Scott and Honore de Balzac, and the poetry of Alexander Pope. Stephen sets each writer's work in its historical context, comparing it to that of other significant authors of its era and evaluating its philosophical and moral qualities. His articles remain of great interest to scholars of early modern, Romantic and Victorian literature.

This three-volume set brings together a diverse selection of essays by Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), author, philosopher and literary critic. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. He wrote critiques of many authors and works, which were published in periodicals such as the Cornhill Magazine (of which he was editor from 1871), Fraser's Magazine and the Fortnightly Review. The Second Series, first published in 1876, includes commentaries on the works of Sir Thomas Browne, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Disraeli and Horace Walpole, and the poetry of George Crabbe. Stephen sets each writer's work in its historical context, comparing it to that of other significant authors of its era and evaluating its philosophical and moral qualities. His articles remain of great interest to scholars of early modern, Romantic and Victorian literature.

This three-volume set brings together a diverse selection of essays by Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), author, philosopher and literary critic. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. He wrote critiques of many authors and works, which were published in periodicals such as the Cornhill Magazine (of which he was editor from 1871), Fraser's Magazine and the Fortnightly Review. The Third Series, first published in 1879, includes commentaries on the works of Henry Fielding, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Kingsley and Walter Savage Landor, and the poetry of William Wordsworth. Stephen sets each writer's work in its historical context, comparing it to that of other significant authors of its era and evaluating its philosophical and moral qualities. His articles remain of great interest to scholars of early modern, Romantic and Victorian literature.

Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), the founding Editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and writer on philosophy, ethics, and literature, was educated at Eton, King's College, London, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he remained as a Fellow and tutor until 1864, becoming an ordained priest in 1859. Doubt concerning his religious convictions set in rapidly, although it was not until 1875 that he formally renounced his orders. First published in book form in 1873, these closely argued essays challenging the philosophy of religious doctrine were written originally for Fraser's Magazine and The Fortnightly Review. Despite its cautious reception, the work established his reputation as a leading writer on agnosticism, paving the way for his later work The Science of Ethics. His interest in eighteenth-century thinkers is reflected in this work, with chapters on Shaftesbury and Warburton, and contemporary debate is explored in the essay on Darwinism and Divinity.

Sir Sidney Lee (1859-1926) was a lifelong scholar and enthusiast of Shakespeare, but is also remembered as the 'sub-editor' recruited by Sir Leslie Stephen when he was embarking on the project of the Dictionary of National Biography, and whose editorial and organisational skills were vital in keeping the publication programme close to its planned schedule. His own contributions to the Dictionary included an account of the life of Queen Victoria and (in Volume 51, 1897) William Shakespeare. This study of Stratford-on-Avon was first published in 1885, and the greatly enlarged version, reissued here, in 1890. (In 1898 Lee produced his biography of Shakespeare (also reissued in this series), regarded for much of the twentieth century as the most reliable account of Shakespeare's life.) This illustrated work draws on the archival material then available to provide a history of the town of Stratford up to the time of Shakespeare's death.

Delight in other people's errors never dates, and this little book, first published in 1893, is a fount of human folly and a joy to read. Its compiler, Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917), was a distinguished librarian, bibliographer and scholar, and a prolific author on London history and the history of books. This publication displays his great sense of humour, and his effortless command of far-flung sources in the search for a good joke. Citing examples from historians to misguided schoolboys, as well as from everyday conversation, Wheatley looks at comic misprints, misunderstandings, and garbled English in foreign parts. However, the book also has a more serious contribution to make: the chapter on printed errata makes use of the earliest evidence of proof correction by authors, and the analysis of misprints in early printing shows how many variant readings in the works of Shakespeare came about.