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( 129 )
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XIX.—NOTICES OF BOOKS-
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Shelley Memorials, Edited by Lady Shelle...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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( 129 )
( 129 )
Xix.—Notices Of Books-
XIX . —NOTICES OF BOOKS-- _^*» :
Shelley Memorials, Edited By Lady Shelle...
Shelley Memorials , Edited by Lady Shelley . London : Smith , Elder , & Co .
We may regard this book as the first authorised and thoroughly authentic addition to our knowledge of Shelley since the publication
of Ms poetical works by his wife , enriched by biographical notes to each year of their creation ; notes unrivalled to our mind as a
biographical composition , for their tender pathos and simplicity . Several volumes of recollections hy friends or acquaintance have , it
is true , from time to time appeared . Captain _Medwin ' s , Mr . Trelawney ' s , and later , two thick volumes hy Mr . Hogg , the early
college companion of the poet , in which materials furnished by the family were largely used . But those who had thus afforded their
aid , and to whom the literary fame and social repute of one of England ' s eminent sons were more peculiarly precious than they
could be to any others , felt that the use made of these materials was such as to present a most unfair portrait of him to the world . Hence
the publication by Sir Percy and Lady Shelley of a book which is to be accepted as an authentic family record .
That one edition should have rapidly sold off within a short time of its publicationis no matter of surprise to those who know how
, undying is the interest felt in Shelley ' s career . The volume is fascinating to many classes of readers and from different causes . To the
reviewer in this Journal , whose limited space and certain special aims preclude any wide notice of general literature , the " Shelley
Memorials " are chiefly remarkable , because they render our conception of the poet ' s wife so much clearer that they may almost be said to
add a new portrait to the gallery of celebrated English women . Many of her letters are scattered through the body of the work , and
a whole section at the latter end is headed " Mary Shelley , " and contains the sad and simple story of her widowhood and many
extracts from her journal . We give our readers all that we can find space for .
no " certain A . widow income at four and -and with -twent a child y years to supp of age ort ; ; coldl left in y regarded a foreign by land her , hus with
band Shelley ' s famil now y entered , and , possessed on a strugg of le no which influential she has friends described in as Eng ' land lonel ;— ' Mrs and .
y live < unsolaced d to see _/ crowne but which d with she success encountered and rewarded in the b true y happ sp ier irit days of heroism . , and lace to
letters grief " Th of . e and a first calmer in emotions the , journal but more of which horror intense fo at llows the kind them death . It how of will her deep be husband seen was , tlie in gave agony the p ensuing which
, , the nipresent young the widowed recollection heart of endured lira _, whose ; how genius abiding now the sense became of associated loss ; how with
om-• land all sig of hts Shelley and sounds ; and of his earth widow , sky , thoug and ocean h meeting . Italy everywhere had been with the chosen some ,
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1859, page 129, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101859/page/57/
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