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La Fortune de Richard Wallace. Book Review.

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   This beautifully written and superbly atmospheric novel, by Lydie Perreau, tells the curious story behind the Wallace Collection, the art museum in central London. It depicts life in Regency England and 19th-century France with an exquisite eye for detail. The complicated family history begins in 1770 with the birth in London of Maria Emilia Fagnani. The daughter of the Italian Marchesa Fagnani, a former dancer, (but not of the Marchese) she was recognised by her natural father, the Duke of Queensbury, who allowed his friend, the MP George Selwyn, to adopt her in all but name. He adored her, cossetted her, educated her and eventually left her his considerable fortune. Brought out in society, she met Francis Seymour-Conway, the brilliant and wayward heir of the rich Marquess of Hertford. Francis married her despite his father's opposition. Her illegitimate birth was a social handicap but over men she always exerted an irresistible charm and fascination. She became in due course L
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How Favourable towards Turkey are the Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu?

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    In the ODNB entry for Elizabeth Craven, written by Katherine Turner, we find the assertion that the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu written in the early 18th century,  Letters of Lady M--y W-----y M--------e Written During Her Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, offer a "favourable" account of Turkey, unlike Craven's later travelogue A Journey Through the Crimea to Constantinople, published in 1789.    Turner's essay "From Classical to Imperial: Changing Visions of Turkey in the Eighteenth Century" in Stephen H. Clarke, ed,  Travel Writing and Empire  (Zed books, 1999), also states that she offers an "attractive vision of Turkey" and that her letters are "highly favourable". The essay presents Craven's travelogue as the antithesis of Montagu's, and insists that Craven is far more critical.     The opinion that Montagu is favourable towards the Turkish empire is undoubtedly meant to be a favourable judgement in itself, i
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The Lost Books of Jane Austen

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The Lost Books of Jane Austen is the title of a book by an American, Janine Barchas. How exciting it sounds! What are these lost books of Jane Austen, and is she about to unveil some undiscovered, unpublished manuscripts to the world? A couple of years ago a book that is possibly an unknown early work by Austen was reprinted: Two Girls of Eighteen, edited by P.J. Allen.    Sadly, there are no such revelations in Barchas's book. The title merely refers to the many different editions of Austen's novels which have appeared over the two centuries since she wrote them, and which Barchas apparently collects.    This is an amusing hobby if you have got the space, and Barchas reproduces countless cover designs and title pages in different styles, typefaces and formats, with or without illustrations, according to shifting tastes, and the sort of readership the edition was aimed at. Some are meant to impress, others to lure the reader with promises of excitement or gooey romance. But i
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Early Unpublished Poems of Elizabeth Craven

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These poems are transcribed from a manuscript volume in the possession of one of Elizabeth Craven's direct descendants.  The spine says  in gold leaf “Poems Lady Craven”. The leather-bound volume was given by Craven to her friend Lord Macartney, whose bookplate survives inside the front cover.  Though the  cover is damaged, the handwritten pages are in good condition and perfectly legible. It was  mentioned by Broadley in 1914, when he said it was in the possession of  another member of the family, Lady Helen Forbes née Craven. She had bought it, from a dealer, as there is a price and brief description pencilled inside:  " Most of the poems are unpublished. £5 5s”. From her it was handed down to the present owner. On the first page we find a Dedicatory “Sonnet to the Right Hon Lady Craven, on her Poetical Works, by the Revd Mr Jenner”. I saw fair Craven sit in state... This poem is not a sonnet in the true sense, having 16 lines mostly shorter than a pentameter. It
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