Fanny Keats

[Malia]

Great image of Severn, Credo! I have one of him in middle age that I hope to upload tonight--crossing fingers:)

Here's Keats on the Maria Crowther. Hope this image turns out!



This image was painted by Severn.

[Malia]

Here's the image of Severn in middle age. This was painted by Mary Severn (one of his children) in 1849.

[Credo Buffa]

That one of Keats seems really familiar somehow, Malia. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before, but I can't think of where. . .

And that's a great one of Severn! Thanks for sharing it!

[Credo Buffa]

HA! I know where I've seen it before!

Saturn posted it on your behalf on the "Face of Keats" thread in the misc. section No wonder!

This one turned out much better, though

[Malia]

Well, now that I've written this whole novel of a response, it almost seems you don't need to read the book!

I loved every word, Credo! I knew about Fanny and her response to likenesses of Keats, but I had no clue about the family tree business or that she spoke so often of her brother to her own children. I can see why Fanny would want to keep Keats's memory alive--for personal, rather than poetical reasons. She must have known (in fact, I think he actually wrote in a letter to her) that he felt himself to be the only protector she had. He wrote to her even while desperately sick, preparing to go to Italy--when George, who was well, didn't do the same. Severn mentions in a letter to friends while Keats is on his *deathbed* that Keats said he wished Severn would tell the person he was writing to (I think, Taylor) to please ask Mrs. Brawne and MRs. Dilke to visit his sister. He was thinking of her and trying to take care of her even on his deathbed. It's heartwrenching.

The story of Fanny visiting his grave and planting the trees--that's so tender and painful--I mean, wow. Especially when you think of what they thought of eachother. How, in their "orphan-hood" with George gone and Tom dead, they relied on each other (at least spiritually) to be family to one another.

[Credo Buffa]

Especially when you think of what they thought of eachother. How, in their "orphan-hood" with George gone and Tom dead, they relied on each other (at least spiritually) to be family to one another.

I think there actually is a quote in the book from a letter that Fanny wrote to Buxton Foreman after revealing her collection of letters to him where she describes this very thing: that, being orphans, they did become quite thrown together.

There's a really sweet little quote from George where he talks about how all three brothers doted on Fanny when they were young, all "jealous lest you should prefer one of us to the other." They really were quite close as a family in their youth. However, in the end as you say, it really was John that she relied on the most. I think initially she was closest to Tom, just because they were closer in age and she was able to spend more time with him as a little girl before Tom went off to school to join his brothers, but after Keats left Clarke's school to study medicine, he was within a much easier proximity to Fanny that he was able to visit her more often (Adami has a really nice little musing on what it must have been like for young Fanny to watch her brother transform from the pugnacious fighter into the introspective future poet). And, however close she might have been with George (she told Buxton Foreman that she had no letters from Tom but several from George), his going to America, followed by Fanny's departure to Spain and just the general passage of time and distance, caused them to really drift apart. . . so much so that Adami shockingly points out that Fanny didn't learn of George's death until five years after the fact.

[dks]

Thanks for posting those incredible pictures, Credo and Malia. You know, I was always touched by Keats's fatherly affection for Fanny. He was itching to get his hands back on the money owed to all the Keats children from Richard Abbey--and when Fanny was still under his guardianship, Keats often wrote her reassuring letters about her future financial situation and security. He was so doting like that with her...he had such a big place in his heart for those in need and those who needed caretaking (recall the story of the butcher torturing the kitten in the alleyways of London and Keats pummeling him??)

Just makes me love him more--if that's possible.

[Credo Buffa]

He also seemed to know just how to talk to her: he wasn't condescending to her in his letters, despite their age difference, but at the same time, he seemed to take an interest in "girl things" for her. I think that Keats's letters to his sister are some of my favorites, just because you get to see that side of him.

[dks]

He also seemed to know just how to talk to her: he wasn't condescending to her in his letters, despite their age difference, but at the same time, he seemed to take an interest in "girl things" for her. I think that Keats's letters to his sister are some of my favorites, just because you get to see that side of him.

yes...I see that too in his letters to her...she must have truly adored him...

[jamiano]

Dear Friends,

Fanny and John, the drama pursued. The July 18th, 1819
letter of John Keats to Fanny Brawn is a revealing portrait of the
effect of this relationship on Keats' persona of fantasy, romance,
beauty, and love.The following fragments from this letter arose within me an idea to pursue; a relationship's effect upon one's poesy.


[color=red][color=darkblue]... [color=cyan]"the richness, the bloom, the full form, the enchantment of love after my own heart."
[color=red]

"...I am almost astonished that any absent one should have that luxurious power over my senses."[/color][/color][/color]
John Keats[/color]

After being absorbed of the passion within these the letters, the radiant effect has encouraged me to explore my heart's designs for the realm of enchantment; as one's music revealed within a song.


A quote from my personal written thoughts:



[color=[color=darkred]indigo] " I behold her beauty everywhere, spellbound; as if the distillation of the enchantment exists as a magic to delight my senses of the voyages to love. Infatuation, returns one to the comforts of home. Desire is the creative force, a power unknown...
The imagination heals itself anew, through the sensations of each inviting desire.
I am living abroad, within a breath of ecstasy."




peace,

jamiano

[dks]

As always, jamiano, exquiste posting!!!

[Saturn]

As Keats once said, and I apply this to all of you...

"Bard art thou completely"

[Credo Buffa]

Awww, thank you, Saturn

[dks]

As Keats once said, and I apply this to all of you...

"Bard art thou completely"

See?? How awesome you are!!!

[Nightingale27]

I'm wondering if any of you have heard of/read Marie Adami's 1937 biography of Fanny Keats.

I am really interested in reading this book. I came across Valentin Llanos' name in another biography on Keats and I am extremely interested in knowing more about him. His last name bears a very striking resemblance to my own... I'd very much like to know what part of Spain he was born in.