The 'Currently reading' thread...

[dks]

"Young Romantics"...hmmm. I will have to comb some sites for that...

[Cath]

Anyone know where Clare Clairmont was buried?

Yes, Claire Clairmont is buried in the cemetery of the Misericordia di Santa Maria d'Antella, 3 miles south-east of Florence, Italy. I would love to visit it!
I found this pic of the entrance:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cimiteroantella.jpg

According to the Dictionary of National Biography, she was buried there - as she wished - "with Shelley's little shawl".

[Saturn]

Currently reading Ovid's Heroines - a wonderful set of letters from famous mythological lovers; a wonderful model for the later 18th century epistles of the likes of Dryden and Pope.

[BrokenLyre]

I finally did it - bought The Keats Brothers. It was a gift from a friend of mine.

The author, Denise Gigante, is a wonderful writer. As a professor of English at Stanford University, she clearly knows what's she's doing. Though I have read only a little of her book, I am happy to say that her research and active, sympathetic mind makes for a lively, involved prose. This is no sterile academic book. She immediately draws the reader into her world as she tells the story of the Keats brothers. In fact, as I finished the very first paragraph of the Prologue, I found myself holding back tears and got choked up, due to the intensely beautiful way she captured one particular moment - a moment that summarizes the tragic and beautiful life of John with his brothers. Remarkable writer that possesses a very human, personal, and aesthetic touch with her words. She paints wonderful word pictures and I hope the book continues like this.

There are 40 pages of pictures and drawings in the book. Pictures I have never seen. Her fascination with Keats is clear in the book. I hope I can now find the time to read ( while I am still trying to finish Plumly's book).

Cost was $35.00 US dollars. Got it cheaper from Barnes & Noble due to my membership. ($21.00). Anyone else read this?

[Cybele]

Hope you enjoy the book, BrokenLyre. I certainly did. I think I now need to re-read the Plumly book.

[Raphael]

I got another Jude Morgan book from the free book place- one about the Brontes!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/au ... gan-review

[marwood]

Back from the library with Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings.
John Betjeman describes him as the John Clare of the building estates.
Bit of a misanthrope apparently ( makes two of us! )
Enjoyed what i've read so far.
And something very different, George Mackay Brown, The Wreck of the Archangel.
Take care.
Marwood.

[Cath]

I've been meaning to read The Immortal Dinner by Penelope Hughes-Hallett for a while now and happened to find a copy in my favourite second-hand book shop in Camden, London. Now I've dived in and I'm loving it. Rightly or wrongly, her portrait of Haydon seems more sympathetic than most, although she's not blind to his colossal egotism. I'm enjoying the passages about the charming Charles Lamb, too - a relatively ignored person in Keats's wider circle, but he's a fascinating character with an intriguing biography. He tenderly cared for his sister and led a bachelor life with her after she, in a frenzy, stabbed their mother to death in her early twenties.

Charles and Mary are even buried together in Edmonton Churchyard, which I visited last year.



Their cottage around the corner still stands.

[Saturn]

Next time I get an Amazon or Waterstones voucher I'm definitely getting The Immortal dinner, been meaning to read that for years.

[BrokenLyre]

Thanks for the pictures, Cath! Just loved seeing them.
One of the best quotes I have ever read about John Keats comes from B.R. Haydon in the book "The Immortal Dinner." Get the book and enjoy it Saturn. You won't ever forget the quote by Haydon.

[MrsRsCat]

Okay, not very good at links me, but this is THE house in which the Immortal Dinner took place. I just happened to be visiting my daughters in Kilburn and we caught the bus to go into central London and imagine my yelps when I saw this! Imagine my daughters' discombobulation!
Taken from the top of the swaying bus, hence hardly a good composition.

I imagine the main door would have been round the corner, now buried behind the somewhat tatty shop.
The blue plaque also mentions Haydon's fellow tenant, the sculptor Rossi.

I do hope the link works, if not you can probably do a manual link to my page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amanda-whi ... 964531714/

[MrsRsCat]

And another, showing the shop. Selling wine!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amanda-whi ... 963974649/

[Raphael]

Great photos- I bet the house looked different back then and the street- would have been cobbled- not the ugly modern road.
Yes, me too Saturn- would like to read it too. At the moment I am reading Lark Rise to Candleford and the Plumly book.

[Raphael]

Their cottage around the corner still stands.

Wow..this house is my ideal home...

[Raphael]

Thanks for the pictures, Cath! Just loved seeing them.
One of the best quotes I have ever read about John Keats comes from B.R. Haydon in the book "The Immortal Dinner." Get the book and enjoy it Saturn. You won't ever forget the quote by Haydon.

What was the quote?