The English writer Robert Charles Dallas (1754 1824) was a relative by marriage of Lord Byron (1788 1824), with whom he maintained a 'frequent' correspondence between 1808 and 1814. As a friend and the editor of some of Byron's poems, Dallas had been entrusted with several of the poet's personal letters. First published in France in 1825, this book contains letters Byron wrote to his mother while travelling across Europe as a young man, his correspondence with Dallas, and Dallas' 1824 'Recollections' of the poet. It includes a long statement by Dallas's son, describing the disputes that arose...

Following her advantageous second marriage, the famous beauty Marguerite, Countess of Blessington (1789 1849), presided over one of London's most glittering salons, variously attended by Thomas Moore, Disraeli, Bulwer Lytton, and Dickens. After her husband's death in 1829, she augmented her income by writing, most notably her Conversations with Lord Byron, which recounted her acquaintance with the poet in Genoa. Despite considerable success, her debt-ridden establishment collapsed in 1849 and Lady Blessington fled to Paris, where she died. This 1855 biography and letters, in three volumes was...

A fascinating compendium of broadsheet ballads, political satire and sensational stories of murder and scandal, first published in 1871.

A few years after Esther Alice Chadwick (fl. 1882 1928) who wrote under the name Mrs Ellis H. Chadwick had read a copy of Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte, she moved to a house near the Haworth vicarage where the Bronte family had lived. As a result, Chadwick was able to speak to many people who had known the family, and in 1914 she published this extensive biography of the family. Beginning with the Irish ancestry of the three famous sisters, Charlotte (1816 55), Emily (1818 48) and Anne (1820 49), she traces their short but eventful lives. Chadwick examines their early years and...

Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 1904) was founding Editor of the Dictionary of National Biography (NBD). Also a writer on philosophy, ethics, and literature, he was educated at Eton, King's College, London, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he remained as a Fellow and a tutor for a number of years. Though a sickly child, he later became a keen and successful mountaineer, taking part in first ascents of nine peaks in the Alps. These biographical essays and critiques were written originally for the National Review and published as two two-volume sets in 1898 and 1902. These vignettes show that,...

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...

Thomas Carlyle (1795 1881) was one of the most influential authors of the nineteenth century, and his essays and historical biographies led to him being regarded for much of the Victorian period as a literary genius and eminent social philosopher. This two-volume work, published in 1881, is a collection of Carlyle's reminiscences, which were edited by his friend, the historian J. A. Froude (1818 94). In 1871, Carlyle had given Froude a collection of his own papers, including these sketches, and of those belonging to his deceased wife, Jane, to be edited and published after his death. Froude...

Following her advantageous second marriage, the famous beauty Marguerite, Countess of Blessington (1789 1849), presided over one of London's most glittering salons, variously attended by Thomas Moore, Disraeli, Bulwer Lytton, and Dickens. After her husband's death in 1829, she augmented her income by writing, most notably her Conversations with Lord Byron, which recounted her acquaintance with the poet in Genoa. Despite considerable success, her debt-ridden establishment collapsed in 1849 and Lady Blessington fled to Paris, where she died. This 1855 biography and letters, in three volumes was...

Following her advantageous second marriage, the famous beauty Marguerite, Countess of Blessington (1789 1849), presided over one of London's most glittering salons, variously attended by Thomas Moore, Disraeli, Bulwer Lytton, and Dickens. After her husband's death in 1829, she augmented her income by writing, most notably her Conversations with Lord Byron, which recounted her acquaintance with the poet in Genoa. Despite considerable success, her debt-ridden establishment collapsed in 1849 and Lady Blessington fled to Paris, where she died. This 1855 biography and letters, in three volumes was...

Highly educated and accustomed to intellectual society, the writer Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741 1821) became a close friend of Samuel Johnson through her first husband, the brewer Henry Thrale. Her second marriage, to the Italian musician Gabriel Mario Piozzi in 1784, estranged her from Johnson, but following his death she published her groundbreaking Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, anticipating Boswell's biography. In addition to publishing essays, memoirs, poetry and travel diaries, she was one of the first women to produce works on philology and history. Edited by the essayist Abraham...