book list « Georgian Gems, Regency Reads & Victorian Voices

Since I’ve been slow to add books to REGENCY READS, as mentioned to a couple people, I hereby provide A Little List. Titles alone oftentimes are evocative enough to make readers seek out the books beneath them. Don’t we bibliophiles trawl bibliographies for that elusive “hmmm… didn’t know about this book” ???

My rationale will always tend toward the “complete” and most authoritative edition.

Therefore, if a modern edition has a more scholarly approach than an “original” edition that will appear on the list. [For instance compare Reeve’s Greville Diaries to the complete edition edited by Strachey and Fulford.]

I tend to favor “original” editions over reprints (unless the “modern” edition is a revised and/or expanded reprint; see point 1). [For instance, the Memoirs of the Comtess de Boigne in 1900s hardcovers rather than paperback reprints. Note: reprints are differentiated from paperback printings of same edition hardcovers]. Original editions tend to have the original illustrations, and frankly why pay a press for the pleasure of a ‘new’ book when the long-dead author gets no money — but the cover price is top dollar.

I also favor complete originals over condensed modern versions. [For instance, Prince Pückler Muskau’s multi-volumes of travels over a one-volume version; out of necessity, even if in 19th century translation], although some famous diaries (out of necessity) include a nod to the extracts edition — especially when the “complete” is a highly scarce (and/or pricey to amass) printing.

A few biographies will be included.

I would like to be able to introduce, annotate, and flesh out these choices. But some I have not read in years.

The major thread they all will have in common: I loved them!

A lot of British history, women’s history perspective when possible, but you can’t keep the men out — they wrote and published too much! An interest in Royalty, painting and architecture, classical music, opera, travel, biography, history, belles lettres, etc etc, means German and Austrian, French, Italian, Canadian and American subjects get sprinkled in.

I’d love to get reader reactions to books — those you have loved, hated, or want to recommend (whether on the List or not). Post a comment, or email me at smithandgosling [at] gmail [dot] com.

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In no particular order, other than where they sit on my shelves…

The Diary of Joseph Farington (Cave, Newby et al) [16 vols + index]

Retrospections of Dorothea Herbert, 1770-1806

The Diary of a Victorian Lady, Adelaide Pountney

The Diary of a Country Parson, James Woodforde

Kilvert’s Diary

The Torrington Diaries [4 vols.]

The Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist [2 vols]

Hancox: A House and a Family (Charlotte Moore)

Thomas Creevey’s Papers / Creevey’s Life and Times / The Creevey Papers

Woman Behind the Painter: The Diaries of Rosalie, Mrs James Clarke Hook

Talking with Past Hours: The Victorian Diary of William Fletcher of Bridgenorth

Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth (Selincourt edition)

Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully (Carrie Rebora Barrett)

The Wynne Diaries, 1770-1820 {AKA the Journals of Elizabeth Wynne} [3 vols]

Diary of a Betley Governess (Mavis E. Smith)

Jane Austen’s Letters (Le Faye; now out in its 4th edition) / Jane Austen’s Manuscript Letters in Facsimile (Modert) (this last is special – reminds me of being at the Hampshire Record Office looking over Smith&Gosling letters!)

Journal of Clarissa Trant

The Diaries of Anne Lister (Whitbread: I Know my Own Heart / No Priest but Love; Liddington: Female Fortune)

A Medical Student at St Thomas’s Hospital, 1801-1802: The Weekes Family Letters (John M. T. Ford)

The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of a Gentleman Composer (1752-1828) (Brian Robins) [vol 2 due in 2012!]

Cosima Wagner’s Diaries, 1869-1877 and 1878-1883 (2 vols)

The Marriage Diaries of Clara and Robert Schumann

I am the most interesting book of all: The Diaries of Marie Bashkirtseff (Kernberger) {seeking vol 2! in the meantime see this announcement about Lust for Glory to be released in 2012}

‘In the Solitude of My Soul’: The Diary of Geneviève Bréton, 1867-1871

Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters

The Complete Letters of Mary Wortley Montagu [3 vols]

The Thrales of Streatham Park

The French Journals of Mrs Thrale and Dr Johnson

The Piozzi Letters [6 vols]

The Correspondence of Emily, Duchess of Leinster [3 vols] {these books now online; see the post at Two Teens in the Time of Austen}

Miss Weeton’s Journal of a Governess [2 vols]

The Hamwood Papers of the Ladies of Llangollen and Caroline Hamilton

Dear Miss Heber: An Eighteenth Century Correspondence

The Grand Tour of Catherine Wilmot

A Governess in the Age of Jane Austen