Not the FMF thread

[french frank]

Posts moved from Parade's End thread:

Oooh you're a hard woman, french frank Botney's high living on the Beeb is passed over but Ford's 'weakness' (how many international literary mags have you established today, daddy?) is condemned

Don't be silly, amsy . I was judging the film as a film, but it was about FMF, the man.

It's unfair to judge the programme on the the basis of Botney's atrocious record in other respects .


Afterthought: I was going to comment on his literary influence and draw a 19th c. literary parallel - but as the reference led back to an article by moi, I modestly deleted that bit

[vinteuil]

Afterthought: I was going to comment on his literary influence and draw a 19th c. literary parallel - but as the reference led back to an article by moi, I modestly deleted that bit

... o, FF - don't be such a tease! of whom were you thinking? English or French*??


.

* I suppose Léon Bloy had a more impressive moustache...

[french frank]

... o, FF - don't be such a tease! of whom were you thinking? English or French*??

I wrote a few arts for the ODNB on minor 19th century (UK) literary writers of whom no one has ever heard. The nearest to fame I managed was on asking someone whether he had heard of X- Y-. Oh, yes, indeed he had. Well, it was his father

I got asked to do that article, I think, because being an academic I didn't expect (and therefore didn't request) payment or out of pocket expenses

[vinteuil]

I wrote a few arts for the ODNB on minor 19th century (UK) literary writers of whom no one has ever heard. :

FF - you continue to tease...


And how dare you assume that this literary writer would be one of whom no-one on these Boards had ever heard!!


But I assume you're talking abt someone less well-known than, say, Gissing??

[french frank]

FF - you continue to tease...


And how dare you assume that this literary writer would be one of whom no-one on these Boards had ever heard!!


But I assume you're talking abt someone less well-known than, say, Gissing??

Much less well-known than Gissing! I'll move this to another thread when I have a minute and come back to it later .

[amateur51]

Much less well-known than Gissing! I'll move this to another thread when I have a minute and come back to it later .

Amanda McKittrick Ros? (Blessed Amanda - Thine In Storm & Calm)

[french frank]

Well, I was going to respond indignantly to Amateur that I had mentioned FMF's literary influence when, looking back, I saw that was the bit I'd deleted .

I was musing about his obvious literary influence and all the well-known writers in whose circle he moved; and how he fell out of fashion and favour as a writer. The somewhat parallel-ish case I was thinking of was a lesser writer but he became persona non grata during his lifetime because of the whiff of scandal attached to his name. Or three scandals, in fact.

He was Peter George Patmore, the father of Coventry Patmore. The first scandal was that he was a close friend of Hazlitt and collaborated with him on his Liber Amoris, the account of WH's affair with a young woman, which was a cause célèbre. He was also involved, as second, in a duel in which one of the protagonists was killed in controversial circumstances, for which Patmore was blamed. He fled the country to avoid prosecution though the other two stayed to face the law (duelling being illegal). The third was that he wrote a book called 'My Friends and Acquaintance' in which he wrote - for the times, indiscreetly - about well-known people. It's mildly fascinating (although that's the only thing I can remember about it now...) but that sort of thing was considered very ungentlemanly at the time. But he was a magazine editor and part of a literary circle (Hazlitt, Lamb and other lesser lights) which reminded me of FMF.

[vinteuil]

Peter George Patmore, the father of Coventry Patmore.

FF - many thanks for appeasing my curiosity...

The name rang a distant muffled bell - from studying Hazlitt (incl Liber Amoris), c. 1972. But I never knew the other Interesting Facts about him - there are clearly some parallels with Ford's rickety-raggedy career. Thanks.

[french frank]

There's an online copy of MF&A and I now remember why its publication was greeted with such disapproval: he published private letters written to him which, even though the writers were dead, was considered an intrusion on privacy. (It's done all the time now and called 'scholarship'.)

There's a bit about Charles Lamb who had a temperamental dog called Dash, to whom he was a slave. In the end Patmore was persuaded to take Dash before he caused the death of his owner.

Lamb wrote to Patmore anxiously enquiring whether Dash had gone mad yet: "Has he bit any of the children yet? If he has, have them shot, and keep him for curiosity, to see if it was the hydrophobia."

&c. &c.

[vinteuil]

I read in the notes to the Howe edn of Liber Amoris the quotation from The Athenaeum [1854], reviewing Patmore's My Friends and Acquaintances -"The judgment of The Athenaeum on Mr Patmore's book as a miscellany carelessly made up, containing praises without sufficient ground, impeachment without warrant, and anecdotes of doubtful character, seems to be shared by persons in all circles of London society. Several communications have been received by us."

Henry Crabb Robinson, in his Diary [26 August, 1854] "I began and finished Patmore's long paper on Hazlitt. Patmore is a low fellow, booksellers' drudge, and the book will be deservedly despised - perhaps even more than it deserves. His admiration of Hazlitt is even absurd, and betrays a want of refined sense and correct judgment. Yet he has a certain vigour of description."

[vinteuil]

... my post #10 above evidence of the utility of classifying books chronologically - looking around the shelves for Hazlitt I find Lamb etc - and also H Crabb Robinson, whom I wd otherwise have forgotten about entirely in this search...

[french frank]

... my post #10 above evidence of the utility of classifying books chronologically - looking around the shelves for Hazlitt I find Lamb etc - and also H Crabb Robinson, whom I wd otherwise have forgotten about entirely in this search...

Well, I never like to be too rigid - so one shelf currently to my right runs from left with Cavendish's Life of Wolsey and More's History of King Richard III to - pure coincidence - Hazlitt's Essays and Lamb's Essays. The next shelf is neither in alphabetical nor chronological order, but I recognise them all from ten paces by their bindings.

But the two quotes you give are exactly What The World Said about Patmore père.

[amateur51]

No takers for Amanda McKittrick Ros then, I take it

Now there was a writer

[vinteuil]

No takers for Amanda McKittrick Ros then, I take it

Now there was a writer

... boy, could she write! (???) :

"Irene, if I may use such familiarity, I have summoned you hither, it may be to undergo a stricter examination than your present condition probably permits; but knowing, as you should, my life must be miserable under this growing cloud of unfathomed dislike, I became resolved to end, if within my power, such contentious and unlady-like conduct as that practised by you towards me of late. It is now six months - yea, weary months - since I shielded you from open penury and insult, which were bound to follow you, as well as your much-loved protectors, who sheltered you from the pangs of penniless orphanage; and during these six months, which naturally should have been the pet period of nuptial harmony, it has proved the hideous period of howling dislike!
"I, as you see, am tinged with slightly snowy tufts, the result of stifled sorrow and care concerning you alone; and on the memorable day of our alliance, as you are well aware, the black and glossy locks of glistening glory crowned my brow. There dwelt then, just six months this day, no trace of sorrow or smothered woe - no variety of colour where it is and shall be so long as I exist - no furrows of grief could then be traced upon my visage. But, alas! now I feel so changed! And why?

"Because I have dastardly and doggedly been made a tool of treason in the hands of the traitoress and unworthy! I was enticed to believe that an angel was always hovering around my footsteps, when moodily engaged in resolving to acquaint you of my great love, and undying desire to place you upon the highest pinnacle possible of praise and purity within my power to bestow!

"I was led to believe that your unbounded joy and happiness were never at such a par as when sharing them with me. Was I falsely informed of your ways and worth? Was I duped to ascend the ladder of liberty, the hill of harmony, the tree of triumph, and the rock of regard, and when wildly manifesting my act of ascension, was I to be informed of treading still in the valley of defeat?

"Am I, who for nearly forty years was idolised by a mother of untainted and great Christian bearing, to be treated now like a slave? Why and for what am I thus dealt with?

"Am I to foster the opinion that you treat me thus on account of not sharing so fully in your confidence as it may be, another?

"Or is it, can it be, imaginative that you have reluctantly shared, only shared, with me that which I have bought and paid for fully?

"Can it be that your attention has ever been, or is still, attracted by another, who, by some artifice or other, had the audacity to steal your desire for me and hide it beneath his pillaged pillow of poverty, there to conceal it until demanded with my ransom?

Speak! Irene! Wife! Woman! Do not sit in silence and allow the blood that now boils in my veins to ooze through cavities of unrestrained passion and trickle down to drench me with its crimson hue!"

["Irene Iddesleigh"]

[amateur51]

... boy, could she write! (???) :

"Irene, if I may use such familiarity, I have summoned you hither, it may be to undergo a stricter examination than your present condition probably permits; but knowing, as you should, my life must be miserable under this growing cloud of unfathomed dislike, I became resolved to end, if within my power, such contentious and unlady-like conduct as that practised by you towards me of late. It is now six months - yea, weary months - since I shielded you from open penury and insult, which were bound to follow you, as well as your much-loved protectors, who sheltered you from the pangs of penniless orphanage; and during these six months, which naturally should have been the pet period of nuptial harmony, it has proved the hideous period of howling dislike!
"I, as you see, am tinged with slightly snowy tufts, the result of stifled sorrow and care concerning you alone; and on the memorable day of our alliance, as you are well aware, the black and glossy locks of glistening glory crowned my brow. There dwelt then, just six months this day, no trace of sorrow or smothered woe - no variety of colour where it is and shall be so long as I exist - no furrows of grief could then be traced upon my visage. But, alas! now I feel so changed! And why?

"Because I have dastardly and doggedly been made a tool of treason in the hands of the traitoress and unworthy! I was enticed to believe that an angel was always hovering around my footsteps, when moodily engaged in resolving to acquaint you of my great love, and undying desire to place you upon the highest pinnacle possible of praise and purity within my power to bestow!

"I was led to believe that your unbounded joy and happiness were never at such a par as when sharing them with me. Was I falsely informed of your ways and worth? Was I duped to ascend the ladder of liberty, the hill of harmony, the tree of triumph, and the rock of regard, and when wildly manifesting my act of ascension, was I to be informed of treading still in the valley of defeat?

"Am I, who for nearly forty years was idolised by a mother of untainted and great Christian bearing, to be treated now like a slave? Why and for what am I thus dealt with?

"Am I to foster the opinion that you treat me thus on account of not sharing so fully in your confidence as it may be, another?

"Or is it, can it be, imaginative that you have reluctantly shared, only shared, with me that which I have bought and paid for fully?

"Can it be that your attention has ever been, or is still, attracted by another, who, by some artifice or other, had the audacity to steal your desire for me and hide it beneath his pillaged pillow of poverty, there to conceal it until demanded with my ransom?

Speak! Irene! Wife! Woman! Do not sit in silence and allow the blood that now boils in my veins to ooze through cavities of unrestrained passion and trickle down to drench me with its crimson hue!"

["Irene Iddesleigh"]

And she goes on like that for pages, chapters, volumes vints!

It's breathless stuff but worth dipping into occasionally for slightly iffy experience Countless are the times that she's reduced me to helpless and quite unintentional laughter :laughter: