Two-Way Mirror by Fiona Sampson (jenna bush book club txt) 📗

North America, where he has already been given his first lecture tour. In 1844 he lives in Europe, working on the great novels of his middle period, but is about to take on the editorship of the London Daily News.

p. 136

‘The Lay of the Brown Rosary’ Pt Three, Ll. 181–85.

p. 137

William Bishop in The Brownings’ Correspondence, note 2 of #1380. EBB to Mitford 16 September 1843, #1380; EBB to Mitford 15 September 1843, #1379. ‘Five pounds down…’ EBB to Mitford 20 September 1843, #1383.

p. 138

‘My dear Papa was delighted to come home & find Flush, & has not put me on an inquest for the means’: #1380. The second time, Flush is stolen from the doorstep as Arabella returns from walking him, and is recovered by Alfred. ‘Quite above…’ EBB to Mitford 29 March 1844, #1585.

p. 139

‘Shedding abundant tears when the time came for leaving me. She said, it was as great a deprivation to her as it cd be to me,—[…]. I earnestly hope she may be happy, poor thing,—and, so far, the business seems flourishing, & he is very attentive & apparently fond of her. She goes to her mother’s to be confined,—& then, will come the full loss to me!’ EBB to Mitford 7 May 1844, #1607. This has been unfairly scrutinised for selfishness. EBB is being both honest and emotionally intelligent. Crow’s life as a baker’s wife will be less comfortable and secure than service in Wimpole Street; and dependent on her husband’s personality. If he’s violent or drinks, for example, she’ll have no escape. And once her baby is born, she will indeed have to surrender care for Elizabeth. Acknowledging this doesn’t mean that Elizabeth is putting herself ahead of the coming baby, or suggesting it should be otherwise. And, ‘She was with me when I was very ill & weak—& something of the gentle authority of nurse to patient, remained in her manner & ways.’ #1607. However, ‘Of the want of chastity…’ EBB to Mitford 3 February 1844, #1517. Contested will: EBB to Mitford 1 February 1844, #1516. ‘Gentle-voiced…’ #1585.

p. 140

‘Very willing…’ #1607.

EBB’s hairdo can be seen in the May 1843 sketch and 27 September 1843 watercolour portraits by her brother Alfred.

Substantial coverage: The Globe and Traveller, The Athenaeum, The Spectator, John Bull, Ainsworth’s Magazine, The Metropolitan Magazine, The Monthly Review, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, The New Quarterly Review, The Examiner, Blackwood’s, Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, The Critic, The Sun, The Westminster Review and The League.

‘We do not believe…’ Evening Mirror (New York) 7 December 1844, p. 2.

p. 141

‘There will doubtless…’ Evening Mirror (New York) 8 October 1844, p. 1.

The Spectator 24 August 1844, pp. 809–10.

The Atlas 31 August 1844, pp. 593–94.

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine November 1844, pp. 621–39.

p. 142

‘I love…’ RB to EBB 10 January 1845, #1811.

‘Preface’ in The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett (London: John Murray), 1914, p. xiv.

p. 143

‘A disguised angel…’ EBB to RB 16 June 1846, #2421. ‘I love love…’ EBB to Mitford 8 November 1841, #869. ‘I thank you… Is it indeed…’ EBB to RB 11 January 1845, #1812. ‘You make me…Your poetry must be…’ RB to EBB 13 January 1845, #1814.

p. 144

‘The fault..’ EBB to RB 15 January 1845, #1816. ‘Your books…’ RB to EBB 27 January 1845, #1825.

p. 145

‘As for me… Only don’t let us…’ EBB to RB 3 February 1845, #1829.

‘For reasons I know…’ RB to EBB 11 February 1845, #1837. He goes on: ‘Your talking of “tiring me,” “being too curious,” &c. &c […] I should never have heard of had the plain truth looked out of my letter with its unmistakeable eyes.’

‘Genius..’ EBB to Mitford 19 October 1842 #1028. She goes on: ‘There is a unity & nobleness of conception in “Pippa passes” […] Pippa, dark as she is, is worth all those rhymes you speak of—in my eyes.’

p. 146

‘I am essentially better… EBB to RB 5 March 1845, #1857. ‘Bitter mental discipline… Blind poet… I have lived only inwardly…’ EBB to RB 20 March 1845, #1870. Robert hints in RB to EBB 15 April 1845, #1888. ‘For some experience…’ #1870. On Kenyon on RB: EBB to Mitford 19 October 1842 #1028.

p. 147

‘He resembled a girl…’ Mitford to Charles Boner, 22 February 1847, SD1310. RB travelled at twenty-one, as Private Secretary to a Russian consul general, Chevalier George de Benkhausen. ‘And there was everything right…’ EBB to RB 21 May 1845, #1922.

p. 148

‘My mental position…’ #1922. ‘I would not listen…’ EBB to Mitford 18 September 1846, #2617. ‘Like a misprint…’ EBB to RB 23 May 1845, #1925.

SIXTH FRAME

p. 149

Bridget Riley interview with Paul Moorhouse, ‘In the Studio’, in The Eye’s Mind: Bridget Riley Collected Writings 1965–2019 (London: The Bridget Riley Art Foundation and Thames & Hudson, 2019), p. 247.

BOOK SEVEN

Epigraph

AL Bk 9, Ll. 820–22.

p. 151

‘Little city…’ EBB to Arabella MB, 16–19 October 1846, #2624.

p. 152

Orientalist poems like ‘The Giaour: A Turkish Tale’ also resulted from Byron’s travels.

Elizabeth’s brothers travelled in 1844.

EBB is fretting because of a casual remark by Richard Hengist Horne: ‘ “Your envelope reminds me of”—you, he said […] he cant have heard of your having been here, & it must have been a chance-remark—altogether!—taking an imaginary emphasis from my evil conscience perhaps.’ EBB to RB 7 July 1845, #1968.

‘I was examined…’ EBB to Mitford 13 September 1845, #2028.

p. 153

‘I was treated… From steam-packet reasons…’ EBB to RB 24 September 1845, #2042.

p. 154

‘Very much…’ EBB to Mitford c.20 September 1845, #2039. ‘What you cannot see…’ EBB to RB c.20 August 1845, #2007. ‘I know as certainly…’ RB to EBB 12 June 1846, #2411. ‘Think for me…’ #2042.

p. 155

‘He would not even…’ #2042. ‘The singular reason…’ EBB to RB 16 September 1845, #2030.

p. 156

‘The first subject…’ RB to EBB 30 August 1845, #2014. ‘I would marry you…’ RB to EBB 25 September 1845, #2043. ‘And if I…’ #2030. ‘When you told me…’ #2043.

p. 157

‘An exchange…’ EBB to RB 17