The Life and Letters of William Beckford

The Life and Letters of William Beckford PDF Author: Lewis Melville
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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The Life and Letters of William Beckford

The Life and Letters of William Beckford PDF Author: Lewis Melville
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description


The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill

The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill PDF Author: Lewis Saul Benjamin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Beckford, William, 1759-1844
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill

The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill PDF Author: Lewis Melville
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Authors, English
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill

The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill PDF Author: Lewis Melville
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Authors, English
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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LIFE & LETTERS OF WILLIAM BECK

LIFE & LETTERS OF WILLIAM BECK PDF Author: Lewis 1874-1932 Melville
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781371117634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill (Classic Reprint)

The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill (Classic Reprint) PDF Author: Lewis Melville
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781330773994
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Excerpt from The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill It is strange that during the three-score years that have elapsed since the death of William Beckford only one attempt, and that, to quote Dr. Garnett, "a most intolerable piece of bookmaking," has been made to write his biography, for his character and achievements were just those that usually attract attention. He was, indeed, a many-sided man. As an author he gave proof of his humour in that elaborate, long-forgotten jest, the "Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters"; of his imagination in the famous story of "Vathek," and of his powers of observation and picturesque description in his books of travel: work that extorted the praise of Byron, Lockhart, and Benjamin Disraeli. He was the greatest English connoisseur of his day, collecting most kinds of works of art and vertu; his library was one of the most magnificent ever brought together in this country by a private individual; and, further, he was to a great extent architect of his pleasure-palace of Fonthill. The son of a millionaire who has his niche in the political history of England, he was brought up under the eye of Chatham and Camden; in his childhood was a playfellow of the younger Pitt; while yet a lad made acquaintance with Lord Thurlow, Voltaire, Madame de Stael, and a host of notabilities; and in later days was intimate with Nelson, Sir William Hamilton and his second too-famous wife Emma, Samuel Rogers, the Duke of Portland and Disraeli. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

William Beckford

William Beckford PDF Author: Timothy Mowl
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571300480
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
William Beckford had two lives: one real and sensational, the other an elegant forgery he invented in retirement after the young Disraeli mischievously sent him a homoerotic epic based loosely on Beckford's own career. Biographers have been bemused by Beckford's faked letters and dream encounters with celebrities, but his real life was far more significant: he is the pivotal Romantic between Horace Walpole and Byron. Beckford was reared in exotic isolation in a Palladian palace where he grew up obsessed with dark grottoes, towers and images of the living dead. Rushed into marriage by an apprehensive mother, he indulged his actual passions (both legal and paedophile) until a Tory administration staged a sex scandal that exiled him. In his absence his novel, Vathek was treacherously pirated. Returned to England, Beckford flung his wealth into the creation of Fonthill Abbey, which, by its shadowy vistas and glamorous camp furnishings, paved the way for the wildest excesses of Victorian taste.

Fonthill Recovered

Fonthill Recovered PDF Author: Caroline Dakers
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1787350452
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
Fonthill, in Wiltshire, is traditionally associated with the writer and collector William Beckford who built his Gothic fantasy house called Fonthill Abbey at the end of the eighteenth century. The collapse of the Abbey’s tower in 1825 transformed the name Fonthill into a symbol for overarching ambition and folly, a sublime ruin. Fonthill is, however, much more than the story of one man’s excesses. Beckford’s Abbey is only one of several important houses to be built on the estate since the early sixteenth century, all of them eventually consumed by fire or deliberately demolished, and all of them oddly forgotten by historians. Little now remains: a tower, a stable block, a kitchen range, some dressed stone, an indentation in a field. Fonthill Recovered draws on histories of art and architecture, politics and economics to explore the rich cultural history of this famous Wiltshire estate. The first half of the book traces the occupation of Fonthill from the Bronze Age to the twenty-first century. Some of the owners surpassed Beckford in terms of their wealth, their collections, their political power and even, in one case, their sexual misdemeanours. They include Charles I’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the richest commoner in the nineteenth century. The second half of the book consists of essays on specific topics, filling out such crucial areas as the complex history of the designed landscape, the sources of the Beckfords’ wealth and their collections, and one essay that features the most recent appearance of the Abbey in a video game.

Myth and Reality In Late Eighteenth Century British Politics

Myth and Reality In Late Eighteenth Century British Politics PDF Author: Ian R. Christie
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520336119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1970.

The Road to Xanadu

The Road to Xanadu PDF Author: John Livingstone Lowes
Publisher: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN: 8728350642
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 537

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Book Description
It takes a great mind to study a great mind. The literary critic John Livingston Lowes puts his reputation on the line by chosing to analyse the sources, thoughts and imagination of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The result, 'The Road to Xanadu', is a remarkable and insightful examination of the creative processes and reading material that inspired 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and 'Kubla Khan'. Lowes brilliantly uses his study of Coleridge as a springboard to a more wide-ranging analysis of the imagination. If you like Coleridge's work, you will be fascinated by this look into the mind of a literary giant. John Livingston Lowes (1867-1945) was an American scholar and critic of English literature. His best-known subjects were Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Geoffrey Chaucer, author of 'The Canterbury Tales'. His most famous work is 'The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination', which examines the sources of Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and 'Kubla Khan'.