To boost this forum and to see what people may find interesting...
One of the frequently mentioned topics of the middle and upper classes is what they were reading. Generally I have found that the topics were very broad but generally do not include the current well-known 19th century authors like Edgar Poe, Jane Austen, and Nathaniel Hawthorne just for examples. However, that does not mean there is NO mention of these well-known authors.
A paging through just glancing back at Mary Chesnut's diary reveal some of the following texts and authors:
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope (1861)
Charleston Mercury
New York Herald
Evan Harrington; or, He Would Be a Gentleman by George Meredith (1860)
Basil: A Story of Modern Life then reprinted as The Crossed Path or Basil, A Story of Modern Life by William Wilkie Collins (1852, 1853, 1860 dependent on where printed)
The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856) by John Lothrop Motley
The Giaour: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale (1813) Lord Byron
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) edited by Thomas Percy
So what are some of your favorite stories, newspaper articles, or poems of the period?
I'll start: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Mrs. Bullfrog (which can be found online http://tinyurl.com/38kmhw). And while he may not have been all that popular in his life, I like Poe's work particularly The Black Cat, Masque of the Red Death, and the Fall of the House of Usher.
One of the frequently mentioned topics of the middle and upper classes is what they were reading. Generally I have found that the topics were very broad but generally do not include the current well-known 19th century authors like Edgar Poe, Jane Austen, and Nathaniel Hawthorne just for examples. However, that does not mean there is NO mention of these well-known authors.
A paging through just glancing back at Mary Chesnut's diary reveal some of the following texts and authors:
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope (1861)
Charleston Mercury
New York Herald
Evan Harrington; or, He Would Be a Gentleman by George Meredith (1860)
Basil: A Story of Modern Life then reprinted as The Crossed Path or Basil, A Story of Modern Life by William Wilkie Collins (1852, 1853, 1860 dependent on where printed)
The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856) by John Lothrop Motley
The Giaour: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale (1813) Lord Byron
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) edited by Thomas Percy
So what are some of your favorite stories, newspaper articles, or poems of the period?
I'll start: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Mrs. Bullfrog (which can be found online http://tinyurl.com/38kmhw). And while he may not have been all that popular in his life, I like Poe's work particularly The Black Cat, Masque of the Red Death, and the Fall of the House of Usher.
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