De Libris: Prose and Verse by Austin Dobson
page 93 of 141 (65%)
page 93 of 141 (65%)
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the _Table-Talk_ and _Recollections_, their owner might seem to be more
intimately connected. Foremost among these--one would think--should come his own productions. Most of these, no doubt, are included under the auctioneers' heading of "Works and Illustrations." In the "Library" proper, however, there are few traces of them. There is a quarto copy of the unfortunate _Columbus_, with Stothard's sketches; and there is the choice little _Pleasures of Memory_ of 1810, with Luke Clennell's admirable cuts in _facsimile_ from the same artist's pen-and-ink,--a volume which, come what may, will always hold its own in the annals of book-illustration. That there were more than one of these latter may be an accident. Rogers, nevertheless, like many book-lovers, must have indulged in duplicates. According to Hayward, once at breakfast, when some one quoted Gray's irresponsible outburst concerning the novels of Marivaux and Crebillon _le fils_, Rogers asked his guests, three in number, whether they were familiar with Marivaux's _Vie de Marianne_, a book which he himself confesses to have read through six times, and which French critics still hold, on inconclusive evidence, to have been the "only begetter" of Richardson's _Pamela_ and the sentimental novel. None of the trio knew anything about it. "Then I will lend you each a copy," rejoined Rogers; and the volumes were immediately produced, doubtless by that faithful and indefatigable factotum, Edmund Paine, of whom his master was wont to affirm that he would not only find any book _in_ the house, but _out_ of it as well. What is more (unless it be assumed that the poet's stock was larger still), one, at least, of the three copies must have been returned, since there is a copy in the catalogue. As might be expected in the admirer of Marivaux's heroine, the list is also rich in Jean-Jacques, whose "_gout vif pour les dejeuners_," this Amphitryon often extolled, quoting with approval Rousseau's opinion that "_C'est le temps de la journee ou nous sommes le plus tranquilles, ou nous causons le plus a noire aise._" Another of his |
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