Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... v. Mary To Sarah Stoddart, Oct. 22, i8o6,1 "I have been very busy making waistcoats and plotting new work to succeed the Tales; as yet I have not hit upon any thing to my mind." vi. Charles To Mann1ng, Dec. 5, 1806. "Those 'Tales from Shakspeare ' are near coming out, and Mary has begun a new work...." vu. Charles To Wordsworth, Jan. 29, 1807. "We have booked off from Swan and Two Necksv Lad Lane, this day (per Coach) the 'Tales from Shakspeare.'... To abstract the load of teazing circumstances from the stories I may tell you that I am responsible for Lear, Macbeth, Timon, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, for occasionally a tale-piece or correction of grammar, for none of the cuts, and for all of the spelling. The rest is my sister's. We think Pericles of hers the best, and Othello of mine; but I hope all have some good, ds You Like It we like least...." There are a number of little touches in these letters, especially in Mary's, which it is good to have. For instance, that sentence about the "many wise consultations, such as you know we often hold" will recall to every reader the charming Essay entitled Old China, with its picture of the calculated normal economies and the greatly-debated occasional extravagances of their first housekeeping. Evidently, . too, it had occurred to neither of them that this labour in which they were engaged during the spring and summer of 1806 was to result in anything more than the addition of an attractive work to the list of Mr Godwin's Juvenile Library: something that would bring in a little present money, and sell for a few years, and then perish. But the world, which is older than they were at that time and knows more about the matter, has decided differently; and it seems unlikely that this book will cease to...