BIB_ID
433007
Accession number
MA 1617.629
Creator
Henley, William Ernest, 1849-1903.
Display Date
London 1884 May.
Credit line
Purchased as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke, 1955.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 13.1 x 10.1 cm
Notes
The place and date of writing is derived from a letter written by Henley to Robert Louis Stevenson that also refers to Henley's piece on Alexander Dumas (Alexander Maximus) and to Henley's brother's illustrations for Stevenson's book "Fontainebleau : Village Communities of Painters." Anthony Henley did six illustrations for the book. Henley was writing from 51 Richmond Gardens, Shepherds Bush, W. The letter is published in The Selected Letters of W. E. Henley edited by Damian Atkinson. Aldershot : Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2000, pp. 125-128.
The identity of the recipient is derived from a letter written by Henley to R.L. Stevenson in which he refers to Stevenson as "Master Brook" as he does in this letter. The letter is published in The Selected Letters of W. E. Henley edited by Damian Atkinson. Aldershot : Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2000, pp. 138-139.
The identity of the recipient is derived from a letter written by Henley to R.L. Stevenson in which he refers to Stevenson as "Master Brook" as he does in this letter. The letter is published in The Selected Letters of W. E. Henley edited by Damian Atkinson. Aldershot : Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2000, pp. 138-139.
Provenance
Purchased as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke, 1955.
Summary
Discussing an event at St. Giles's and Charles Baxter's attendance in evening dress, Alexander Dumas (Alexander Maximus) and Flaubert; saying "I am glad indeed that you liked the 'Alexander Maximus.' Of course you are right; it might & ought to have been more largely & vigorously stated. But it's in the right direction. That is the way in which critics must go, if it wants to be right. I thought of you as I wrote; & I wasn't disappointed. - Vive Dumas! Vive R.L.S.! Vive Wollock! Vive everybody! I like the 'Epic of friendship' for the 'Mousquetaires'. I believe I invented it - Saintsbury wrote words of praise about the whole thing. I can't make Saintsbury out. He is death on Alexander Maximus (as he calls the old boy); & only the other day I heard of him as talking of G. Flaubert as 'an ideal novelist.' Think of that, Master Brook! By the same rule, if you want an ideal heroine, you pick out a nymphomaniac. / And now I've ended / This jobation splendid / As I pretended / In the worst of prose. / And so here goes / I'll shut my letter / And next time do better, / If I can / Young man! / Yours ever, / W.E.H.;" adding, in a postscript, "Antony's Fonties are Damn good."
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