Gladstone, Palmerston, Flaubert, Camus, Burney, Charrieres, Melbourne

Since my last post, I've read two issues of The Economist and OK Magazine, four of Eclectic Reading, and one of The National Enquirer.

As well I've read Herbert Lottman's biographies of Gustave Flaubert and Albert Camus -- English influenced by the French language; Isabelle de Charrieres by Raymond Trousson; and the six volumes of Fanny Burney's letters and journals. I didn't know Charrieres existed, so I've learned a good deal about her. About Burney, as with my reading of Woolf's diaries, I don't knwo enough to appreciate them fully, and they are not penetrating enough to hold my attention.

I've also read David Cecil's Melbourne, which was excellent, and Philip Magnus' Gladstone, also very good. Aristocrats writing about other aristocrats. I also read Denis Kay-Robinson's The First Mrs. Thomas Hardy. This was written to settle a controversy regarding Hardy that I know nothing about. I've now read a biography of Palmerston by Espley, to complete the quartet of biographies of Victorian prime ministers -- the positions Palmerston took were understandable for the period, but I found them hard to fathom. I've also read a biography of Bessie Head by Gillian Stead Allersen. This latter is written in good but slightly stilted English -- English influenced by Danish.