Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Eine kleine englische Galerie
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About 3 h 30 min to read.Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who love literary gossip, English poetry and the stage, and anyone who enjoys biography told through anecdotes, letters and affectionate character studies of writers, actors and the friends who gathered around them.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
What makes a forgotten life worth remembering? Louise Imogen Guiney, an American writer who died in 1920, answers with five warm portraits of English figures in A Little English Gallery. She sets each person in the age that shaped them and fills the pages with letters, anecdotes and small scenes. You meet a mother who rescued a poet from poverty, a Welsh physician who found God by a river, a young soldier who wrote comedies while dying, two gentle idlers beside Samuel Johnson, and a critic who could not bear to be dull. Begin with the woman at the heart of the first portrait.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A mother whose kindness saved a poetFree
- 2Vaughan chose peace and quiet joy
- 3His poems owe Herbert much and give more
- 4Farquhar laughed through poverty and illness
- 5Two idle friends who warmed Johnson's life
- 6Hazlitt wrote from conviction and loved justice
Punkt 1 von 6
A mother whose kindness saved a poet
Magdalen Newport, later Lady Danvers, was born around 1561 in Shropshire. She raised ten children, among them Edward, later Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and George, the gentle poet of The Temple. Guiney paints her as a stern but cheerful parent. Her house ran on generosity and honest work, and every Sunday night ended with psalms.
At Oxford she became the patient benefactor of John Donne, then a restless young man with no steady income and a growing family. For years she helped him with simple delicacy. He repaid her with letters, sonnets and hymns, and he preached her funeral sermon in 1627.
Guiney admits how little survives of the woman herself, only a few letters and glimpses. She treats that loss as real. Yet kindness given quietly still keeps her name alive, and that is the lesson of the sketch.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Eine kleine englische Galerie
About 3 h 30 min to read.Questions about Eine kleine englische Galerie
What is A Little English Gallery about?
It is a set of five literary portraits by Louise Imogen Guiney. They cover Lady Danvers, Henry Vaughan, George Farquhar, Topham Beauclerk with Bennet Langton, and William Hazlitt, each told through anecdotes, letters and the writers' own words.
Who was Lady Danvers?
Lady Danvers, born Magdalen Newport, was the mother of George Herbert and Lord Herbert of Cherbury. She is remembered for her generous friendship with the poet John Donne, who preached her funeral sermon in 1627.
Who were Topham Beauclerk and Bennet Langton?
They were close friends of Samuel Johnson. Beauclerk was a brilliant and idle wit, and Langton a tall, gentle Greek scholar. Together they brought laughter and affection into the older man's life.
Is A Little English Gallery fiction or true biography?
It is nonfiction. Guiney draws on letters, memoirs and the writings of her subjects to sketch real people, with a lively personal voice. It was written in the late nineteenth century, and she died in 1920.
Is A Little English Gallery easy to read?
Each portrait is a self-contained essay full of anecdotes, jokes and vivid scenes. You can read the sketches one at a time, in any order, and enjoy the warm, conversational voice.
Cite this edition
Guiney, Louise Imogen. A Little English Gallery. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-little-english-gallery.
Guiney, L. I. (2026). A little English gallery. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-little-english-gallery (Original work published 1894)
Guiney, Louise Imogen. A Little English Gallery. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-little-english-gallery.
@book{guiney2026little,
author = {Guiney, Louise Imogen},
title = {A Little English Gallery},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-little-english-gallery},
note = {First published 1894}
}