A Sultry Month
eBook - ePub

A Sultry Month

Scenes of London Literary Life in 1846: 'Sizzles and steams . . . Beautifully written.' (The Times)

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

A Sultry Month

Scenes of London Literary Life in 1846: 'Sizzles and steams . . . Beautifully written.' (The Times)

About this book

Wine and dine with Victorian London's literati in a heatwave in one of the first ever group biographies, introduced by Francesca Wade (author of Square Haunting).

Though she loved the heat she could do nothing but lie on the sofa and drink lemonade and read Monte Cristo .

'One of the most illuminating and insufficiently praised books of the last 60 years.' Observer
'Never bettered.' Guardian
'W holly original.' Craig Brown
'A pathfinder.' Richard Holmes
'Brilliant.' Julian Barnes
'Extraordinary.' Penelope Lively

June 1846. As London swelters in a heatwave - sunstroke strikes, meat rots, ice is coveted - a glamorous coterie of writers and artists spend their summer wining, dining and opining.

With the ringletted 'face of an Egyptian cat goddess', Elizabeth Barrett is courted by her secret fiancé, the poet Robert Browning, who plots their elopement to Italy; Keats roams Hampstead Heath; Wordsworth visits the zoo; Dickens is intrigued by Tom Thumb; the Carlyles host parties for a visiting German novelist and suffer a marital crisis. But when the visionary painter Benjamin Robert Haydon commits suicide, they find their entwined lives spiralling around the tragedy . . .

One of the first-ever group biographies, Alethea Hayter's glorious A Sultry Month is a lively mosaic of archival riches inspired by the collages of the Pop Artists. A groundbreaking feat of creative non-fiction in 1965, her portrait of Victorian London's literati is just as vivid, witty and enticing today.

'Elegant Hayter more or less invented the biographical form which is a close study of a brief period in the life of an individual or a group . . . A rigorous scholar [with] an artist's eye.' A. S. Byatt

'Hayter's clever, innovative book turned a searchlight on a time, a place, a circle of people; it has surely inspired the subsequent fashion for group biographies.' Penelope Lively

'Nothing I've ever read has flung me so immediately into those streets, that weather, that period. Hayter never forgets that people want stories, that lives are stories.' Margaret Forster

'Hayter could take a tiny chip of life [and] find within it the seeds of a whole existence.' Richard Holmes

'A pioneer . . . Beautifully written vignettes . . . Immaculate scholarship and intense readability.' Jonathan Bate

'Outstanding . . . A small masterpiece.' Anthony Burgess

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access A Sultry Month by Alethea Hayter in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Faber & Faber
Year
2022
eBook ISBN
9780571372300
Edition
0
Subtopic
Literary Biographies

Table of contents

  1. Landing Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. Introduction
  6. Author’s Note
  7. I: Thursday 18th June
  8. II: Thursday 18th June
  9. III: Thursday 18th June
  10. IV: Thursday 18th June
  11. V: Friday 19th June
  12. VI: Saturday 20th June
  13. VII: Sunday 21st June
  14. VIII: Monday 22nd June
  15. IX: Monday 22nd June
  16. X: Monday 22nd June
  17. XI: Tuesday 23rd June
  18. XII: Wednesday 24th June
  19. XIII: Wednesday 24th June
  20. XIV: Wednesday 24th June
  21. XV: Thursday 25th June to Monday 29th June
  22. XVI: Tuesday 30th June
  23. XVII: Wednesday 1st July and Thursday 2nd July
  24. XVIII: Saturday 4th July
  25. XIX: Sunday 5th July
  26. XX: Monday 6th July
  27. XXI: Tuesday 7th July
  28. XXII: Wednesday 8th July
  29. XXIII: July to September
  30. XXIV: Monday 13th July
  31. Appendix
  32. List of Sources
  33. List of Illustrations
  34. Index
  35. Illustrations
  36. About the Authors
  37. Copyright