“or among fictions Lockhart's "Reginald Dalton" Hope's "Anastasius" or Beckford's "Caliph Vathek" are very good.”
Author
William Beckford(1760–1844)
William Beckford is documented in Fuller’s letters and published essays (1837–1845). 2 distinct works are named, most often in Letter to Caroline Sturgis, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.
- Engagement
- AnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
- Present in
- Letters · Essays
- Documented
- 1837–1845
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
In Fuller’s words
“The faint sickness of a wounded heart." How frequently do these words of Beckford recur to my mind! His prayer, imperfect as it is, says more to me than many a purer aspiration. It breathes such an experience of impassioned anguish. He had everything,-health, personal advantages, almost boundless wealth, genius, exquisite taste, culture; he could, in some way, express his whole being. Yet well-nigh he sank beneath the sickness of the wounded heart; and solitude, "country of the unhappy," was all he craved at last.”
When Fuller engaged with William Beckford
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Beckford in Fuller’s reading world
Documentary evidence
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
1837—
Letter to Caroline Sturgis
p297read2 selected passages
“Beckford's "Italy" or "Portugal" would interest you very much but I do not think you can get them.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
1845—
Italy.
“Italy.”mentioned
“as in the case of Beckford and Byron, horses were his best friends in the hour of danger.”
Also reprinted in Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Counted once, at its first appearance.
Fuller, Margaret. "Italy." New-York Daily Tribune, 13 November 1845. · 13 November 1845
1845—
Letters From a Landscape Painter.
“Letters From a Landscape Painter.”mentioned
“When Fonthill Abbey was sold, the public got a better transcript of the mind of Beckford, in the inventory of the treasures there accumulated, than from any thing he ever wrote.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Letters From a Landscape Painter." New-York Daily Tribune, 18 January 1845. · 18 January 1845
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
n.d.—
Letter to unknown
p[appendix]analyzed · quoted · read
“The faint sickness of a wounded heart." How frequently do these words of Beckford recur to my mind! His prayer, imperfect as it is, says more to me than many a purer aspiration.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Hudspeth's notes suggest the quotation probably comes from Beckford's Vathek, a work Fuller admired, though the exact passages have not been verified verbatim; her reflective engagement and repeated return to the phrases signal strong current reading.
Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.
1852—
Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli
p261analyzed · quoted · read
“The faint sickness of a wounded heart.' How frequently do these words of Beckford recur to my mind! His prayer...”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.
Inferred In this passage, Margaret Fuller reflects on "the faint sickness of a wounded heart" and "his prayer," identifying William Beckford as the author, though a specific work is not named.