Margaret Fuller’s Reading Worlds

Author

James Henry Leigh Hunt(1784–1859)

James Henry Leigh Hunt is documented in Fuller’s published essays and reading notebooks (1827–1846). 7 distinct works are named, most often in Leigh Hunt’s Italian Poets., and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.

Engagement
AnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
Present in
Essays · Notebooks
Documented
1827–1846
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

“Here we have another and perhaps the most charming of Hunt’s volumes. His varied accomplishments, his lively sense of individuality in character, his delicate perception as a critic, his power of apt and familiar illustration sparkle in little points of light from every page of the book.”
The Indicator · The Indicator; by Leigh Hunt . . . · 1845

When Fuller engaged with James Henry Leigh Hunt

I. Childhood
II. Adolescence1record
III. Self-Directed
IV. Transcendentalist
V. New York4records
VI. Europe3records
✦. Memoirs (1852)
1810
1820
1832
1836
1844
1846
1850

This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.

Hunt in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.

1827—

Reading Notebook 1825–1827

p. 93
readSearch Digital Fuller (page unverified)
“Berni makes Prasildo relieve the anguish of / unhappy love as Leigh Hunts Paolo does. Perhaps / Mr H. who is really conversant with Italian poets / retained the impress of this passage”

Fuller, Margaret. "Reading Notebook 1825–1827." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Inferred Fuller alludes to 'Leigh Hunt's Paolo' in comparing Berni's treatment of unhappy love; the specific work is The Story of Rimini (1816). Fuller explicitly compares Berni's Prasildo to 'Leigh Hunt's Paolo,' the character Paolo Malatesta from Leigh Hunt's The Story of Rimini (1816).

1845—

The Indicator; by Leigh Hunt . . .

“The Indicator; by Leigh Hunt . . .”
analyzed · quoted · read5 selected passages
“Here we have another and perhaps the most charming of Hunt’s volumes.”
“Ariosto, whose mind could fly out of its nest over all nature.”
“Byron was never weary of nicknaming his poems Rimini Pimini and Folly age.”
“We do not always like to ride in the same omnibus with Hunt though the City of the Great Dead, and, full of beauties as is the Story of Rimini, we are sorry for Paolo and Francesca, that he had a chance to write about the secrets of their hearts and the manner of their lives.”
“Such an one is “The Tale for a Chimney Corner,” most gracefully told and of great moral beauty.—We think the following the most romantic little story extant”

Fuller, Margaret. "The Indicator; by Leigh Hunt . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 11 July 1845.

1846—

Leigh Hunt’s Italian Poets.

“Leigh Hunt’s Italian Poets.”
analyzed · quoted · read5 selected passages
“These volumes were new to us, and taken up with that feeling of distaste which an attempt so seemingly, at first blush, absurd as that of writing poetry into prose”
“and you will have an idea of this commentary of the author of “Nimini Pimini” upon him whom he aply characterizes as “that lonely lion of a man.”
“The great mixture of truth in all the criticisms of Mr. Leigh Hunt, his fineness of perception and sympathy in details, only make more palpable his entire want of spiritual insight”
“As to our Florentine’s heaven, it is full of beauties also, though sometimes of a more questionable and pantomimical sort than is to be found in either of the other books.”
“Leigh Hunt’s Italian Poets,” New-York Daily Tribune, 18 February 1846, p. 1.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Leigh Hunt’s Italian Poets." New-York Daily Tribune, 18 February 1846.