Fuller on Reading
Passages in Fuller’s own hand on books, friendship, and the labour of becoming literate — each anchored to a verified source.
Every passage below is anchored to a verified record in the archive — no attributed, paraphrased, or apocryphal lines. Initial selections come from the Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845–1846; further passages from her journals and published work will be added as the corpus expands.
1
Books and friendship
“Has any circumstance led to a "hope &c." Ah, Gretchen! has thy really proud and sacred life only led to such an episode, where thou art supposed, and by a most trusted friend, to be "hoping" about such things? Where is the fault in thee that can lead to conclusions so humiliating?”
Reading Goethe through the lens of friendship — Fuller invokes Gretchen to test the seriousness of Nathan's regard.
2
Books and friendship
“My friend, I send you a book with which, more than any, except Wilhelm Meister, I have sympathized. These two books express something of the peculiar life of this age of which we are part... Tennyson knows some things about it, but none like this man... Such an experience has this Festus and you too, I suppose; perhaps that is, what you mean by unlikeness in our experiences.”
On sending Bailey's Festus to Nathan: a book she sets second only to Wilhelm Meister as a record of the age.
Margaret Fuller
Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845–1846, p62
3
Reading and self-culture
“I would have you come to me like the sick lion and let me see if I cannot take out the thorn — and if I cannot, let me at least soothe to rest for a while.”
Fuller reaches for Aesop's lion and thorn to describe the role she would play in Nathan's interior life.
Margaret Fuller
Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845–1846, p92
4
Books and friendship
“A small copy of Shelley's poems I wish also to make your companion, but keep that till I give it into your hand and point out some passages.”
On the social life of books in Fuller's circle: Shelley sent as a companion, with passages reserved for shared annotation.
Margaret Fuller
Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845–1846, p96
on Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley
5
Poetry and imagination
“"Nature never did deceive the heart that loved her"—”
Quoting Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey — Fuller's habitual touchstone for the consolations of the natural world.
Margaret Fuller
Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845–1846, p98
on William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, in…
6
Travel and the world
“Since you went, I have been looking over "The Crescent and the Cross" a book of Eastern travels. There are in the Appendix "Hints to travellers in the East" — you may possibly not know all he mentions. Mr. Delf will easily get you the book, and it is worth your looking at.”
On Warburton's Eastern travels — a book Fuller reads with an eye to her own approaching journey to Europe.
Margaret Fuller
Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845–1846, p103
on Eliot Warburton, The Crescent and the Cross; or, Romance and Realit…