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The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters: Volumes 5 and 6: 1960-62: Correspondence of George Lyttelton and Rupert Hart-Davis
Used book in good condition, due to its age it could contain normal signs of use
- GenresNonfiction
400 pages, Paperback
First published June 5, 1978
41 people want to read
About the author
George Lyttelton
10 booksGeorge William Lyttelton (1883-1962)
British teacher who became well-known posthumously with the publication of his letters with former student Rupert Hart-Davis.
British teacher who became well-known posthumously with the publication of his letters with former student Rupert Hart-Davis.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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February 26, 2023This is a review of Volume 5 of the letters. It contains the letters from 1960. Goodreads does not have an entry for each separate volume.
George Lyttelton was a master at Eton from 1905 to 1945. He taught classics and English literature to a generation of English intellectuals and politicians, including Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Cyril Connolly.
Rubert Hart-Davis was one of his pupils. Hart-Davis became a publisher and a key figure in London's literary life. Lyttelton complained to Hart Davis that he did not have the chance for good conversation in his retirement. They agreed to exchange weekly letters. Hart-Davis mailed a letter on Sunday and Lyttelton answered on Tuesday. The correspondence lasted from 1955 to Lyttelton's death in 1962. The letters were released in six volumes after his death and became a big success.
These were two very learned and witty men. They both had huge chunks of English literature at their call. The footnotes guide us through the casual quotes from Shakespeare, Dickens and Samuel Johnson that they both drop into their letters.
Hart-Davis's letters are about an amazingly busy urban life. He edits Oscar Wilde's letters, manages a publishing company, acquires new titles and is out most evening to the meeting of some club or organazation that he is active in. He sees all the big plays.
Lyttelton is retired in Suffolk. He grades entrance exams for Oxford but he mostly seems to enjoy being retired. He tries to stay current in literature, but he cannot understand the attraction of D.H. Lawrence's "pornography". He is full of wonderful stories and well-developed literary judgements.
They both seem to cherish the correspondence. They have their agreed upon shorthand. T. S. Eliot is TSE. Ezra Pound is EP. Thomas Carlyle is TC. They disagree on Jane Austen. Hart-Davis is pro, Lyttelton is con. They share a love of Dickens and Johnson. They both drop in good lines. Lyttelton's verdict on the Bloomsbury crowd is, "is anything less attractive than faded arrogance?"
They share their personal lives. Hart-Davis had a very complicated personal life, and his children are teenagers starting and ending college. Lyttelton is from an old English family. His children were grown.
Each of these volumes cover one year and are about 200 pages long, which is the perfect length. Some volumes of literary letters go five or six hundred pages. That is too long for even the best correspondence.
Two learned, intelligent, witty and fundamentally decent men enjoying each other's epistolatory company.
George Lyttelton was a master at Eton from 1905 to 1945. He taught classics and English literature to a generation of English intellectuals and politicians, including Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Cyril Connolly.
Rubert Hart-Davis was one of his pupils. Hart-Davis became a publisher and a key figure in London's literary life. Lyttelton complained to Hart Davis that he did not have the chance for good conversation in his retirement. They agreed to exchange weekly letters. Hart-Davis mailed a letter on Sunday and Lyttelton answered on Tuesday. The correspondence lasted from 1955 to Lyttelton's death in 1962. The letters were released in six volumes after his death and became a big success.
These were two very learned and witty men. They both had huge chunks of English literature at their call. The footnotes guide us through the casual quotes from Shakespeare, Dickens and Samuel Johnson that they both drop into their letters.
Hart-Davis's letters are about an amazingly busy urban life. He edits Oscar Wilde's letters, manages a publishing company, acquires new titles and is out most evening to the meeting of some club or organazation that he is active in. He sees all the big plays.
Lyttelton is retired in Suffolk. He grades entrance exams for Oxford but he mostly seems to enjoy being retired. He tries to stay current in literature, but he cannot understand the attraction of D.H. Lawrence's "pornography". He is full of wonderful stories and well-developed literary judgements.
They both seem to cherish the correspondence. They have their agreed upon shorthand. T. S. Eliot is TSE. Ezra Pound is EP. Thomas Carlyle is TC. They disagree on Jane Austen. Hart-Davis is pro, Lyttelton is con. They share a love of Dickens and Johnson. They both drop in good lines. Lyttelton's verdict on the Bloomsbury crowd is, "is anything less attractive than faded arrogance?"
They share their personal lives. Hart-Davis had a very complicated personal life, and his children are teenagers starting and ending college. Lyttelton is from an old English family. His children were grown.
Each of these volumes cover one year and are about 200 pages long, which is the perfect length. Some volumes of literary letters go five or six hundred pages. That is too long for even the best correspondence.
Two learned, intelligent, witty and fundamentally decent men enjoying each other's epistolatory company.
September 1, 2017
If letters are your interest, these are arguably the most charming, most urbane, and most literate you will come across in your lifetime. Not for all tastes, but I highly recommend them.
June 26, 2010
George Lyttleton, Oxford Don, complained that no one ever wrote to him. Rupert Hart-Davis, one of his former students, promised to begin a correspondence with him, and for the next six years, until the older man's death, one of the most fascinating of all correspondences was carried-out. In three volumes, we can read the endlessly charming, chatty, joyful letters of these two brilliant, creative men.
June 26, 2010
George Lyttleton, Oxford Don, complained that no one ever wrote to him. Rupert Hart-Davis, one of his former students, promised to begin a correspondence with him, and for the next six years, until the older man's death, one of the most fascinating of all correspondences was carried-out. In three volumes, we can read the endlessly charming, chatty, joyful letters of these two brilliant, creative men.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews