#John Murray

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John Murray - Willis´bookshop, Edinburgh. 1955

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Alan Ridout and James Gibson (choosers) - Supernatural - John Murray - 1978 (cover design by Guy Wyndham-Jones)

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Milestone Monday

Emma’s Entanglements

On this date, December 23 in 1815, John Murray first published Emma by Jane Austen (anonymously) in London, although the title page is dated 1816. Murray offered her 450 pounds for the copyright to the novel, plus the copyrights to Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility, which she refused. Instead, she published 2,000 copies of the novel at her own expense and retained the copyright, paying Murray a 10% commission on sales of the edition. 

The story revolves around Emma Woodhouse, a young woman who fancies herself a matchmaker and is determined to oversee the romantic lives of those around her, often with humorous and unintended consequences. 

The novel explores themes of social class, relationships, and the complexities of human behavior, showcasing Austen's keen observations of character and society. Emma is notable for its use of free indirect speech, a narrative style that allows readers to get inside a character's thoughts while maintaining a third-person perspective. 

Often praised for its wit and character development, Emma is considered one of Austen's most accomplished works and has inspired numerous adaptations and reinterpretations in various media.

The images shown here come from Jane Austen’s Emma, with a preface by English author and poet Stella Gibbons (1902-1989) and illustrations in photogravure by the German American artist and designer Fritz Kredel (1900-1973), printed for the Limited Editions Club at the Thistle Press in New York in 1964 and limited to an edition of 1500 signed by the artist.

-View more of our Milestone Monday posts here.

-Melissa, Special Collections Graduate Intern

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mozhhni lisiy kktoriy ti ponyal

zaradi tebe pukej😊😊

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" He was gonna hurt her, he deserved to die. "

Day #13 ; Eternal Damnation 🩸

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vs Latvia, 11.05.2024 | Credits: x

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John Murray

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Scrooged (1988) Richard Donner

December 20th 2023

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they’re like your weird uncle and his friend that show up at family reunions

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Ring of Thoth - John Murray - 1968

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Lord Byron defending himself and Percy and Mary Shelley from rumours spread by his literary enemy Robert Southey, 1818:

Lord Byron to John Cam Hobhouse, from Venice, 11 November 1818:

“[..] the first Canto of Don Juan [contains] a dedication in verse of a dozen to Bob Southey - bitter as necessary - I mean the dedication, I will tell you why. - The Son of a Bitch on his return from Switzerland two years ago - said that Shelley and I ‘had formed a League of Incest and practiced our precepts with &c.’ - he lied like a rascal - for they were not Sisters - one being Godwin's daughter by Mary Wollstanecraft - and the other the daughter of the present Mrs. G by a former husband. - The Attack contains no allusion to the cause - but - some good verses - and all political & poetical. - He lied in another sense - for there was no promiscuous intercourse - my commerce being limited to the carnal knowledge of the Miss C. - I had nothing to do with the offspring of Mary Wollstonecraft - which Mary was a former Love of Southey's - which might have taught him to respect the fame of her daughter.”

Lord Byron to John Murray, from Venice, 24 November 1818:

“Lord Lauderdale set off from hence twelve days ago, accompanied by a cargo of poesy directed to Mr. Hobhouse - all spick and span, and in MS. You will see what it is like. I have given it to Master Southey, and he shall have more before I have done with him. I understand the scoundrel said, on his return from Switzerland two years ago, that ‘Shelley and I were in a league of Incest, etc., etc.’ He is a burning liar! for the women to whom he alludes are not sisters - one being Godwin's daughter, by Mary Wollstonecraft, and the other daughter of the present (second) Mrs. G, by a former husband; and in the next place, if they had even been so, there was no promiscuous intercourse whatever.

You may make what I say here as public as you please - more particularly to Southey, whom I look upon, and will say as publicly, to be a dirty, lying rascal; and will prove it in ink - or in his blood, if I did not believe him to be too much of a poet to risk it. If he had forty reviews at his back - as he has the Quarterly - I would have at him in his scribbling capacity, now that he has begun with me; but I will do nothing underhand. Tell him what I say from me, and everyone else you please.

You will see what I have said if the parcel arrives safe. I understand Coleridge went about repeating Southey's lie with pleasure. I can believe it, for I had done him what is called a favour. I can understand Coleridge's abusing me, but how or why Southey - whom I had never obliged in any sort of way, or done him the remotest service - should go about fibbing and calumniating is more than I readily comprehend

Does he think to put me down with his canting - not being able to do so with his poetry? We will try the question. I have read his review of Hunt, where he attacked Shelley in an oblique and shabby manner. Does he know what that review has done? I will tell you. It has sold an edition of the Revolt of Islam, which, otherwise, nobody would have thought of reading, and few who read can understand - I for one.

Southey would have attacked me, too, there, if he durst, further than by hints about Hunt's friends in general; and some outcry about an ‘Epicurean system,’ carried on by men of the most opposite habits. tastes, and and opinions in life and poetry (I believe), that ever had their names in the same volume - Moore, Byron, Shelley, Hazlitt, Haydon, Leigh Hunt, Lamb - what resemblances do ye find among all or any of these men? and how could any sort of system or plan be carried on, or attempted amongst them? However, let Mr. Southey look to himself - since the wine is tapped, let him drink it.”

Byron and Southey’s rivalry was infamous. Two books have been written about it. Byron frequently parodied or ridiculed people in his poems and Southey was his top target, mainly because he was an easy target. He was the Poet Laureate, disliked Byron, became something of a moralist and royalist as he got older, and due to popularity he generally sided with the status quo Byron despised. From Wikipedia:

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