6 Comments

The detail put into this is amazing. Thank you. 🙏🏻.

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I own, and have read Boland's condensation. Among other aspects of the letters the Lisle's factor, business manager, confidant, emerges as one of literature's great characters. Also, the manner in which the family copes with recurring waves of plague - get out of London - has perhaps a special meaning for us today. And it emerges that the word 'merry' takes on a multiplicity of meanings; eg, The Merry Wives of Windsor does not mean that they're happy. Perhaps abebooks will have a copy? Well worth reading. As is this introduction. Thanks.

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Thanks for the comment Stephen! Yes, John Hussee, the agent you mention, is quite the fellow. Intelligence, energy, tact and patience, brilliant at buying fabric for Honor Lisle or buttonholing Cromwell to ask for the odd monestary for Lord Lisle. I bought all six unabridged volumes from Abebooks a few years ago -- battered, mixed set, mostly from various libraries. Working my way through -- in vol. 3 right now. For everybody but fanatics, the Boland abridgement is the way to go.

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Wow! I've read two vols of Henry Chanon and thought I was doing well!

Hussey reminded me of a French press rep I once worked with, great personal style, very understated, knew everybody, and how to get everything done. We are very like those people.

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This is taking years, mind you, sometimes one or two letters a night. Thanks for mentioning Channon. I was completely unfamiliar with him. "We are very like those people" -- so true, and if you haven't already done so check out the letters of Cicero. Humans don't change much!

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This is wonderful. Thank you!

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