Sidetracks. Richard Holmes

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      SIDETRACKS

      

      EXPLORATIONS OF

       A ROMANTIC BIOGRAPHER

      RICHARD HOLMES

      

      To my old friend and adviser

       Peter Janson-Smith through thick and beastly thin

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       III Five Gothic Shadows

       Introduction

       The Singular Affair Of The Reverend Mr Barham

       The Reverend Maturin And Mr Melmoth

       M. R. James And Others

       John Stuart Mill

       Lord Lisle And The Tudor Nixon Tapes

       IV A Philosophical Love Story

       Introduction

       The Feminist And The Philosopher: A Love Story

       V Shelley’s Ghost

       Introduction

       Scrope’s Last Throw

       To The Tempest Given

       VI Escapes to Paris

       Introduction

       Scott And Zelda: One Last Trip

       A Summer With The Novelist

       Letters From Paris

       Voltaire’s Grin

       VII Homage to the Godfather

       Introduction

       Boswell’s Bicentenary

       Boswell Among The Tulips

       Dr Johnson’s First Cat

       Acknowledgements

       Index

       About the Author

       Also By Richard Holmes

       Praise

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

       Prologue

      WE WERE AT a café table, under the plane trees, far in the south, with the evening light flowing away down the river. I was asking the beloved novelist those old, fascinating questions: How do you find your stories? Where do your ideas come from? When she said, with that sudden challenging smile of hers: ‘But how do you find your subjects; where do they come from?’ And I answered almost without thinking, between two mouthfuls of the cold white wine: ‘Down many sidetracks.’ She laughed and looked out into the gathering dark. ‘I think you’d better explain that,’ she said. So I have tried.

      This book is my attempt to explore – as well as to explain – something of these mysterious biographical pathways. (I love the French word sentier for a track, because it also hints at the notion of a line of smell or perfume, as in ‘on

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