On December 28, 1817, the eccentric painter B. R. Haydon gave a famous dinner party in his painting room in London. He invited, among others, three of the greatest literary lights of the age: the poets John Keats and William Wordsworth and the essayist and wit Charles Lamb. Over the course of a long winter evening of delights, the guests recited poetry, indulged in high-minded conversation, and took part in ridiculous antics, with such displays of brilliance and wit that the party came to be known as the Immortal Dinner. Penelope Hughes-Hallett celebrates this unique gathering by vividly bringing to life these illustrious diners against a backdrop of social change. Literary London society was at its extraordinarily gifted best just two years after Waterloo: the Elgin Marbles controversy still raged; Mrs. Siddons performed Lady Macbeth in her drawing room to a distinguished audience; Joseph Ritchie, a young physician and would-be poet, prepared to explore the River Niger with a copy of Keats in his pocket. The Immortal Dinner offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives and thoughts of this literary elite at a turning point in English society. It recaptures these rare spirits, using a great many of their own words from letters and diaries. With 75 black-and-white illustrations and 2 maps.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A single dinner, attended 185 years ago by such literary luminaries as William Wordsworth, John Keats and Charles Lamb, no matter how brilliant the conversation, may not seem a sufficient subject for a book of 300 pages but it is in Hughes-Hallett's hands. The host to the evening, painter B.R. Haydon, had an agenda in putting together the dinner: he wanted to show off his progress on the monumental painting Christ's Entry into Jerusalem. Hughes-Hallet's (Home at Grasmere: The Wordsworths and the Lakes) main source for what transpired is Haydon's diary, which put a grandiose, self-congratulatory spin on the evening. The author takes Haydon's hyperbolic lead, portraying the dinner as a pivotal cultural event of the early 19th century. Far more interesting than the dinner itself, though, is Hughes-Hallett's vivid narrative of life in literary London in 1817. Combining exhaustive research and bold extrapolation, the author frequently digresses on the customs and culture of the day, material that ultimately supplies the meat of this account. Each member of the dinner party is honored with a biography, some of which is emotionally engaging (the tragic history of the Keats family's delicate health) and some not (the gratuitous sortie into how medical schools procured cadavers). Conveyed in a style both erudite and playful, Hughes-Hallett's account is noteworthy for the delicious inside peek it gives readers into the lives of these 19th-century celebrities. Using the dinner as a touchstone, Hughes-Hallett ultimately does convey to the reader the immortal qualities of those present in London on that late December evening in 1817. 75 b&w illus., 2 maps. (Sept. 6)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Early in December 1817, the avant-garde painter Benjamin Robert Haydon moved into new lodgings in London that included a luxurious new painting studio. To celebrate the splendor of his new surroundings and to show off his glorious new painting, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, Haydon invited London's reigning literary and scientific lights to dinner and tea. Thus, on December 28, 1817, Haydon held what he referred to in his journals as his "immortal dinner," where Wordsworth, Keats, Charles Lamb, surgeon Joseph Ritchie, engraver John Landseer, and Mary Wordsworth's cousin Tom Monkhouse recited poetry and ranged over topics from Shakespeare to science. In exhaustive detail, Hughes-Hallett (Home at Grasmere: The Wordsworths and the Lakes) chronicles the conversations and personalities of this delightful evening. She traces the routes each person would have walked to the party and moves beyond the actual event to sketch the later lives of the guests. Hughes-Hallett's loving portrait of this small dinner party is a microcosm of the larger political, economic, and social context of the early 19th century in which Romantic views of art and the artist were evolving. Yet because her cultural study involves a small circle of friends engaging in an isolated, albeit interesting, incident, the book is recommended primarily for large public libraries.
Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful!,
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This review is from: The Immortal Dinner: A Famous Evening of Genius and Laughter in Literary London, 1817 (New Amsterdam) (Hardcover)
On 28 December 1817, London painter Benjamin Robert Haydon gave a dinner party that he meticulously recounted in his journal. He called it "The Immortal Dinner" because the guest list, tone of conversation, wit and good time had by all fulfilled his vision of a good life lived at the forefront of high culture. The title could have lived on as a conceit in a footnote, except for Penelope Hughes-Hallet's resurrection of it and the event as a lens through which to view close-up the lifestyle, major players, watershed historical events and zeigeist of the era. This is an original approach to this kind of history, and while it does not necessarily reveal any startlingly new information, it refreshes it, making it vivid and accessible. Hughes-Hallet has a way with ordering her information, as well as a fluent writing style, and the result is a very enjoyable read. Haydon is a memorable character, a person of some talent and vision, whose ego, bad timing and money management woes blunted so many would-be successes. While he made enemies, he also made good friends, and his dinner companions included John Keats, Charles Lamb and William Wordsworth. Though all the characters are well developed, it is Wordsworth who quietly forms a keystone, much as he did in the quintet of major Romantic poets, throughout the book, the elder statesman who long outlives them all. I wish this had been around when I was taking British Romantic Lit in college; it would have made excellent sidebar reading.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keats as "Delphian Priestess" (!?),
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This review is from: The Immortal Dinner: A Famous Evening of Genius and Laughter in Literary London, 1817 (New Amsterdam) (Hardcover)
The Immortal Dinner was an entertaining and yet informative read. A broad reaching expose of the personalities who attended "The Immortal Dinner", we get to meet them before and after the event, as well as various asides with other important people of the day. I had no idea that Charles Lamb was so interesting- I feel compelled to find other material on him alone. It is obvious that the author felt a strong connection to these men, and attempted to undo some perceptions that posterity has left us. Keats described as "athletic...extraordinarily broad shouldered...Delphian priestess.." Huh. Haydon's self absorbed certainty of immortality due to his painting of Christ's entry into Jerusalem was sadly unrealized, made more profound by having the enormous work loom over the guests during the famed dinner. A thoroughly researched and enjoyable account. I highly recommend it.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, lightweight fun, especially for Anglophiles,
By Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Immortal Dinner: A Famous Evening of Genius and Laughter in Literary London, 1817 (New Amsterdam) (Hardcover)
Congratulations to Penelope Hughes-Hallett for coming up with a novel way to put together a book of historical subjects and reference--by narrowing her focus to one particular dinner, and the people who came to it, she can actually find more insight and give us a broader picture of her multiple subjects than if her canvas, like one of Haydon's, was big across as the River Thames. Haydon emerges as a provocative, vain, loveable and talented man with an incorrigbly high opinion of himself, a sort of rogue, but a heroic Englishman in the best sense. As other reviewers have noted, William Wordsworth--not usually a sparkplug of fun or dynamism--comes off terrifically well, perhaps he was a man at his best with a tableful of male peers and far away from the women who perplexed him so. I hope other cultural historians pick up on Hughes-Hallett's "meal" method and soon, perhaps, we will have an "Immortal Lunch" or "Breakfast" too.
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