Rupert Christiansen
The High Notes Of Love
Susanna, The Captain & The Castrato: Scenes From The Burney Salon, 1779-80
By Linda Kelly
Starhaven 140pp £9
THIS IS AN enchanting little monograph, neither dramatic nor important, but in its way perfectly focused and beautifully composed. Its author, Linda Kelly, is an accomplished cultural historian of the late eighteenth century and its principal subject is the romantic friendship between Fanny Burney's younger sister Susanna and the legendary Italian castrato Gasparo Pacchierotti.
Kelly is fortunate in her primary source - Susanna's unpublished journals, lodged in the British Library but to date largely ignored by scholars. Judging by the extracts presented here, these are every bit as vivid and spontaneous as Fanny's more celebrated diaries, presenting marvellously evocative vignettes of smart metropolitan conversation
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
In 1524, hundreds of thousands of peasants across Germany took up arms against their social superiors.
Peter Marshall investigates the causes and consequences of the German Peasants’ War, the largest uprising in Europe before the French Revolution.
Peter Marshall - Down with the Ox Tax!
Peter Marshall: Down with the Ox Tax! - Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War by Lyndal Roper
literaryreview.co.uk
The Soviet double agent Oleg Gordievsky, who died yesterday, reviewed many books on Russia & spying for our pages. As he lived under threat of assassination, books had to be sent to him under ever-changing pseudonyms. Here are a selection of his pieces:
Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books
Book reviews by Oleg Gordievsky
literaryreview.co.uk
The Soviet Union might seem the last place that the art duo Gilbert & George would achieve success. Yet as the communist regime collapsed, that’s precisely what happened.
@StephenSmithWDS wonders how two East End gadflies infiltrated the Eastern Bloc.
Stephen Smith - From Russia with Lucre
Stephen Smith: From Russia with Lucre - Gilbert & George and the Communists by James Birch
literaryreview.co.uk