28 February 1797

Henry Crabb Robinson to Thomas Robinson, Bury St. Edmunds, 28 February 1797.1

Crabb Robinson writes to his brother Thomas that he had recently been rioting “in Literary Dissipations,” getting drunk “with rich draughts of intoxicating vanity,” mostly through novels he had borrowed from William Pattisson, who was a member of a Circulating Library. “I easily get at light reading,” he continues, “And have lately read some interesting works – Emma Courtney does not stand high in my estimation, it promises more than it executes. We do not sympathise with Emma’s love for Harley, for we see no cause for Lovesuch extreme Attachmt And we are dissatisfd with the explication of the riddle of his Conduct. Anthy Robinson thinks it superior to Anna St Ives he esteems it much.” 

1 Crabb Robinson Correspondence, DWL/HCR5/1/91.