Audiobook · read by volunteers
Letters from England, 1846-1849
Elizabeth Davis Bancroft (1803–1886)
Read by Sibella Denton · 43 chapters · 3 h 07
About the book
In 1846, George Bancroft, the American historian, was named United States Minister to Great Britain, and his wife Elizabeth went with him to London. For three years, until 1849, she wrote letters to her sons, her brother and her uncle, and also to Mrs. Polk, the wife of the American President. They describe the people she met, the dinners she attended, the sights of London and the English countryside, and the political events of the day, including the great social unrest across Europe. Among them are dinners with Benjamin Disraeli, a visit to Wordsworth and glimpses of Queen Victoria herself. Her letters are lively and well observed, a mixture of family news and shrewd comment. Forty-three short sections make a chatty and charming portrait of the highest circles of Victorian society. A lively glimpse of diplomatic life, told in the voice of a thoughtful observer.
Introduction
Elizabeth Davis Bancroft lived from 1803 to 1886. She was the wife of George Bancroft, the historian who wrote a multi-volume history of the United States and who served as Secretary of the Navy and later as a diplomat. When he was appointed minister to England in 1846, she accompanied him and became part of the diplomatic and social life of London.
The years from 1846 to 1849 were among the most dramatic in European history. There was a famine in Ireland, political agitation in Britain, and in 1848 a wave of revolutions swept across the Continent. As the wife of an ambassador, Elizabeth Bancroft moved in the highest circles, and her letters give the impression of someone who observed events with curiosity and intelligence. They were collected and published in 1904 under the title Letters from England, and they remain a useful source for the social history of the period.
This recording consists of forty-three letters and lasts a little over three hours. It is read by a single LibriVox volunteer. Because each letter is brief, it is easy to listen to a few at a time. If you enjoy first-hand accounts, diplomatic history or the details of everyday life in the 1840s, these letters offer a pleasant and informative companionship.
The collection is a pleasant mixture of family news and public events. In one letter, she may describe a court ceremony; in the next, she discusses a child’s schooling or the price of a house. This variety gives the book its charm, and the reader soon feels as if they were reading over her shoulder.
Public domain
Elizabeth Davis Bancroft died in 1886: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text