> Skip to content
[]
  • Published: 5 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9781446450789
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

The Immortal Dinner

A Famous Evening of Genius and Laughter in Literary London, 1817




Who would you invite to your dream dinner party? This is the story of an infamous dinner in 1817 with John Keats, William Wordsworth and the essayist and wit Charles Lamb.

Between Christmas and new year of 1817 the eccentric painter, B.R. Haydon, gave a famous dinner party. His guests included three of the greatest literary stars of the age: the poets John Keats and William Wordsworth and the essayist and wit Charles Lamb. They recited poetry, took part in ridiculous antics, indulged in high-minded discussions - with such displays of brilliance that the party became known as the Immortal Dinner.

Penelope Hughes-Hallett celebrates this famous evening, setting it against a backdrop of change, reflected in the preoccupations of the illustrious diners. A compelling and sympathetic picture emerges of these rare spirits and the age which created them.

  • Published: 5 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9781446450789
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

About the author

Penelope Hughes-Hallett

Penelope Hughes-Hallett was born in 1927 and spent her childhood at Steventon, Hampshire, where Jane Austen was brought up. Her books include The Immortal Dinner, 'My Dear Cassandra': Illustrated Letters of Jane Austen and Home at Grasmere: The Wordsworths and the Lakes. She was a tutor and lecturer with the Open University, subsequently becoming one of its governors, a patron of the Wordsworth Trust and trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. She died in 2010.