HISTORY of the BOOK: Spotlight

The Gossip / The Haunted Priory

This delightfully entertaining gossip/fiction manuscript, acquired by UCLA Library Special Collections in 1970, is the work of a group of friends who lived in Lincoln, England during the early 19th century. The manuscript is jointly comprised of eight volumes of The Gossip followed by a mock gothic romance titled The Haunted Priory, a Legendary Fragment, comprised of twenty chapters. Visually, this bound manuscript’s boards are covered with smooth, reddish-brown calf leather and embossed with gold on the spine (See Notes: UCLA Librarian). The paper is thick, and the ink used to write the manuscript is a dark brown that has held up over time. Of note is the tight trimming of the pages of this manuscript, as the page numbers referenced in a comprehensive index are missing from the pages themselves. As seen in Image 1 to the left, the handwriting is legible and has held up over the two hundred years since the text was penned. The script used to write the title for The Gossip, as well as the title pages for The Haunted Priory in the second half of the book, lends itself to the gothic and romantic nature of the novel and the playfulness of the periodicals.

As described in the UCLA Library catalog, this manuscript is made up of eight volumes of The Gossip, which are wonderfully descriptive and seemingly self-referential (See Notes: Finding aid for Bound Manuscripts collection LSC 0170). The writers frequently quote William Shakespeare as epigraphs to the volumes of The Gossip and take pride in composing alliterative prose and creative verse. While only volumes 62-69 are included in this volume, the book also includes an index of the earlier 61 volumes and various attributions to the friends who contributed to writing them. This collaboration also provides a glimpse into the lives of these friends and what would have been entertaining and amusing to them; these periodicals must have been both fun to compose and satisfying to read and re-read. Much of The Gossip is written in an epistolary format, which is also described at the start of The Gossip No. 65 in Image 2. The periodical nature lends itself to ideals of domestic life and literary traditions of the time and place (See Notes: Burke 736). It is suggested from the index that it was a mixed group of young men and women. The index of the manuscript also describes the fancy dress that was put on when these friends got together to look through this manuscript and enjoy the fruits of their literary labor.

The Haunted Priory, a Legendary Fragment is a short novel bound in the last half of the book and is made up of twenty chapters. Each chapter page, as in The Gossip, begins with quotes from various authors who were relatively contemporary to the friends, such as Wilkie Collins. The novel is interspersed with delightfully colorful and dainty drawings of individual people, couples, or settings from the novel. These drawings are made with watercolor paint and, as seen in Image 3 of “Adelaide,” are a highlight of this book (See Notes: B. F. Stevens & Brown Ltd). The mock gothic story is enjoyable to read and descriptive and demonstrates the writers’ understanding and interaction with Gothic stories of this period. Gothic tales bring to mind ideas of the sublime, castles, terror, monsters, misunderstood outcasts, powerful landscapes, and unfulfilled love (See Notes: Brennan). These images, while seen in both the novel’s illustrations and within the story, are given a lighthearted spin by the progression of the story’s characters.

These periodicals and stories, written almost exactly two hundred years ago, show the charming social activities of a group of friends who not only were well-read, but truly enjoyed composition and literary collaboration in coming up with the stories, characters, and verse contained within this bound manuscript. If The Gossip is read in a more sassy light, it could almost be seen as a kind of 19th century burn book, with these young people writing back in forth about the people they knew in society. Whether a mix of fact and fiction or truly a creative blend of periodical and novel writings, this bound manuscript sheds a light on the pursuits of this talented group of people, and ultimately demonstrates the longevity we can view up to this day of literary collaboration, mock fiction, and the enduring entertainment that can be had amongst friends with a stack of paper and some pens.

References

Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey: A parody gothic novel written by Jane Austen and published posthumously in 1817, Northanger Abby is a great example of the ways in which authors and readers interacted with the gothic in the early 19th century.

Constructing Girlhood through the Periodical Press, 1850-1915 by Kristine Moruzi: A critical exploration of the periodicals written prior and during the period in which the authors of The Gossip / The Haunted Priory were writing and explores what those periodicals can tell us about the nature of girlhood.

Gossip and Subversion in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction: Echo's Economies by Jan B. Gordon: A critical exploration of 19th century literature and novels, including especially relevant chapters on gossip in both Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, this work informs the themes of both The Gossip and The Haunted Priory and the circumstances that might have influenced their writers.

How to Write Letters: A 19th-Century Guide to the Lost Art of Epistolary Etiquette by Maria Popova: This is both a formal and cultural exploration of letter writing in the nineteenth century and is a nod to the etiquette that likely influenced the writing of The Gossip.

Notes

B. F. Stevens & Brown Ltd, Library and Fine Art Agents, bookseller’s note. Created Nov. 10th 1969 for purchase by UCLA Library Special Collections.

Brennan, Matthew C.: Brennan, Matthew C. The Gothic Psyche: Disintegration and Growth in Nineteenth-Century English Literature. Camden House, 1997.

Burke, Lois: Burke, Lois. "“Meantime, it is quite well to write”: Adolescent Writing and Victorian Literary Culture in Girls’ Manuscript Magazines." Victorian Periodicals Review 52, no. 4 (2019): 719-748. doi:10.1353/vpr.2019.0052.

Finding aid for Bound Manuscripts collection 170: Finding aid for UCLA Library Special Collections, Bound Manuscripts collection LSC 0170: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt538nb916/entire_text/

UCLA Librarian : University of California, Los Angeles. Library: “UCLA Librarian : University of California, Los Angeles. Library : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, Los Angeles : University of California Library, 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/uclalibrarianv23to26univ/page/n45/mode/2up/search/haunted.