George Borrow in East AngliaDutt, William A. (William Alfred)
History
George Borrow in East Anglia
Dutt, William A. (William Alfred)
Borrow, George, 1803-1881
After many painful experiences in London, whither he went in the hope of
being able to gain a livelihood by devoting himself to literature, George
Borrow turned his back upon the metropolis, and set out on that wild,
rambling excursion narrated and enlarged upon in the pages of “Lavengro.”
Lapse of time has emphasised the impossibility of ascertaining how much
is fact and how much fiction in the fascinating account of his
wanderings. Criticism on that point is unjustifiable, for Borrow
announced that the book was “a dream,” and a history only up to a certain
point. From what the writer has gathered, however, from those who knew
Borrow intimately, he has good reason to believe that there are more
facts recorded in the latter part of “Lavengro,” and in “The Romany Rye,”
than are credited by many students of “Don Jorge’s” writings.
After lengthy roamings far and wide, he returned again to Norwich, where
he lived for a time a quiet life, of which he has left no record. His
literary exploits had not been of such a nature as to rank his name with
those of the known writers of his day; indeed, there is every reason for
believing that as an author he was as little known as on the day when he
abandoned the quiet little house in Willow Lane for a wider field of
life. Yet, painful, and even heartbreaking, as his experiences had been,
he was infinitely the gainer by the hard fate that sent him out a
wanderer upon the face of the earth, and we who read his books to-day may
be thankful for the tears and toilings that brought about so rich and
abundant a harvest.
An introduction from Joseph John Gurney to the British and Foreign Bible
Society resulted in Borrow’s leaving England in 1830 for the Continent,
where he went on another _wanderjahre_ not unlike that he had taken in
his native land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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