George Borrow: The Man and His BooksThomas, Edward
General
George Borrow: The Man and His Books
Thomas, Edward
Borrow, George, 1803-1881
More than most authors Borrow appears greater than his books, though he
is their offspring. It is one of his great achievements to have made his
books bring forth this lusty and mysterious figure which moves to and fro
in all of them, worthy of the finest scenes and making the duller ones
acceptable. He is not greater than his books in the sense that he is
greater than the sum of them: as a writer he made the most out of his
life. But in the flesh he was a fine figure of a man, and what he wrote
has added something, swelling him to more than human proportions,
stranger and more heroical. So we come to admire him as a rare specimen
of the _genus homo_, who had among other faculties that of writing
English; and at last we have him armed with a pen that is mightier than a
sword, but with a sword as well, and what he writes acquires a mythical
value. Should his writing ever lose the power to evoke this figure, it
might suffer heavily. We to-day have many temptations to over praise
him, because he is a Great Man, a big truculent outdoor wizard, who comes
to our doors with a marvellous company of Gypsies and fellows whose like
we shall never see again and could not invent. When we have used the
impulse he may give us towards a ruder liberty, he may be neglected; but
I cannot believe that things so much alive as many and many a page of
Borrow will ever die.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE BORROW
By EDWARD THOMAS.
1823
"New Monthly Magazine," Vol. 7: "The Diver, a Ballad translated from the
German," by G. O. B.
"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 56: "Ode to a Mountain Torrent," from the German
of Stolberg; "Death," from the Swedish of J. C. Lohmann; "Mountain Song,"
from the German of Schiller; "Danish Poetry and Ballad Writing," with a
translation of "Skion Middel"; "Lenora," a new translation from the
German, in the metre of the original; "Chloe," from the Dutch of Johannes
Bellamy; "Sea-Song," from the Danish of Evald; "The Erl-King, from the
German of Goethe; signed "George Olaus Borrow."
1824
"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 57: "Bernard's Address to his Army," a ballad
from the Spanish; "The Singing Mariner," a ballad from the Spanish; "The
French Princess," a ballad from the Spanish; "The Nightingale,"
translated from the Danish; signed, all but the last, "George Olaus
Borrow."
"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 58: "Danish Traditions and Superstitions"; "War-
Song," written when the French invaded Spain, translated from the Spanish
of Vincente, by George Olaus Borrow; "Danish Songs and Ballads," No. 1,
Bear Song, by "B."
"Universal Review," Vols. 1 and 2, May, June, Sept, Nov.: Unsigned
reviews by Borrow.
1825.
"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 58: "Danish Traditions and Superstitions."
"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 59: "Danish Traditions and Superstitions," in
five parts; "The Deceived Merman," from the Danish, by "G. B."
"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 60: "Danish Traditions and Superstitions," in
two parts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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