Changes

The final impression we are left by this very full biography is of a man who lived an often sad and unfulfilled life. Yet at least he ended his days reasonably well off after some years of financial struggle, having been able to set aside enough to build himself a grand house in Kensington. Taylor presents a very rounded portrait of an often contradictory man who evidently lived life to the full, and whose reputation survives to this day, even if not quite in the first rank of 19th century writers, certainly not far below.

For another 19th century literary life, may we also recommend [[Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life by Lyndall Gordon]].