Author: DOBSON (Susanna):
Title: The Life of Petrarch. Collected from Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarch.
Description: London: Printed for James Buckland..., 1775. 2 volumes. 8vo, 210 x 115 mms., pp. 544 [545 - 555 Index, 556 blank]; [II], 556 [557 - 567 Index, 568 blank, engraved frontispiece in volume 1, attractively rebound in quarter calf, marbled boards, vellum corners, morocco labels; top of title-page volume one slightly defective, ex-library, with several library stamps, including one on title-page of volume 1. Susanna Dobson (d. 1795) was the wife of Matthew Dobson, author of several medical treatises. Mrs. Dobson's first book was her Life of Petrarch, first published in 1775, which derived in part from de Sade's Mémoires pour la vie de Petrarch. The work proved to be very popular and had reached a sixth edition by 1805. Dr. Johnson noted it more-or-less favourably, saying that it "epitomized a very bulky French Life of Petrarch." Mrs. Dobson published other works and translations but could not make inroads into literary circles: Mr. Thrale said of her, in 1784, that she "is jealous of me with her Husband.... I care not.. if She & her Husband were tyed together, & thrown into the Sea." Fanny Burney had rather strong words, describing her as "coarse, low-bred, forward, self-sufficient, and flauting"; Burney's assessment was only slightly attenuated by her further observation that Mrs. Dobson had "a strong and masculine understanding, and parts that, had they been united with modesty, or fostered by education, might have made her a shining and agreeable woman."

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