Austin Dobson

Austin Dobson
Austin Dobson (1840-1921) was an English poet, essayist, and biographer, renowned for his mastery of English verse and light poetry. He was particularly influenced by 18th-century literature and is best known for his charming and elegant poems, such as those collected in "Vignettes in Rhyme" and "At the Sign of the Lyre". Dobson also wrote several biographies, including works on figures like Henry Fielding and Oliver Goldsmith. His writing blends wit, classical references, and a light-hearted approach, making him a significant literary figure of his time.

Author's Books:


AT THE SIGN OF THE LYRE. "At the Sign of the Lyre," Good Folk, we present you With the pick of our quire, And we hope to content you! Here be Ballad and Song, The fruits of our leisure, Some short and some long— May they all give you pleasure! But if, when you read, They should fail to restore you, Farewell, and God-speed— The world is before you! THE LADIES OF ST. JAMES'S. A PROPER... more...

EARLY YEARS—FIRST PLAYS. Like his contemporary Smollett, Henry Fielding came of an ancient family, and might, in his Horatian moods, have traced his origin to Inachus. The lineage of the house of Denbigh, as given in Burke, fully justifies the splendid but sufficiently quoted eulogy of Gibbon. From that first Jeffrey of Hapsburgh, who came to England, temp. Henry III., and assumed the name of... more...

ON SOME BOOKS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS New books can have few associations. They may reach us on the best deckle-edged Whatman paper, in the newest types of famous presses, with backs of embossed vellum, with tasteful tasselled strings,—and yet be no more to us than the constrained and uneasy acquaintances of yesterday. Friends they may become to-morrow, the day after,—perhaps "hunc in annum et... more...