368—to John Murray
Dec. 3, 1813.
I send you a
scratch
or
two
, the which
heal
.
The
Christian Observer
is very savage, but certainly uncommonly well written—and quite uncomfortable at the naughtiness of book and author. I rather suspect you won't much like the
present
to be more moral, if it is to share also the usual fate of your virtuous volumes.
Let me see a proof of the
six
before
incorporation
.
Footnote 1:
The
Christian Observer
for November, 1813 (pp. 731-737) felt compelled to review
The Giaour
, because of its extraordinary popularity; but it found that some of the passages savoured "too much of Newgate and Bedlam for our expurgated pages." It acknowledged one obligation to Byron.
"He never attempts to deceive the world by representing the profligate as happy.... And his testimony is of the more value, as his situation in life must have permitted him to see the experiment tried under the most favourable circumstances. He has probably seen more than one example of young men of high birth, talents, and expectancies, ... sink under the burden of unsubdued tempers, licentious alliances, and ennervating indulgence.... He has seen all this; nay, perhaps—But we check our pen," etc., etc.
