SOURCE: “Review of Dorothy Wordsworth.” The Literary World (19 February 1887): 54-55.

In the following review, the anonymous author praises Edmund Lee's biography of Dorothy Wordsworth for its unusually full appreciation of Wordsworth's intellect and personality.

Dorothy Wordsworth1

In the literary annals of later England the name of Dorothy Wordsworth holds an honored place, and yet to the majority of readers she who bore the name has been little more than a gracious satellite shining in the glory of her famous brother. Wordsworth himself spoke of her in no doubtful way, likening her to the spring that went before his steps and strewed his path with flowers. We find, too, affectionate tributes to her fine qualities of mind and heart in the pages of Coleridge and De Quincey. Principal Shairp, as late as 1874, edited passages from her journal recording the experiences of a tour in Scotland made with her brother...