“I wish my book to be popular by its appealing, too irresistibly to be…” — Sydney Dobell

“I wish my book to be popular by its appealing, too irresistibly to be withstood, to the underlying sense of justice in those rarer spirits who lead the mob.”

Seeking influence through discerning readers rather than popularity for its own sake · Letter to M., May 1856

Sydney Dobell

About Sydney Dobell

5 April 1824–22 August 1874

Sydney Thompson Dobell was born on 5 April 1824 at Cranbrook in Kent, into a family whose circumstances placed him close to the commercial and dissenting middle-class culture of provincial England rather than to the aristocratic literary world. His father, Thomas Dobell, was a wine merchant, and the business of…

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