Episode 2807
Fanny Brawne
Thu, 2025-Jan-09 00:35 UTC
Length - 2:41
Direct Link
Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.
The random article for Thursday, 9 January 2025 is Fanny Brawne.
Frances "Fanny" Brawne Lindon (9 August 1800 – 4 December 1865) is best known as the fiancée and muse to English Romantic poet John Keats. As Fanny Brawne, she met Keats, who was her neighbour in Hampstead, at the beginning of his brief period of intense creative activity in 1818. Although his first written impressions of Brawne were quite critical, his imagination seems to have turned her into the goddess-figure he needed to worship, as expressed in Endymion, and scholars have acknowledged her as his muse.
They became secretly engaged in October 1819, but Keats soon discovered that he was suffering from tuberculosis. His condition limited their opportunities to meet, but their correspondence revealed passionate devotion. In September 1820, he left for the warmer climate of Rome, and her mother agreed to their marrying on his projected return, but he died there in February 1821, aged twenty-five.
Brawne drew consolation from her continuing friendship with Keats' younger sister, who was also called Fanny. Brawne later married and bore three children, whom she entrusted with the intimate letters Keats had written to her. When these were published in 1878, it was the first time the public had heard of Brawne, and they aroused interest among literary scholars. But they attracted much venom from the press, which declared her to have been unworthy of such a distinguished figure. This may have been exacerbated by the fact that none of Brawne's letters to Keats have survived, also giving rise to her reputation as a cold and unfeeling personage among earlier Keats scholars. By contrast, the later publication of Brawne's letters to Fanny Keats showed her in a more favourable light, greatly improving her reputation.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:35 UTC on Thursday, 9 January 2025.
For the full current version of the article, see Fanny Brawne on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm standard Brian.
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