Fadem — Dorothy Wordsworth (1978)

“Without William Wordsworth, Dorothy would surely be unknown to us. To say so is merely to confirm her modest sense of herself. She would be the last to claim for herself genuine talents, the first to be astonished by the attention she has received. Certainly, she would be embarrassed by the fervid assertions of those who claim that her journals and letters provide vital insights into William’s poetry and that her own writing – the journals, the ‘Recollections’ of several tours, the many letters, and the few poems – possess literary merits of their own. Although Dorothy was given to embarrassment and self-effacement, in this instance her feelings would be appropriate. Our readings of Wordsworth’s poems have not been materially altered by Dorothy’s few remarks on their genesis and development, nor is her own writing in any sustained way interesting as literature, no matter how beguiling it is for its accounts of the Wordsworth household and surrounding landscape” (p. 17).