Books by splitShops

A Sultry Month: Scenes of London Literary Life in 1846 - Paperback

$16.95

Tax not included.
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Out of stock

Order Note:

Purchase Information

Shipping charges, applicable taxes, the final order total, and available payment methods are shown during checkout before payment. Delivery timing varies by item and fulfillment origin. Standard U.S. returns are by mail for eligible new, unopened items within 30 days of carrier delivery. Customers pay standard return shipping; there is no restocking fee. Approved refunds are issued within 5 business days after the return is received and inspected. Standard exchanges are not offered.

Cindi Book items have a flat $9.99 shipping charge. Shopify Collective items use shipping rates set by the supplier. Orders containing items from different fulfillment sources may include more than one shipping charge. Your full shipping total is shown at checkout before payment.

Return eligibility is subject to the full policy. Opened, read, or unsealed books with broken seals or visible wear are final sale. Digital downloads, gift cards, and personalized products are non-refundable. Original shipping charges are not refunded for standard returns. Contact us within 7 days of delivery about damaged, defective, or incorrect items.

by Alethea Hayter (Author)

Wine and dine with Victorian London's literati in a heatwave in one of the first ever group biographies, introduced by Francesca Wade (author of Square Haunting).


Though she loved the heat she could do nothing but lie on the sofa and drink lemonade and read Monte Cristo ...


June 1846. As London swelters - sunstroke strikes, meat rots, ice is coveted - a glamorous coterie of writers and artists indulge in decadent parties. With her ringletted 'face of an Egyptian cat goddess', Elizabeth Barrett is courted by her secret fiancé, the poet Robert Browning, who plots their elopement to Italy; Keats roams the Heath; Wordsworth visits the zoo; Dickens is intrigued by Tom Thumb; the Carlyles suffer a marital crisis. But when the visionary painter Benjamin Robert Haydon commits suicide, their lives begin to spiral around the tragedy ...


One of the first group biographies, inspired by the "Pop Artists", Althea Hayter's glorious A Sultry Month was a groundbreaking feat of creative non-fiction in 1965 - and as radical today.


"An experiment in the art of biography that has [been] never bettered." -- Guardian


"A form which was so new as to lack a name ... A masterpiece." -- Anthony Burgess
Number of Pages: 256
Dimensions: 1.1 x 8.4 x 5.2 IN
Publication Date: September 13, 2022

Pay with

  • Amazon
  • Apple Pay
  • Diners Club
  • Discover
  • Google Pay
  • Mastercard
  • PayPal
  • Shop Pay
  • Visa

Available payment methods and your final total are shown at checkout before payment.

$16.95