A Private History of Happiness (38 page)

Nara period,
207

Nebraska,
117–18

Neuchâtel,
180

Nevada,
4

New Castle,
13

New Hampshire,
125

New Jersey,
137–38
,
143
,
181–82
,
218

New York (city),
71
,
109–10
,
199
,
218

New York (state),
61–62
,
87
,
163
,
218

Newburyport,
31

Newton, John,
49

Newton, Isaac,
158
,
159–60

Noin, Abbot,
102

Norfolk,
133

Normandy,
161–62

Norton, Charles Eliot,
53

Norway,
107–8

Nova Scotia,
93
,
103
,
129

Ohio,
125–26

Oldmixon, John,
215

Olney,
49–50

Omar Khayyam,
173–74

Ontario,
93–94
,
103–4
,
217–18

Oregon Trail,
117–18

Osaka,
207–8

Osgood, Harriot,
31–32

Oslo,
107

Ottoman Empire,
47
,
135–36

Ouyang Xiu
,
79–80

Owenson, Sydney
,
183–84

Pack, Richardson
,
189–90

Paris,
84
,
87–88
,
167
,
179–80
,
191–92
,
193–94
,
199

Peak District,
107

Penetanguishene,
93–94

Penn, William,
181

Pennsylvania,
13
,
181

Penzance,
127

Peter (son of Sojourner Truth),
163–64

Peter of St. Benigno,
167

Petrarca, Francesco
,
167–68

Philadelphia,
71–72
,
86
,
109
,
143–44
,
171–72
,
181–82

Pittsburgh,
103
,
126

Pompeii,
82

Pope, Alexander,
77
,
134

Portsmouth,
126

Price, Edward
,
107–8

Ptah-Hotep
,
149–50

Ptolemy,
165–66

Pythagoras,
44

Qi county,
201

Qiang Village,
63–64

Quebec,
94
,
103

Queens,
109–110

Quincy, Daniel,
65

Quincy, Judith,
65–66

Rabelais,
172

Rathbone (family),
69–70

Rathbone, Hannah Mary
,
69–70

Reading,
29–30

Reeve, Tapping, Judge,
25

Reid, Polly,
62

Rémusat, Auguste de,
193–94

Rémusat, Claire de
,
193–94

Renaissance,
52
,
165

Rescher (friend of Robert Schumann),
35–36

Richmond,
134

Ridpath, George
,
215–16

Ridpath, Philip,
215

Roman Empire,
15–16
,
21
,
86

Rome,
33–34
,
52
,
89–90
,
167
,
187–88
,
205
,
206
,
215

Rose, Hugh,
98

Russia,
21
,
76
,
104
,
185–86

Salem,
214

Samos,
119

San Casciano,
205

Sanderson, Robert,
65

Sandusky,
125–26

Sappho
,
155–56

Sarashina, Lady
,
123–24

Sarnia,
217–18

Saxony,
35

Schleiermacher, Carl,
8

Schleiermacher, Charlotte,
7

Schleiermacher, Friedrich
,
7–8

Schneeberg,
35

Schumann, Robert
,
35–36

Scott, Charlotte,
147–48

Scott, Walter
,
147–48

Selborne,
95–96

Sewall, Samuel,
66

Seward, Anna
,
17–18

Shaanxi,
201

Shakespeare, William,
147
,
174
,
204

Sicily,
155

Silliman, Benjamin
,
85–86

Smith, James,
27

Smith, John
,
181–82

Soley, Hannah,
129

Spain,
15
,
93
,
116
,
141–42
,
145–46
,
189

Sri Lanka,
115

Staffordshire,
17–18

Stichill,
215–16

Stubbs, George,
134

Suffolk,
71
,
173–74

Sulpicia
,
187–88

Surrey,
169–70

Sussex,
121–22
,
151–52

Sweden,
137–38

Swedesboro,
137–38

Switzerland,
97–98
,
180
,
211–12

Syria,
15
,
116

Takekuma,
101–2

Tang dynasty,
63–64
,
201
,
207

Tangier,
115–16

Tao Yuanming
,
39–40

Tarrocco, Count,
78

Taurus,
34

Thoresby, Ralph
,
159–60

T’ien-T’ai Shan,
9–10

Tipper, Mr.,
121–22

Tivoli,
51–52

Tokyo,
101

Tolstoy, Leo
,
185–86

Tonkin, John,
128

Toronto,
94

Truckee,
3–4

Truth, Sojourner
,
163–64

Tudela,
141

Turkey,
43
,
47–48
,
111–12
,
134
,
135–36
,
215

Turku,
137

Turner, Thomas
,
121–22

Turner, William
,
111–12

Tuscany,
178

Twickenham,
134

Ujjain,
157–58

Ulster County,
163

Unknown Japanese author
(of a
Manyoshu
poem),
207–8

Unwin, Mary,
49

Unwin, William,
49

Valais,
97–98

Van Wagenen, Isaac,
163

Van Wagenen, Maria,
163

Varnhagen von Ense, Karl August
,
83–84

Venus (goddess),
187–88

Vermont,
87

Verney, Edmund
,
67–68

Verney, Edmund (junior),
67–68

Verney, Ralph,
67–68

Vesuvius,
81–82

Vettori, Francesco,
205

Vienna,
77–78

Virgil,
21–22

Walpole, Horace,
220

Walther (friend of Robert Schumann),
35–36

Wang
Wei
,
201–2

Warder (family),
71–72

Warder, Ann
,
71–72

Wellington, General,
93

West Chester,
13

West Springfield,
61

West Sussex.
See
Sussex

Whewell, William
,
97–98

White, Elizabeth,
12

White, Gilbert
,
95–96

White, Henry
,
11–12

White (family of Tryphena White),
61

White, Tryphena
,
61–62

Whitman, Walt
,
217–18

Willard, Emma
,
87–88

Williams, Richard,
144

Wilmington,
13

Windsor,
195–96

Winslow, Anna
,
129–30

Wollstonecraft, Mary
,
191–92

Woodbridge,
173

Wordsworth, Dorothy
,
209–10

Wordsworth, William,
196
,
209

Wren, Christopher,
160

Wyoming,
117

Xi’an,
63
,
201–2

Xunyang,
39–40

Yamanoue no Okura
,
57–58

Yearsley, Ann
,
219–20

York.
See
Toronto

Yorkshire,
81

Zeus,
166

Zwickau,
35–36

A moving and compelling anthology of quiet yet powerful moments of everyday bliss, drawn not from grand literary works but from private letters, journals and poems.

From the bliss of lingering in a warm bed on a winter morning, to a bracing spring-time walk by the seaside,
A Private History of Happiness
offers the reader a wealth of delightfully fresh perceptions of where and how happiness may be found.

These 99 moments of happiness are arranged by theme – Morning, Friendship, Garden, Family, Leisure, Nature, Food and Drink, Well-being, Creativity, Love and Evening – and each is followed by a brief commentary that sets the extract in context and encourages further reflection.

Drawing on a wide range of literary sources – from Ptolemy to Tolstoy – George Myerson reveals that small, unpretentious joys have been shared by human beings across cultures and over thousands of years. He invites us to discover the happiness in our own lives that can be found here and now.

“George Myerson has come up not with momentous revelations but small moments of joy” —
Harry Eyres

“This book gives delightfully fresh perceptions of where happiness can be found” —
Professor Clare Brant, KCL

“This is more than a book, it is a celebration, a bouquet, an energizing holiday” —
Dr Phyllis Tickle

The Power of Address: explorations in rhetoric (with Dick Leith)

The Argumentative Imagination: Wordsworth, Dryden, religious dialogues

Rhetoric, Reason and Society

The Language of Environment: a new rhetoric

Existentialism: 101 Key Ideas

Sartre: a beginner’s guide

Donna Haraway and GM Foods

Ecology and the End of Postmodernism

Heidegger, Habermas and the Mobile Phone

Darwin’s
Origins of the Species
: a beginner’s guide

Mill’s
On Liberty
: a beginner’s guide

Nietzsche’s
Thus Spake Zarathustra
: a beginner’s guide

Simone de Beauvoir’s
The Second Sex
: a beginner’s guide

Machiavelli’s
The Prince
: a beginner’s guide

Sartre’s
Existentialism and Humanism
: a beginner’s guide

Nostradamus: England, The World Cup Prophecies

Fighting for Football: From Woolwich Arsenal to the Western Front: The Story of Football’s First Rebel

G
EORGE
M
YERSON
has written a number of books on ancient and contemporary culture, modern thought, and the philosophy of everyday life. He holds a PhD in English from Cambridge and was a Lecturer and Reader at King’s College London.

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