Hichens who was also wintering there but my husband did not feel strong enough for any social effort.” By the time Sharp wrote again to Howells in late January, they had decided to leave Rome at the end of February. It was much colder than usual, and shortly after they arrived the flu overtook Elizabeth and spread to her husband with dire consequences for his diabetes.ģ Writing to William Dean Howells in mid-January, Sharp said they knew too many people in Rome, “Italian, English, Russian, American, & French - Society & Bohemia in a perpetual league against work.” He doubted they would remain in Rome beyond the end of February: “I’m afraid Italy is not a good place for work: I think we of the Anglo-Celtic stock need the northern bite of Great Britain or North America to do our best in the best way.” According to Elizabeth, they “saw a few friends - in particular Mr. Our rooms all face S.E. & S.W. - and so we have unbroken sunshine from sunrise till sunset: & from our windows & balconies of our Salotto we have superb views over Rome and to the hills & to the Campagna.Ģ Despite the rooms and the views, the Sharps found Rome less desirable than anticipated. We are settled here (instead of in rooms, or an apartment with a servant - which we found not to be had in accordance with our desires & needs & means) in a pleasant little suite of 3 or 4 rooms at the top of a sunny & charming new small hotel in the sunniest & healthiest part of Rome. Sharp described their location in a letter to Howells:
Sharp told Hardy he and Elizabeth had just returned from New York and Boston and were glad to be back in Italy though they had “a delightful time in the States.” In mid-January, they left the Italian Riviera for Rome where they hoped to stay through March in rented rooms in a hotel on the Via Sallustiana. 1 In a letter from Bordighera dated January 4, Sharp told Thomas Hardy he had been to San Remo to visit William Dean Howells who ranked Hardy’s work as “foremost of all contemporary work in fiction.” Howells was pleased to hear Hardy valued the “faithful realism” of his work.
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