Books: Keats's Fannies

LETTERS or FANNY BRAWNE TO FANNY KEATS—Edited by Fred Edgcumbe— Oxford University Press ($3).

When John Keats died of consumption in Italy (1821) at the age of 26, he left two girls behind him. Both were named Fanny. One was his orphan sister, the other was Fanny Brawne, to whom he was engaged. Keats's letters to Fanny Brawne are classics in love-letter literature; hers to him were buried with him. In spite of such kind words as Amy Lowell's (John Keats}, Fanny Brawne has generally figured in Keats's story as a light-headed minx who failed...