Peter Vassallo writes:
Donald Sultana passed away recently at the age of 85. Many readers will recall he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University (St John’s College) where he switched course from medicine to English literature, his first love.
On his return from Oxford in the mid-1950s, Dr Sultana was appointed lecturer in English at the University of Malta and later, on the completion of his doctorate at Oxford, he was appointed reader in English literature at the University of Edinburgh, where he specialised in Romantic and Victorian Literature.
I was fortunate to be one of his students at the Old University in Valletta and it was always a pleasure for me to attend his thorough and inspiring lectures. He had, in fact, encouraged me to pursue my studies at Oxford after graduation.
We later corresponded on a number of literary matters, especially concerning John Hookham Frere, on whose sojourn in Malta in the years 1841-1846 Dr Sultana was very knowledgeable.
One of his public lectures on Hookham Frere, in the early 1980s, drew a large audience which almost filled the Phoenicia Ballroom.
Donald was also an internationally recognised authority on Coleridge and published books and articles on him and other Romantic figures such as Sir Walter Scott and Benjamin Disraeli.
He was a fond admirer of John Henry Newman and when I recently visited him in hospital he told me he was looking forward to Newman’s beatification by Pope Benedict.
He was an eminent scholar who set high academic standards and was scrupulously meticulous in his research. He was also gifted with a prodigious memory and would recall, with amazing accuracy, biographical details of most writers in the Romantic and Victorian period. I once told him jokingly that he must have had a pre-existence in the 19th century to which he replied with a smile, “Yes, that’s possible.”
On a personal level, I shall miss Donald’s warm and sincere friendship. I am sure he will be sadly missed by his brother Arnold, who lovingly cared for him, and by his family.