Record Number: 12144

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Coming upon a copy of "Don Quixote" in a warder's house, he thought it was "the most wonderful book [he] had ever seen". When he refused to give it up, the warder said he might keep it... "Don Quixote" awakened in Arthur a "passion for reading", and before long, he had read Scott, then Byron, who, he had been told was" a very, very great poet, and a very, very wicked man, an atheist, a writer whom it was dangerous to read".'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

specific address: a warder's house

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Arthur Symons

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

28 Feb 1865

Socio-Economic Group:

Clergy (includes all denominations)

Occupation:

Wesleyan preacher's son, later poet

Religion:

Wesleyan, later none

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Miguel de Cervantes

Title:

Don Quixote

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned
given as a gift by a 'warder'

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Source Information:

Record ID:

12144

Source:

Print

Author:

Karl Beckson

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Arthur Symons: A Life

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1987

Vol:

n/a

Page:

7-8

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Karl Beckson, Arthur Symons: A Life, (Oxford, 1987), p. 7-8, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12144, accessed: 20 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

[Quotations from Symons' Collected Works, Vol. V, p.10]