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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 12363


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Tuesday 12th July. I do not like ?Lolly Willowes?. [...] I do not like these fantastic things which suggest that they have something to tell which one is too stupid to discover. I am not stupid, and if a writer deliberately sets out either to obscure or to deliberately draw red-herrings across the track of analysis, then it is the author?s fault if the reader?s ideas do not coincide with the writer?s intentions. I do not know what ?Lolly Willowes? ?means?. If it is about witchcraft or the witch temperament or a peculiar eccentricity of outlook which may be termed the witch mind, well and good, But the fantastic flickering style of the prose, whilst delightful to read as poetic word sequences, annoys me when I desire to know how far the author desires to be taken simply and literally, and know the reader is expected to gather the point of the book or to exercise his own fancy on it. I can however understand the queer blurred effect of the world as seen by the reader through the heroine?s eyes. I have felt the world about me in similarly usual fashion, but what has this to do with witchcraft: Indigestion possibly.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

12 Jul 1926

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Liverpool

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


Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Gerald Moore

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

16 Jun 1903

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Coffee then Cocoa broker, working for Unilever - United Africa Company

Religion:

none

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Sylvia Townsend Warner

Title:

Lolly Willowes

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

published 1926

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

12363

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Gerald Moore

Title:

MS Diary 1926

Location:

Private Collection

Call No:

MS Diary 1926

Page/Folio:

n/a

Additional Information:

For further information about this MS diary, please contact the RED project. http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/contacts.php

Citation:

Gerald Moore, MS Diary 1926, Private Collection, MS Diary 1926, n/a, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12363, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

This material Copyright Andrew Neill Vanson Moore, and Shirley Frances Gould-Smith.

   
   
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