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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 12909


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

[Carlyle apologises for not having written sooner, saying he has been waiting until he has procured a copy of Stewart Lewis' poems which he now has] 'It is imperfect, but I believe wants only two pages at each end?and at any rate it [is] the best, indeed only one, I could get hold of.' Upon reperusing the volume, I feel more and more confident, that it contains poems, which if properly selected and given to the world along with the other productions of its Author, would secure him both honour and emoluments: - I am not going to enter into any critical detail of their merits; but I cannot help [ob]serving, that had Lewis never written any thing else, than [the] ?verses on the death of an only son? - and the song ?Wandering Ma[ry?-] his title to the name of poet would have been undisputed. The volume indeed abounds with a strain of original thought and fee[ling] which is not always to be met with in books of the kind. [And] for the want of which, a thousand ban-dogs and dun-[de]er and donjon-keeps and Ladyes fair can never compensate'.

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1815 and 1 Feb 1815

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Annan

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:

Thomas Carlyle

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

4 Dec 1795

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

teacher, later man of letters

Religion:

Christian

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Stewart Lewis

Title:

[Poems]

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned
purchased from 'a certain ancient personage' and given to Murray


Source Information:

Record ID:

12909

Source:

Print

Author:

n/a

Editor:

Charles Richard Sanders

Title:

The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle

Place of Publication:

Durham, NC

Date of Publication:

1970

Vol:

I

Page:

37-8

Additional Comments:

Letter to Thomas Murray

Citation:

Charles Richard Sanders (ed.), The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, (Durham, NC, 1970), I, p. 37-8, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12909, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Carlyle had read the poems previously.

   
   
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