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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 16602


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have spent a stupid day reading the Abbe de Sade's Memoirs of Petrarch. What a feeble whipster was this Petrarch with all his talents! To go dangling about, for the space of twenty years, puffing and sighing after a little coquette, whose charms lay briefly in the fervour of his imagination, and the art she had to keep him wavering between hope and despondency - at once ridiculous and deplorable - that he might write sonnets in her praise!'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Dec 1822 and 7 Dec 1822

Country:

Scotland

Time

daytime

Place:

city: Edinburgh

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:

Writer / Academic

Religion:

Lapsed Calvinist

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:

Jacques Fracois Paul Alphonse, Abbe de Sade

Title:

Memoires pour la vie de Francois Petrarch

Genre:

Biography

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

First published Amsterdam 1764 - 1767, 3 vols

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

16602

Source:

Print

Author:

Thomas Carlyle

Editor:

C R Sanders

Title:

The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle

Place of Publication:

Durham, North Carolina

Date of Publication:

1970

Vol:

2

Page:

212-213

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Thomas Carlyle, C R Sanders (ed.), The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, (Durham, North Carolina, 1970), 2, p. 212-213, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=16602, accessed: 27 April 2024


Additional Comments:

Taken from letter from TC to Jane Baillie Welsh dated early December 1822. Pages 212 - 214 in this edition. Dates of reading experience are based on the estimated date of the letter (given by Editor)

   
   
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