Record Number: 17023

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 November 1842: 'Keep my secret -- but I have been reading a good deal lately of the new French literature [...] I was curious beyond the patience of my Eve-ship, & besides grew so interested in France & the French through my long apprentice ship to the old Memoirs that I felt pricked to the heart to know all about the posterity of my heroes & heroines. And besides I live out of the world altogether, & am lonely enough & old enough & sad enough & experienced enough in every sort of good & bad reading, not to be hurt personally by a French superfluity of bad [...] [George Sand] is eloquent as a fallen angel [...] Then there is Eugene Sue, & Frederic Soulie, & De Queile .. why the whole literature looks like a conflagration -- & my whole being aches with the sight of it [...] Full indeed of power & caprice & extravagance is this new French literature [...] The want is, of fixed principle [...] Now tell me, what you think? That it is very naughty of me to read naughty books -- or that you have done the same?'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1842 and 21 Nov 1842

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London

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:

Elizabeth Barrett

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

6 Mar 1806

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

Evangelical

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:

George Sand

Title:

unknown

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

17023

Source:

Print

Author:

n/a

Editor:

Philip Kelley and Ronald Hudson

Title:

The Brownings' Correspondence

Place of Publication:

Winfield

Date of Publication:

1988

Vol:

6

Page:

162-163

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Philip Kelley and Ronald Hudson (ed.), The Brownings' Correspondence, (Winfield, 1988), 6, p. 162-163, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17023, accessed: 19 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

None