Record Number: 17574

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

I' wonder if you ever read Dickens?s [italics] Christmas Books [end italics] ? I don?t know that I would recommend you to read them, because they are too much perhaps. I have only read two of them yet, and I have cried my eyes out, and had a terrible fight not to sob. But O, dear God, they are [italics] good [end italics] − and, I feel so good after them, and would do anything, yet and shall do anything, to make it a little better for people. I want to go out and comfort someone; I shall never listen to the nonsense they tell one, about not giving money −I [italics] shall [end italics] give money; not that I haven?t done so always, but I shall do it with a high hand now. O what a jolly thing it is for a man to have written books like these books, and just [italics] filled [end italics] people?s hearts with pity.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: 15 Sep 1874

Country:

Wales?

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Barmouth?
county: Gwynedd?
specific address: Cors y Gedol Arms?

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:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Church of Scotland (wavering)

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Wales?

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Charles Dickens

Title:

Christmas Stories (2, unnamed)

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

First published together in volume form under the title Christmas Stories in 1852.

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

17574

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

52-3

Additional Comments:

Letter 314, To Frances Sitwell, Tuesday [15 September 1874]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew The date in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 52-3, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17574, accessed: 19 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Dickens?s Christmas Stories (A Christmas Carol, 1843; The Chimes, 1844; The Cricket on the Hearth, 1845; The Battle of Life, 1846; and The Haunted Man and the Ghost?s Bargain, 1848) were published together in one volume in 1852.