Switch to English Switch to French

The Open University  |   Study at the OU  |   About the OU  |   Research at the OU  |   Search the OU

Listen to this page  |   Accessibility

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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 17804


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Virginia Woolf to Saxon Sydney-Turner, 25 February 1918: 'Asheham is very lovely at the moment. I started upon Sophocles the day after we came -- the Electra, which has made me plan to read all Greek straight through [...] I found great consolation during the influenza in the works of Leonard Merrick, a poor unappreciated second-rate pot-boiling writer of stories about the stage, whom I deduce to be a negro, mulatto, or quadroon; at any rate he has a grudge against the world, and might have done much better if he hadn't at the age of 20 married a chorus girl, had by her 15 coffee coloured brats and lived for the rest of the time in a villa in Brixton, where he ekes out his living by giving lessons in elocution to the natives'.

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 Feb 1918 and 25 Feb 1918

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Asheham, Rodmell
county: Sussex

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:

Virginia Woolf

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

25 Jan 1882

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

n/a

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:

Sophocles

Title:

Electra

Genre:

Drama, Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

17804

Source:

Print

Author:

Virginia Woolf

Editor:

Joanne Trautmann Banks

Title:

Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1989

Vol:

n/a

Page:

97-98; 97

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Virginia Woolf, Joanne Trautmann Banks (ed.), Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf, (London, 1989), p. 97-98; 97, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17804, accessed: 25 April 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
Green Turtle Web Design