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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 17839


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Virginia Woolf to Vita Sackville-West, 24 May 1931: 'I've wasted 4 days when I wanted to write. And I've spent them partly reading Princess Daisy of Pless, speculating upon her real character and life and longing for a full account of them from you -- who appear in a footnote as a distinguished author. What a chance the British aristocracy had and lost -- I mean if they'd only grafted brains on to those splendid bodies and wholesome minds -- for I can't help liking her, in her wild idiocy, and her frankness "7 days late -- can it be a child --" seems to me the highest human quality, if it werent [sic] combined with a housemaids [sic] sensibility and the sentimentality of a Surbiton cook.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 May 1931 and 24 May 1931

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

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:

Princess Daisy of Pless

Title:

From My Private Diary

Genre:

Autobiog / Diary

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

1931

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

17839

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:

288-289

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Virginia Woolf, Joanne Trautmann Banks (ed.), Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf, (London, 1989), p. 288-289, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17839, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Source ed. notes that Princess Daisy of Pless (nee Mary Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West) was distantly related to Vita Sackville-West through the De la Warr family; see p.288 n.3.

   
   
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