Record Number: 18040

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'...I'm sitting in an old silk petticoat at the moment with a hole in it, and the top part of another dress with a hole in it, and the wind is blowing through me, and I'm reading de Quincey, and Richardson, and again de Quincey- again de Quincey because I'm in the middle of writing about him, and my God Vita, if you happen to know do wire what's the essential difference between prose and poetry - It cracks my poor brain to consider.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 15 Jul 1926 and 8 Aug 1926

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London
specific address: 52 Tavistock Square

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:

Virginia Woolf

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

25 Jan 1882

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Novelist

Religion:

Agnostic

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:

Thomas de Quincey

Title:

Impassioned Prose

Genre:

Unknown

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

18040

Source:

Print

Author:

Virginia Woolf

Editor:

Louise de Salvo

Title:

The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf

Place of Publication:

Great Britain

Date of Publication:

1984

Vol:

n/a

Page:

150

Additional Comments:

Quotation taken from a letter written by Virginia Woolf to Vita Sackville-West. The date is shown as [19? July]. Additional editor Mitchell A. Leaska.

Citation:

Virginia Woolf, Louise de Salvo (ed.), The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf, (Great Britain, 1984), p. 150, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18040, accessed: 19 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

The editors have added a note stating that Virginia Woolf was writing about de Quincey's 'Impassioned Prose'. I have shown a date range between Virginia's previous and subsequent letters to Vita, as the editors have indicated that the date of the letter, and therefore the date of the reading experience, is uncertain.