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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 18256


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'V[irginia] W[oolf] made notes (see Holograph Reading Notes, vols XI and XII in the Berg Collection) on George Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589); on William Webbe's A Discourse of English Poetrie (1586) -- both in Constable's English reprints of 1895; and on Gabriel Harvey's Works, ed. A. B. Grosart, 1884; his Commonplace Book, ed. G. C. Moore Smith, 1913; and his Letter Book, 1573-1580, ed. E. J. L. Scott, 1884.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 8 Dec 1929 and 31 Dec 1930

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

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:

n/a

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

George Puttenham

Title:

The Arte of English Poesie

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Constable's English Reprint series, 1895

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

18256

Source:

Print

Author:

VIrginia Woolf

Editor:

Anne Olivier Bell

Title:

The Diary of Virginia Woolf

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1980

Vol:

3

Page:

270 n.2

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

VIrginia Woolf, Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf, (London, 1980), 3, p. 270 n.2, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18256, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Source ed.'s note accompanies diary entry for 8 December 1929, in which Woolf notes: 'I am free to begin reading Elizabethans -- the little unknown writers, whom I, so ignorant am I, have never heard of, Puttenham, Webb, Harvey. This thought fills me with joy -- no overstatement. To begin reading with a pen in my hand, discovering, pouncing, thinking of theories, when the ground is new, remains one of my great excitements' (p.270).

   
   
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