Record Number: 1832

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'A joiner's son in an early-nineteenth century Scottish village recalled [reading] his first novel, David Moir's The Life of Mansie Wauch (1828): "I literally devoured it... A new world seemed to dawn upon me, and Mansie and the other characters in the book have always been historical characters with me, just as real as Caius Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell or Napoleon Bonaparte... So innocent, so unsophisticated - I may as well say, so green - was I, that I believed every word it contained".'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1828 and 31 Dec 1828

Country:

Scotland

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:

a Scottish joiner's son

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

joiner's son

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

David Moir

Title:

The Life of Mansie Wauch

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

1832

Source:

Print

Author:

Jonathan Rose

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Place of Publication:

New Haven

Date of Publication:

2001

Vol:

n/a

Page:

94

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 94, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=1832, accessed: 23 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

See Albert Charles Adams, 'The History of a Village Shopkeeper', (Edinburgh, 1876) p.8