Record Number: 18738

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Monday 8 March 1937: 'What I noticed on the walk to Cockfosters [on 6 March] were: [records various observations] [...] then the tramps [...] The middle aged woman was trying to make a fire: a man in townish clothes was lying on his side in the grass [...] When we [Woolf and husband Leonard] came back after an hour the woman had got the fire to burn [...] She was cutting a slice of bread off a loaf, but there was no butter. At night it became very cold, & as we sat down to our duck L. said he wondered how they [s]pent the night. I said probably they go to the workhouse. This fitted in well with What shall we do then, wh. I read in the train. But incidentally I'm not so much impressed as I expected by it. Vivid, but rather wordy so far.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

6 Mar 1937

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

other location: On board train

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:

Writer

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:

Leo Tolstoy

Title:

What Then Must We Do?

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, Social Science, Geography / Travel, Politics

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

18738

Source:

Print

Author:

Virginia Woolf

Editor:

Anne Olivier Bell

Title:

The Diary of Virginia Woolf

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1984

Vol:

5

Page:

66

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Virginia Woolf, Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf, (London, 1984), 5, p. 66, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18738, accessed: 20 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Text read conjecturally identified by source ed.; see p.65 n.2, which accompanies Diary entry for 7 March 1937, in which Woolf records: 'To Cockfosters yesterday, & saw the old tramp woman on the bank, lighting a damp fire & eating dry bread. I took What shall we do then in my pocket.'