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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 20132


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I cannot tell how I feel, who can ever? I feel like a person in a novel of George Sand’s; I feel a desire to go out of the house, and begin life anew in the cool blue night. Never to come back here; never, never. Only to go on forever by sunny day and gray day, by bright night and foul, by highway and byway, town and hamlet, until somewhere by a roadside or in some clean inn, clean death opened his arms to me, and took me to his quiet heart forever.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: May 1875

Country:

Probably Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Probably Edinburgh.
county: Lothian

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:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Uncommitted

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Probably Scotland

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

George Sand

Title:

unknown

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

20132

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

136

Additional Comments:

Section headed Saturday in Letter 388, To Frances Sitwell, Thursday [? May 1875] [Swanston]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The date in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 136, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=20132, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

In Volume 2 of the Letters RLS has so far mentioned George Sand’s novels La Comtesse de Rudolstadt and Consuelo (see Letter 276). It is difficult to establish whether the mood he evokes here is paralleled in a particular George Sand novel, or more generally throughout her works.

   
   
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