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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 20674


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Have you read Lord Byron and his horrid Incantation? Can you doubt but that it is intended as a curse on his wife? Her nerves must be strong if she can read it without shuddering. He is in Italy travelling with two ladies in his Suite. In "Childe Harold" there is a novel enjoyment of a storm such I should think as a demon would feel, but I think that the stanza which describes the appearance of the morning after is beautiful. Sir Samuel says that he has lost his ear, and that his last poems are decidedly the worst he has written. Surely the man who wrote "Darkness" must be mad or nearly approaching to it. Is there not something exceptionally riduculous in the idea of the two men, who survived the rest, frightening each other to death at last by their ugliness, ''een of their mutual ugliness they died", that is the line I think'.

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Until: 17 Dec 1816

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London
specific address: Great Russell St

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:

Anne Romilly

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

1773

Socio-Economic Group:

Royalty / aristocracy

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Title:

Manfred

Genre:

Drama, Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

20674

Source:

Print

Author:

Anne Romilly

Editor:

Samuel Henry Romilly

Title:

Romilly-Edgeworth Letters 1813-1818

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1936

Vol:

n/a

Page:

160-61

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Anne Romilly, Samuel Henry Romilly (ed.), Romilly-Edgeworth Letters 1813-1818, (London, 1936), p. 160-61, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=20674, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Date of birth a guess: AR was married in Jan 1798, aged about 24. The 'Incantation' is a section of 'Manfred'.

   
   
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