Record Number: 2371

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'At age sixteen, Neville Cardus (whose parents were launderers in turn of the century Manchester) read in the Athenaeum that no one was reading Dickens anymore: he trudged from one public library to another, only to be told that every copy of his novels had been loaned out. His discovery of Dickens in shilling Harmsworth editions did more than erase the boundary between fiction and life: "It was scarcely a case of reading at all; it was almost an experience of a world more alive and dimensional than this world".

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Manchester

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:

Neville Cardus

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

son of launderers

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

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Charles Dickens

Title:

[novels]

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

shilling Harmsworth editions

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

2371

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:

112-13

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 112-13, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=2371, accessed: 18 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

See Neville Cardus, 'Second Innings' (London, 1950) pp.45-7