Record Number: 32335

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Last week end was busily employed in reading through De Quincey's "Confessions" as a whole, for the first time, from which I derived great satisfaction. How much of it is true? The whole thing reads so like a novel that I am rather incredulous. Anyway it is certainly a splendid piece of English prose, especially in the rhetorical passages where he shows such a happy knack of getting pleasantly off the point.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 12 Mar 1915 and 14 Mar 1915

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

Great Bookham
Surrey
'Gastons'

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:

Clive Staples Lewis

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

29 Nov 1898

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Student

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

Northern Ireland

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:

Thomas De Quincey

Title:

Confessions of an English Opium Eater

Genre:

Autobiog / Diary, Medicine, recreational drug taking

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32335

Source:

Print

Author:

C. S. Lewis

Editor:

Walter Hooper

Title:

C. S. Lewis Collected Letters

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

2000

Vol:

1

Page:

113

Additional Comments:

From a letter to his father, [21 March 1915]. This date is a Sunday. I have assumed Lewis is referring to the previous weekend.

Citation:

C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 113, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32335, accessed: 03 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

First published anonymously in the London Magazine, September and October 1821, then in book form 1822. In 1856 De Quincey prepared a new edition for the publisher James Hogg, more than doubling the work's length. It is not known which version Lewis was reading.