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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 33552


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'It was a change to spend such a lazy day. We read the Apocrypha, I remember, and wandered a little, but not very far afield, not much further than the spring where we refilled our water bottles [...] we talked with a wandering dervish, who strayed up to our camp carrying a sort of sceptre, surmounted by the extended hand of Ali in shining brass; we listened to a blind man chanting an interminable poem about hazrat-i-isa (his Majesty Jesus); we watched the procession of women going to the spring.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 Apr 1926 and 30 Apr 1926

Country:

Persia

Time

daytime

Place:

city: Dehdez
county: Izeh County, Khuzestan Province

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

passive in company unknown
single serial unknown


Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Listener:

Vita Sackville-West

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

9 Mar 1892

Socio-Economic Group:

Royalty / aristocracy

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

Anglican

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

Persia

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

unknown unknown

Title:

unknown

Genre:

Other religious, Poetry, unknown (likely devotional) Persian poem on Jesus

Form of Text:

Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown
almost certainly recited from memory


Source Information:

Record ID:

33552

Source:

Print

Author:

Vita Sackville-West

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Twelve Days in Persia

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

2009

Vol:

n/a

Page:

73

Additional Comments:

Page references are from the 2009 edition published by I.B. Tauris. The book was first published by Hogarth in 1928.

Citation:

Vita Sackville-West, Twelve Days in Persia, (London, 2009), p. 73, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33552, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Although she uses the plural 'we', it's not clear how many members of Vita Sackville-West's heard the blind man reciting the unnamed devotional poem to Jesus.

   
   
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