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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 33719


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Linking a childhood memory of a great storm with a subsequent reading of Conrad's work: 'The wind blowing from this quarter is not like the south-west wind of the North Atlantic and Britain, a warm wind laden with moisture from hot tropical seas--that great wind that Joseph Conrad in his "Mirror of the Sea" has personified in one of the sublimest passages in recent literature. It is an excessively violent wind, as all mariners know who have encountered it on the South Atlantic off the River Plate ....'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between May 1905 and 1907

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

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:

William Henry Hudson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

4 Aug 1841

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Naturalist, writer

Religion:

Christian (Protestant) in childhood only

Country of Origin:

Argentina

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Joseph Conrad

Title:

The Mirror of the Sea

Genre:

Fiction, Autobiog / Diary

Form of Text:

Print: Book, Serial / periodical

Publication Details

Chapter first publ. Pall Mall Magazine May 1905, book edn. Oct 1906 Methuen

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

33719

Source:

Print

Author:

William Henry Hudson

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1918

Vol:

n/a

Page:

73

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

William Henry Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life, (London, 1918), p. 73, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33719, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Hudson may have read this piece ('Rulers of East and West') first as a serial: both he and Conrad probably read 'Pall Mall Magazine' at the time. This is an example of how a memory from childhood (c.1847) triggered in 1918 a further memory of an adult reading experience around 1905-1906.

   
   
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