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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 33898


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'One of the books I read then for the first time was White's "Selborne", given to me by an old friend of the family, a merchant in Buenos Ayres [sic], who had been accustomed to stay a week or two with us with us once a year when he took his holiday. He had been on a visit to Europe, and one day, he told me, when in London on the eve of his departure, he was in a bookshop, and seeing this book on the counter and glancing at a page or two, it occurred to him that it was just the right thing to get for that bird-loving boy out on the pampas. I read and re-read it many times, for nothing so good of its kind had ever come to me, but it did not reveal to me the secret of my own feeling for Nature [...] I found it in other works: in Brown's "Philosophy" — another of the ancient tomes on our shelves, and in an old volume containing appreciations of the early nineteenth century; also in other works.'

Century:

1850-1899, 1900-1945

Date:

From: 1856

Country:

Argentina

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:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

4 Aug 1841

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Field naturalist, author

Religion:

Protestant (Anglican) in childhood only

Country of Origin:

Argentina

Country of Experience:

Argentina

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Gilbert White

Title:

The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne

Genre:

Natural history

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

first publ. 1789, never out of print thereafter.

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

33898

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:

323-4

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

William Henry Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago: A History of my Early Life, (London, 1918), p. 323-4, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33898, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

It is very likely that this repeated reading experience extends from about 1857 to well into the 1900s. There are numerous allusions by Hudson's biographer Ruth Tomalin which suggest that he also re-read it much later in England. The provenance of his copy makes an interesting comment on the transnational movements of a book.

   
   
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