Record Number: 34411

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'David Watson, M.A. of St. Andrews University, used to spend every spare moment of his day and whole Sundays on end with this writer [Ford] standing beside him at his pulpit and construing for him every imaginable kind of book from “Ataxerxes” of Madame de Scudéry and “Les Enfants de [sic] Capitaine Grant” by Jules Verne, to ode after ode of Tibullus, Fouqué’s “Udine”, all of the “Inferno”, the greater part of “Lazarillo de Tormes” and “Don Quixote” in the original[…] In addition, Mr. Watson had this writer translate for him orally into French “The Two Admirals”, “The Deerslayer”, and “The Last of the Mohicans”—which made this writer appreciate what a magnificent prose writer Cooper was.’

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between Sep 1881 and Mar 1889

Country:

England

Time

daytime

Place:

city: Folkestone
county: Kent
specific address: Pretoria House School
location in dwelling: schoolroom

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:

Ford Madox Ford

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

n/a

Date of Birth:

17 Dec 1873

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Student

Religion:

Catholic

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué

Title:

Undine, eine Erzahlung

Genre:

Fiction, fairy tale romance

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

first publ. 1811. Appeared in French 1818. Not fully translated into English until 1909

Provenance

borrowed (institution library)
either borrowed from school library or from Dr Watson

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

34411

Source:

Print

Author:

Max Saunders

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life: The World before the War

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1996

Vol:

1

Page:

33

Additional Comments:

Ford was recalling his schoolboy reading in his late work "The March or Literature" (1939), the original source for this evidence. See Saunders 1, p.507 fn.6.

Citation:

Max Saunders, Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life: The World before the War, (Oxford, 1996), 1, p. 33, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=34411, accessed: 23 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

Given the trilingual education programme at Pretoria House it seems likely that Ford first read this tale in its original German, though he may instead have read a French edition.