Record Number: 3661

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Letter H 3 - 9/2/1855 - "I will not fail to quote Mrs Browning in the book I am now about. I think more highly of her poetry than ever - she is a noble creature."

Century:

1800-1849, 1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

Probably Britain, but reader travelled extensively

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:

John Ruskin

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

8 Feb 1819

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer and art critic

Religion:

Christian

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

Probably Britain, but reader travelled extensively

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Title:

Poems, including "Drama of Exile"

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

3661

Source:

Print

Author:

John Ruskin

Editor:

Virginia Surtees

Title:

Sublime and Instructive. Letters from John Ruskin to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, Anna Blunden and Elle Heaton.

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1972

Vol:

n/a

Page:

155

Additional Comments:

From the editor's footnote: "Ruskin had been rereading Mrs Browning's poems, which were to him of 'unspeakable preciousness'. 'I trust that you may be a little pleased by some things I shall have to say of you in the book I am just about now' he wrote to her on March 4th 1855. 'I am going to bind your poems in a golden binding, and give them to my class of working men - as the purest and most exalting poetry in our language. Only, pray, in the next edition, alter that first verse of the "Drama of Exile" (1844) - Gehenna and when a -' (The Works of John Ruskin Library Edition, ed. E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, 39 vols, George Allen, 1903-12, Volume 36, pp. 191-2. From a letter to Ellen Heaton (9/2/1855) and a letter to Elizabeth Barrett Browning (4/3/1855).

Citation:

John Ruskin, Virginia Surtees (ed.), Sublime and Instructive. Letters from John Ruskin to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, Anna Blunden and Elle Heaton., (London, 1972), p. 155, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=3661, accessed: 25 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

None