Record Number: 3669

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Letter H. 39 - 12/10/1856 - "-I don't know when I read a poem, since as a boy I first read "The Assyrian came down" - which has given me such intense pleasure as the "Burden of Nineveh" in No. 8 of Oxford & Cambridge - Pleasure of course - of a different kind but I am quite wild about it - That profound last stanza - the infinite power and ease of all!!!"

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 01 Sep 1856 and 30 Oct 1856

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

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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

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Title:

The Burden of Nineveh

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Serial / periodical

Publication Details

August 1856 issue, The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, produced by William Morris et al.

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

3669

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:

189-90

Additional Comments:

From the editor's footnote: "Ruskin greatly admired Byron's poetry; the quotation is from Destruction of Sennacherib. The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, a monthly publication... was started by William Morris, Burne-Jones and some undergraduate friends... Ruskin, in Switzerland at the time, had missed the August issue which carried an unsigned poem by Rossetti: The Burden of Nineveh, but seeing it non his return he wrote excitedly to him: 'I am wild to know who is the Author of the "Burden of Nineveh" in No. VIII of Oxford and Cambridge. It is glorious. PLease find out for me, and see if I can get acquainted with him.' (The works of John Ruskin, Library Edition, ed. E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburnm, 39 vols, London: George Allen, Vol 36, p. 243, misdated). From a letter to Ellen Heaton (12/10/1856).

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. 189-90, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=3669, accessed: 06 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

None