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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 4742


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

"Vera Brittain's far from bookish home contained, in addition to the yellow-back novels which formed the main staple of her early reading, a volume entitled Household Medicine: 'the treatment of infectious diseases left me cold, but I was secretly excited at the prospect of menstruation; I also found the details of confinement quite enthralling.' She added the knowledge thus gained to other sources, recalling 'that intensive searching for obstetrical details through the Bible and such school-library novels as David Copperfield and Adam Bede which appears to have been customary almost everywhere among the adolescents of my generation.'"

Century:

1850-1899, 1900-1945

Date:

unknown

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:

Vera Brittain

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

1893

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

n/a

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:

Charles Dickens

Title:

David Copperfield

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

4742

Source:

Print

Author:

Kate Flint

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Woman Reader 1837-1914

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1993

Vol:

n/a

Page:

215

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Kate Flint, The Woman Reader 1837-1914, (Oxford, 1993), p. 215, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=4742, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Quotation from Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth (1983).

   
   
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