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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 5133


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

"Alexander Somerville, a young farm-worker growing up in the Lammermuir Hills, made his first great journeys without leaving the fields in which he laboured: "'The next book which came in my way, and made an impression so strong as to be still unworn and unwearable, was Anson's Voyage Round the World ... I had read nothing of the kind before ...'"

Century:

1700-1799, 1800-1849

Date:

unknown

Country:

Scotland

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:

Alexander Somerville

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (agricultural)

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

Scotland

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Anson

Title:

Voyage Round the World

Genre:

Geography / Travel

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

5133

Source:

Print

Author:

David Vincent

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Rise of Mass Literacy: Reading and Writing in Moderrn Europe

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

2000

Vol:

n/a

Page:

99

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

David Vincent, The Rise of Mass Literacy: Reading and Writing in Moderrn Europe, (Oxford, 2000), p. 99, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=5133, accessed: 17 May 2024


Additional Comments:

Quotation from A. Somerville, Autobiography of a Working Man (1848; London, 1951) 45.

   
   
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