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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 7753


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'It is a long argument ? but I have been reading quite lately & for your sake & for the third time, her two best works ? Persuasion & Mansfield Park: & really my impressions do grow stronger & stronger in their old places. She is perfect after her kind ? true to the nature she SAW - & with a sufficient sense of the Beautiful, for grace. Like Mrs Hemans, she is too obviously a lady. I have put it in the shape of blame - & many might remark the same thing for praise: I mean however, that her ladyhood is always stronger in her than her humanity. Not that she is defective in strength as Mrs Hemans sometimes is ? she can "always do the thing she would" better than anybody else. Surely, surely I am not a niggard in my praise of Jane Austen! To call her a great writer & learned in the secrets, heights & depths of our nature, or a poet in anywise, is all that I refuse to call her ? and indeed I have not breath & articulation for such an opinion: & it astonishes me that you shd be so exorbitant my dearest Miss Mitford, in your claim for her!'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 24 May 1843 and 30 Jun 1843

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:

Elizabeth Barrett

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

6 Mar 1806

Socio-Economic Group:

Gentry

Occupation:

Poet

Religion:

Evangelical Anglican

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

Also known as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mrs Robert Browning



Text Being Read:

Author:

Jane Austen

Title:

Persuasion

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

7753

Source:

Print

Author:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Editor:

Meredith B. Raymond

Title:

The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford 1836-1854

Place of Publication:

Armstrong Browning Library of Baylor University, The Browning Institute, Wedgestone Press and Wellesley College

Date of Publication:

1983

Vol:

2

Page:

260

Additional Comments:

Second editor is Mary Rose Sullivan Letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 Jun 1843

Citation:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Meredith B. Raymond (ed.), The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford 1836-1854, (Armstrong Browning Library of Baylor University, The Browning Institute, Wedgestone Press and Wellesley College, 1983), 2, p. 260, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=7753, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

This was the third reading of Persuasion.

   
   
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