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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 8020


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I am amusing myself with Miss Austin's [sic] novels. She has great power and discrimination in delineating common-place people; and her writings are a capital picture of real life, with all the little wheels and machinery laid bare like a patent clock. But she explains and fills out too much. Those who have not power to fill up gaps and bridge over chasms as they read, must therefore take particular delight in such minuteness of detail. It is a kind of Bowditch's Laplace in the romantic astronomy. But readers of lively imagination naturally prefer the original with its unexplained steps, which they so readily supply.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

23 May 1839

Country:

unknown

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:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

27 Feb 1807

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Poet

Religion:

Christian

Country of Origin:

America

Country of Experience:

unknown

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Jane Austen

Title:

[novels]

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

8020

Source:

Print

Author:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Editor:

Samuel Longfellow

Title:

Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with extracts from his journals and correspondence

Place of Publication:

Boston, MA

Date of Publication:

1886

Vol:

1

Page:

323

Additional Comments:

Journal entry, 23 May 1839

Citation:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Samuel Longfellow (ed.), Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with extracts from his journals and correspondence, (Boston, MA, 1886), 1, p. 323, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=8020, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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