Record Number: 12149

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'In various letters to Osborne he mentions having received "Tom Jones" which he did not care for; "Jane Eyre" he thought a "wonderful book"; in a volume titled "British Dramatists" he thought Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" "the best by head and shoulders"; Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship" he admired "exceedingly" (he proceeded to write an essay of twenty-six notepaper pages on Carlyle); of Thackeray's "Henry Esmond" he told Osborne that he thought it a "great book", though he disliked its "overelaboration": "perhaps you may say it is merely an additional grace - but I think it stands rather in the way of true eloquence and geninely forceful tragedy, not that I deny there is both eloquence and tragedy in 'Esmond', but I think there might have been more and grander but for that elaborateness".'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 28 Feb 1880 and 27 Feb 1881

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Bideford
county: Devon

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:

Arthur Symons

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

28 Feb 1865

Socio-Economic Group:

Clergy (includes all denominations)

Occupation:

Wesleyan preacher's son, later poet

Religion:

Wesleyan, later none

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

John Webster

Title:

The Duchess of Malfi

Genre:

Drama

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

read in an anthology titled British Dramatists

Provenance

borrowed (other)
borrowed from or given by Osborne

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Source Information:

Record ID:

12149

Source:

Print

Author:

Karl Beckson

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Arthur Symons: A Life

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1987

Vol:

n/a

Page:

11

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Karl Beckson, Arthur Symons: A Life, (Oxford, 1987), p. 11, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12149, accessed: 19 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

[Quotations from three undated letters to Osborne, held at Princeton's Symons archive]