Record Number: 12877

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'The individual...was a fellow-worker of mine for nigh two years in Dartmoor. He had, in his younger days, passed through the workhouse; read the pestilent literature of rascaldom which has educated so many criminal characters in this country; then graduated in the "School", and ultimately became a noted burglar. His reading in prison had been pretty extensive, while his intelligence would have insured him a position in society above that of a labouring man... I could not help looking upon it as a very novel experience, for even this grotesque world, to have to listen to a man who could delight in a literary discussion, quote all the choice parts of Pope's "Illiad", and boast of having read Pascal and Lafontaine in the original, maintain, in sober argument, that "thieving was an honourable pursuit", and that religion, law, patriotism and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

specific address: Dartmoor Prison (probably)
other location: in prison, probably in his cell

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:

anon

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)

Occupation:

workhouse inmate/ juvenile deliquent/ burglar/ prisoner

Religion:

Atheist

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:

Jean de La Fontaine

Title:

[unknown]

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

borrowed (institution library)
probably from prison library

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Source Information:

Record ID:

12877

Source:

Print

Author:

Michael Davitt

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Leaves from a prison diary, or lectures to a 'solitary' audience

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1885

Vol:

1

Page:

13-14

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Michael Davitt, Leaves from a prison diary, or lectures to a 'solitary' audience, (London, 1885), 1, p. 13-14, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12877, accessed: 05 October 2024

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Additional Comments:

None