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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 15360


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

?Friday. I have got on rather better with the ?Fables?; perhaps it won?t be a failure, though I still fear...Saturday...I just finished some of the deedest rubbish about Lord Lytton?s ?Fables?, that an intelligent editor ever shot into his waste paper basket.?

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 31 Dec 1873 and 31 May 1874

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Swanston
specific address: Swanston Cottage, Lothianburn, Edinburgh

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:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Church of Scotland (wavering)

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton

Title:

Fables in Song

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

1874, Edinburgh, Blackwood; also 1874 Leipzig, Tauchnitz (English edition), and 1874 Toronto

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

15360

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

8

Additional Comments:

Co-editor Ernest Mehew. From Letter 272, Wednesday-Sunday [13-17 May 1874], pp. 7-9, to Frances Sitwell, Friday [15 May 1874] and Saturday [16 May 1874.] (I give the Editors' presumed dates in square brackets)

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 8, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=15360, accessed: 03 October 2024


Additional Comments:

RLS refers here again to the review he was currently writing, for the Fortnightly Review, of Lord Lytton?s Fables in Song. His copy of the Fables had been bought for him by his father (see Letter 271, p.6)

   
   
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