Record Number: 17758

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I find I have no time for reading except times of fatigue when I wish merely to refresh myself. O − and I read over again for this purpose − Flaubert?s "Tentation de Saint Antoine":it struck me a good deal at first, but this second time it has fetched me immensely; I am but just done with it, so you will know the large proportion of salt to take with my present statement that it?s the finest thing I ever read! Of course, it isn?t that, it?s full of [italics] longueurs [end italics], and it is not quite ?red up?, as we say in Scotland, not quite articulate, but there are splendid things in it.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

21 Oct 1874

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Edinburgh
specific address: 17 Heriot Row

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:

Gustave Flaubert

Title:

La Tentation de Saint Antoine.

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

The final version was published in 1874. An earlier version of the subject had been put aside.

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

17758

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

66

Additional Comments:

Letter 323, To Katharine de Mattos, [? October 1874]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The date in square brackets has been added by the editors. The date of the READING EXPERIENCE is deduced from the date given to the Letter by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 66, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17758, accessed: 04 October 2024

---

Additional Comments:

RLS read the novel in French, of which he seems to have had a reasonable knowledge. A search has revealed no published English version available in 1874.