Record Number: 18578

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I am reading "The Village on the Cliff", and cannot tell you how beautiful I think it. I am inclined to give up literature. [italics]I[end italics] can?t write like that. Never mind, [italics]je serai fidele [end italics].'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: Jan 1875

Country:

Probably Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Edinburgh.
county: Lothian
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:

Uncommitted

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Probably Scotland

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Anne Isabella Thackeray

Title:

The Village on the Cliff. A Novel.

Genre:

Fiction, Science

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

First published 1867.

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

18578

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:

111

Additional Comments:

Letter 358, To Frances Sitwell, Wednesday [? January 1875], [17 Heriot Row]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The date in square brackets has been added by the editors. Editors' note 1 reads:"Dated 'March 1875' by Colvin [=? Letters I-V, The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, ed. Sir Sidney Colvin, 5 vols, vols XXXI-XXXV of the Tusitala edition 1924]."

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. 111, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18578, accessed: 26 April 2025

---

Additional Comments:

On page 111, Editors? Note 2 re the text referred to reads: ?By Anne Thackeray (later Lady Ritchie), 1867.? Anne Isabella Thackeray (1837-1919), author of The Village on the Cliff. A Novel, who wrote 7 other novels as well as biographies and works of criticism, was the eldest daughter of W.M. Thackeray. Virginia Woolf was her niece by marriage.