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Record Number: 19598

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Look here, you had better get hold of G.C. Lichtenberg�s "Ausf�hrliche Erkl�rung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche": Gottingen, 1794 to 1816 (it was published in numbers seemingly. Douglas the publisher lent it to me: and tho� I hate the damned tongue too cordially to do more than dip into it, I have seen some shrewd things. If you cannot get it for yourself, (it seems scarce), I daresay I could negotiate with Douglas for a loan.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: 7 May 1875

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Edinburgh
county: Lothian
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

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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:

Scotland

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Title:

Ausf�hrliche Erkl�rung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche

Genre:

Arts / architecture

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Published Gottingen in parts 1794-99 and subsequently in volume form.

Provenance

borrowed (other)

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Source Information:

Record ID:

19598

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:

133

Additional Comments:

Letter 386, To Sidney Colvin, [c. 7 May 1875], Swanston. The date in square brackets has been added 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. 133, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=19598, accessed: 06 February 2026

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Additional Comments:

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-99) was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. He was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. He is remembered for his notebooks published posthumously and for his discovery of the strange tree-like patterns now called Lichtenberg figures. He also published in 1794-99 an Ausf�hrliche Erkl�rung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche in which he described the satirical details in William Hogarth�s prints. RLS appears to have been reading this work in one of the subsequent editions in volume form.