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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 19713


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have just been reading the record of a dangerous voyage, [italics] Malte Laurids Brigg [end italics]. Yet Rilke returned safely. I have seen a photo of him in a black coat and a watch chain standing in the gateway of a German castle. Where have I been from which there was any danger of not returning? Even from insanity I came back to find a name, a latchkey, a home, identifying friends. In writing I hug the shore all the time. Rilke's book hs affected me profoundly; given me the sense of being out of my depth, of a dazzling interconnection between two worlds in which one simultaneously moves. It has left me sensitised like a watch that has been too near a magnet. The effect was so violent that I had to lie down at intervals while I was reading it; I was shaking as if in a high fever.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Until: 6 Oct 1935

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

location in dwelling: sometimes in bed

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:

Antonia White

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

31 Mar 1899

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

writer

Religion:

[lapsed] Catholic

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

christened Eirene Botting



Text Being Read:

Author:

Rainer Maria Rilke

Title:

Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, The

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

19713

Source:

Print

Author:

Antonia White

Editor:

Susan Chitty

Title:

Antonia White. Diaries 1926-1957

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1991

Vol:

I

Page:

56

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Antonia White, Susan Chitty (ed.), Antonia White. Diaries 1926-1957, (London, 1991), I, p. 56, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=19713, accessed: 15 May 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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