Record Number: 1975

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Thomas Jones recalled that his mother, a Rhymney straw-hat maker, "was fifty before she read a novel and to her dying day she had not completely grasped the nature of fiction or of drama". When she read Tom Jones, "she believed every word of it and could not conceive how a man could sit down and invent the story of Squire Allworthy and Sophia and Tom out of his head".

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

n/a

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

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:

Jones

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

straw hat maker

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

Wales

Country of Experience:

n/a

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Henry Fielding

Title:

Tom Jones

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

1975

Source:

Print

Author:

Jonathan Rose

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Place of Publication:

New Haven

Date of Publication:

2001

Vol:

n/a

Page:

97

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 97, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=1975, accessed: 09 May 2025

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Additional Comments:

See Thomas Jones, 'Rhymney Memories', pp.42-3.