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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 1999


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'At age ten Harry West, the son of a circus escape artist, read Pilgrim's Progress merely as "A great heroic adventure". Only later did he appreciate it as a religious allegory, and still later - after his exposure to Freud and Jung - he came to "discover it as one of the greatest, most potent works on practical psychology extant".'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1890 and 31 Dec 1891

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


Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Harry West

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1880

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)
circus performer's son

Occupation:

circus performer's son

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

n/a

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

John Bunyan

Title:

Pilgrim's Progress

Genre:

Other religious, Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

1999

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:

104-5

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 104-5, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=1999, accessed: 03 October 2024


Additional Comments:

See Harry West, 'The Autobiography of Harry Alfred West', Brunel University Library, p.11

   
   
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