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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 20428


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I believe most people would say of the four-and-twenty volumes, what I have known parents of large families do of their children: "you may think them a great many, yet there is not one we could spare". For my own part I acknowledge I am not a fair judge; all these writings, all the author's works confessed and unconfessed, are so much associated in my mind with, not the earliest, but the pleasantest, part of my life, that they awaken in me many feelings I could hardly explain to another. They are to me less like books, than like the letters one treasures up, "pleasant yet mournful to the soul", and I cannot open one of them without a thousand recollections that as time rolls on, grow precious, although they are often painful. Independent of this, how many hours of mine have they soothed and softened! and still do soothe and soften, for I can read them over and over again'.

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Until: 11 Aug 1819

Country:

England

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:

Louisa, Lady Stuart

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

12 Aug 1757

Socio-Economic Group:

Royalty / aristocracy

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Walter Scott

Title:

[Works]

Genre:

Fiction, Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

20428

Source:

Print

Author:

Louisa Stuart

Editor:

R. Brimley Johnson

Title:

Letters of Lady Louisa Stuart, The

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1926

Vol:

n/a

Page:

158-9

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Louisa Stuart, R. Brimley Johnson (ed.), Letters of Lady Louisa Stuart, The, (London, 1926), p. 158-9, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=20428, accessed: 06 December 2024


Additional Comments:

Letter to Walter Scott

   
   
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