Record Number: 21207
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'La Silence de la Mer by "Vercors" (Schlumberger?) was given me by Raymond Mortimer yesterday and read without much admiration though with plenty of sympathy: published secretly under the Nazis in France. Read also too slow a story by Giono of the coming of Pan: it quickens at the end where human beings and animals dance together, with regrettable results [...] Read too in Illusions Perdues [...] and in Gide's Journal [...] Gide aroused my envy by reading, reading, but if I kept a journal I too should appear to have read, read a lot.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between 1 Jan 1943 and 31 Dec 1943
Country:England
Timen/a
Place:n/a
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:1 Jan 1879
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:Writer
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: Title:Le Silence de la Mer
Genre:Fiction
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication DetailsPublished in France under pseudonym 'Vercors'
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:21207
Source:E. M. Forster
Editor:Philip Gardner
Title:Commonplace Book
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1985
Vol:n/a
Page:155
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
E. M. Forster, Philip Gardner (ed.), Commonplace Book, (London, 1985), p. 155, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=21207, accessed: 08 February 2026
Additional Comments:
See p.327 for source ed.'s note on background to first publication of text, and for identification of Jean Schlumberger as author incorrectly guessed by Forster to have written text.
