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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 22510


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'She announced among other things that Longfellow was her favourite poet. “Byron is nice too” she added “Especially his Elegy on the death of a mad dog.”!!! Shakespeare she has some little knowledge of – His fairies & pucks are nice – but he can’t come up to Longfellow. I nearly died with inward mirth. She vows she is going to devote herself to Literature when she grows up: but she really does appreciate good poetry – I read her some Scott one afternoon, & she understood & liked it – and then I found her an Austin-Dobson – and read her things for nearly an hour, out of his Idylls – and you should have seen how her eyes glistened as she took it all in. She expressed a wish to have something of his – and in half an hour she had mastered both the spirit & matter of “the little blue Mandarin”.

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: 23 Dec 1892

Country:

England

Time

afternoon

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:

Cornelia Sorabji

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

1866

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
One of India's first women lawyers

Occupation:

Trainee lawyer

Religion:

Christian [family originally Parsee]

Country of Origin:

India

Country of Experience:

England

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

Cornelia's niece Elsie, young daughter of her sister Pheroze


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Walter Scott

Title:

unknown

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

22510

Source - Manuscript:

Other

Information:

F165/7 Sorabji Papers, APACS, British Library

Additional Information:

Letter from Cornelia Sorabji, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields to the family in Poona, India, 23 December 1892.

Citation:

F165/7 Sorabji Papers, APACS, British Library, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=22510, accessed: 08 December 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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