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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 291


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have cast up my reading account, and brought it to the end of the year 1835. [?] During the last thirteen months I have read Aeschylus twice; Sophocles twice; Euripides once; Pindar twice; Callimachus; Apollonius Rhodius; Quintus Calaber; Theocritus twice; Herodotus; Thucydides; almost all Xenophon?s works; almost all Plato; Aristotle?s Politics, and a good deal of his Organon, besides dipping elsewhere in him; the whole of Plutarch?s Lives; about half of Lucian; two or three books of Athenaeus; Plautus twice; Terence twice; Lucretius twice; Catullus; Tibullus; Propertius; Lucan; Statius; Silius Italicus; Livy; Velleius Paterculus; Sallust; Caesar; and, lastly, Cicero. I have, indeed, still a little of Cicero left; but I shall finish him in a few days. I am now deep in Aristophanes and Lucian.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 01 Jun 1834 and 30 Dec 1835

Country:

India

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Calcutta (Kolkata)

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:

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

25 Oct 1800

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

historian and critic

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

India

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Theocritus

Title:

unknown

Genre:

Classics

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

291

Source:

Print

Author:

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Editor:

George Otto Trevelyan

Title:

The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1978

Vol:

1

Page:

410

Additional Comments:

Letter from Macaulay to Thomas Flower Ellis, December 30, 1835

Citation:

Thomas Babington Macaulay, George Otto Trevelyan (ed.), The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, (Oxford, 1978), 1, p. 410, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=291, accessed: 06 October 2024


Additional Comments:

Macaulay read Theocritus twice in this time period, hence two exactly similar forms

   
   
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