Record Number: 29759
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'9. Charles Stansfield then read his paper on Charles Lamb. He gave us a clear picture of Lamb
in his family relationships, beginning with a delightful study of Lamb’s father under the name
of Lovell of the Old Benchers, continuing with the tragedy of his mother’s death and the twenty
nine gallant years of Charles’s companionship with his sister, and concluding with a most
graceful tribute to her “as an incomparable old maid, the result of her upbringing in the
spacious closet of reading. And it gave us, too, an introduction to the man and the author, the
width of his reading as exemplified in his quotations and allusions, his whimsical humour, the
pathetic weakness that proved too strong for him, and yet with it the natural dignity of the
scholar and an innocent & delightful merriment in circumstances which might well have bred
coarseness and cynicism.
We may indeed say of these paragraphs of Charles Stansfield’s as he himself says of the
Essays that “they reveal Lamb and endear him to us.”
10. Dorothy Brain read an extract from “Recollections of Christ’s Hospital” showing Lamb’s
pride in his old school.
[...]
12. Mary Pollard read from “Dream Children”, an essay that made some of us wonder whether
it is reflected in Barrie’s “Dear Brutus”
13. Edith Goadby read from “Two Races of Men”, another theme which will not readily be
bettered.
14. Victor Alexander then read from “My Relations[”]
15. Howard Smith read from Odds and Ends with much enjoyable good humour'
1900-1945
Date:30 Oct 1934
Country:England
Timeevening
Place:city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: 70, Northcourt Avenue
(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:1887
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:n/a
Religion:Quaker or associated with the Friends
Country of Origin:n/a
Country of Experience:England
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
Members of the XII Book Club
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:My Relations
Genre:Essays / Criticism
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:29759
Source:Manuscript
Author:Victor Alexander
Title:XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 3 (1931-1938)
Location:private collection
Call No:n/a
Page/Folio:113–117
Additional Information:
n/a
Citation:
Victor Alexander, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 3 (1931-1938), private collection, 113–117, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=29759, accessed: 07 October 2024
Additional Comments:
Material by kind permission of the XII Book Club. For further information and permission to quote this source, contact the Reading Experience Database (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/contacts.php).