Record Number: 32326

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have nearly finished The Morte D'arthur. I am more pleased at having bought it every day, as it has opened up a new world to me. I had no idea that the Arthurian legends were so fine (The name is against them, isn't it??) Malory is really not a great author, but he has two excellent gifts, (1) that of lively narrative and (2) the power of getting you to know characters by gradual association. What I mean is, that, although he never sits down - as moderns do - to describe a man's character, yet, by the end of the first volume Launcelot & Tristan, Balin & Pellinore, Morgan le Fay & Isoud are all just as much real, live people as Paul Emanuel or Mme Beck. The very names of the chapters, as they spring to meet the eye, bear with them a fresh, sweet breath from the old-time faery world, wherein the author moves. Who can read "How Launcelot in the Chapel Perilous gat a cloth from a Dead corpse"... and not hasten to find out what it's all about?'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 17 Nov 1914 and 26 Jan 1915

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

Great Bookham
Surrey
'Gastons'

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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Clive Staples Lewis

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

29 Nov 1898

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Student

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

Northern Ireland

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Thomas Malory

Title:

Le Morte d'Arthur

Genre:

Fiction, History, Biography, chivalric romance, Arthurian legend

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

2 vol. J.M. Dent & Co., London, 1906, in a deluxe binding

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32326

Source:

Print

Author:

C. S. Lewis

Editor:

Walter Hooper

Title:

C. S. Lewis Collected Letters

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

2000

Vol:

1

Page:

103

Additional Comments:

From a letter to Arthur Greeves, 26 January 1915

Citation:

C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 103, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32326, accessed: 25 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

Paul Emanuel and Mme Beck are characters in 'Villette'. Evidence for deluxe binding in a letter to Arthur Greeves, 2 February 1915: 'I don't think it can be the Library Edition... being bound in plum-coloured leather, with pale-blue marker attached.' (Letters v.1 p. 104)