Record Number: 32429
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'My French is under rather different conditions to yours, as I read from 10 - 11 every night except on Wednesdays when I write to you. I have really never counted exactly how much I cover and it wd. not be accurate to count by pages, as they vary so in size and in type.... Then again why not get something in that 1/6 Dents edition with the lovely paper, say Voltaire's "Contes" (very amusing)....'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between 21 Jan 1916 and 20 Mar 1917
Country:England
Timen/anight: Weekdays (except Wednesdays), between 10pm and 11pm
Place:Great Bookham
Surrey
'Gastons'
Bedroom
(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: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
Text Being Read:
Author:François-Marie Arouet Voltaire
Title:Contes Choisis. Preface de Gustave Lanson
Genre:Other religious, Fiction, Social Science, Politics, Philosophical fiction, metaphysics, precursor to science fiction
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication DetailsLondon: Dent, 1907
Provenanceowned
Source Information:
Record ID:32429
Source:C. S. Lewis
Editor:Walter Hooper
Title:C. S. Lewis Collected Letters
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:2000
Vol:1
Page:273-74
Additional Comments:
From a letter to Arthur Greeves, 7 February 1917.
Citation:
C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 273-74, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32429, accessed: 24 April 2025
Additional Comments:
The date range starts with the beginning of term 21 January 1916 because Lewis writes to Greeves on the 28th February: 'I spend all the spare time on week-days in reading French books, which I want to get more fluent in.' (Letters, v.1, p. 169). In another letter, a few weeks later, he mentions reading Maeterlinck 'too late at night' (Letters, v.1, p. 176), so I think it safe to assume that Lewis did all his French reading in bed at night. The 'lights out' at 11.00pm is interesting: Mr Kirkpatrick writes to his father: 'The very idea of urging or stimulating him to increased exertion makes me remind him that it is inadvisable for him to read after 11 p.m.' (Letter from William Kirkpatrick to Albert Lewis, 7 April 1916: Letters, v.1, p. 178) The date range ends with his last day at Great Bookham. I have chosen the most likely edition. It contains Voltaire's best-known prose tales: Zadig, ou la destinee; Memmon, ou la sagesse humaine; Micromegas; Histoire d'un don bramin; Le blanc et le noir; Jeannot et Colin.