Record Number: 34409

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'David Watson, M.A. of St. Andrews University, used to spend every spare moment of his day and whole Sundays on end with this writer [Ford] standing beside him at his pulpit and construing for him every imaginable kind of book from “Ataxerxes” of Madame de Scudéry and “Les Enfants de [sic] Capitaine Grant” by Jules Verne, to ode after ode of Tibullus, Fouqué’s “Udine” all of the “Inferno”, the greater part of “Lazarillo de Tormes” and “Don Quixote” in the original[…] In addition, Mr. Watson had this writer translate for him orally into French “The Two Admirals”, “The Deerslayer”, and “The Last of the Mohicans”—which made this writer appreciate what a magnificent prose writer Cooper was.’

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between Sep 1881 and Mar 1889

Country:

England

Time

daytime

Place:

city: Folkestone
county: Kent
specific address: Pretoria House School
location in dwelling: schoolroom

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:

Ford Madox Ford

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

n/a

Date of Birth:

17 Dec 1873

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Student

Religion:

Catholic

Country of Origin:

England

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:

Jules Verne

Title:

Les Enfants du capitaine Grant

Genre:

Fiction, Children's Lit

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Paris: Hetzel, 1868

Provenance

borrowed (institution library)

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Source Information:

Record ID:

34409

Source:

Print

Author:

Max Saunders

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life: The World before the War

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1996

Vol:

1

Page:

33

Additional Comments:

Ford was recalling his schoolboy reading in his late work "The March or Literature" (1939), the original source for this evidence. See Saunders 1, p.507 fn.6.

Citation:

Max Saunders, Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life: The World before the War, (Oxford, 1996), 1, p. 33, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=34409, accessed: 09 May 2025

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Additional Comments:

The novel was translated and published by George Routledge 1876 as "A Voyage around the World" and later renamed "In Search of the Castaways". However given that Ford recalls the very different French title, it is clear that he first read it in French.