Record Number: 3617

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Annie Swan [from Leith] ... vividly recalled the occasion when her mother "surprised us all by retiring to her room for a whole day, abandoning everything. The mystery was explained by a copy of East Lynne, which had been brought surreptitiously into the [strictly Evangelical] house, and in which she became so engrossed that she ceased to care a han, as we expressed it, for anything or anybody".'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

Scotland

Time

daytime

Place:

n/a

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:

Mrs Swan

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Farmer's wife

Religion:

Evangelical

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Mrs Henry Wood

Title:

East Lynne

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

3617

Source:

Print

Author:

Philip Waller

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918

Place of Publication:

n/a

Date of Publication:

n/a

Vol:

n/a

Page:

660

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Philip Waller, Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918, p. 660, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=3617, accessed: 25 April 2025

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Additional Comments:

Quotation from Annie Swan, My Life: An Autobiography (1934) 22.