Record Number: 7536

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I know not if there be a Goddess of Sloth - tho' considering that this of all our passions is the least turbulent and most victorious, it could not without partiality be left destitute - But if there be, she certainly looks on with an approving smile - when in a supine posture, I lie for hours with my eyes fixed upon the pages of Lady Morgan's France or the travels of Faujas St Fond ... What shall I say to the woebegone Roderick last of the Goths; and others of a similar stamp? They go through my brain as light goes thro' an achromatic telescope.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 27 Jun 1819 and 14 Jul 1819

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Mainhill

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:

Thomas Carlyle

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

4 Dec 1795

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer / Academic

Religion:

Lapsed Calvinist

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:

Lady Sidney Morgan

Title:

Roderick, the Last of the Goths

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

First published London 1814

Provenance

Borrowed (circulating library)

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Source Information:

Record ID:

7536

Source:

Print

Author:

Thomas Carlyle

Editor:

C R Sanders

Title:

The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle

Place of Publication:

Durham, North Carolina

Date of Publication:

1970

Vol:

1

Page:

190

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Thomas Carlyle, C R Sanders (ed.), The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, (Durham, North Carolina, 1970), 1, p. 190, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=7536, accessed: 06 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

Taken from letter from Carlyle to Robert Mitchell, dated 14th July 1819, written at Mainhill. Pages 188 - 192 in this edition. Details of publication given in editor's notes. Dates of reading based on previous letter (to John Fergusson dated 29th June 1819) in which Carlyle refers to having returned the previous Sunday with the above books from Johnson's circulating library.