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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 968


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'While he read little but the Bible and religious periodicals, his son was working his way through the Rhymney Workmen's Institute Library and Cassell's National Library of 3d paperbacks. MacAulay's essays, Goldsmith's History of England, Far from the Madding Crowd, Self-Help, Josephus, Plutarch, Shakespeare, Pepys, Johnson's Lives of the Poets, and The Sorrows of Young Werther were among the books Jones read, often on his employer's time. (He hid them under the ledger at the Rhymney Iron Works, where he worked a thirteen hour day as a timekeeper for 9s. a week.)'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

Wales

Time

daytime: whilst supposed to be working

Place:

specific address: Rhymney Iron Works

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


Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Thomas Jones

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1870

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)

Occupation:

timekeeper at ironworks when grown up

Religion:

Nonconformist

Country of Origin:

Wales

Country of Experience:

Wales

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Title:

The Sorrows of Young Werther

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

borrowed (institution library)
Rhymney Workmen's Institute Library, or owned in 3d. paperback


Source Information:

Record ID:

968

Source:

Print

Author:

Jonathan Rose

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Place of Publication:

New Haven

Date of Publication:

2001

Vol:

n/a

Page:

33-34

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 33-34, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=968, accessed: 15 October 2024


Additional Comments:

See Thomas Jones, 'Rhymney Memories' (Llandysul, 1970)

   
   
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