Listings for Reader:
Robert Boyle
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: romance
"Writing about himself in the third person, Robert Boyle ... blamed his short attention span on poor reading habits: he complained that reading a romance as a boy had 'accustomed his thoughts to such a habitude of roving, that he has scarce ever been their quiet master since, but they would take all occasions to steal away, and go a-gadding to objects then unseasonable and impertinent.'"
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Boyle Print: Unknown
Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo : Amadis de Gaule
'Robert Boyle being made to "read the state adventures of Amadis de Gaulle and other fabulous stories" which met a "restless fancy, then made more susceptible of any impressions by an unemployed pensiveness" and accustomed his thoughts to such a habitude of roving, that he [had] scarce ever been their quiet master since.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Boyle Print: Unknown
: romances including Amadis de Gaulle
Adrian Johns notes how the school-aged Robert Boyle was advised to read romances [incuding "'the stale Adventures [of] Amadis de Gaule'"] as remedy for a "melancholic state" following a tertian ague: "Far from curing Boyle, he later testified, the stories 'prejudic'd him by unsettling his Thoughts ... accustom's his Thoughts to such a Habitude of Raving, that he hath scarce ever been their quiet Master since.'"
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Boyle Print: Book
: Quintus Curtius
"What originally made [Robert] Boyle so 'passionate a Friend to Reading,' he was wont to say, 'was the accidentall Perusall of Quintus Curtius.' This ancient romance of Alexander the Great had 'conjur'd up in him that unsatisfy'd Curiosity of Knowledge, that is yet as greedy, as when it first was rays'd.'"
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Boyle Print: Book
: French romances
"In Geneva on the Grand Tour ... [Robert] Boyle would continue to pursue 'above all the Reading of Romances,' and would become fluent in French from doing so."
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Boyle Print: Book
: Quintus Curtius
Adrian Johns notes how, long after enjoying the romance of Quintus Curtius when young, "[Robert] Boyle ... found himself suffering 'violent pains' in an inn; reading an opportunely found copy of Curtius took his mind off his condition until it had cured itself."
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Boyle Print: Book
Rene Descartes :
Adrian Johns notes that "It was [Robert] Hooke who, during his employ with [Robert] Boyle, conducted him through most of Descartes's works; before that Boyle had ... read only the Passions ..."
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Boyle Print: Book
Rene Descartes : Passions
Adrian Johns notes that "It was [Robert] Hooke who, during his employ with [Robert] Boyle, conducted him through most of Descartes's works; before that Boyle had ... read only the Passions ..."
