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

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Listings for Reader:  

Benjamin Brierley

 

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George Gordon, Lord Byron : 

David Vincent notes how it was in the poetry of Burns and Byron that the nineteenth-century labourer Benjamin Brierley (whose jobs included winding bobbins and working as a 'piecer' in a textile factory) first experienced the sense of the transcendent and uplifting inspiration that had been missing from school Bible study.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Brierley      Print: Unknown

  

Robert Burns : 

David Vincent notes how it was in the poetry of Burns and Byron that the nineteenth-century labourer Benjamin Brierley (whose jobs included winding bobbins and working as a 'piecer' in a textile factory) first experienced the sense of the transcendent and uplifting that had been missing from school Bible study.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Brierley      Print: Unknown

  

George Gordon, Lord Byron : 

The nineteenth-century labourer Benjamin Brierley would recall in his 1886 memoir having read the poetry of Byron and Burns whilst on '"solitary walks on summer evenings"'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Brierley      Print: Book

  

Robert Burns : 

The nineteenth-century labourer Benjamin Brierley would recall in his 1886 memoir having read the poetry of Byron and Burns whilst on '"solitary walks on summer evenings"'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Brierley      Print: Book

  

[John] [Cleave] : Cleave's Weekly Police Gazette

'Before leaving the cotton mill I had the good fortune to make my first acquaintance with the earlier works of Charles Dickens. Our manager, who was a reading man, was subscribing to periodically issued numbers of the "Pickwick Papers". He had seen me in the breakfast hour poring over the contents of a dirty rag paper, - not that the matter was dirty, - but the paper itself was oiled, and worn from its being constantly carried about in my pocket. This was "Cleave's Gazette", published weekly at a penny, a sum I managed to screw out of my threepence a fortnight "old brass".'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Brierley      Print: Newspaper

  

Charles Dickens : Pickwick Papers

'Before leaving the cotton mill I had the good fortune to make my first acquaintance with the earlier works of Charles Dickens. Our manager, who was a reading man, was subscribing to periodically issued numbers of the "Pickwick Papers"... and he generously offered me an early perusal of the "Pickwick Papers", on the condition that I fetched the numbers as they were due from a little stationer's shop near the Navigation Inn. This was a double pleasure to me, as in addition to reading the pamphlet I could have half-an-hour's breathing outside the mill. Dickens assisted in lightening the burden of a weary time. I gathered fresh life from his admirable writings; and even then began to look into the distant future, with the hope that at sometime I might be enabled to track his footsteps, however far I might be behind. This prospect constantly buoyed up my hopes; and, when at last I was taken away from the mill I felt a regret that by this proceeding I sacrificed a glorious opportunity of making myself known in the world.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Brierley      Print: Serial / periodical

 

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