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

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Listings for Reader:  

John Masefield

 

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Alfred, Lord Tennyson : The Dying Swan

'Masefield's early experience of literature came with the stories told or read to him by his nurse. The fare was what would be expected in a middle class Victorian home; even "Dick Whittington and his Cat" was introduced. Tennyson's "The Dying Swan" was one of the boy's earliest delights; and, having been taught to read before his sixth birthday, he read and committed to memory copious amounts of Longfellow, especially Hiawatha and Evangeline'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Evangeline

'Masefield's early experience of literature came with the stories told or read to him by his nurse. The fare was what would be expected in a middle class Victorian home; even "Dick Whittington and his Cat" was introduced. Tennyson's "The Dying Swan" was one of the boy's earliest delights; and, having been taught to read before his sixth birthday, he read and committed to memory copious amounts of Longfellow, especially Hiawatha and Evangeline'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Hiawatha

'Masefield's early experience of literature came with the stories told or read to him by his nurse. The fare was what would be expected in a middle class Victorian home; even "Dick Whittington and his Cat" was introduced. Tennyson's "The Dying Swan" was one of the boy's earliest delights; and, having been taught to read before his sixth birthday, he read and committed to memory copious amounts of Longfellow, especially Hiawatha and Evangeline'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

'Masefield obtained his first copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" on the Conway and was soon enraptured by the possibility that such South Sea adventures might overtake him'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Thomas Malory : Morte d'Arthur

'When the seventeen-year-old seaman entered Mr Pratt's bookstore on Sixth Avenue near Greenwich Avenue, he bought his first volume of Sir Thomas Malory's Morete d'Arthur; with this he began his career of serious reading as well as his devotion to pre-Renaissance English literature'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Geoffrey Chaucer : The Parliament of Fowls

'Masefield habitually purchased a book each Friday evening and read it over the weekend. Among the first purchases was a seventy-five cent copy of Chaucer; and that evening, as he recalled, "I stretched myself on my bed, and began to read 'The Parliament of Fowls'; and with the first lines entered into a world of poetry until then unknown to me". As a result, Masefield's study of poetry deepened, and Chaucer, John Milton, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats became his mentors. Shelley converted the impressionable youth to vegetarianism....Unfortunately [he] overdid vegetarianism by abjuring milk; and, weak from lack of protein, he finally gave up the regimen'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

John Milton : [unknown]

'Masefield habitually purchased a book each Friday evening and read it over the weekend. Among the first purchases was a seventy-five cent copy of Chaucer; and that evening, as he recalled, "I stretched myself on my bed, and began to read 'The Parliament of Fowls'; and with the first lines entered into a world of poetry until then unknown to me". As a result, Masefield's study of poetry deepened, and Chaucer, John Milton, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats became his mentors. Shelley converted the impressionable youth to vegetarianism....Unfortunately [he] overdid vegetarianism by abjuring milk; and, weak from lack of protein, he finally gave up the regimen'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Percy Bysshe Shelley : [unknown]

'Masefield habitually purchased a book each Friday evening and read it over the weekend. Among the first purchases was a seventy-five cent copy of Chaucer; and that evening, as he recalled, "I stretched myself on my bed, and began to read 'The Parliament of Fowls'; and with the first lines entered into a world of poetry until then unknown to me". As a result, Masefield's study of poetry deepened, and Chaucer, John Milton, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats became his mentors. Shelley converted the impressionable youth to vegetarianism....Unfortunately [he] overdid vegetarianism by abjuring milk; and, weak from lack of protein, he finally gave up the regimen'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

John Keats : [unknown]

'Masefield habitually purchased a book each Friday evening and read it over the weekend. Among the first purchases was a seventy-five cent copy of Chaucer; and that evening, as he recalled, "I stretched myself on my bed, and began to read 'The Parliament of Fowls'; and with the first lines entered into a world of poetry until then unknown to me". As a result, Masefield's study of poetry deepened, and Chaucer, John Milton, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats became his mentors. Shelley converted the impressionable youth to vegetarianism....Unfortunately [he] overdid vegetarianism by abjuring milk; and, weak from lack of protein, he finally gave up the regimen'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : The Green Hand

'Herman Melville's "The Green Hand" he had read but it "was not much use to me" - a phrase which suggests that already he was reading as a writer reads, with a view to using the book for his own development. He read other works by Melville, and enjoyed parts of "Moby Dick"'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'Herman Melville's "The Green Hand" he had read but it "was not much use to me" - a phrase which suggests that already he was reading as a writer reads, with a view to using the book for his own development. He read other works by Melville, and enjoyed parts of "Moby Dick"'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

George du Maurier : Trilby

'One book... stimulated the poet beyond all others; it became, in a way, a key to the rest of his reading for some time to come. This was George du Maurier's "Trilby". It was not so much the work itself - though John Masefield enjoyed it more than any book he had read until then - which played so prominent a part in forming his tastes, but the other works which George du Maurier put John Masefield on to... Whatever book "Trilby" mentions John Masefield bought... On the oblique recommendations in "Trilby" he read the "Three Musketeers"; Sterne's "Sentimental Journey"; Darwin's "Origin of the Species"'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Alexandre Dumas (pere) : The Three Musketeers

'One book... stimulated the poet beyond all others; it became, in a way, a key to the rest of his reading for some time to come. This was George du Maurier's "Trilby". It was not so much the work itself - though John Masefield enjoyed it more than any book he had read until then - which played so prominent a part in forming his tastes, but the other works which George du Maurier put John Masefield on to... Whatever book "Trilby" mentions John Masefield bought... On the oblique recommendations in "Trilby" he read the "Three Musketeers"; Sterne's "Sentimental Journey"; Darwin's "Origin of the Species"'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Laurence Sterne : A Sentimental Journey

'One book... stimulated the poet beyond all others; it became, in a way, a key to the rest of his reading for some time to come. This was George du Maurier's "Trilby". It was not so much the work itself - though John Masefield enjoyed it more than any book he had read until then - which played so prominent a part in forming his tastes, but the other works which George du Maurier put John Masefield on to... Whatever book "Trilby" mentions John Masefield bought... On the oblique recommendations in "Trilby" he read the "Three Musketeers"; Sterne's "Sentimental Journey"; Darwin's "Origin of the Species"'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Charles Darwin : The Origin of Species

'One book... stimulated the poet beyond all others; it became, in a way, a key to the rest of his reading for some time to come. This was George du Maurier's "Trilby". It was not so much the work itself - though John Masefield enjoyed it more than any book he had read until then - which played so prominent a part in forming his tastes, but the other works which George du Maurier put John Masefield on to... Whatever book "Trilby" mentions John Masefield bought... On the oblique recommendations in "Trilby" he read the "Three Musketeers"; Sterne's "Sentimental Journey"; Darwin's "Origin of the Species"'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

George du Maurier : Peter Ibbetson

'After "Trilby" came the effect of "Peter Ibbetson". "It came to me", writes the poet of this book, "just when I needed an inner life". From "Peter Ibbetson" he learned of the existence of Villon and of de Musset. He read these poets but "the time was not ripe for either".

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Francois Villon : 

'After "Trilby" came the effect of "Peter Ibbetson". "It came to me", writes the poet of this book, "just when I needed an inner life". From "Peter Ibbetson" he learned of the existence of Villon and of de Musset. He read these poets but "the time was not ripe for either".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Alfred Louis Charles de Musset : 

'After "Trilby" came the effect of "Peter Ibbetson". "It came to me", writes the poet of this book, "just when I needed an inner life". From "Peter Ibbetson" he learned of the existence of Villon and of de Musset. He read these poets but "the time was not ripe for either".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Thomas de Quincey : Confessions of an English Opium Eater

'the young poet began to wonder "who was this de Quincey, and what sort of a pen had he?'" From "The Confessions of an Opium Eater" he discovered Wordsworth'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Richard Steele : [essays]

'The essays of Steele and Addison, whose prose has so greatly influenced his own, seem to have impressed but, at this time, not moved him. Likewise, Pope, whose translation of the Odyssey found the young reader "by no means skilled enough to perceive the perfection of much of the verse" - "But I found the story worth the trouble", Masefield adds'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Joseph Addison : [essays]

'The essays of Steele and Addison, whose prose has so greatly influenced his own, seem to have impressed but, at this time, not moved him. Likewise, Pope, whose translation of the Odyssey found the young reader "by no means skilled enough to perceive the perfection of much of the verse" - "But I found the story worth the trouble", Masefield adds'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Homer  : Odyssey

'The essays of Steele and Addison, whose prose has so greatly influenced his own, seem to have impressed but, at this time, not moved him. Likewise, Pope, whose translation of the Odyssey found the young reader "by no means skilled enough to perceive the perfection of much of the verse" - "But I found the story worth the trouble", Masefield adds'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Percy Bysshe Shelley : The Revolt of Islam

"'On first reading Shelley", he writes, "I told myself that this was a new kind of verse, such as I had not known existed." Now it was the VERSE, not the argument, which had an effect upon Masefield which he describes as "electric and ecstatic", and he tells how excited he was by the CONSTRUCTION of "The Revolt of Islam"'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Edward Fitzgerald : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

George Meredith : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Dante Gabriel Rossetti : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Matthew Arnold : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Robert Browning : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Marie-Henri Beyle (Stendhal) : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Gustave Flaubert : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Guy de Maupassant : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Prosper Merimee : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Walter Pater : 

''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Charles Dickens : 

'Before his departure for his native land he had read some of Dickens and Stevenson... and William Morris. John Masefield's debt to William Morris as a constructive thinker is considerable. It may be that Morris has been the formative influence, in his limitations as well as his liberations, on Masefield's view of life'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Robert Louis Stevenson : 

'Before his departure for his native land he had read some of Dickens and Stevenson... and William Morris. John Masefield's debt to William Morris as a constructive thinker is considerable. It may be that Morris has been the formative influence, in his limitations as well as his liberations, on Masefield's view of life'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

William Morris : 

'Before his departure for his native land he had read some of Dickens and Stevenson... and William Morris. John Masefield's debt to William Morris as a constructive thinker is considerable. It may be that Morris has been the formative influence, in his limitations as well as his liberations, on Masefield's view of life'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Algernon Charles Swinburne : Chastelard

'Fine writing and realism were what John Masefield was after in prose. In poetry, it was the upsurge of feeling and rhythm first released by Swinburne. Masefield wrote in a letter to me after my first meeting with him, "Swinburne meant much to my generation: he was literary, he adored the French masters, who were then our masters in all things: he was generous beyond most poets...:he was one of the real discoverers of Blake: he could write exquisite verse in an age of exquisite verse: he laid us all at his feet with half a dozen things which I cannot read without emotion now. he was one of the first romantic poets to be read by me: and Chastelard, to a boy, is all that the heart can desire and the lines on the death of Baudelaire all that genius and grief can utter".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Algernon Charles Swinburne : [poem on the death of Baudelaire]

'Fine writing and realism were what John Masefield was after in prose. In poetry, it was the upsurge of feeling and rhythm first released by Swinburne. Masefield wrote in a letter to me after my first meeting with him, "Swinburne meant much to my generation: he was literary, he adored the French masters, who were then our masters in all things: he was generous beyond most poets...:he was one of the real discoverers of Blake: he could write exquisite verse in an age of exquisite verse: he laid us all at his feet with half a dozen things which I cannot read without emotion now. He was one of the first romantic poets to be read by me: and Chastelard, to a boy, is all that the heart can desire and the lines on the death of Baudelaire all that genius and grief can utter".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Wiliam Butler Yeats : [unknown]

'Masefield was already a well-read man when, at the age of twenty-one, he came across the works of Yeats, whose disciple he became, and whom he shortly met'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

 

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