Switch to English Switch to French

The Open University  |   Study at the OU  |   About the OU  |   Research at the OU  |   Search the OU

Listen to this page  |   Accessibility

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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
  RED International Logo

RED Australia logo


RED Canada logo
RED Netherlands logo
RED New Zealand logo

Listings for Reader:  

Frank Smythe

 

Click here to select all entries:

 


  

Charles Dickens : The Pickwick Papers

'I breakfasted luxuriously in my tent off porridge, fried ham and tea and afterwards read "Pickwick Papers", pausing now and then to anoint myself with face cream.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Book

  

Charles Dickens : The Pickwick Papers

'I sat up late reading of Mr. Jingle's artifices, until at last I began to speculate drowsily as to that gentleman's proficiency on ski. It seemed that he was arguing fiercely with Mr.Snodgrass on the advantages`of the stem Christiania over the telemark, and I caught fragments such as, "Magnificent feeling-always use it-sharp swing-no bone breaker-good turn-very!" While Mr. Pickwick, clad in gaiters,smiled benignantly in the background.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Book

  

 : newspapers

'Thanks to the efficiency of Mr Kydd, we were overtaken here by a runner, and spent a pleasant half-hour in the shade reading letters from home, and the latest sensations and French railway accidents in the newspapers.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Newspaper

  

 : newspapers

'They arrived late that evening bringing letters from home, and newspapers. As regards the world's news I confess that the first thing I turned to was the cricket reports. How Kent was faring in the county championships seemed of greater importance than the latest political crisis, divorce, scandal or arsenical poisoning.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Newspaper

  

Richard Aldington : Death of a Hero

'I lay in my sleeping bag reading Mr.Richard Aldington's cynical book "Death of a Hero". it is an admirable work but I would have preferred Mr. P.G.Wodehouse on this occasion.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Book

  

James Boswell : A Life of Samuel Johnson

'Fortunately Peter had lots of reading matter and he loaned me "Doctor Johnson".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Book

  

William Shakespeare : Sonnets

'I sat in my rickety camp chair which had been artfully and ingeniously repaired by [Sherpa] Wangdi to prevent it falling to pieces, and read Shakespeare's sonnets.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Book

  

 : newspapers and weekly magazines

'There was nothing for me to do but lie in my sleeping bag,write up my botanical notes, read and in between whiles eat chocolate.[...] Among the papers I had received by mail were copies of "The Spectator" and "The Times". The news of the day was, as usual, depressing, but I got a certain amount of kick out of the literary reviews, especially as`regards one book which "The Times" praised highly, and "The Spectator" damned to perdition. Such contentiousness seemed to me symbolical of the distant combative world. Another paper, an illustrated weekly, told me in a wealth of detail and many diagrammatic drawings, how to make my house gas-proof, but it said nothing about tents. It all seemed utterly fantastic viewed from the Valley of Flowers.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Newspaper, Serial / periodical

  

Charles Dickens : Martin Chuzzlewit

'Our library too was a weighty affair. Shipton had the longest novel that had been published in recent years, Warren a 2,000-page work on physiology.[...] On Good Friday [...] the rest of us lay about, played chess or read the less technical portion of our curiously assorted library. This included "Gone with the Wind" (Shipton) "Seventeenth Century Verse" (Oliver), "Montaigne's Essays" (Warren), "Don Quixote" (self), "Adam Bede" (Lloyd), "Martin Chuzzlewit" (Smythe), "Stones of Venice" (Odell) and a few others. Warren, who rejoined us that day, besides his weighty tome on Physiology -in which there were several funny anecdotes if one took the trouble to look - had with him a yet weightier volume on the singularly inappropriate subject of Tropical Diseases. '

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Book

  

 : The Times Special Coronation Supplement

'Among the mail was "The Times" Special Coronation Supplement. The men were vastly intrigued with the pictures. "That I suppose is your Potala?" asked [Sherpa] Wangdi, pointing to a drawing of Westminster Abbey. "And that is the King and the Grand Lama about to crown him?". I agreed that the Archbishop of Canterbury was indeed our Grand Lama.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Frank Smythe      Print: Newspaper

 

Click here to select all entries:

 

   
   
Green Turtle Web Design