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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
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Record Number: 11451


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Later on I found at the bottom of a cupboard some of volumes -Addison's "Spectator", Pope's "Homer", and a few other things. My grandmother -who also devoured books in great gulps -gave me a "Robinson Crusoe", and lent me volumes containing four "Waverley Novels" apiece. Much about the same time my father got bound up a set of Dickens's novels he had bought in weekly parts. They were in the popular quarto edition with drawings by Fred Barnard, John Mahony and others. These were a real treasure -and all the more so as my father was an ardent Dickens "fan" who rather despised Scott as a "romantic" and a "Tory". His mother (born in 1815, so old enough to have read the "Waverley Novels" when they were still comparatively new things) rather sniffed at Dickens, and definitely preferred both Scott and Thackeray. She gave me "Vanity Fair" as an antidote to "David Copperfield" and added a Shakespeare, and a bundle of "paperback" editions -Fielding, Smollett, Fennimore Cooper and Captain Marryatt.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 21 Aug 1879 and 21 Aug 1894

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London

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 A. Jackson

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

21 Aug 1879

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

son of master craftsman, reading boy at printers

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Walter Scott

Title:

Waverley Novels

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

volumes containing four novels each

Provenance

borrowed (private library)
from grandmother


Source Information:

Record ID:

11451

Source:

Print

Author:

T.A. Jackson

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Solo Trumpet: Some memories of Socialist agitation and propaganda

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1953

Vol:

n/a

Page:

16

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

T.A. Jackson, Solo Trumpet: Some memories of Socialist agitation and propaganda (London, 1953), p. 16, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=11451, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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