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

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Record Number: 1836


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'As a boy, stonemason Hugh Miller first learned to appreciate the pleasures of literature in the "most delightful of all narratives - the story of Joseph. Was there ever such a discovery made before! I actually found out for myself that the art of reading is the art of finding stories in books, and from that moment reading became one of the most delightful of my amusements". Once Miller had learned to read Scripture as a story, he soon found similar and equally gripping tales in chapbooks of Jack the Giant Killer, Sinbad the Sailor, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. And then, he recalled, from fairy tales "I passed on, without being conscious of break or line of division, to books on which the learned are content to write commentaries and dissertations, but which I found to be quite as nice children's books as any of the others": Pope's Iliad and Odyssey. "With what power, and at how early an age, true genius impresses!"'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

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:

Hugh Miller

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1802

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

later a stonemason

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:

Title:

Beauty and the Beast

Genre:

Children's Lit

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

chapbook edition

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

1836

Source:

Print

Author:

Jonathan Rose

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Place of Publication:

New Haven

Date of Publication:

2001

Vol:

n/a

Page:

95

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (New Haven, 2001), p. 95, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=1836, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

See Hugh Miller, 'Schools and Schoolmasters', pp.28-30.

   
   
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