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

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Record Number: 24768


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'The book arrived by the first post.[...] [it] might be described as an appalling indictment of the middle classes--[...] But in the introspective silence that came over me after I closed the volume and sat through a solitary afternoon I felt that this may be the Conscience of the Age overheard by John Galsworthy in its uneasy whisperings [...].' Hence follow 18 lines of appreciative comment.

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

30 May 1908

Country:

England

Time

morning: precisely identified as between first post and early afternoon
afternoon

Place:

city: Luton Hoo Estate
county: Bedfordshire
specific address: Someries

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:

Joseph Conrad

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

3 Dec 1857

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Master mariner and author

Religion:

originally Polish Catholic, by now agnostic/atheist

Country of Origin:

Poland

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

John Galsworthy

Title:

A Commentary

Genre:

Essays / Criticism

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Grant Richards: London,1908

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

24768

Source:

Print

Author:

Joseph Conrad

Editor:

Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies

Title:

The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911

Place of Publication:

Cambridge

Date of Publication:

1990

Vol:

4

Page:

83

Additional Comments:

Letter from Joseph Conrad to John Galsworthy 30 May,1908, Someries.

Citation:

Joseph Conrad, Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911 (Cambridge, 1990), 4, p. 83, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=24768, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

The timing and impact of this reading experience, by implication a solitary one, are very well defined in the evidence.

   
   
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