Record Number: 6113

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'we first drew the curtains all round her four-post bed, so that it was quite dark inside; and then, having pulled them back again, we took off our shoes and all got into bed with her, while she read us a chapter of the current book... Aunt Etty was the best reader-aloud I have ever known. She could alter bits which she did not consider suitable, skip whole pages and episodes, and join the narrative up again with an invisible seam; or turn an unhappy ending into a happy one without anyone being able to guess at the liberties she had taken... After her death I found a book she had once read to us: "Don John" by Jean Ingelow. The story is about two changelings, a bad boy and a good one. By a series of accidents, nobody quite knows which boy belongs to which family. In the end it is proved that the good boy is the son of the bad parents, and vice versa. This was more than Aunt Etty's eugenic conscience could bear; and... she changed the entire sense of the book... none of us ever discovered the fraud... till, thirty years later, when I happened to find the book again'.

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

Time

n/anight: In bed

Place:

county: Kent
specific address: Down House

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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Henrietta Litchfield

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

1843

Socio-Economic Group:

Gentry

Occupation:

unknown

Religion:

unknown

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

Darwin children inc. Gwen (later Raverat)

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Jean Ingelow

Title:

Don John

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

6113

Source:

Print

Author:

Gwen Raverat

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Period Piece

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1952

Vol:

n/a

Page:

145-6

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Gwen Raverat, Period Piece (London, 1952), p. 145-6, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=6113, accessed: 02 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

None