Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 12897

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'What Books have you been perusing - and how did you like Sha[ke]spea[re]? - Since I saw you I have toil'd thro' many a thick octa[vo] - many of them to little purpose. Byron's and Scott's "Poems" I have read and must admire - tho' you recollect, we used to give Campbell a de[cided] preference - and I still think, with justice. Have you ever seen Hoole's "Tas[so?]" I have among many others read, it, "Leonidas", "The Epigoniad", "Oberon", "Savage[e's] Poems" &.c. Miss Porter's "Scottish Chiefs" and "Waverl[e]y" have been the principal of my Novels - With regard to "Waverl[e]y" I cannot help remarking t[hat] in my opinion it is the best novel that has been published these thirty years. The characters of Ebenezer Cru[i]ckshank[s] mine host of the garter, the Reverend Mr. Gowk - thrapple and Squire Bradwardian display a Cervantic vein of humour which has seldom been surpassed - whilst the descriptions of the gloomy caverns of the Highlands, and the delineations of the apathic Callum Beg and enterprising Vich Ian Vohr show a richness of [italics]Scottean[end italics] colouring which few have equalled. Give me your opinion of it if you have read it; - and if not - endeavour by all means to procure it.'
Century: 1800-1849
Date: Between 1 Jan 1814 and 18 Oct 1814
Country: Scotland
Time: n/a
Place: city: Annan
   
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 Carlyle
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 4 Dec 1795
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: teacher, later man of letters
Religion: Christian
Country of origin: Scotland
Country of experience: Scotland
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: George Gordon Lord Byron
Title: [Poems]
Genre: Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 12897  
Source - Print  
  Author: n/a
  Editor: Charles Richard Sanders
  Title: The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle
  Place of Publication: Durham, NC
  Date of Publication: 1970
  Vol: I
  Page: 29
  Additional comments: Letter to Robert Mitchell

Citation: Charles Richard Sanders (ed.), The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle (Durham, NC, 1970), I, p. 29, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=12897, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)