Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 21811

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'I cannot tell you with what delight I found your lovely history of Alexandria, and your most kind letter, awaiting me when I returned here on Thursday. ( I was delayed in London)the book has a beauty that makes one feel calmed -(at the moment I am reading the section on literature) as one feels calmed when looking at certain statues and listening to certain music. I am deeply grateful to you for sending it to me, and am proud to have it inscribed in your handwriting. I wish you could know what pleasure I feel in reading this book. Whilst I was in London, I found people tearing about, and declaring they could read nothing but newspapers. What a strange way of trying to retain one's sanity! For myself, I have been reading Nashe's Lenten Stuffe, and now I am reading Alexandria.'
Century: 1900-1945
Date: 1 Sep 1939
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: specific address: Renishaw Hall, Renishaw, Yorkshire
   
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:Edith Sitwell
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Female
Date of Birth 7 Sep 1887
Socio-economic group: Gentry
Occupation: Poet
Religion: Christian
Country of origin: England
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: E M Forster
Title: Alexandria: A History and Guide
Genre: History, Geography / Travel
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: 1938 2nd edition London ( First published 1922)
Provenance: owned

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 21811  
Source - Print  
  Author: Edith Sitwell
  Editor: Richard Greene
  Title: Selected Letters of Edith Sitwell
  Place of Publication: London
  Date of Publication: 1998
  Vol: n/a
  Page: 212
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Edith Sitwell, Richard Greene (ed.), Selected Letters of Edith Sitwell (London, 1998), p. 212, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=21811, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

This is an extract from a letter to EM Forster dated 1st October 1939. Edith also refers to meeting EM Forster at the London Library 'the other day' and to tell him that she is sending him separately a copy of her own book "I Live Under a Black Sun" which she begs him to believe is not a novel but an allegory.

 

 

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