Evidence: | 'There was a lending library in town, but with no education or guidance in English literature, [Edwin Muir] wasted valuable reading time. Then there was opposition from his father, who made him return a study of "the Atheist" David Hume. And when his brother gave him 3d to spend, he was almost insulted to learn that the money had gone to purchase Penny Poets editions of "As You Like It", "The Earthly Paradise" and Matthew Arnold. At home there was nothing to read except [various items mentioned in a previous entry and], "Gulliver's Travels", an R.M. Ballantyne tale about Hudson's Bay...a large volume documenting a theological dispute between a Protestant clergyman and a Catholic priest, a novel that was probably "Sense and Sensibility" ("I could make nothing of it, but this did not keep me from reading it")... "I read a complete series of sentimental love tales very popular at the time, called Sunday Stories", as well as a raft of temperance novels. Consequently, when he stumbled across Christopher Marlowe or George Crabbe in that literary junkyard, "it was like an addition to a secret treasure; for no one knew of my passion, and there was none to whom I could speak of it".' |
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Century: | 1850-1899, 1900-1945 | ||||||||||
Date: | Between 1891 and 1901 | ||||||||||
Country: | Scotland | ||||||||||
Time: | n/a | ||||||||||
Place: | county: Orkney Islands | ||||||||||
Type of Experience (Reader): |
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Type of Experience (Listener): |
|
Reader: | Edwin Muir |
Age | Child (0-17) |
Gender | Male |
Date of Birth | 15 May 1887 |
Socio-economic group: | Labourer (agricultural) |
Occupation: | farmer's son, later poet |
Religion: | Protestant |
Country of origin: | Scotland |
Country of experience: | Scotland |
Listeners present if any: (e.g. family, servants,
friends, workmates) |
n/a |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Author: | |
Title: | [study of David Hume] |
Genre: | Biography |
Form of Text: | Print: Book |
Publication details: | n/a |
Provenance: | borrowed (public library) |
Record ID: | 5267 | |
Source - | ||
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: | 376 | |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Citation: | Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (New Haven, 2001), p. 376, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=5267, accessed: 28 March 2024 |
See Edwin Muir, 'The Story and the Fable' (1940), pp83-91 |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)