Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 8022

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'Finished Miss Austen's "Emma", which amused me very much, impressing me with a high opinion of her powers of drawing and sustaining character, though not satisfying me always with the end and aim of her labours. She is successful in painting the ridiculous to the life, and while she makes demands on our patience for the almost intolerable absurdities and tediousness of her well-meaning gossips, she does not recompense us for what we suffer from her conceited and arrogant nuisances by making their vices their punishments. We are not much better, but perhaps a little more prudent for her writing. She does not probe the vices, but lays bare the weaknesses of character; the blemish on the skin, and not the corruption at the heart, is what she examines. Mrs. Brunton's books have a far higher aim; they try to make us better, and it is an addition to previous faults if they do not. The necessity, the comfort, and the elevating influence of piety is continually inculcated throughout her works - which never appear in Miss Austen's.'
Century: 1800-1849
Date: 15 Feb 1834
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: n/a
   
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:William Charles Macready
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 3 Mar 1793
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Actor and Stage Manager
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: Jane Austen
Title: Emma
Genre: Fiction
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 8022  
Source - Print  
  Author: William Charles Macready
  Editor: Frederick Pollock
  Title: Macready's Reminiscences, and selections from his diaries and letters
  Place of Publication: n.p.
  Date of Publication: n.d.
  Vol: 1
  Page: 412
  Additional comments: Journal entry, 15 Feb 1834

Citation: William Charles Macready, Frederick Pollock (ed.), Macready's Reminiscences, and selections from his diaries and letters (n.p., n.d.), 1, p. 412, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=8022, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

 

 

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