Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 9463

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
Mary Berry to 'Mrs Somerville', from Bellevue, September 1834: 'I have just finished reading your book [apparently on astronomy], which has [italics]entertained[end italics] me extremely, and at the same time, I hope, improved my moral character in the Christian virtue of humility [...] Humbled I must be, by finding my own intellect unequal to following, beyond a first step, the explanations by which you seek to make easy to comprehension the marvellous phenomena of the universe'.
Century: 1800-1849
Date: Between 1 Sep 1834 and 30 Sep 1834
Country: France
Time: n/a
Place: city: Bellevue
   
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:Mary Berry
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Female
Date of Birth 16 Mar 1763
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Writer
Religion: Anglican
Country of origin: England
Country of experience: France
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Mrs Somerville
Title: [work on astronomy]
Genre: Science
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 9463  
Source - Print  
  Author: n/a
  Editor: Lady Theresa Lewis
  Title: Extracts of the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry from the Year 1783 to 1852
  Place of Publication: London
  Date of Publication: 1865
  Vol: 3
  Page: 423
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Lady Theresa Lewis (ed.), Extracts of the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry from the Year 1783 to 1852 (London, 1865), 3, p. 423, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=9463, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

In rest of letter Berry makes various plays on words involving stars and astronomical terms (pp.423-24 of source), thus suggesting astronomy as subject of Somerville' book.

 

 

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