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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Record Number: 12956


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'It is about ten days since I got rid of a severe inflam[m]ation-of the throat, which confined me to the house for two weeks. During two or three days, I was not able to speak plainly; & you will easily conceive, that I passed my time very heavily. I endeavoured to read several things: I tried a book of modern Biography "The British Plutarch"; but soon finding it to be a very miserable book, I shut it for good and all. I next opened the "Spectator" - and tho' his ja[u]nty manner but ill accorded with my sulky humours, I toiled thro' a volume & a half, with exemplary patience. Lastly, I had recourse to Lord Chesterfield's "advice to his son"; and I think I never before so distinctly saw the pitiful disposition of this Lord. His directions concerning washing the face & paring the nails are indeed very praiseworthy: and I should be content to see them printed in a large type, and placed in frames above the chimneypieces of boarding-schools - for the purpose of enforcing the duties of cleanliness, upon the rising generation. But the flattery, the dissimulation & paltry cunning that he is perpetually recommending, leave one little room to regret that Chesterfield was not his father. Such was the result of my studies, in my sickness: - a result highly unfavourable to those feelings of prostration before high birth & weight of purse, which (many tell us) it is so eminently the duty of all men to cultivate. Indeed this is not the first time that I have noticed in my mind, a considerable tendency to undervalue the great ones of this world'.

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jun 1816 and 15 Jul 1816

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Thomas Mortimer

Title:

The British Plutarch

Genre:

Biography

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

12956

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:

77

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. 77, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=12956, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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