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

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Record Number: 14044


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Mrs Hugh Fraser, describing an incident at the select girls' boarding school she attended, run by Elizabeth Missing Sewell and her sisters at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, after Elizabeth Sewell had omitted a passage of Gaskell's Cranford as unsuitable to be read aloud to her pupils: '"Cranford" was left on the table in the drawing room [...] Alas, poor Rosie [a new girl from what Fraser describes as a 'a family in business'] could not resist the temptation. When I came into the room the next morning I found her devouring the forbidden page [goes on to report how the girl had to leave the school, and how Sewell and her sisters acknowledged themselves as having been to blame for admitting a child who, 'with her bar sinister of trade, had had no opportunity of knowing what honour meant.']'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

Time

morning

Place:

city: Bonchurch
county: Isle of Wight
location in dwelling: Drawing room
other location: School

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:

'Rosie'

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

School pupil

Religion:

unknown

Country of Origin:

unknown

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Elizabeth Gaskell

Title:

Cranford

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

14044

Source:

Print

Author:

Mrs Hugh Fraser

Editor:

n/a

Title:

A Diplomatist's Wife in Many Lands

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1910

Vol:

1

Page:

227-28

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Mrs Hugh Fraser, A Diplomatist's Wife in Many Lands (London, 1910), 1, p. 227-28, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=14044, accessed: 25 April 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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