Record Number: 17214

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I had seen some numbers of "Tracts for the Times" lying on the counter in a bookseller's shop in Newport, and they had excited my curiosity, and led to inquiry; and, as my brother William's opinions had by that time become marked, he soon succeeded in indoctrinating us all with them. A very great comfort it certainly was to myself to have my ideas cleared upon subjects which had long been floating about in my brain, and worrying me almost without my knowing it. Especially it was a relief to me to find great earnestness and devotion in a system which allowed of reserve in expression, and did not make the style of conversation, which I had met with in the only definitely religious tales I had read, a necessary part of Christianity. Mrs Sherwood's "Tales" and others of a similar kind, described children as quoting texts, and talking of their feelings in an unnatural way, or what seemed to me unnatural; and I had really suffered so much at school from things said to me which jarred upon my taste that it was perfect rest to be able to talk upon religious subjects without hearing or using cant phrases'.

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1815 and 31 Dec 1831

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Bath

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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Elizabeth Missing Sewell

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

1815

Socio-Economic Group:

Gentry

Occupation:

later writer

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Mary Martha Sherwood

Title:

[Tales]

Genre:

Other religious, Fiction, Children's Lit

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown
read at school

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Source Information:

Record ID:

17214

Source:

Print

Author:

Elizabeth Missing Sewell

Editor:

Eleanor L. Sewell

Title:

The Autobiography of Elizabeth M. Sewell

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1907

Vol:

n/a

Page:

57-8

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, Eleanor L. Sewell (ed.), The Autobiography of Elizabeth M. Sewell (London, 1907), p. 57-8, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=17214, accessed: 24 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Sherwood wrote numerous moral tales and tracts - it is not possible to determine which Sewell is talking about