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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
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Record Number: 17816


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Virginia Woolf to Roger Fry, 6 May 1922: 'I have the most violent cold in the whole parish. Proust's fat volume comes in very handy. Last night I started on vol 2 [A l'Ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs] of him (the novel) and propose to sink myself in it all day [...] Oh if I could write like that! I cry. And at the moment such is the astonishing vibration and saturation and intensification that he produces -- theres [sic] something sexual in it -- that I feel I [italics]can[end italics] write like that, and seize my pen and then I [italics]can't[end italics] write like that. Scarcely anyone so stimulates the nerves of language in me: it becomes an obsession. But I must return to Swann.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

5 May 1922

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Richmond
county: Surrey

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:

Virginia Woolf

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

25 Jan 1882

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Marcel Proust

Title:

A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

17816

Source:

Print

Author:

Virginia Woolf

Editor:

Joanne Trautmann Banks

Title:

Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1989

Vol:

n/a

Page:

142-143

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Virginia Woolf, Joanne Trautmann Banks (ed.), Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf (London, 1989), p. 142-143, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=17816, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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