Record Number: 17849

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Today I have been to church which has not improved my temper I must own. The clergyman did his best to make me hate him and I took refuge in that admirable poem, The Song of Deborah and Barak; I should like to make a long scroll of painting (say, to go all round a cornice) illustrative of this jolly poem; with the people seen in the distance going stealthily on footpaths, while the great highways lie vacant; with the archers besetting the draw wells; with the Princes in hiding on the hills among the bleating sheep-flocks; with the overthrow of Sisera, the stars fighting against him in their courses and that ancient river, the river Kishon, sweeping him away in anger; with his mother looking and looking down the long road in the red sunset, and never a banner and never a spear-clump coming into sight, and her women with their white faces round her, ready with lying comfort. To say nothing of the people on white asses.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: 25 Oct 1874

Country:

Scotland

Time

daytime

Place:

city: Edinburgh
specific address: Unnamed church

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:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Church of Scotland (wavering)

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Title:

Bible, O.T., Judges, Chapter 5.

Genre:

Bible

Form of Text:

Print: Book, Bible or possibly prayerbook

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

17849

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

68-9

Additional Comments:

From section headed Sunday [25 October] in Letter 326, To Frances Sitwell, Thursday [22 October 1874]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The dates in square brackets have been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879 (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 68-9, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=17849, accessed: 23 March 2023

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Additional Comments:

None