Record Number: 19598

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Look here, you had better get hold of G.C. Lichtenberg’s "Ausführliche Erklärung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche": Gottingen, 1794 to 1816 (it was published in numbers seemingly. Douglas the publisher lent it to me: and tho’ I hate the damned tongue too cordially to do more than dip into it, I have seen some shrewd things. If you cannot get it for yourself, (it seems scarce), I daresay I could negotiate with Douglas for a loan.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: 7 May 1875

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Edinburgh
county: Lothian
specific address: Swanston Cottage, Lothianburn, Edinburgh

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:

Uncommitted

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:

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Title:

Ausführliche Erklärung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche

Genre:

Arts / architecture

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Published Gottingen in parts 1794-99 and subsequently in volume form.

Provenance

borrowed (other)

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Source Information:

Record ID:

19598

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:

133

Additional Comments:

Letter 386, To Sidney Colvin, [c. 7 May 1875], Swanston. The date in square brackets has 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. 133, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=19598, accessed: 23 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-99) was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. He was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. He is remembered for his notebooks published posthumously and for his discovery of the strange tree-like patterns now called Lichtenberg figures. He also published in 1794-99 an Ausführliche Erklärung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche in which he described the satirical details in William Hogarth’s prints. RLS appears to have been reading this work in one of the subsequent editions in volume form.