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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: 2005


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Emrys Daniel Hughes, son of a Welsh miner, first treated Pilgrim's Progress as an illustrated adventure story. When he was jailed during the first World War for refusing conscription, he reread it and discovered a very different book: "Lord Hategood could easily have been in the Government. I had talked with Mr Worldly Wiseman and had been in the Slough of Despond and knew all the jurymen who had been on the jury at the trial of Hopeful at Vanity Fair. And Vanity Fair would of course have been all for the War."'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1914 and 1918

Country:

n/a

Time

n/a

Place:

other location: prison

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:

Emrys Daniel Hughes

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)

Occupation:

miner's son

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

Wales

Country of Experience:

n/a

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

John Bunyan

Title:

Pilgrim's Progress

Genre:

Other religious, Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

borrowed (institution library)


Source Information:

Record ID:

2005

Source:

Print

Author:

Jonathan Rose

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Place of Publication:

New Haven

Date of Publication:

2001

Vol:

n/a

Page:

105

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (New Haven, 2001), p. 105, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=2005, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

See Janet Fyfe, 'Books Behind Bars: The Role of Books, Reading and Libraries in British Prison Reform 1701-1911' (Westport CT, 1992) pp.195-6

   
   
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