Switch to English Switch to French

The Open University  |   Study at the OU  |   About the OU  |   Research at the OU  |   Search the OU

Listen to this page  |   Accessibility

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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
  RED International Logo

RED Australia logo


RED Canada logo
RED Netherlands logo
RED New Zealand logo

Record Number: 22822


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

[Mary Brotherton writes] 'I told him [Tennyson] the story [of the eighteenth-century woman soldier Phoebe Hessel] one day at Farringford, knowing it would touch him, and he came up to see my husband and me next day, and asked me to tell it him again: on whch I gave him the little penny magazine I found it in. It was an unpretentious account of "Old Brighton." Many months after he took me up to his library, after a walk, and read me what he called "Bones." That was before it was called "Rizpah" and published.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

county: Isle of Wight
specific address: Farringford
location in dwelling: Library

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:

Alfred Tennyson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

6 Aug 1809

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

Mary Brotherton


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Alfred Tennyson

Title:

'Bones'

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

22822

Source:

Print

Author:

Hallam Tennyson

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1897

Vol:

2

Page:

249 n.1

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son (London, 1897), 2, p. 249 n.1, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=22822, accessed: 25 April 2024


Additional Comments:

Note accompanies extract from Tennyson's MS notes to his 1880 ballads and poems in which he records: '"Rizpah" is founded on an incident which I saw thus related in some penny magazine called Old Brighton, lent to me by my friend and neighbour Mrs Brotherton' (p.249).

   
   
Green Turtle Web Design