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: 28010


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Aaron Hill to Samuel Richardson, 29 December 1740: 'We have a lively little boy in the family [...] quite unfriended, and born to no prospect. He is the son of an honest, poor soldier [...] the boy [...] is so pretty, so gentle, and gay-spirited, that we have made him, and designed him, our own, ever since he could totter and aim at words [...] He is an hourly foundation for laughter [...] ever since my first reading of Pamela, he puts in for a right to be one of her hearers; and, having got half her sayings by heart, talks in no other language but hers; and what really surprises, and has charmed me into a certain foretaste of her influence, he is, at once, become fond of his books, which (before) he could never be brought to attend to -- that he may read Pamela, he says, without stopping. The first discovery we made of this power, over so unripe and unfixed an attention, was one evening, when I was reading her reflections at the pond to some company. The little rampant intruder [...] had crept under my chair, and was sitting before me on the carpet [...] on a sudden we heard a succession of heart-wrenching sobs, which, while he strove to conceal from our notice, his little sides swelled as though they would burst [...] All the ladies in the company were ready to devour him with kisses, and he has since become doubly a favourite, and is, perhaps, the youngest of Pamela's conquests.'

Century:

1700-1799

Date:

Between 17 Sep 1740 and 29 Dec 1740

Country:

n/a

Time

evening

Place:

n/a

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:

Aaron Hill

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

n/a

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

Included Harry Campbell (aged c. 6 years old), and 'ladies.'


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Samuel Richardson

Title:

Pamela

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

28010

Source:

Print

Author:

n/a

Editor:

Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Title:

The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson [...] Selected from the Original Manuscripts Bequeathed by him to his Family

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1804

Vol:

1

Page:

56-58

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (ed.), The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson [...] Selected from the Original Manuscripts Bequeathed by him to his Family (London, 1804), 1, p. 56-58, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=28010, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Child listener named at p.63 and 71 in source.

   
   
Green Turtle Web Design