Record Number: 3658
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
Letter H 25 - Late November 1855 - "It is so off ... that we all should like that poem of the Arab physician best. - Fancy my endorsing the Athenaeum! Every word in the Athenaeum critique I agree with - for I am very stupid in making things out in poetry; and that Men & Women is to me simply a set of 50 Conundrums, of the most amazing & tormenting kind."
Century:1850-1899
Date:Between 17 Nov 1855 and 30 Nov 1855
Country:Probably Britain, but reader travelled extensively
Timen/a
Place:n/a
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:8 Feb 1819
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:Writer and art critic
Religion:Christian
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:Probably Britain, but reader travelled extensively
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Men and Women
Genre:Poetry
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication DetailsPublished 17/11/1855 in 2 volumes
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:3658
Source:John Ruskin
Editor:Virginia Surtees
Title:Sublime and Instructive. Letters from John Ruskin to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, Anna Blunden and Ellen Heaton.
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1972
Vol:n/a
Page:177-8
Additional Comments:
From the editor's footnote: "Robert Browning's Men and Women had been published on November 1, 1855, and reviewed on the same day in the Athenaeum (pp. 1327-8). To Allingham, Rossetti confided that 'Ruskin, on reading Men and Women... declared them rebelliously to be a mass of conundrums, and compelled me to sit down before him and lay siege for one whole night: the result of which was that he sent me next morning a bulky letter to be forwarded to B, in which I trust he told him he was the greatest man since Shakespeare." (DGR letters, p. 283). Browning held the letter to be 'dear, too dear, and good.' The poem which most appealed to Ruskin was An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician." From a letter written to Ellen Heaton in late November 1855, and footnote information from a letter written by Rossetti to Allingham.
Citation:
John Ruskin, Virginia Surtees (ed.), Sublime and Instructive. Letters from John Ruskin to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, Anna Blunden and Ellen Heaton. (London, 1972), p. 177-8, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=3658, accessed: 23 April 2024
Additional Comments:
None
