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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: 8941


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'At that time [my eighth year] I had read, under my father?s tuition, a number of Greek prose authors, among whom I remember the whole of Herodotus, and of Xenophon?s Ceropaedia and Memorials of Socrates; some of the lives of the philosophers by Diogenes Laertius; part of Lucian, and Isocrates ad Demonicum and ad Nicoclem.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1809 and 31 Dec 1814

Country:

England

Time

n/a

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:

John Stuart Mill

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

20 May 1806

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Administrator in the East India Company (joins the company as a clerk in 1823, retires as chief of his office and Examiner of India Correspondence in

Religion:

Atheist

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Lucian

Title:

n/a

Genre:

Classics

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

8941

Source:

Print

Author:

John Stuart Mill

Editor:

Jack Stillinger

Title:

Autobiography

Place of Publication:

Boston

Date of Publication:

1969

Vol:

n/a

Page:

5

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

John Stuart Mill, Jack Stillinger (ed.), Autobiography (Boston, 1969), p. 5, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=8941, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

Mill was translating the text under his father?s guidance, as part of his education in the Ancient Greek language. He reveals on p.6 that, since there were no available dictionaries he could use, he had to interrupt his father?s work (on his History of India) to ask him for the meaning of all words unfamiliar to him at the time.

   
   
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