Evidence: | 'The individual...was a fellow-worker of mine for nigh two years in Dartmoor. He had, in his younger days, passed through the workhouse; read the pestilent literature of rascaldom which has educated so many criminal characters in this country; then graduated in the "School", and ultimately became a noted burglar. His reading in prison had been pretty extensive, while his intelligence would have insured him a position in society above that of a labouring man... I could not help looking upon it as a very novel experience, for even this grotesque world, to have to listen to a man who could delight in a literary discussion, quote all the choice parts of Pope's "Illiad", and boast of having read Pascal and Lafontaine in the original, maintain, in sober argument, that "thieving was an honourable pursuit", and that religion, law, patriotism and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity.' |
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Century: | 1850-1899 | ||||||||||
Date: | unknown | ||||||||||
Country: | England | ||||||||||
Time: | n/a | ||||||||||
Place: | specific address: Dartmoor Prison (probably) other location: in prison, probably in his cell |
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Type of Experience (Reader): |
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Type of Experience (Listener): |
|
Reader: | anon |
Age | Adult (18-100+) |
Gender | Male |
Date of Birth | n/a |
Socio-economic group: | Labourer (non-agricultural) |
Occupation: | workhouse inmate/ juvenile deliquent/ burglar/ prisoner |
Religion: | Atheist |
Country of origin: | England |
Country of experience: | England |
Listeners present if any: (e.g. family, servants,
friends, workmates) |
n/a |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Author: | Jean de La Fontaine |
Title: | [unknown] |
Genre: | Poetry |
Form of Text: | Print: Book |
Publication details: | n/a |
Provenance: | borrowed (institution library) probably from prison library |
Record ID: | 12877 | |
Source - | ||
Author: | Michael Davitt | |
Editor: | n/a | |
Title: | Leaves from a prison diary, or lectures to a 'solitary' audience | |
Place of Publication: | London | |
Date of Publication: | 1885 | |
Vol: | 1 | |
Page: | 13-14 | |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Citation: | Michael Davitt, Leaves from a prison diary, or lectures to a 'solitary' audience (London, 1885), 1, p. 13-14, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=12877, accessed: 24 March 2023 |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)