Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 1288

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
Henry Mayhew interviews a 'vagrant' of 18 years of age: "Of a night ...we'd read stories about Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin, and all through that set. They were large thick books, borrowed from the library. They told how they used to break open the houses, and get out of Newgate, and how Dick got away to York. We used to think Jack and them very fine fellows. I wished I could be like Jack (I did then), about the blankets in his escape, and that old house in West-street -it is a ruin still."
Century: 1800-1849, 1850-1899
Date: Between 1 Jan 1850 and 31 Dec 1859
Country: England
Time: evening
Place: city: London
other location: low lodging house
   
Type of Experience (Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Type of Experience (Listener):
passive reactive unknown
single serial unknown

Reader/Listener/Reading Group:

Listener:anon
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth n/a
Socio-economic group: Labourer (non-agricultural)
Occupation: vagrant
Religion: n/a
Country of origin: n/a
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
young men accommodated in the low lodging house
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: William Harrison Ainsworth
Title: Rookwood
Genre: Fiction
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: borrowed (public library)
borrowed library

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 1288  
Source - Print  
  Author: Henry Mayhew
  Editor: n/a
  Title: London Labour and the London Poor
  Place of Publication: London
  Date of Publication: 1861
  Vol: 3
  Page: 383
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor (London, 1861), 3, p. 383, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=1288, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

could be listener or reader; unsure, but entered here as listener with other listeners

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)