Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 1405

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
William Wordsworth discusses reading habits of the local labouring classes in letter to Francis Wrangham, 5 June 1808: '... I find, among the people I am speaking of, half-penny Ballads, and penny and two-penny histories, in great abundance; these are often bought as charitable tributes to the poor Persons who hawk them about (and it is the best way of procuring them); they are frequently stitched together in tolerably thick volumes, and such I have read; some of the contents, though not often religious, very good; others objectionable, either for the superstition in them (such as prophecies, fortune-telling, etc.) or more frequently for indelicacy.'
Century: 1800-1849
Date: unknown
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:William Wordsworth
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 7 Apr 1770
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Writer
Religion: Church of England
Country of origin: England
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: anon [working people]
Title: ["half-penny Ballads"]
Genre: Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 1405  
Source - Print  
  Author: William and Dorothy Wordsworth
  Editor: Ernest De Selincourt
  Title: The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Middle Years Part I (1806-1811)
  Place of Publication: Oxford
  Date of Publication: 1969
  Vol: 1
  Page: 248
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Ernest De Selincourt (ed.), The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Middle Years Part I (1806-1811) (Oxford, 1969), 1, p. 248, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=1405, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

 

 

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