Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 163

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'Growing up in extreme poverty in East London, Crooks spent 2d. on a secondhand "Iliad" and was dazzled: "What a revelation it was to me. Pictures of romance and beauty I had never dreamed of suddenly opened up before my eyes. I was transported from the East End to an enchanted land. It was a rare luxury for a working lad like me just home from work to find myself suddenly among the heroes and nymphs of ancient Greece".'
Century: 1800-1849
Date: unknown
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: city: East End of London
   
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:Will Crooks
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 1852
Socio-economic group: Labourer (non-agricultural)
Occupation: Labour MP eventually, but child labourer at this time
Religion: n/a
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: Homer
Title: The Iliad
Genre: Classics
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: owned

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 163  
Source - Print  
  Author: Jonathan Rose
  Editor: n/a
  Title: The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
  Place of Publication: New Haven
  Date of Publication: 2001
  Vol: n/a
  Page: 4-5
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (New Haven, 2001), p. 4-5, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=163, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

See George Haw, "The Life story of Will Crooks" (London, 1917), p.22

 

 

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