Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 20872

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'Sir, I do not think Gray a first-rate poet. He has not a bold imagination, nor much command of words. The obscurity in which he has involved himself will not persuade us that he is sublime. His "Elegy in a Church yard" has a happy selection, but I don't like what are called his great things'.
Century: 1850-1899
Date: Until: 25 Jun 1763
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:Samuel Johnson
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 18 Sep 1709
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: writer
Religion: Anglican
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: Thomas Gray
Title: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Genre: Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Unknown
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 20872  
Source - Print  
  Author: James Boswell
  Editor: R.W. Chapman
  Title: Life of Johnson
  Place of Publication: Oxford
  Date of Publication: 1980
  Vol: n/a
  Page: 285
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: James Boswell, R.W. Chapman (ed.), Life of Johnson (Oxford, 1980), p. 285, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=20872, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

Originally published 1791. Remarks addressed to Boswell at an early meeting.

 

 

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