Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 22003

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
W. M. Thackeray to Alfred Tennyson, [September-] October [1859]: 'I owe you a letter of happiness and thanks. Sir, about three weeks ago, when I was ill in bed, I read the "Idylls of the King," and I thought, "Oh I must write to him now, for this pleasure, this delight, ths splendour of happiness which I have been enjoying." But I should have blotted the sheets, 'tis ill writing on one's back. The letter full of gratitude never went as far as the post-office and how comes it now? 'D'abord, a bottle of claret [...] Then afterwards sitting here, an old magazine, Fraser's Magazine, 1850, and I come on a poem out of "The Princess" which says "I hear the horns of Elfland blowing blowing," no its "the horns of Elfland faintly blowing" [...] and reading the lines, which only one man in the world could write, I thought about the other horns of Elfland blowing in full strength, and Arthur in gold armour, and Guinevere in gold hair [...] You have made me as happy as I was when a child with the Arabian Nights [...] I have had out of that dear book the greatest delight that has ever come to me since I was a young man; to write and think about it makes me almost young'.
Century: 1850-1899
Date: Between 1 Sep 1859 and 31 Oct 1859
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: city: Folkestone
other location: Hotel
   
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 Makepeace Thackeray
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 1811
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Writer
Religion: n/a
Country of origin: India
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Alfred Tennyson
Title: 'The splendour falls...'
Genre: Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Serial / periodical
Publication details: In Fraser's Magazine (1850)
Provenance: read in situ

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 22003  
Source - Print  
  Author: Hallam Tennyson
  Editor: n/a
  Title: Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by his Son
  Place of Publication: London
  Date of Publication: 1897
  Vol: 1
  Page: 444-445
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by his Son (London, 1897), 1, p. 444-445, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=22003, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

 

 

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