Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

Basic Search

Advanced Search

Record 25224

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 14 December 1797: 'Your parcel & its contents arrived safe. I found it on my return from a library belonging to the dissenters — in Redcross Street; from which, by permission of Dr Towers one of the Trustees, I brought back books of great importance for my Maid of Orleans. a hackney coach horse turned into a field of grass falls not more eagerly to a breakfast which lasts the whole day, than I attacked the old folios so respectably covered with dust. I begin to like dirty rotten binding, & whenever I get among books pass by the gilt coxcombs & yet disturb the spiders. — But you shall hear what I have got. a Latin poem in four long books upon Joan of Arc. very bad — but it gives me a quaint note or two — & Valerandus Valerius is a fine name for a quotation. a small quarto of the Life of the Maid, chiefly extracts from forgotten authors, printed at Paris. 1612. with a print of her on horseback, & another on foot in the same dress & attitude as the one I have. A sketch of her life, by Jacobus Philippus Bergomensis — bless the length of his erudite name! — this is short but the most valuable of all, inasmuch as I have his authority for her prediction of her death — & that he has given me matter for a noble speech in Book 3. (I write in the spirit of prophecy for its nobleness.) by saying that her first vision was in a ruined church, where the weather drove her to pass the night with her flock. there are more treasures in this library — & I go there again on Monday next.'
Century: 1700-1799
Date: 14 Dec 1797
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:Robert Southey
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 12 Aug 1774
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: writer and lawyer
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: Jean Masson
Title: Histoire Memorable de la Vie de Jeanne d’Arc, Appelée la Pucelle d’Orleans
Genre: History
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: borrowed (institution library)
from Dr Williams Library, London

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 25224  
Source - Manuscript Other
  Author: "The Collected Letters of Robert Southey," Romantic Circles Electronic Edition, Letter 278. http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/southey_letters. Accessed 29 April 2009. ,

Citation: "The Collected Letters of Robert Southey," Romantic Circles Electronic Edition, Letter 278. http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/southey_letters. Accessed 29 April 2009. , http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=25224, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

 

 

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