Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 28044

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'Please, if you have not, and I don’t suppose you have, already read it, institute a search in all Melbourne for one of the rarest and certainly one of the best of books − [italics]Clarissa Harlowe[end italics]. For any man who takes an interest in the problem of the two sexes, that book is a perfect mine of documents. And it is written, sir, with the pen of an angel. Miss Howe and Lovelace, words cannot tell how good they are! And the scene where Clarissa beards her family, with her fan going all the while; and some of the quarrel scenes between her and Lovelace; and the scene where Colonel Marsden goes to Mr Hall, with Lord M. trying to compose matters, and the Colonel with his eternal "finest woman in the world", and the inimitable affirmation of Mowbray − nothing could be better! You will bless me when you read it for this recommendation; but, indeed, I can do nothing but recommend [italics]Clarissa[end italics].'
Century: 1850-1899
Date: 12 Sep 1877
Country: France
Time: n/a
Place: city: Grez
county: Seine-et-Marne
   
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 Louis Stevenson
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender n/a
Date of Birth 13 Nov 1850
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Writer
Religion: Uncommitted
Country of origin: Scotland
Country of experience: France
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Samuel Richardson
Title: Clarissa: or The History of a Young Lady.
Genre: Fiction
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: First published 1747-9.
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 28044  
Source - Print  
  Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
  Editor: Bradford A. Booth
  Title: The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879
  Place of Publication: New Haven and London
  Date of Publication: 1994
  Vol: 2
  Page: 228
  Additional comments: Letter 492, To Arthur Patchett Martin, [December 1877], 17 Heriot Row. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The foregoing material in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation: Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879 (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 228, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=28044, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

The character’s name in question is Captain Morden. [italics]Clarissa: or The History of a Young Lady[end italics], (1748 (for 1747)-49), epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson. See the recent Letter 482, when RLS tells his mother that he is “reading [italics]Clarissa Harlowe[end italics]”.

 

 

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