Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 2824

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn... proceeded to an evening institute course in English literature and by the rhythm of the looms she memorised all of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Milton's Lycidas, and Gray's Elegy. She discovered the ancient Greeks at the home of a neighbour, a self-educated classicist with six children, and a Sunday school teacher introduced her to the plays of Bernard Shaw. While attending her looms she silently analysed the character of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, "sometimes to the detriment of my weaving".'
Century: 1900-1945
Date: Between 1 Jan 1902 and 31 Dec 1932
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: county: Lancashire
other location: at a mill
   
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:Elizabeth Blackburn
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Female
Date of Birth 1902
Socio-economic group: Labourer (non-agricultural)
Occupation: weaver
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: John Milton
Title: Lycidas
Genre: Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 2824  
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: 163
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (New Haven, 2001), p. 163, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=2824, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

See Elizabeth K. Blackburn, 'In and Out the Windows' (Burnley, n.d.); and 'When I was a Little Girl: A Bunch of Childhood Memories' (Burnley, n.d.)

 

 

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