Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

Basic Search

Advanced Search

Record 28409

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
[From letter to Clement Shorter from the niece of John Nunn:] 'In 1857 I was staying with Mr Nunn at Thorndon, in Suffolk, of which place he was rector. The good man had never read a novel in his life, and of course had never heard of the famous Bronte books. I was reading Mrs Gaskell's Life [of Charlotte Bronte] with absorbed interest, and one day my uncle said, "I have heard lately a name mentioned with which I was well familiar. What is it all about?" He was told, when he added, "Patrick Bronte [father of Charlotte] was once my greatest friend. Next morning my uncle brought out a thick bundle of letters and said, "These were written by Patrick Bronte. They refer to his spiritual state. I have read them once more, and now I destroy them."'
Century: 1850-1899
Date: Between 1 Jan 1857 and 31 Dec 1857
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: city: Thorndon
county: Suffolk
   
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:anon
Age Unknown
Gender Female
Date of Birth n/a
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: n/a
Religion: n/a
Country of origin: n/a
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Title: Life of Charlotte Bronte
Genre: Biography
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 28409  
Source - Print  
  Author: n/a
  Editor: Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington
  Title: The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence
  Place of Publication: Oxford
  Date of Publication: 1980
  Vol: I-II
  Page: 5 n.3
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington (ed.), The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence (Oxford, 1980), I-II, p. 5 n.3, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=28409, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

John Nunn had become friends with Patrick Bronte when both were students at St John's College, Cambridge; see p.5 in source.

 

 

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