Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 28436

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
[Charlotte Bronte to William Wordsworth (in draft response to letter from him of c.1840):] 'I am sorry I did not exist, sir, fifty or sixty years ago, when the "Ladies' Magazine" was flourishing like a green bay tree. In that case, I make no doubt, my aspirations after literary fame would have met with due encouragement [...] I recollect, when I was a child, getting hold of some antiquated old volumes, and reading them by stealth with the most exquisite pleasure. You give a correct description [in letter] of the patent Grisels of those days. My aunt was one of them; and to this day she thinks the tales of the "Ladies' Magazine" infinitely superior to any trash of modern literature. So do I; for I read them in childhood, and childhood has a very strong faculty of admiration, but a very weak one of criticism'.
Century: 1800-1849
Date: unknown
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:Charlotte Bronte
Age Child (0-17)
Gender Female
Date of Birth 21 Apr 1816
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: n/a
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:
Title: The Lady's Magazine
Genre: Fiction, Miscellany / Anthology
Form of Text: Print: Serial / periodical
Publication details: 1780s-1790s
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 28436  
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: 211-212
  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. 211-212, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=28436, accessed: 25 April 2024

Additional comments:

Bronte had written to Wordsworth to ask his advice on writing fiction for publication, apparently enclosing an example of her work; see p.211 in source.

 

 

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