Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 8650

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'[B]e not thrown into wild delight because his genius has shone forth--misfortune & rage have occasioned this & whenever he may speak himself [underlined] Lord Byron will succeed--self is the sole inspirer of his genius he cannot like Homer Dante Virgil Milton Dryden Spencer Gray--Goldsmith [underlined] Tasso write on other subjects well[--]but what he feels he can describe extravagantly well--& therefore I never did doubt that he would one day or other write again as at first--but for God sake do not let this circumstance make you forget what a Rogue he is'.
Century: 1800-1849
Date: Between 13 Oct 1816 and 15 Oct 1816
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: city: London
   
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:Lady Caroline Lamb
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Female
Date of Birth 13 Nov 1785
Socio-economic group: Royalty / aristocracy
Occupation: socialite, novelist, influential member of the Whig political elite
Religion: Christian
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: George Gordon Lord Byron
Title: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Third
Genre: Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: 1816
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 8650  
Source - Print  
  Author: Lady Caroline Lamb (n?e Ponsonby)
  Editor: Paul Douglass
  Title: The Whole Disgraceful Truth: Selected Letters of Lady Caroline Lamb
  Place of Publication: New York
  Date of Publication: 2006
  Vol: n/a
  Page: 155-56
  Additional comments: Letter to John Murray. 13 or 15 October 1816.

Citation: Lady Caroline Lamb (n?e Ponsonby), Paul Douglass (ed.), The Whole Disgraceful Truth: Selected Letters of Lady Caroline Lamb (New York, 2006), n/a, p. 155-56, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=8650, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

Douglass does not infer which text Lady Caroline's letter discusses, but it seems probable that it is the third canto of Childe Harold. Though Douglass dates the letter October and the third canto was not published until November, it is still possible, if not probable, that Lady Caroline read an advance copy.

 

 

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