Record Number: 12147
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'In various letters to Osborne he mentions having received "Tom Jones" which he did not care for; "Jane Eyre" he thought a "wonderful book"; in a volume titled "British Dramatists" he thought Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" "the best by head and shoulders"; Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship" he admired "exceedingly" (he proceeded to write an essay of twenty-six notepaper pages on Carlyle); of Thackeray's "Henry Esmond" he told Osborne that he thought it a "great book", though he disliked its "overelaboration": "perhaps you may say it is merely an additional grace - but I think it stands rather in the way of true eloquence and geninely forceful tragedy, not that I deny there is both eloquence and tragedy in 'Esmond', but I think there might have been more and grander but for that elaborateness".'
Century:1850-1899
Date:Between 28 Feb 1880 and 27 Feb 1881
Country:England
Timen/a
Place:city: Bideford
county: Devon
(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Child (0-17)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:28 Feb 1865
Socio-Economic Group:Clergy (includes all denominations)
Occupation:Wesleyan preacher's son, later poet
Religion:Wesleyan, later none
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:England
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Tom Jones
Genre:Fiction
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceborrowed (other)
or given by Osborne
Source Information:
Record ID:12147
Source:Karl Beckson
Editor:n/a
Title:Arthur Symons: A Life
Place of Publication:Oxford
Date of Publication:1987
Vol:n/a
Page:11
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
Karl Beckson, Arthur Symons: A Life, (Oxford, 1987), p. 11, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12147, accessed: 17 August 2024
Additional Comments:
[Quotations from three undated letters to Osborne, held at Princeton's Symons archive]