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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 12739


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Three weeks of sickness, sleepness nights, and dismal days: and the "light" reading that I have been devouring I find to weigh very heavy. Yet the "Three Mousquetaires" of Dumas is certainly the best novel that creature has made. How is it that the paltriest feuilletoniste in Paris can always turn out something at least readable (readable, I mean, by a person of ordinary taste and knowledge) and that the popular providers of that sort of thing in London - save only Dickens - are also so very stupid, ignorant and vicious a herd? Not but the feuilleton-men are vicious enough; but then vice wrapped decently in plenty of British cant, and brutified by cockney ignorance, is triply vicious. Dumas's "Marquis de Letoriere", too, is a pleasant enough little novelette: but I have tried twice, and tried in vain, to get through a mass of letterpress called "Windsor Castle", by Ainsworth; and another by one Douglas Jerrold, entitled "St Giles and St James".'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Oct 1848 and 18 Oct 1848

Country:

Bermuda

Time

n/a

Place:

other location: on board "Dromedary Hulk", at Bermuda

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:

John Mitchel

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

3 Nov 1815

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

author, Irish Nationalist, under arrest for Treason

Religion:

Presbyterian family

Country of Origin:

Ireland

Country of Experience:

Bermuda

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

William Harrison Ainsworth

Title:

Windsor Castle

Genre:

Fiction, History

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

borrowed (other)
library on board the hulk?


Source Information:

Record ID:

12739

Source:

Print

Author:

John Mitchel

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Jail Journal

Place of Publication:

Dublin

Date of Publication:

1913

Vol:

n/a

Page:

71

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

John Mitchel, Jail Journal, (Dublin, 1913), p. 71, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12739, accessed: 30 December 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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