Record Number: 17035

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 December 1842: 'My thoughts have lately been of Frederica Bremer?s "Neighbours" instead of my own?I mean of the very charming novel which Mrs Howitt has just "done into English" from the Swedish ? or German peradventure ? it being probably a translation from the German ? Read it my dearest friend, & agree with me that it is delightful. "Like Miss Austen" says Mrs Howitt - & "like Miss Austen" being the best introduction to you possible, "I echo her" ? altho? in my private & individual opinion & saving your presence, I do consider the book of a higher & sweeter tone than Miss Austen had voice and soul for. There is more poetry, more of the inner life, more of the ideal aspiration more of a Godward tendency in the book than we need seek for or than even you my beloved friend, can, I think, imagine in any book or books of Miss Austen considered in a moment of your most enthusiastic estimation. I am pleased, & touched .. charmed for the better, by the book. The serenity, the sweetness, the undertone of Christian music, affect me the more for coming to me in the midst of my lion & tiger hunting with La jeune France [ie her reading of lurid, recent French fiction]; & the impression will not pass, it appears to me, with the reading of the last page.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Nov 1842 and 3 Dec 1842

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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Elizabeth Barrett

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

6 Mar 1806

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

Evangelical

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Frederika Bremer

Title:

The Neighbours: A Story of Everyday Life

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

In English translation, and with preface, by Mary Howitt (1842)

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

17035

Source:

Print

Author:

n/a

Editor:

Philip Kelley and Ronald Hudson

Title:

The Brownings' Correspondence

Place of Publication:

Winfield

Date of Publication:

1988

Vol:

6

Page:

190-191

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Philip Kelley and Ronald Hudson (ed.), The Brownings' Correspondence, (Winfield, 1988), 6, p. 190-191, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17035, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

None