Record Number: 18015

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'[?] I could not [?] pay the postage for the book. [?] The book, you will receive shortly. Do not run away with the idea that I think it specially commendable. Only I think he might be suitable at this moment for you. Note the following. III, VI, XIII, XIV (O admirable), XVII, XVIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVII, XXXVII. Some of these are really very excellent; and (it was that paper of yours that made me think of the book) will show you I think how you must approach such slight and essentially exotic ideas in prose, and yet retain for them some of the immunities that go with verse.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: 7 Nov 1874

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Edinburgh
specific address: [17 Heriot Row]

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:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Church of Scotland (wavering)

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Charles Baudelaire

Title:

Petits Poemes en Prose

Genre:

Poetry, Collection of prose poems.

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

In Oeuvres completes de Charles Baudelaire, vol. IV, Paris: Michel Levy, 1869.

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

18015

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

80

Additional Comments:

Letter 332, To Katharine de Mattos [7 November 1874]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The date in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 80, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18015, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

See p. 63, Letter 323, To Katharine de Mattos, [? October 1874]. Note 1 to p.63 reads: ?RLS?s copy (Vol. 4 of the Oeuvres Compl?tes, 1869) is at Yale [= Yale University Library, (Beinecke Library)]. Pages 133-8 have been cut out. Katharine gave the book to Bob [Stevenson, her brother, RLS?s cousin], who refers to it in an undated letter of this period.? The 1869 edition (Paris: Michel Levy was the first posthumous collection of Baudelaire?s works. Volume IV contained, two years after their author?s death, the first collected version of the 50 "Petits Po?mes en Prose". Later, editors of the prose poems reverted to the more expressive working title sometimes used by Baudelaire when they were being published in periodicals: "Le Spleen de Paris". RLS recommends here some of the most famous pieces among the collection.