Record Number: 18073

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have made myself so ill with a story of Poe?s − ?King Pest?, by name. I did not sleep last night and I have scarcely been able to eat today.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

17 Dec 1874

Country:

Scotland

Time

evening

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:

Edgar Allan Poe

Title:

King Pest: A Tale Containing An Allegory.

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

In the first two volumes of J.H. Ingram?s edition of Poe?s Works containing [italics] The Tales [end italics] (1874).

Provenance

n/a

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Source Information:

Record ID:

18073

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:

89

Additional Comments:

Section headed Friday [18 December 1874] in Letter 341, To Frances Sitwell, Tuesday [15 December 1874]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The dates in square brackets have 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. 89, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18073, accessed: 21 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

?King Pest: A Tale Containing An Allegory?, was first published in the "Southern Literary Messenger", September 1835. Editors' Note 1, p. 89, to Letter 341 reads: ? In his review of Poe?s "Tales" for "The Academy" RLS wrote: ? ?it would be criminal in the reviewer to spare one harsh word in the expression of his own loathing and horror, lest, by its absence, another victim should be permitted to soil himself with the perusal of the infamous ?King Pest?. He who could write ?King Pest? had ceased to be a human being.'