Record Number: 20723
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'He appears, from his early notes or memorandums in my possession, to have at various times attempted, or at least planned, a methodical course of study, according to computation, of which he was all his life fond, as it fixed his attention steadily on something without, and prevented his mind from preying upon itself. Thus I find in his handwriting the number of lines in each of two of Euripides' Tragedies, of the Georgicks of Virgil, of the first six books of the Aeneid, of Horace's Art of Poetry, of three of the books of Ovid's Metamorphosis, of some parts of Theocritus, and of the tenth satire of Juvenal; and a table, shewing at the rate of various numbers a day (I suppose verses to be read), what would be, in each case, the total amount in a week, month, and year'.
Century:1700-1799
Date:Between 18 Sep 1723 and 18 Sep 1735
Country:n/a
Timen/a
Place:n/a
Type of Experience(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:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:29 Oct 1740
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:lawyer and writer
Religion:n/a
Country of Origin:Scotland
Country of Experience:n/a
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:[memoranda of his reading]
Genre:Unknown
Form of Text:Manuscript: Unknown
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceowned
Source Information:
Record ID:20723
Source:James Boswell
Editor:R. W. Chapman
Title:Life of Johnson
Place of Publication:Oxford
Date of Publication:1980
Vol:n/a
Page:53
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
James Boswell, R. W. Chapman (ed.), Life of Johnson , (Oxford, 1980), p. 53, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=20723, accessed: 17 August 2024
Additional Comments:
Originally published 1791.