Record Number: 29543

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Whinfell, Upper Redlands Rd., 30. i. 32.
Alfred Rawlings in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read and approved.
[...]
3. Howard Smith spoke to us of the social and literary sides of Sheridan's life.[...]
4. Reginald H. Robson followed with an account of Sheridan as Parliamentarian, telling us of his thirty-two years in opposition to reactionary government, his aversion from bribery in a corrupt age, and his conduct of the Hastings Impeachment. This last brought into remarkable combination Sheridan's dramatic and rhetorical gifts; so that we quite fell beneath the spell, accepting him as a heroic character, and were ready to condone, if not indeed even to acclaim, his less creditable convivialities with the Prince Regent and Mrs.[or Mr.] Robson's ancestors!
5. Francis E. Pollard then read a passage from Sheridan's speech on the devastation of Oudh.[...]
6. We then listend to extracts from "The School for Scandal" starring Mrs. Robson as Lady Teazle and C. E. Stansfield as Sir Peter. As is not unusual on such occasions the humours of the play as devised by the author had to compete with other unrehearsed attractions — actors borrowing books, adjusting their spectacles, turning two pages instead of one, and, perhaps best of all, the pure milk of the expurgated editions looking a little sour at the strong wine of the original text. Be that as it may, ancestral portraits from the brush of Vandyke or Lely, Kneller or Rawlings changed owners with the accustomed success: Mr. Robson* as Joseph Surface mad love to his own wife as Lady Teazle[...].
* R.H.R. states that Gio. B. was Jos. Surface [Footnote is in MS]'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

30 Jan 1932

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: Whinfell, Upper Redlands Road

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reading Group:

Unidentified members of the XII Book Club

Age:

Unknown

Gender:

Unknown

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

Quaker or associated with the Friends

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

England

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

Members of the XII Book Club

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Title:

The School for Scandal

Genre:

Drama, Politics

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Some may have used expurgated editions. others not

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

29543

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Victor Alexander

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 3 (1931-1938)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

19-22

Additional Information:

Victor Alexander was secretary to the XII Book Club from 1931 to 1940. It is inferred from this that he was the author of this set of minutes.

Citation:

Victor Alexander, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 3 (1931-1938), private collection, 19-22, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=29543, accessed: 24 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

Material by kind permission of the XII Book Club. For further information and permission to quote this source, contact the Reading Experience Database (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/contacts.php).