Record Number: 30185

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at 219 King’s Road: 27.5.38
    L. Dorothea Taylor in the chair.
1. Minutes of last read + approved

2. A brief introduction to the brothers [sic] Zweig and their work was given by R. H. Robson. Owing to a confusion of dates and names in one of the sources from which he derived his informations, the brothers were made to indulge in some unrehearsed interchanges of thought and interest, which both mystified and entertained the Club, and combined the authors in our minds inextricably as a pair of intellectually-Siamese twins.
3. F. E. Pollard gave the first reading from Stepan [sic] Zweig’s “The Right to Heresy”. It was keen incisive stuff read with a gusto that would have delighted Bernard Shaw.
4. Elizabeth Alexander followed with some pleasant descriptive paragraphs of Palestine, Jewish and Arabic, from the somewhat unpleasant “De Vriendt Goes Home” of Arnold Zweig.
5. Janet Rawlings read some extracts from Stepan Zweig’s “Sternstunden der Menscheit [sic]”, a telling story of the wealth and poverty of a scoundrel [John Sutter] at the time of the rise of San Francisco; and we beg respectfully to congratulate her on the translation.
6. Roger Moore’s reading from Stepan Zweig’s “Adepts in Self Portraiture” was greatly enhanced by the notes and comments he added to it, and particularly in the case of Tolstoi, and this paper led to some enlightening discussion.
7. Elsie Sikes read a description of an encounter between a lynx and an escaped prisoner from “The Case of Sergeant Grischa” by Arnold Zweig. [...]
8. Mary Robson’s reading from Stepan Zweig’s “Mary Queen of Scots” brought the historians into the fray for and against, but Stepan was unhappily absent to tell us of his sources.
9. Reginald Robson closed the programme with some scenes from Stepan Zweig’s “Marie Antoinette.”'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

27 May 1938

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: 219 King's 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

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Francis E. Pollard

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1872

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Formerly schoolmaster, now occasional lecturer and supply teacher, and supported also by wife's unearned income

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

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Stefan Zweig

Title:

The Right to Heresy: Castellio against Calvin

Genre:

History

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

30185

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Victor Alexander

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

9–11

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. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 9–11, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30185, accessed: 25 November 2024

---

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).