Record Number: 32326
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'I have nearly finished The Morte D'arthur. I am more pleased at having bought it every day, as it has opened up a new world to me. I had no idea that the Arthurian legends were so fine (The name is against them, isn't it??) Malory is really not a great author, but he has two excellent gifts, (1) that of lively narrative and (2) the power of getting you to know characters by gradual association. What I mean is, that, although he never sits down - as moderns do - to describe a man's character, yet, by the end of the first volume Launcelot & Tristan, Balin & Pellinore, Morgan le Fay & Isoud are all just as much real, live people as Paul Emanuel or Mme Beck. The very names of the chapters, as they spring to meet the eye, bear with them a fresh, sweet breath from the old-time faery world, wherein the author moves. Who can read "How Launcelot in the Chapel Perilous gat a cloth from a Dead corpse"... and not hasten to find out what it's all about?'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between 17 Nov 1914 and 26 Jan 1915
Country:England
Timen/a
Place:Great Bookham
Surrey
'Gastons'
(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:Child (0-17)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:29 Nov 1898
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:Student
Religion:Church of England
Country of Origin:Northern Ireland
Country of Experience:England
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Le Morte d'Arthur
Genre:Fiction, History, Biography, chivalric romance, Arthurian legend
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Details2 vol. J.M. Dent & Co., London, 1906, in a deluxe binding
Provenanceowned
Source Information:
Record ID:32326
Source:C. S. Lewis
Editor:Walter Hooper
Title:C. S. Lewis Collected Letters
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:2000
Vol:1
Page:103
Additional Comments:
From a letter to Arthur Greeves, 26 January 1915
Citation:
C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 103, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32326, accessed: 18 July 2024
Additional Comments:
Paul Emanuel and Mme Beck are characters in 'Villette'. Evidence for deluxe binding in a letter to Arthur Greeves, 2 February 1915: 'I don't think it can be the Library Edition... being bound in plum-coloured leather, with pale-blue marker attached.' (Letters v.1 p. 104)