Record Number: 32335
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'Last week end was busily employed in reading through De Quincey's "Confessions" as a whole, for the first time, from which I derived great satisfaction. How much of it is true? The whole thing reads so like a novel that I am rather incredulous. Anyway it is certainly a splendid piece of English prose, especially in the rhetorical passages where he shows such a happy knack of getting pleasantly off the point.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between 12 Mar 1915 and 14 Mar 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:Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Genre:Autobiog / Diary, Medicine, recreational drug taking
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:32335
Source:C. S. Lewis
Editor:Walter Hooper
Title:C. S. Lewis Collected Letters
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:2000
Vol:1
Page:113
Additional Comments:
From a letter to his father, [21 March 1915]. This date is a Sunday. I have assumed Lewis is referring to the previous weekend.
Citation:
C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 113, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32335, accessed: 18 July 2024
Additional Comments:
First published anonymously in the London Magazine, September and October 1821, then in book form 1822. In 1856 De Quincey prepared a new edition for the publisher James Hogg, more than doubling the work's length. It is not known which version Lewis was reading.