Record Number: 33059

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'The mess was ... the only place where, that bitter winter, one could read in comfort ... One Sunday afternoon I took down with me a book I had just bought—Butler's Erewhon Revisited—and was soon absorbed in it. The mess was, as I had anticipated, nearly empty, but presently Captain Slater, the [former] Eton master ... came in and, passing behind my chair, observed the title of my book. "O God! O Montreal!" he cried, "that I should find someone reading Sam Butler in the British Army!" He was genuinely amused and interested, and though we were too disparate in age and temperament ever to become close friends, a sympathetic bond did henceforth exist between us ... But that ... was a lesson. So long as we remained in England I confined my mess reading to the Tatler and the Bystander and other periodicals of the kind which were the only literary recreations of the majority of His Majesty's officers. When we reached the Front, the situation changed, in this as in many other respects.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 Feb 1915 and 31 Mar 1915

Country:

England

Time

afternoon

Place:

city: Wareham
county: Dorset
location in dwelling: Officers' mess
other location: Wareham Camp

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Herbert Edward Read

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

4 Dec 1893

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Second Lieutenant, Yorkshire Regiment

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Samuel Butler

Title:

Erewhon Revisited

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

33059

Source:

Print

Author:

Herbert Read

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Contrary Experience: Autobiographies

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1963

Vol:

n/a

Page:

211

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Herbert Read, The Contrary Experience: Autobiographies, (London, 1963), p. 211, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33059, accessed: 25 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

None