Record Number: 33059
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
Timeafternoon
Place:city: Wareham
county: Dorset
location in dwelling: Officers' mess
other location: Wareham Camp
(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: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
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Erewhon Revisited
Genre:Fiction
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceowned
Source Information:
Record ID:33059
Source: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: 17 August 2024
Additional Comments:
None