Record Number: 33873
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'I would not, I could not, give up the rides and rambles that took up so much of my time, but I would try to overcome my disinclination to serious reading. There were plenty of books in the house — it was always a puzzle to me how we came to have so many. I was familiar with their appearance on the shelves — they had been before me since I first opened my eyes — their shape, size, colours, even their titles, and that was all I knew about them. A general Natural History and two little works by James Rennie on the habits and faculties of birds was all the literature suited to my wants in the entire collection of three or four hundred volumes. For the rest I had read a few story-books and novels: but we had no novels; when one came into the house it would be read and lent to our next neighbour five or six miles away, and he in turn would lend to another twenty miles further on, until it disappeared into space'. I made a beginning with Rollin's "Ancient History" in two huge quarto volumes; I fancy it was the large clear type and numerous plates [...] that determined my choice. Rollin the good old priest, opened a new, wonderful world to me, and instead of the tedious task I feared the reading would prove,it was as delightful as it had formerly been to listen to my brother's endless histories of imaginary heroes and their wars and adventures. Still athirst for history, after finishing Rollin I began fingering other works of that kind: there was Whiston's "Josephus", too ponderous a book to be held in the hands when read out of doors; and there was Gibbon in six stately volumes. I was not yet able to appreciate the lofty artificial style, and soon fell upon something better suited to my boyish taste in letters - a "History of Christianity" in, I think, sixteen or eighteen volumes of a convenient size. [...] These biographies sent me to another old book, "Leland on Revelation", which told me much I was curious to know about the mythologies and systems of philosophy of the ancients [...]. Next came Carlyle's "French Revolution", and at last Gibbon, and I was still deep in the "Decline and Fall" when disaster came to us, my father was practically ruined.'
Century:1850-1899
Date:Between 1847 and 1855
Country:Argentina
Timedaytime
Place:county: Chascomus District, South of Buenos Aires
specific address: Las Acacias
(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:4 Aug 1841
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:Field naturalist, author
Religion:Anglican (Protestant) in childhood only
Country of Origin:Argentina
Country of Experience:Argentina
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:The Domestic Habits of Birds
Genre:Natural history
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication DetailsLondon: M. A. Nattali, 1846; C. Cox, 1847
Provenanceowned
Source Information:
Record ID:33873
Source:William Henry Hudson
Editor:n/a
Title:Far Away and Long Ago: A History of my Early Life
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1918
Vol:n/a
Page:298-99
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
William Henry Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago: A History of my Early Life, (London, 1918), p. 298-99, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33873, accessed: 24 November 2024
Additional Comments:
The title of the James Rennie book is speculative but the most likely one. The evidence implies repeated reading. Time of reading experience likely to be daytime, as a small child would be unlikely to be consulting bird books after dark with a candle as lighting.
