Record Number: 34035

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'To go back to your book ["Joseph Conrad: A Study"]; I know you thought highly of "Nostromo" but didn't know you placed it quite so far above the other books. The other day I took up "The Secret Agent" and read it through for the first time (Conrad gave me a copy when it was first published). Now I shall do the same with "Nostromo" and read it straight through and try and keep aside the idea it produced when I first began to read it—that the S. American atmosphere is false. [I] mean principally the mental atmosphere—the mind of the natives.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 May 1914 and 7 Jun 1914

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London
specific address: 40 St Luke's Road, W. London

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:

William Henry Hudson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

4 Aug 1841

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Field naturalist and author

Religion:

Christian (Protestant in childhood only)

Country of Origin:

Argentina

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:

Joseph Conrad

Title:

The Secret Agent

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

London: Methuen, 1907

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

34035

Source:

Print

Author:

William Henry Hudson

Editor:

Denis Shrubsall

Title:

The Unpublished Letters of W. H. Hudson, the First Literary Environmentalist, 1841-1922

Place of Publication:

Lewiston NY and Lampeter

Date of Publication:

2006

Vol:

2

Page:

493

Additional Comments:

Letter from Hudson to Richard Curle, 7 June 1914, 40 St. Luke's Road, W. London

Citation:

William Henry Hudson, Denis Shrubsall (ed.), The Unpublished Letters of W. H. Hudson, the First Literary Environmentalist, 1841-1922, (Lewiston NY and Lampeter, 2006), 2, p. 493, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=34035, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

The date range ('recently') is speculative. It is of course possible that in 1907 Hudson may have looked through his copy on receipt but put it aside; he often only wrote 'read' when he had fully absorbed a book and did not always regard browsing or flipping through it as 'reading'.