Record Number: 3658

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Letter H 25 - Late November 1855 - "It is so off ... that we all should like that poem of the Arab physician best. - Fancy my endorsing the Athenaeum! Every word in the Athenaeum critique I agree with - for I am very stupid in making things out in poetry; and that Men & Women is to me simply a set of 50 Conundrums, of the most amazing & tormenting kind."

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 17 Nov 1855 and 30 Nov 1855

Country:

Probably Britain, but reader travelled extensively

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

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:

John Ruskin

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

8 Feb 1819

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer and art critic

Religion:

Christian

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

Probably Britain, but reader travelled extensively

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Robert Browning

Title:

Men and Women

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Published 17/11/1855 in 2 volumes

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

3658

Source:

Print

Author:

John Ruskin

Editor:

Virginia Surtees

Title:

Sublime and Instructive. Letters from John Ruskin to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, Anna Blunden and Ellen Heaton.

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1972

Vol:

n/a

Page:

177-8

Additional Comments:

From the editor's footnote: "Robert Browning's Men and Women had been published on November 1, 1855, and reviewed on the same day in the Athenaeum (pp. 1327-8). To Allingham, Rossetti confided that 'Ruskin, on reading Men and Women... declared them rebelliously to be a mass of conundrums, and compelled me to sit down before him and lay siege for one whole night: the result of which was that he sent me next morning a bulky letter to be forwarded to B, in which I trust he told him he was the greatest man since Shakespeare." (DGR letters, p. 283). Browning held the letter to be 'dear, too dear, and good.' The poem which most appealed to Ruskin was An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician." From a letter written to Ellen Heaton in late November 1855, and footnote information from a letter written by Rossetti to Allingham.

Citation:

John Ruskin, Virginia Surtees (ed.), Sublime and Instructive. Letters from John Ruskin to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, Anna Blunden and Ellen Heaton., (London, 1972), p. 177-8, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=3658, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

None