Record Number: 6474

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Carter read and enjoyed fiction until the end of her life. Pennington reveals her enthusiasm for a number of novelists "of considerable genius, as well as strict morals", who provided "a very pleasing relaxation from her severer studies" (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, vol 1, p. 69). According to him, she disliked realist fiction, though she made an exception for Burney's which she read with "increasing approbation more than once": her favourite was "Evelina" (Memoirs, p. 299). She also enjoyed Jane West (who dedicated "A Tale of the Times" to her) and Ann Radcliffe, who impressed her, according to Pennington, by "the good tendency of all her works, the virtues of her principal characters... and her accurate, as well as vivid delineation of the beauties of nature" (Memoirs, p. 300). She thought "A Sicilian Romance" "elegant" and praised its "good" moral (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, Vol III, p. 323).'

Century:

1700-1799

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

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:

Elizabeth Carter

Age:

Unknown

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

16 Dec 1717

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Classicist / bluestocking

Religion:

unknown

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:

Ann Radcliffe

Title:

A Sicilian Romance [and other novels]

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

6474

Source:

Print

Author:

Jacqueline Pearson

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Women's reading in Britain, 1750-1835. A dangerous recreation.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge

Date of Publication:

1999

Vol:

n/a

Page:

140-1

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jacqueline Pearson, Women's reading in Britain, 1750-1835. A dangerous recreation., (Cambridge, 1999), p. 140-1, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=6474, accessed: 25 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

See Montagu Pennington (ed) Letters from Mrs Elizabeth Carter to Mrs Montagu (1817) and Montagu Pennington (ed) Memoirs of the Life of Mrs Elizabeth Carter (1807).