Record Number: 8278

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

John Clare, writing in 1821, on his attempt to use a school primer to help improve his written English: '"Borrowing a school book of a companion having some entertaining things in it both in prose and verse, with an introduction by the compiler [...] in this introduction was rules both for writing as well as reading [...] stumbling on a remark that a person who knew nothing of grammar was not capable of writing a letter nor even a bill of parcels, I was quite in the suds, seeing that I had gone on thus far without learning the first rudiments of doing it properly [...] I determined to try grammar, and [...] by the advice of a friend, bought the "Spelling Book" as the most easy assistant for my starting out. But finding a jumble of words classed under this name, and that name and this such-a-figure of speech and that another-hard-worded figure, I turned from further notice of it in instant disgust. For, as I knew I could talk to be understood, I thought by the same method my writing might be made out as easy and as proper".'

Century:

1800-1849

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:

John Clare

Age:

Unknown

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1793

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (agricultural)

Occupation:

n/a

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

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Title:

'Spelling Book' (grammar)

Genre:

Textbook / self-education

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

8278

Source:

Print

Author:

David Vincent

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Bread, Knowledge and Freedom: A Study of Nineteenth-Century Working Class Autobiography

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1981

Vol:

n/a

Page:

190-91; 191

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

David Vincent, Bread, Knowledge and Freedom: A Study of Nineteenth-Century Working Class Autobiography, (London, 1981), p. 190-91; 191, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=8278, accessed: 28 September 2024

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Additional Comments:

Quotation taken from Sketches in the Life of John Clare. Written by Himself and Addressed to his Friend John Taylor esq., ed. Edmund Blunden (London, 1931) pp.68-69.