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Thomas Of Reading
Printed by Eliz Allde for R. Bird, Edinburgh, Printed by J. Ballantyne and co. This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.
80 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1599
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 18, 2012
Takes a while to get used to the writing, the language and spelling. I'd also heard of the story of the murder mentioned in the book, sounds a bit like Sweeney Todd except set in a pub with a cauldron of boiling water.
February 28, 2017
THOMAS DELONEY from 1543 to about 1600
Deloney in his time was well known as a chronicler of many well-known songs, ballads, and poems.
In about 1612 his first novel, ‘Thomas of Reading’ was published,
' Thomas of Reading', also called ‘The Six worthie Yeomen of the West’, is really the story of a successful and rich Guild of Clothiers who flourished in the Day’s of King Henry the First.
The wonderfully pleasant style of writing and amusing vocabulary tells us how these clothiers came to the attention of the King, who, realizing the importance of these artisans to the commonwealth of England called them to court in order to hear of their trade and to know if any new legislation would help them in their success.
And so it came about that a new, sole, measurement for length, the Yard, was declared legal all over England. Then, whatever was called ‘cracked money’ was declared illegal, and finally, that clothe thieves, if caught, could be hanged without further procedure.
The brutal murder of Thomas of Reading by some rogues is described quite shortly in the mid’st of the story.
However, for romance, a sweet but tragic love story is also woven into it.
But my review should have been less about the contents and more about the form of this novel, as it is considered the first so written in prose in England, as before it was usual and fashionable to present literature in rhymes as poetry.
For me this is a very interesting and pleasant reading experience, one of the books, I almost finished in one stretch.
Deloney in his time was well known as a chronicler of many well-known songs, ballads, and poems.
In about 1612 his first novel, ‘Thomas of Reading’ was published,
' Thomas of Reading', also called ‘The Six worthie Yeomen of the West’, is really the story of a successful and rich Guild of Clothiers who flourished in the Day’s of King Henry the First.
The wonderfully pleasant style of writing and amusing vocabulary tells us how these clothiers came to the attention of the King, who, realizing the importance of these artisans to the commonwealth of England called them to court in order to hear of their trade and to know if any new legislation would help them in their success.
And so it came about that a new, sole, measurement for length, the Yard, was declared legal all over England. Then, whatever was called ‘cracked money’ was declared illegal, and finally, that clothe thieves, if caught, could be hanged without further procedure.
The brutal murder of Thomas of Reading by some rogues is described quite shortly in the mid’st of the story.
However, for romance, a sweet but tragic love story is also woven into it.
But my review should have been less about the contents and more about the form of this novel, as it is considered the first so written in prose in England, as before it was usual and fashionable to present literature in rhymes as poetry.
For me this is a very interesting and pleasant reading experience, one of the books, I almost finished in one stretch.
August 16, 2024
These 16th Century narratives may not have relevance today... at least I wasn't finding much. Most of the chapters deal with economic issues of the time... with the occasional disobedient or unfaithful wife (a medieval theme I find so sexist and grating). I basically just persevered to get through most of it.
I did notice an interesting phrasing that my Mormon ears perked up at: "Afterward it came to passe.." which is common in the Book of Mormon and wondered how much influence books of this time (1500's) might have influenced Joseph Smith (1800's).
I did notice an interesting phrasing that my Mormon ears perked up at: "Afterward it came to passe.." which is common in the Book of Mormon and wondered how much influence books of this time (1500's) might have influenced Joseph Smith (1800's).
November 14, 2013
Not even remotely my speed. Here, in list form, are my reasons:
1.) 64 pages that covered five years. That's just cramming in too much.
2.) No character development. At all. See number 1 above.
3.) The spelling and language is super-outdated. Not Deloney's fault, obviously. I'm sure it was all perfect back in the day. But, it was very tough to get through. For me. In the twenty-first century.
4.)
You too can read it HERE.
And now, a little ditty from the story, to give you a taste:
O Ienny my ioy, I die for thy loue,
And now I heare say that thou dost remoue:
And therefore, Ienny, I pray thee recite,
Where shall I meete thee soone at night.
For why, with my Master no more will I stay,
But for thy hue I will runne away:
Ienny, Ienny, thou puttest me to paine,
That thou no longer wilt here remaine.
I will weare out my shooes of Neats Leather,
But thou and I will meete together,
And in spight of Fortune, Rat, or Mouse,
Wee will dwell together in one house.
For who doth not esteeme of thee,
Shall haue no seruice done of me:
Therefore good Ienny haue a care,
To meete poore Fragment at the faire.
1.) 64 pages that covered five years. That's just cramming in too much.
2.) No character development. At all. See number 1 above.
3.) The spelling and language is super-outdated. Not Deloney's fault, obviously. I'm sure it was all perfect back in the day. But, it was very tough to get through. For me. In the twenty-first century.
4.)
You too can read it HERE.
And now, a little ditty from the story, to give you a taste:
O Ienny my ioy, I die for thy loue,
And now I heare say that thou dost remoue:
And therefore, Ienny, I pray thee recite,
Where shall I meete thee soone at night.
For why, with my Master no more will I stay,
But for thy hue I will runne away:
Ienny, Ienny, thou puttest me to paine,
That thou no longer wilt here remaine.
I will weare out my shooes of Neats Leather,
But thou and I will meete together,
And in spight of Fortune, Rat, or Mouse,
Wee will dwell together in one house.
For who doth not esteeme of thee,
Shall haue no seruice done of me:
Therefore good Ienny haue a care,
To meete poore Fragment at the faire.
October 18, 2025
Writing in the very last years of the 1500s, Thomas Deloney constructs a piece of light fictional sociology in the garb of historical fiction. Thomas of Reading gets tagged from time to time as one of the earliest novels in the West. Deloney was onto something because this book was heavily read in its time. Although its initial publication was a huge success, it seems there are no extant copies of the original printing because the ravenous public consumed, reread and passed them around so voraciously. 1612 reprints are as early as the sources get.
The story looks back at the years of Henry I and events that took place around 1100. Henry is having conflicts in France with his brother Robert - but this historical background is the sideshow. Deloney's focus is on a group of nine merchants, clothiers in fact, hailing from the north and west of England. Deloney takes a deep-dive into the lives and careers of these gentlemen and their wives. King Henry is enamored of the clothiers and has frequent discourse with them, dipping in and out of the story - he just seems to like hanging around with them.
The writing is substantially comedic, with the kind of innuendo and lascivious scandal that infuses so much Elizabethan lit. It would seem to have been a mens' world, so it's noteworthy how much time Deloney spends on the wives' lifestyles. They're bored and wanting to have the dynamic, traveling lives of their husbands. A trip to London by Simon of Southampton's wife and a few other of the wives triggers a desire for these country women to live in more urban style, to the resistance of their husbands.
Amidst all of the light-heartedness, there are some serious events that happen in the last stretch of the book.
Despite the focus on the clothing trade, little is said descriptively about the actual fashions of the day. Perhaps Deloney didn't feel qualified to speculate on fashion from 500 years ago.
This was an entertaining and brief read. There are some memorable episodes and some hearty guffaws if you can get yourself in the mindset. It has a lot to say about societal mores of the medieval and renaissance English merchant class.
Parental suggestion: Ages 14+
The story looks back at the years of Henry I and events that took place around 1100. Henry is having conflicts in France with his brother Robert - but this historical background is the sideshow. Deloney's focus is on a group of nine merchants, clothiers in fact, hailing from the north and west of England. Deloney takes a deep-dive into the lives and careers of these gentlemen and their wives. King Henry is enamored of the clothiers and has frequent discourse with them, dipping in and out of the story - he just seems to like hanging around with them.
The writing is substantially comedic, with the kind of innuendo and lascivious scandal that infuses so much Elizabethan lit. It would seem to have been a mens' world, so it's noteworthy how much time Deloney spends on the wives' lifestyles. They're bored and wanting to have the dynamic, traveling lives of their husbands. A trip to London by Simon of Southampton's wife and a few other of the wives triggers a desire for these country women to live in more urban style, to the resistance of their husbands.
Amidst all of the light-heartedness, there are some serious events that happen in the last stretch of the book.
Despite the focus on the clothing trade, little is said descriptively about the actual fashions of the day. Perhaps Deloney didn't feel qualified to speculate on fashion from 500 years ago.
This was an entertaining and brief read. There are some memorable episodes and some hearty guffaws if you can get yourself in the mindset. It has a lot to say about societal mores of the medieval and renaissance English merchant class.
Parental suggestion: Ages 14+
September 27, 2025
How to read a 16th-century prose narrative in a postmodern key? By treating it as a remix, a proto-industrial folk ballad disguised as a cautionary tale. Deloney’s Thomas of Reading sits at the threshold between oral tradition and print culture, and that threshold is pure postmodern candy.
The book offers a portrait of clothiers, commerce, and morality in Tudor England, yet its structure—episodic, digressive, semi-anonymous—anticipates the serial forms of our own media. We scroll, Deloney serialised. Thomas is an archetype, a merchant-hero whose rise and fall dramatise the ethics of labour, but the narrative also doubles as a manual of consumption: who eats where, who wears what.
In a postmodern reading, this becomes a meta-commentary on the birth of commodity culture, a nostalgia for authenticity produced at the very moment authenticity becomes a brand. Deloney’s prose is plain yet studded with moral maxims like pop-up ads; each anecdote interrupts another, like hyperlinks leading off-screen.
The notorious episode of the murderous hostess who robs travellers becomes a mediaeval clickbait story, a viral meme of violence. But beneath the folkloric surface is a darker question: what is the cost of social mobility? Thomas’s fate—rich yet undone by treachery—reads like a parable for every start-up founder devoured by the market they helped create.
The postmodern twist is to see Deloney not as a quaint moralist but as an early theorist of networks and reputations, mapping the circuits of trade and trust before credit scores and Uber ratings. Even the anonymity of the text—its uncertain authorship, its hybrid genre—fits the postmodern suspicion of origins.
The book survives as a kind of ghost in the archive, half ballad, half prose, whispering that every age thinks it invented fraud, social climbing, and sensational news.
Reading it now is like finding an Elizabethan subreddit: bustling, judgemental, and weirdly intimate. Deloney gives us not just Thomas of Reading but the prototype of every hustle story, every moralising Netflix doc.
The text becomes a mirror where our own economic myths flicker back.
The book offers a portrait of clothiers, commerce, and morality in Tudor England, yet its structure—episodic, digressive, semi-anonymous—anticipates the serial forms of our own media. We scroll, Deloney serialised. Thomas is an archetype, a merchant-hero whose rise and fall dramatise the ethics of labour, but the narrative also doubles as a manual of consumption: who eats where, who wears what.
In a postmodern reading, this becomes a meta-commentary on the birth of commodity culture, a nostalgia for authenticity produced at the very moment authenticity becomes a brand. Deloney’s prose is plain yet studded with moral maxims like pop-up ads; each anecdote interrupts another, like hyperlinks leading off-screen.
The notorious episode of the murderous hostess who robs travellers becomes a mediaeval clickbait story, a viral meme of violence. But beneath the folkloric surface is a darker question: what is the cost of social mobility? Thomas’s fate—rich yet undone by treachery—reads like a parable for every start-up founder devoured by the market they helped create.
The postmodern twist is to see Deloney not as a quaint moralist but as an early theorist of networks and reputations, mapping the circuits of trade and trust before credit scores and Uber ratings. Even the anonymity of the text—its uncertain authorship, its hybrid genre—fits the postmodern suspicion of origins.
The book survives as a kind of ghost in the archive, half ballad, half prose, whispering that every age thinks it invented fraud, social climbing, and sensational news.
Reading it now is like finding an Elizabethan subreddit: bustling, judgemental, and weirdly intimate. Deloney gives us not just Thomas of Reading but the prototype of every hustle story, every moralising Netflix doc.
The text becomes a mirror where our own economic myths flicker back.
March 7, 2020
This novella tells of the exploits of various members of the clothiers guild in 16th century England. This is one of the earliest of the novel form in English literature and carries the expected difficulties for the modern reader — old English spellings (like oast instead of host) and the casual attitude toward violence. The book is really a number of loosely connected very short stories, including the origin of the yard as a common measure, a tryst between one of the clothiers and an inn keeper’s wife, the murder of Thomas of Reading, an excursion by the clothiers’ wives to London and the tragedy of two star crossed lovers.
The most amusing parts of the book are the rhetorical debates between husbands and wives as they each try to get their way and the amusing way some thieves talk their way out of execution. The disturbing parts are of course the tortures and killings that happen throughout the book.
It is an interesting study of an important step in the development of literature in England, but I can’t say I actually enjoyed it.
The most amusing parts of the book are the rhetorical debates between husbands and wives as they each try to get their way and the amusing way some thieves talk their way out of execution. The disturbing parts are of course the tortures and killings that happen throughout the book.
It is an interesting study of an important step in the development of literature in England, but I can’t say I actually enjoyed it.
July 7, 2018
This 80 page book written in the old English of 1599 took me far longer to read than it should have done. The story of a group of cloth merchants, their frequent visits into London and the subsequent murder of Thomas was quite hard to decipher at times.
After several attempts to find a copy of this obscure book, a fellow GR 1001 list group member posted a link to a copy freely available to the general public on the University of Michigan website and this is what I read from. Not a huge fan of reading books on my laptop, this was one reason I took so long.
Having said that, I did enjoy it, and it was an experience similar to reading Chaucer and interesting to read about London and the merchants' various homes during that time.
After several attempts to find a copy of this obscure book, a fellow GR 1001 list group member posted a link to a copy freely available to the general public on the University of Michigan website and this is what I read from. Not a huge fan of reading books on my laptop, this was one reason I took so long.
Having said that, I did enjoy it, and it was an experience similar to reading Chaucer and interesting to read about London and the merchants' various homes during that time.
March 4, 2018
This is the oldest piece of literature I have yet read, being from 1600, and besting Gulliver's Travels by about 125 years. It's included in the later editions of "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die". The spellings are certainly a challenge but it gets easier as one reads farther and accustoms to it. It is made fairly tolerable by it's short length. It was kind of fun to read something from so long ago. It even has a horror story chapter in it which I thought the most interesting: "How Thomas of Reading was murdred at his hoasts house of Colebrooke, who also had murdred many before him, how their wickednes was at length reuealed. Cha. 11."
April 10, 2024
Classic "first novel ever" or "first romance book ever" quote:
"Sight, to thinke how prettily you began to brabble.
But now, quoth he, we will change our Chidings to
Kissings, and it vexeth me that these Cherry Lipps
should be subject to such a Lobcocke as thy Hus-
band. "
Love it. This book is a bit hard to follow because of the version of English and the spelling, but overall not a bad beginning to written stories.
"Sight, to thinke how prettily you began to brabble.
But now, quoth he, we will change our Chidings to
Kissings, and it vexeth me that these Cherry Lipps
should be subject to such a Lobcocke as thy Hus-
band. "
Love it. This book is a bit hard to follow because of the version of English and the spelling, but overall not a bad beginning to written stories.
January 7, 2021
Three stars but only because the old English was so difficult for me to read that trying to grasp what was going on and being said proved difficult for me. Despite the short length of the book it took me nearly a month to finish it because I could only grasp small bits of a time. For the most part I believe I understood the story- it just took me time to get through it
June 5, 2022
It took me about three paragraphs to get the spelling of the ol' English words. A quick read about clothiers, their wives, their relationships to the King and his brother the Duke, and maid Margaret.
September 20, 2020
This will put you right to sleep.
The language is TOUGH.
It seems like it could be very witty & a good story if you could get past the langage - I just couldn’t.
The language is TOUGH.
It seems like it could be very witty & a good story if you could get past the langage - I just couldn’t.
May 20, 2021
A bit of history, a bit of intrigue, a bit of romance, with a dash of murder.
January 1, 2023
I wouldn't say this book should be on the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" list. It was very quaint and charming but not in my opinion an absolute must read.
Read
May 7, 2024There is a tale in this book (published in 1599) that foreshadows H H Holmes' "Chicago murder hotel". Also, in another tale, the guillotine?
March 7, 2017
Oh how I enjoyed this!!!!! Sigh!
October 5, 2024
'Thomas of Reading' was first published in the 1590s but is set nearly 500 years earlier, around 1106, when Henry and Robert, the two surviving sons of William the Conqueror, fought over the kingdom of England and the duchy of Normandy. The free editions online are reproductions with Ss that look like Fs and interchangeable Us and Vs, but if you can get used to that, the language will seem straightforward compared with Deloney's contemporary Shakespeare.
It's a short and lively story involving murder, gruesome punishments, and a young lady of the nobility reduced to poverty. Thomas Cole of Reading is a cloth merchant who falls victim to a scurrilous innkeeper, but the background is England’s rise to wealth from the wool trade, with the Norman king Henry I and his English subjects arriving at mutual respect 45 years after the conquest. There's also a love story involving Henry’s brother Robert (ignoring the fact that he was actually a 55-year-old widower at this time). All of this is packed into about 75 pages. Not surprisingly, it was wildly popular in its day.
It's a short and lively story involving murder, gruesome punishments, and a young lady of the nobility reduced to poverty. Thomas Cole of Reading is a cloth merchant who falls victim to a scurrilous innkeeper, but the background is England’s rise to wealth from the wool trade, with the Norman king Henry I and his English subjects arriving at mutual respect 45 years after the conquest. There's also a love story involving Henry’s brother Robert (ignoring the fact that he was actually a 55-year-old widower at this time). All of this is packed into about 75 pages. Not surprisingly, it was wildly popular in its day.
September 9, 2016
I really hoped to enjoy this, but, it really is an early novel and as such is a bit rough. There's a religious/moral overtone to some of the book, but really not as much as I would have expected for the time period.
There are a couple really good bits in it that do make it worth reading. There is a part where a woman is being chided by her husband and she states that he wouldn't be happy no matter what she did. If she's friendly, she's a flirt, if she's straight-faced she's a prude, if she stay's at home she's melancholy if she goes out she's a gadabout and so on. That is very paraphrased, the paragraph is much better in the book.
Additionally, there's a portion that leaves one to wonder if it is the inspiration for the character Sweeney Todd. An innkeeper and his wife have rigged one of their rooms over the kitchen to dump whoever is in the bed into a boiling pot of water to murder people. Yes. The story states that they've fixed the bedside table and the bed to the floor and that when they pull two pins that floor gives way and dumps the sleeping guest into boiling water. There are some similarities here, much in the way Sweeney Todd's barber chair is portrayed as dumping the body down below.
Overall though, most of this is a bit of a slog to get through. I'm glad it wasn't overly long.
There are a couple really good bits in it that do make it worth reading. There is a part where a woman is being chided by her husband and she states that he wouldn't be happy no matter what she did. If she's friendly, she's a flirt, if she's straight-faced she's a prude, if she stay's at home she's melancholy if she goes out she's a gadabout and so on. That is very paraphrased, the paragraph is much better in the book.
Additionally, there's a portion that leaves one to wonder if it is the inspiration for the character Sweeney Todd. An innkeeper and his wife have rigged one of their rooms over the kitchen to dump whoever is in the bed into a boiling pot of water to murder people. Yes. The story states that they've fixed the bedside table and the bed to the floor and that when they pull two pins that floor gives way and dumps the sleeping guest into boiling water. There are some similarities here, much in the way Sweeney Todd's barber chair is portrayed as dumping the body down below.
Overall though, most of this is a bit of a slog to get through. I'm glad it wasn't overly long.
April 14, 2024
*I actually read the complete text or roughly 178 pages, available in pdf form copied from a rather early edition printed in the early 17th century*
This book is more a historical curiosity than something that speaks to a modern reader. It is written in what I believe is very late Middle English/early Modern English from Shakespeare's time, being published in the 1590s. Most copies you can find (usually in pdf online) are the old script and spelling style, which can take a little while to adapt to. Once that's done, you have a collection of tales that focus on the titular "six yeomen," who are clothiers in England during the 12th century.
There are a few mildly amusing parables and curious tragedies and tales within the entire work, and it is slightly interesting to see how a 16th-century writer portrays the average folks from a few centuries before even his time. Overall, though, don't expect any amazing revelations about the roots of the modern novel, aside from the simple fact that this book is considered one of the very earliest known examples of the novel in the English language. Though this work is much shorter and a far breezier read, I enjoyed the chivalric romances like Tirant lo Blanc or Amadis of Gaul a bit more.
This book is more a historical curiosity than something that speaks to a modern reader. It is written in what I believe is very late Middle English/early Modern English from Shakespeare's time, being published in the 1590s. Most copies you can find (usually in pdf online) are the old script and spelling style, which can take a little while to adapt to. Once that's done, you have a collection of tales that focus on the titular "six yeomen," who are clothiers in England during the 12th century.
There are a few mildly amusing parables and curious tragedies and tales within the entire work, and it is slightly interesting to see how a 16th-century writer portrays the average folks from a few centuries before even his time. Overall, though, don't expect any amazing revelations about the roots of the modern novel, aside from the simple fact that this book is considered one of the very earliest known examples of the novel in the English language. Though this work is much shorter and a far breezier read, I enjoyed the chivalric romances like Tirant lo Blanc or Amadis of Gaul a bit more.
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