There is not a farmer nor a fisherman that cannot read and does not read.
 Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). copy citation

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Author Jules Verne
Source Journey to the Center of the Earth
Topic reading
Date 1864
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3748/3748-h/3748-h.htm

Context

“Fridrikssen, "why we possess eight thousand volumes, many of them valuable and scarce, works in the old Scandinavian language, and we have all the novelties that Copenhagen sends us every year." "Where do you keep your eight thousand volumes? For my part—" "Oh, M. Liedenbrock, they are all over the country. In this icy region we are fond of study. There is not a farmer nor a fisherman that cannot read and does not read. Our principle is, that books, instead of growing mouldy behind an iron grating, should be worn out under the eyes of many readers. Therefore, these volumes are passed from one to another, read over and over, referred to again and again;” source