The reading room

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

The old storeroom had been altered beyond recognition. Shelves covered the walls, lamps shone above six long tables, and the town's damp newspapers no longer had to be read beneath the market arch. Over the entrance, newly painted gold letters declared that the room had been PRESENTED FREELY BY MR JONAS PRITCHARD.

At the opening, Mr Pritchard placed a hand upon the first shelf. "A book locked away is no gift at all," he said. "Knowledge should stand where any honest person may reach it."

The visitors applauded, and Miss Lyle, who had been appointed librarian, began issuing volumes. An errand boy chose a book of voyages; two seamstresses shared a collection of plays. Mr Pritchard moved among them with the pleased expression of a host watching guests enjoy his table.

Then he noticed a thin pamphlet beside the catalogue. Its title concerned conditions in the town's workshops. It had been given to the room that morning by a local doctor and included an account written by one of Mr Pritchard's own employees.

"That is not one of my books," he said.

Miss Lyle agreed and showed him the doctor's name in the list of donations. Mr Pritchard read the entry, then asked her to place the pamphlet in a locked cupboard. Some publications, he explained, disturbed readers without improving them.

"But the cupboard is for damaged volumes," said Miss Lyle. "And this one was given for everyone to read."

Mr Pritchard looked towards the gold letters above the door. He remarked that lamps required oil, shelves required repairs and future books would have to be purchased. A generous undertaking, he said, could continue only while it was used responsibly. The nearest readers lowered their eyes to their pages, although nobody turned one.

Miss Lyle did not put the pamphlet in the cupboard. She entered its title carefully in the catalogue and left it on the central table. Mr Pritchard soon departed, accepting thanks from the visitors gathered near the door.

For the rest of the evening, the books he had provided travelled steadily from shelf to table. The boy with the voyages read until closing time. Yet the thin pamphlet travelled too, passed quietly between readers beneath the words PRESENTED FREELY.

“The passage presents generosity as least convincing when the giver tries to control the freedom it appears to create.”

Evaluate how successfully the writer presents this idea. Support your judgement with detailed references to the passage.