Provincial readers in eighteenth-century England / Jan Fergus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fergus, Jan S., 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Books and reading--England--Midlands--History--18th century.

Books and reading.

English fiction--Publishing--England--History--18th century.

English fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (327 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

It is well known that the English novel took shape in the eighteenth century, but no one knows who read novels like Humphry Clinker</i> and <i>Clarissa</i> when they were first published. Drawing on booksellers' archives and parish records, this book shows who in the Midlands actually bought novels, plays, and fiction magazines in the eighteenth century. - ;Many scholars have written about eighteenth-century English novels, but no one really knows who read them. This study provides historical data on the provincial reading publics for various forms of fiction - novels, plays, chapbooks,

Contents:

Contents; Introduction; Fiction and the Archives; The 'Rise' of the Novel, Women Readers, and the Problem of Evidence; London Booksellers and their Archives; The Booksellers: The Clays and Stevens and their Communities; Clay Day Books, their Nature and Problems; Day Book and Ledger Evidence and the Market for Fiction; 1. Audiences for Novels: Gendered Reading; The Audiences for Novels and Gender; Adult Customers of the Clays and Stevens; Men, Reviews, and Book Clubs; Provincial Women Readers; Case Studies of Women Customers; Some Conclusions

2. Consuming Practices: Canonicity, Novels, and Plays Canonization, Readers, Anonymity, and Female Novelists; Canonizing Drama; Reading Practices: Multiple and Repeated Readings; Reading Practices: Desultory Reading; 3. Schoolboy Readers: John Newbery's Goody Two-Shoes and Licensed War; Rugby School; School Culture: Licensed War; Reading Children's Books; The Case of Goody Two-Shoes; The Episodes of Goody Two-Shoes; Making Sense of Goody Two-Shoes; 4. Schoolboy Practices: Novels, Children's Books, Chapbooks, and Magazines; Accounts of Schoolboy Reading

Little Books-Abridgements in Chapbooks versus Children's Books Schoolboys Read Novels: Rugby School; Secret Novel Reading at Rugby?; More Schoolboys Read Even More Novels: Daventry Dissenting Academy; Schoolboy Subscribers to Magazines; 5. Audiences for Magazines and Serialized Publications; Men who Read the Lady's Magazine; Concealed Women Subscribers; Magazine Subscribers and the Market; Growth and Attrition in Magazine Audiences; Audiences for Magazines and Novels; Case Study: The Novelist's Magazine; Serialized Publications; Summary; Conclusion; Appendices

1. Clays' Circulating Library Stocks 2. Novels in English Bought and Borrowed, 1744-1807; 3. All Children's Book and Chapbook Titles Bought by Rugby Boys; 4. Magazines taken by Clay customers, 1746-1780; 5. Adult consumers of Novels and Magazines, 1746-1780; Bibliography; Index to Novels, Bought and Borrowed; Index to Customers for Novels; General Index;

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [284]-296) and indexes.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

ISBN:

1-4294-9280-5

0-19-153820-5

OCLC:

437094048