In the public eye : a history of reading in modern France, 1800-1940 / James Smith Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, James Smith, author.

Series:

Princeton Legacy Library

Princeton legacy library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Books and reading--France--History--19th century.

Books and reading.

Books and reading--France--History--20th century.

France--Intellectual life--20th century.

France.

France--Intellectual life--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (373 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1991]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Robert Darnton, Roger Chartier, and others have written much on the history of reading in the Old Regime, but this is the first broad study of reading to focus on the period after 1800. How and why did people understand texts as they did in modern France? In answering this question, James Allen moves easily from one interpretive framework to another and draws on a wide range of sources--novels, diaries, censor reports, critical reviews, artistic images, accounts of public and private readings, and the letters that readers sent to authors about their books. As he analyzes reading "in the public eye," the author explores the formation of "interpretive communities" during the years when reading silently and alone gradually became more common than reading aloud in a group. In the Public Eye discusses printing, publishing, literacy, schooling, criticism, and censorship, to study the social, cultural, economic, and political forces that shaped French interpretive practice. Examining the art and act of reading by different audiences, it discloses the mentalities of literate people for whom few other historical records exist. The book will be essential reading for those interested in modern French history, post-structuralist literary theory and criticism, reader-response theory and criticism, and social and intellectual history in general.Originally published in 1991.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

PART I: The Historical Context

Chapter 1. THE PRINTED WORD

Chapter 2. A LITERATE SOCIETY

Chapter 3. THE POLITICS OF RECEPTION

Chapter 4. CULTURAL MENTALITIES

PART II: Historical Interpretive Practices: The Art of Reading

Chapter 5. ARTISTIC IMAGES

Chapter 6. IN THE NOVEL

Chapter 7. JOURNALS AND MEMOIRS

PART III: Historical Interpretive Practices: The Act of Reading

Chapter 8. FROM NOBLE SENTIMENT TO PERSONAL SENSIBILITY

Chapter 9. RESPONSES TO GENRE

Chapter 10. READING THE NOVEL

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX TABLES

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ARCHIVAL SOURCES

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [339]-342) and index.

ISBN:

9780691633367

0691633363

9781400862313

1400862310

9780691604190

0691604193

OCLC:

884013206