The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Jul 8, 2004 - Literary Criticism - 765 pages
During the centuries when printed paper was the only means by which texts could be carried across time and distance, everyone engaged in politics, education, and literature believed that reading helped to shape the minds, attitudes, and actions of readers. William St Clair investigates how the national culture can be understood through a study of the books that were actually read. Centered on the romantic period in the English-speaking world, but ranging across the whole print era, St Clair's study reaches startling conclusions about the forces that determined how ideas were passed into wider society by way of print. From quantified information he provides on book prices, print runs, intellectual property, and readerships gathered from over fifty publishing and printing archives, St Clair offers a picture of the past very different from those presented by traditional approaches.
 

Contents

V
1
VI
19
VII
43
VIII
66
IX
84
X
103
XI
122
XII
140
XVII
235
XVIII
268
XIX
293
XX
307
XXI
339
XXII
357
XXIII
374
XXIV
394

XIII
158
XIV
177
XV
186
XVI
210
XXV
413
XXVI
433
XXVII
743
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2004)

William St Clair is Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Bibliographic information