بازگشت به خواننده عمومی: فرهنگ چاپ و رمان، ۱۸۵۰–۱۹۰۰

In 1957, Richard Altick's groundbreaking work The English Common Reader transformed the study of book history. Putting readers at the centre of literary culture, Altick anticipated-and helped produce-fifty years of scholarly inquiry into the ways and means by which the Victorians read. Now, A Return to the Common Reader asks what Altick's concept of the 'common reader' actually means in the wake of a half-century of research. Digging deep into unusual and eclectic archives and hitherto-overlooked sources, its authors give new understanding to the masses of newly literate readers who picked up books in the Victorian period. They find readers in prisons, in the barracks, and around the world, and they remind us of the power of those forgotten readers to find forbidden texts, shape new markets, and drive the production of new reading material across a century. Inspired and informed by Altick's seminal work, A Return to the Common Reader is a cutting-edge collection which dramatically reconfigures our understanding of the ordinary Victorian readers whose efforts and choices changed our literary culture forever. 'In 1957, Richard Altick's groundbreaking work The English Common Reader transformed the study of book history. Putting readers at the centre of literary culture, Altick anticipated-and helped produce-fifty years of scholarly inquiry into the ways and means by which the Victorians read. Now, A Return to the Common Reader asks what Altick's concept of the 'common reader' actually means in the wake of a half-century of research. Digging deep into unusual and eclectic archives and hitherto-overlooked sources, its authors give new understanding to the masses of newly literate readers who picked up books in the Victorian period. They find readers in prisons, in the barracks, and around the world, and they remind us of the power of those forgotten readers to find forbidden texts, shape new markets, and drive the production of new reading material across a century. Inspired and informed by Altick's seminal work, A Return to the Common Reader is a cutting-edge collection which dramatically reconfigures our understanding of the ordinary Victorian readers whose efforts and choices changed our literary culture forever.'--Provided by publisher The advantage of fiction : the novel and the : "success" of the Victorian periodical / Laurel Brake Dorothy's literature class : late-victorian women autodidacts and penny fiction weeklies / Kate MacDonald Ouida : how conceptions of the popular reader contributed to the making of a popular novelist / Jane Jordan Those who idle over novels : Victorian critics and post-romantic readers / Debra Gettelman "Gossip" and "twaddle" : nineteenth-century common readers make sense of Jane Austen / Katie Halsey Reading in gaol / Jenny Hartley Attempts to (re)shape common reading habits : Bible reading on the nineteenth-century convict ship / Rosalind Crone Quite incapable of appreciating books written for educated readers : the mid-nineteenth-century British soldier / Sharon Murphy A journey round the bookshelves : reading in the Royal Colonial Institute / Beth Palmer Fiction and the Australian reading public, 1888-1914 / Tim Dolin. Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Figures 8 List of Tables 10 List of Contributors 12 Foreword 14 Preface 16 Introduction 18 Part 1 Publishers, Authors, Critics, Readers 24 1 The Advantage of Fiction 26 2 Dorothy’s Literature Class 40 3 Ouida 54 4 ‘Those Who Idle over Novels’ 72 5 ‘Gossip’ and ‘Twaddle’ 86 Part 2 Scenes of Reading 102 6 Reading in Gaol 104 7 Attempts to (Re)shape Common Reading Habits 120 8 ‘Quite Incapable of Appreciating Books Written for Educated Readers’ 138 9 ‘A Journey Round the Bookshelves’ 150 10 Fiction and the Australian Reading Public, 1888–1914 168 Select Works Cited 192 Index 200 ISBN,9781409400271,(hbk),ISBN,9780754698777,(ebk) Ashgate Publishing Ltd In 1957, Richard Altick's groundbreaking work The English Common Reader transformed the study of book history. Inspired by Altick's research, but digging deep into the neglected records of prison libraries, army barracks or convict ships the authors of A Return to the Common Reader dramatically reconfigure our understanding of the ordinary Victorian readers whose efforts and choices changed our literary culture forever Digging into unusual and eclectic archives and overlooked sources, this book gives an understanding to the masses of newly literate readers who picked up books in the Victorian period. This collection dramatically reconfigures our understanding of the ordinary Victorian readers whose efforts and choices changed our literary culture forever.