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Provincial Readers in Eighteenth-Century England
By Jan Fergus
0 - Default Title
Description
This book thus offers the first solid demographic information about actual readership in eighteenth-century provincial England, not only about the class, profession, age, and sex of readers but also about the market of available fiction from which they made their choices - and some speculation about why they made the choices they did. Contrary to received ideas, men in the provinces were the principal customers for eighteenth-century novels, including those written by women. Provincial customers preferred to buy rather than borrow fiction, and women preferred plays and novels written by women - women's works would have done better had women been the principal consumers. That is, demand for fiction (written by both men and women) was about equal for the first five years, but afterward the demand for women's works declined. Both men and women preferred novels with identifiable authors to anonymous ones, however, and both boys and men were able to cross gender lines in their reading. Goody Two-Shoes was one of the more popular children's books among Rugby schoolboys, and men read the Lady's Magazine. These and other findings will alter the way scholars look at the fiction of the period, the questions asked, and the histories told of it.
Product details
Edition:
illustrated
Number of Pages:
328
Release Date:
2007-03-29
Publication Date:
2007-01-25
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
Languages:
Original:
English
ISBN10:
0199297827
ISBN13:
9780199297825
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
Weight:
595 g
Height:
145 cm
Width:
222 cm
Thickness:
23 cm
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