Reading forms a genuine meeting place for historians, literary scholars, theorists, librarians, and historians of the book. This collection examines nineteenth-century reading in all its personal, historical, literary and material contexts, while also asking fundamental questions about how we read the Victorians' reading in the present day.
Bringing together historians, literary scholars, theorists, librarians, and historians of the book, Reading and the Victorians examines the era when reading underwent a swifter and more radical transformation than at any other moment in history. The contributors stress the continuities and the conflicts between the Victorian period and our own, in essays that examine nineteenth-century reading in all its personal, historical, literary, and material contexts, and also ask questions about how we read the Victorians' reading in the present day.
'This timely collection substantially advances our understanding of the practices of Victorian readers by showcasing some of the diverse recent methodologies that have attempted to capture them. The approaches represented range from analysis of the sometimes difficult material realities of reading in the nineteenth century, through considerations of its political and ideological effects, to explorations of its deepest meanings at the level of the individual writer, editor, bookseller and reader. The diversity of methods brought together here is not only likely to encourage productive debate among scholars of this burgeoning field, but also to demonstrate the importance of reception studies to literary scholarship more broadly.' Mary Hammond, University of Southampton, UK 'These reader friendly essays convey the excitement of discovering how 150 years ago reading transformed people's lives. We learn how our forebears illuminated a reading space, created through diaries a life that counts, copiously registered their opinions in marginalia, and taught women that reading can be a dynamic, collaborative activity. We also learn that privileging reading might suppress other needful skills such as observation and imagination. These path-breaking studies significantly enrich the history we've inherited both of books and of readers.' Robert L. Patten, School of Advanced Study, University of London
