Circulating Fiction 1780-1830: The Novel in British Circulating Libraries of the Romantic Era: With a Check-List of 200 Mainstream Novels of the Period
Reference Type | Thesis |
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Year of Publication |
1997
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Contributors |
Author:
Christopher Skelton-Foord Advisor: Peter Garside |
Number of Pages |
378 pp.
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Language | |
University |
University of Wales
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Thesis Type |
Ph.D. Dissertation
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Library Type | |
Demographics | |
Chronological Period | |
Abstract |
This thesis considers the production and provision of British fiction for circulating libraries, and the interdependence of libraries and novels, 1780-1830. The work focuses upon the acquisitioning of the latest fiction titles in different types and sizes of establishment, to quantify the popularity of the novel throughout the Romantic era. The fictional representation of libraries and librarians is also re-assessed in the context of contemporary attitudes towards the reading public. Chapter One compares characteristics of fiction provision in commercial, subscription, and mechanics’ institute establishments, presenting figure for the proportion of fiction in forty-six libraries from extent catalogues. Chapter Two examines economic and social aspects of circulating-library management, according to source material ranging from catalogues, printed advertisements for libraries and fiction publishers, and the novels themselves. Chapter Three establishes new estimates for the total output of British novels, 1780-1829. The significance of readers’ access to a full range of fiction via circulating libraries is examined in comparison with the possibilities of access which the bookshops had also created. Chapters Four and Five evaluate findings concerning individual publishers, libraries, and novelists, to establish which of two hundred mainstream novels the librarians were offering for loan, which authors and in which quantities. A case study of the 1780s is included to illustrate the dimensions of novel production by individual publishers. The output of this decade is considered alongside that of the 1820s to identify fiction-provision trends at the beginning and end of the period. A decline in the dominance of female authors is linked to the advent of the most outstanding phenomenon of the circulating-library novels market, Walter Scott. Chapter Six demonstrates the importance of both popular satire and the female reader in fictional circulating-library scenes. A Check-List of the two hundred mainstream titles concludes the thesis.
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