Publisher's Synopsis
Reading was one of the defining obsessions of Georgian England-serving as both passionate interest and the natural focus for intensive criticism and controversy for the middle and upper classes of the day. It's not surprising then that a proliferation of book lenders and booksellers would strike up a competition for the patronage of a generation of readers. This pioneering volume on the history of reading in eighteenth-century England explores the origins, organization, and impact of book clubs, reading societies, and subscription and circulating libraries, as well as the opportunities increasingly offered to readers by a variety of other collections-including those provided by religious, educational, and recreational institutions. A Nation of Readers compellingly argues that the proliferation of library facilities greatly increased the quantity and diversity of texts available. It also suggests that the resulting circulation of books on a previously unimaginable scale made possible the creation of a substantial and broadly based reading public, thereby adding immeasurably to the cultural vitality that so distinguished Georgian England and left its mark on literary generations to come.
