Books and Their Readers in 18th Century England: Volume 2 New Essays

(Paperback)

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A collection of eight essays that investigate the book trade revolution of the 18th-century and the ways in which significant kinds of 18th-century writings were designed and received by different audiences. It sets out to explore the answers to certain crucial questions about the contemporary use of books. Following on from Professor Rivers' "Books and Their Readers in Eighteenth-century England", published in 1982 this new collection contains the results of important research by well-known specialists in the field of book publishing history.

Reviews

"Two decades after she edited the influential Books and Their Readers in Eighteenth-Century England (1982), Isabel Rivers has edited a second volume of the same kind. Each book begins with a helpful overview of the relationship of authors to the book trade in the eighteenth century...the new one by James Raven. Raven's article masterfully synthesizes much of the best scholarship of recent decades..The remaining seven essays deal with particular genres of eighteenth-century English books." --Sharp News
'This excellent new collection' 'The contributors to the new collection are distinguished, the essays well written, authoritative, and exceptionally well referenced, and this volume will join its elder partner on the shelves as a valuable resource.' --James McLaverty in The Age of Johnson 14 (2003)
'Isabel Rivers's excellent new symposium' 'the picture Rivers and her colleagues create yields broad, compelling evidence about the history of the book in the English eighteenth century'. --Paul Korshin in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 97:3 (2003), 402-05
'The wealth of detail, the recovered facts, and the sense of the life of the mind in the biography of the book are all features that one can revel in and use.' --John Valdimir Price in Notes and Queries new series 50:1 (2003)
'an insightful and wide-ranging study that will help to refine our sense of the impact of the book-trade on supposedly more elevated cultural practices.' --Paul Keen in Eighteenth-Century Studies 36:1 (2002)
"the book is a pleasure to read with its sophisticated commentary on the privacy and provocations of reading" -Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Summer 2004
'like its earlier version, already looks indispensable' - Times Literary Supplement, May 24, 2002
"...Rivers is now back with Books and Their Readers in Eighteenth Century England: New Essays, which extends the scope of the first group of essays and, in Rivers' words, reflects the revolution in the academic study of the book' over the last twenty years. This new Books and Their Readers, erudite and hugely thought-provoking, demonstrates how sophisticated the study of the book has become. What emerges is that book history is wide-ranging cultural history- it just takes books as its starting point." -- ECCB: The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography

Author Bio

Professor Isabel Rivers is Fellow and Tutor in English at St. Hugh's College, Oxford.