Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Williams, Abigail, author

Title The social life of books : reading together in the eighteenth-century home / Abigail Williams
Published [Place of publication not identified] : Yale University Press, 2017

Copies

Description 1 online resource
Series Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history
Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history.
Contents Introduction : Home improvements -- How to read -- Reading and sociability -- Using books -- Access to reading -- Verse at home -- Drama and recital -- Fictional worlds -- Piety and knowledge -- Afterword
Summary A vivid exploration of the evolution of reading as an essential social and domestic activity during the eighteenth century. Two centuries before the advent of radio, television, and motion pictures, books were a cherished form of popular entertainment and an integral component of domestic social life. In this fascinating and vivid history, Abigail Williams explores the ways in which shared reading shaped the lives and literary culture of the time, offering new perspectives on how books have been used by their readers, and the part they have played in middle-class homes and families. Drawing on marginalia, letters and diaries, library catalogues, elocution manuals, subscription lists, and more, Williams offers fresh and fascinating insights into reading, performance, and the history of middle-class home life
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Books and reading -- History -- 18th century
Books and reading -- Sociological aspects.
Families -- Books and reading -- History -- 18th century
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Publishing.
Books and reading
Books and reading -- Sociological aspects
Families -- Books and reading
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780300228106
0300228104