Reader's block -- Anthony Trollope and the repellent book -- David Copperfield and the absorbent book -- It-narrative and the book as agent -- The book as burden : junk mail and religious tracts -- The book as go-between : domestic servants and forced reading -- The book as waste : Henry Mayhew and the fall of paper recycling
Summary
How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain asks how our culture came to frown on using books for any purpose other than reading. When did the coffee-table book become an object of scorn? Why did law courts forbid witnesses to kiss the Bible? What made Victorian cartoonists mock commuters who hid behind the newspaper, ladies who matched their books' binding to their dress, and servants who reduced newspapers to fish 'n' chips wrap? Shedding new light on novels by Thackeray, Dickens, the Brontës, Trollope, and Collins, as well as the urban sociology of Henry Mayhew, the book also uncovers the lives and afterlives of anonymous religious tracts and household manuals
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-325) and index
