The Common Reader
Rosalind Crone introduces a database of readers and reading habits since 1450.
‘Do the customers at publishing houses, the members of book-clubs and circulating libraries, and the purchasers and borrowers of newspapers and reviews, compose altogether the great bulk of the reading public of England?’
In 1858, the novelist Wilkie Collins began an article, ‘The Unknown Public’, he had written for Charles Dickens’s Household Words with this question. It continues to plague those who study the history of reading, and most would agree with the answer Collins himself gave: ‘So far from composing the bulk of English readers, the public mentioned represents nothing more than the minority.’ But a further puzzle remains – where is this hidden majority to be found?
To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.
Start my trial subscription now
If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.
Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.
