These years – from around 1790 to 1830 – not only saw an astonishingly rapid expansion of reading, but political and economic upheaval, including the French and Industrial revolutions, and many other innovations in ways of thinking. I gradually began to build up a picture of which books were available to be read, in what quantities, at what prices and by what constituencies of readers, in the English-speaking world in the so-called Romantic period. I began asking simple questions like “Who read Byron?” – questions that had seldom been addressed in the academic literature – and when the spadework was done, the answers turned out to be very different from the then received views, which were mainly derived from what past literary critics had written. Can you give us a brief summary of your findings?Īs I read the main books about Romantic literature, I was struck by the extent to which they tended to assume that the works which we most value nowadays were also those that were most valued in their own time.

Let’s start by talking about your groundbreaking book The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period, which suggests that ordinary people may not have been reading what we think they were in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Foreign Policy & International Relations.

Be sure to stop at a whiskey distillery for a sip or two - try Highland Park or Old Pulteney - and consider staying at Gleneagles Hotel, which sits on a 850-acre estate and has its own train station. Try taking a hike up to Arthur's Seat for sweeping views, check out Edinburgh's Old Town for quaint architecture and fun museums (such as the Writers' Museum), and wander down the Royal Mile to take in street performers. Wander through the green rolling hills and sheep pastures, and take in the history in this beautiful country. Try taking a hike up to Arthur’s Seat for sweeping views, check out Edinburgh's Old Town for quaint architecture and fun museums (such as the Writers' Museum), and wander down the Royal Mile to take in street performers.

The bluff book emma st clair