Railway Reading and Late-Victorian Literary Series

The railway was a significant Victorian reading space, and this book focuses on the newly empowered readers of the expanding middle class. It explores the determinants of consumers' purchasing choices at railway station bookstalls selling books intended for reading in this zone, including the impact of the staff running the bookstalls and the commercial environment. The study examines three leading examples of late-Victorian series, which sought to satisfy railway passengers' need for literary reading matter, and reconstructs the reading experiences furnished by the light fiction of these series. It reflects the recent growth in scholarship on historical readership, the expansion in the canon of Victorian popular literature, and the broader material turn in nineteenth-century studies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 180 pages
Publication date: 31 March 2021
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The railway was a significant Victorian space for reading, catering to a diverse range of readers. This book focuses on one of the key demographics in the late-Victorian market: the newly empowered readers of the expanding middle class. By examining the factors that influenced consumers' purchasing decisions at railway station bookstalls selling books for reading in this zone, we can gain insights into the transactions that took place during this period. This exploration specifically focuses on the impact of the staff running the bookstalls and the commercial environment on consumers' choices. At the heart of this study is a genre of Victorian print culture that was prevalent in this reading space: the series. Rooney examines three prominent examples of late-Victorian series that aimed to meet the reading needs of railway passengers. These series featured works by many of the period's leading authors and covered a range of literary genres. Each venture represents one of the three main pricing tiers of series publishing. Using an eclectic methodological framework that combines cultural studies and book history approaches with concepts from the new humanities, the reading experiences provided by the light fiction of these series are reconstructed. This study reflects the recent growth in scholarship on historical readership, the expansion of the canon of Victorian popular literature, and the broader material turn in nineteenth-century studies.

Weight: 349g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367787042