Print and the people, 1819-1851

Abstract

This anthology makes available a range of popular literature of interest to both scholars and the general reader. It covers the years between Peterloo (1819) and the Great Exhibition (1851) as significant watersheds in the life of the English people.

Contents

History and perspectives: Magic into print -- The battle for the mind -- The fiction trap and the growth of popular periodicals -- Time and the popular almanack -- Popular iconography : a chapter on hats -- The images of graphic satire -- The modality of melodrama -- Anthology: 1. Work and entertainment: Rural -- Mining -- Weaving -- Machinery -- Domestic -- Sport -- Low life in London -- 2. Religion: Faith -- Tracts -- Controversy -- Political -- 3. Admonitory: Disease and cleanliness -- Temperance -- The art of life -- Be something -- 4. Fables: Tales -- Wonders -- Spectacle -- Political showman -- 5. Crime: Murder gallery -- Attitudes -- Criminals in romance -- 6. Heroines: A good death -- In danger -- Lost -- White slaves -- Musical hall heroine -- Penny valentines -- Domestic romance -- The Queen.