Provincial Readers in Eighteenth-Century England

This groundbreaking literary history study provides the first concrete evidence of who actually read eighteenth-century fiction, drawing on unprecedented archival research into provincial booksellers' records from 1744 to 1807. Jan Fergus meticulously analyzes purchasing and borrowing patterns across novels, plays, chapbooks, children's literature, and periodicals, offering rare demographic insights into the reading habits of over 3,300 customers in five English market towns. The work fundamentally challenges scholarly assumptions about literacy and literary consumption during this pivotal period in English literature.

What distinguishes this academic work is its empirical approach to reconstructing the provincial reading public, moving beyond theoretical speculation to document actual reader behavior through surviving commercial records. Literary scholars and social historians will find invaluable data on how different social classes accessed various forms of printed material, revealing surprising patterns in reading preferences across gender and economic lines. This research permanently alters our understanding of the eighteenth-century literary marketplace and its diverse audience.