Richard D. Altick. The English Common Reader:
A Social History of the Mass
Reading Public, 1800-1900.
Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1957.
Summary by Sarah K. Wilson
Chapter 1:
From Caxton to the Eighteenth Century (Background)
With
Caxton’s printing press, literature became available and reading became
desirable (17). Under the Tudors
and the Stuarts, education was widely available (though not every person
received a “classical education”); however, books were still hard
to come by (19). During the
Elizabethan period, reading was very popular and affordable books began to be
printed (20). After the
Restoration, book prices rose and readership decreased largely due to Puritan
influences (denouncing non-religious reading) (23).
Chapter 2:
The Eighteenth Century (Background)
The 18th century marked an increase in literacy and reading again. Literacy was pushed by the Puritans in
order for people to be able to read the Bible (33). Schoolbooks began to include English writing (43). Libraries began to gain popularity (60).
However, the rise of the middle class caused the upper and lower classes
to become even further apart and class began to play a part in literacy. After the Civil War, the monarchy tried to keep lower classes
uneducated to prevent them from staging a Jacobite takeover (31). The topic of reading and literacy became
a social problem.
Chapter 3:
The Time of Crisis, 1791-1800 (Background)
The
last decade of the 18th century witnessed two major mass publications: Thomas
Paine’s The Rights of Man and Hannah More’s conservative
religious tracts. These
publications (political and religious propaganda, respectively), were the first
to be distributed so widely--and therefore, the first to prove the power of print. The government went into
“crisis” fearing anew that some would use print in order to gain
support for a Jacobite revival--this became a real possibility! This realized fear greatly influenced
ideas on reading and education in the 19th century, the focus of this book.
Chapter 4:
The Social Background
In the 19th century, particularly later with the industrial revolution,
the middle/working class became the predominant class, pushing the rich and
the poor to even greater extremes (84-85).
The upper classes were intent on keeping the lower classes illiterate
in order to keep them from getting jobs that would advance their social position
(85). The working class people
who had the ability to read often didn’t read for lack of time, light,
or good vision (89-90). Reading
was largely restricted to the upper classes who had leisure time, money to
afford books, and education (90).
Chapter 5:
Religion
Evangelicals pushed literacy for the purposes of reading the Bible
and religious tracts during the 19th century (108).
They spoke against the “anti-Christian” ideas that were
rampant in classical literature and modern fiction (novels) (109). There were some exceptions, the Ruskin
family for example. This conservative
family actually read a lot of non-religious work and even attended the playhouse
(116). In reaction to pressure
for censorship, “beauties” became a popular way to select certain
unobjectionable sections from classical literature (ancient and modern) and
print them in what were essentially censored anthologies (126).
Chapter 6:
The Utilitarian Spirit
The
utilitarian philosophy affected reading in the 19th century as much as the
religious philosophies did.
Utilitarians supported writing that promoted “useful
knowledge” (131). They
considered poetry useful if it was somehow didactic; they did not admire poetry
for its beauty (136-37). Some
people spoke against the utilitarian idea. Herschel and Dickens actually saw value in literature for
entertainment purposes, especially for members of the working class who spent
their days in factories and had little stimulation, little enjoyment, and little sense of individualism
(137-38). Others, including Hunt,
Hazlitt, and Lamb, actually supported the view that literature is valuable in
itself (138-39). So, while
evangelicals and utilitarians certainly influenced the literature that was printed
and read, they did not keep “non religious” or “non
useful” reading and writing from happening.
Chapter 7:
Elementary Education and Literacy
After
the crisis of the last decade of the 18th century, education for the lower
classes in the 19th century became a way to actually prevent Jacobin uprisings
and multitudes of other sins through, basically, indoctrination (141). Adam Smith found that people who worked
all day “tend to lose their mental flexibility and powers of
discrimination,” therefore becoming susceptible to propoganda (141). Altick almost sarcastically writes:
“If, however, the millions could be herded into classrooms, if only for a
brief time, they could be permanently immunized against Jacobinism, radicalism,
subversion blasphemy, aetheism, and every other ill to which they were exposed
by the east wind of social change (141).
Education seemed to be the way to turn the lower classes more moral,
mannered, orderly, and productive (142-43). The goal of education was to “reform English social
structure, not to enrich people’s intellectual or emotional lives”
(143).
The
issue of teaching reading became a problem. Evangelicals wanted everyone to learn to read for religious
purposes; they, and others, also feared the effects of reading anti-Christian
material (144).
School
facilities themselves were also an issue.
In 1833, public funds became available for education (145). There wasn’t enugh money, though,
to solve many problems. The lower
classes were generally schooled in large rooms with not teachers, but monitors
would “educate” students with factory-like efficiency (146). Strictly religious material was used
and students were expected to memorize and recite. Middle-class schools taught a curriculum of “the three
R’s” (147). These
schools were largely private schools that were not restricted to a religious
curriculum; yet the education at these schools was also poor. Teachers were not qualified, and the
students were usually workers themselves, too tired to focus on education
(148). Most of the children who
received these educations did not become “regular readers” because
they never had a chance to see that reading could be enjoyable (149).
For
years, if children could recite a passage from a book, they could
“read”; now, understanding came to be stressed...or
overstressed. The trend in the
19th century was to ask students the meaning of individual words--not the
meaning of a sentene or passage (151).
Now
that the government funded education and had a stake in it, it began to demand
“results.” They
instituted testing--however, the tests (and therefore the curriculum) evaluated
a students’ ability to memorize material and not his ability to
critically or creatively think (157-59; 166).
Matthew
Arnold, a school inspector at the time, declared in 1860 that the literature in
schools was inadequate (159). He
found that most schools used nonfiction texts and/or the Bible. If they used books with English
literature, the selections were poor and “‘actually doing what they
can to spoil his taste, when they are merely his only means for forming
it’” (159). The
question Arnold faced was: what literature should students read and memorize?
(161). Perhaps as a direct result
of Arnold’s recommendations, student examinations soon began to ask for
reciations from rnonreligious fiction literature including pieces by
Shakespeare, Cowper, Lamb, Wordsworth, Milton, and others (160-61).
Amid
the horrid educational conditions of the time, literacy (as best as we can
tell) seemed to steadily increase throughout the century. Some of this may be due to The Foster
Act of 1870 which made education more available (171). But Altick supposes that this growth
came because many jobs required literacy, literature was being published in
cheap, available editions, and the “penny post” was developed in
1840, encouraging “personal written communication” (172).
Chapter 8:
Secondary Education
In
the 19th century, only members of the middle and upper classes received a
secondary education, meaning I assume, college education (173). Colleges at this time stuck to a
curriculum of classical literature still based on the classicism that pervaded
16th century England (178). There
was a great debate over the use of fiction English literature in schools, even
colleges. Vicesimus Knox and the
Romantic writers promoted fiction reading as a means of exercising the
imagination and critical and creative thought (174-75). Others, like Maria Edgeworth and other
utilitarians, supported only literature based on fact (174). While the utilitarian philosophy had a
firm hold on societal views, Knox’s “polite” anthologies were
standard textbooks for middle class adolescents (176). Girls’ schools also utilized
English fictional literature without much controversy--because girls
weren’t receiving an education for professional purposes anyway, they
escaped the pressure of utilitarianism (177).
Another
debate at the time was over the use of anthologies and
“beauties.” Matthew
Arnold supported their use in schools as a means of promoting good taste, while
Charles Kingsley spoke adamantly against them claiming that they in no way
provided a true taste of an author’s work (177).
At
most universities, reading English literature was not encouraged. In fact, the only English literature
that entered many classrooms was used as mechanisms for translation or examples
for teaching grammar or composition (181).
Not
until the end of the 19th century was English Literature recognized as an
official school subject (179).
Part of the necessity for this move was the inclusion of English
literature on exams which occured in the 1850s (Were these university exit
exams? or professional exams?) (183). Later (year?), the Taunton Comminssion found that few
schools were actually teaching English literature and this exposure led most
schools to add English literature to its curriculum (Does this refer to
classical literature or modern or both?) (183). The Commission made a significant comment on the purpose of
teaching English literature: “The true purpose of teaching English
literature [is] not . . . to find material with which to teach English grammar,
but to kindle a living interest in the learner’s mind, to make him feel
the force and beauty of which the language is capable, to refine and eleveate
his taste. If it could be so
taught, . . . the man would proabably return to it when the days of boyhood
were over, and many who would never look again at Horace or Virgil, would be
likely to continue to read Shakespeare and Milton throughout their lives”
(qtd. 183).
Chapter 9:
The Mechanics’ Institutes and After
Mechanics’
Institutes sprung up in the 19th century in order to “impart the elements
of scientific knowledge to workingmen through classes, lectures, and
libraries” (188). Brougham
started the movement claiming that “a thinking workman would be a devout
workman” (191). The
classes didn’t last long.
The workmen felt embarrassed being taught a grammar school curriculum,
and they did not like going to class after a long day of work (193).
However,
the libraries and lectures had better success. At first the libraries contained books only appropraite for
the workmen--no “works of ‘controversy’ nor of fiction”
(195). Later, as the evangelical
and utilitarian objections lost power, many began to acknowledge the benefits
of fiction and it was allowed in the libraries as well (198). The lectures also were quite
successful, though often they were more entertaining than educational
(203).
The
Mechanics’ Institites worked toward democratic education and worked to
bring literature to members of the working class and therefore mass culture
(212).
Chapter 10:
Public Libraries
The
first public library was established 1464 in Bristol (213). In the 19th century, they became
slightly useful for upperclass people who could afford a membership; however,
still, the selections were limited (217).
By the end of the century, circulating libraries were popular and widely
available. These libraries did a
lot to democratize reading by making books available to all classes (238-39).
Chapter 11:
The Self-Made Reader
Despite
little access to good books, poor education (0-3 years), and lack of liesure
time, some lower class people were “self-made readers” and
intellectuals (240). Some people
brought books with them to the factories and mills where they were employed--but
this practice was not well received by employers (249). The lower classes did have access to
the Bible, and read it in addition to Shakespeare, Milton, and Thomson
(255-56).
The
18th century poets who were “standard” at this time included:
Goldsmith, Cowper, Pope, Akenside, Gray, Blair, Collins, Young, Denham,
Pomfret, Falconer; and the books Robinson Crusoe, Pilgirm’s
Progress, Philip Quarll (256).
Contemporary authors that were “standard” included: Dickens,
Huxley, Spencer, Haeckel, Darwin, Newman, and Carlyle (259). However, the lower classes had little
access to contemporary literature until the end of the century brought
circulating libraries, cheap books, and cheap periodicals (259).
Chapter 12:
The Book Trade 1800-1850
During
the first 25 years of the 19th century, high book prices discouraged reading
among the mass public (260).
Publishers kept prices high probably so that the upper class would buy
them as symbols of wealth; the middle class largely did not have the money to
spend on books, but if they did, they would rent books from the library rather
than buy expensive copies (261).
Between 1825 and 1831, publishers started to realize the middle class as
a market and publish cheap nonfiction (“useful knowledge”) and some
fiction (268-69). Not everyone
could afford even these “cheap” editions, but still, this time
period marked the realization of the middle class market and cheap literature
continued to grow through to 1850 (277).
By the middle of the century, affordable cheap material (including
news/political pamphlets, Gothic novels, and romances) was published in large
quantities (289-90).
During
this time, there was a tension between two publishing philosophies. On one side, people like Charles Knight
insisted on upholding tradition and publishing moral, useful material
(281). On the other side,
publishers like Thomas Tegg were not so concerned with content as with making a
profit (284).
Chapter 13:
The Book Trade 1851-1900
During
the second half of the century, new editions were still very expensive, but
cheap editions were widely available (295). Some cheap book publishers ran out of titles available for
reprint under copyright laws and published American authors instead (330). Reading grew with John Cassell’s
“penny publications” of Popular Educator, Illustrated
Family Bible, The History of England, and copies of Shakespeare and
others (303). His success came
from his ability to meet popular taste with unoffensive, moral work (304).
By
the end of the century (the last decade), readers became discontent with the
current system. They didn’t
like waiting for books to become affordable in the form of a cheap edition
(usually by the time it was published in a cheap form, its popularity had
waned), and they weren’t happy with the selection available in cheap
forms (309-312). The publishers
realized their market and in effort to please them, essentially got rid of the
conception of “expensive library novels” altogether (313). Cheap books became the primary form of
publishing and reading finally became fully accessible for all classes (317).
Chapters
14-15: Periodicals and Newspapers
Periodicals and newspapers provided a way to publish cheap literature
that was also in popular demand. They were not hard to read and because any lengthy stories
were published in segments, periodicals could be read quickly (318). However, the mass publication of such
cheap and unsophisticated material served to numb the mass population’s
ability to discriminate between “good” literature and popular
literature.
Chapter 16:
The Past and the Present
By
the end of the 19th century, “the English reading public had attained
substantially the size and character it possesses today” (365). Nearly everyone was literate; even the
working class had more access to books, more time to read, and more money to
spend (365). Still, not every
child was getting an adequate education at English grammar schools and until
the Education Act of 1944, only middle and upperclass students could attend
secondary education institutes (366).
And even with the resources, many people prefered other forms of
entertainment to reading -- the turn of the century brought with it motion
pictures, radios, and televisions (366).
Some, including Coleridge and Hazlitt, lamented the widespread literacy. They still feared rebellion and corruption (367). Still for most, the moral criteria for literature became less important as literary taste became a bigger issue (368). Working class people enjoyed reading books that gave entertainment and took them away from their present circumstances; Dickens condoned reading for this purpose (370). Others, however, felt that the cheap literature was not worth reading at all and looked to educators to teach children how to recognize good literature (371). Students needed to be guided in this process--someone must show them good literature from bad (372). Efforts to this end included “primers of literature, Sir John Lubbock’s much publicized list of the hundred best books, the lists of the National Home Reading Union, [and] the very occassional leaflets of suggestions distributed by public libraries” (372). But none of these seems to have been influential enough to make a very big impact.