The Revolution in Popular Literature

This survey of the evolution of British popular literature during the Romantic and Victorian periods relies on a broad range of archival and primary sources. Arguing that radical politics played a decisive role in the transformation of popular literature, Ian Haywood charts key moments in the history of "cheap" literature. The book accordingly casts new light on many neglected popular genres and texts: the "pig's meat" anthology, the female-authored didactic tale, and Chartist fiction.

Illustrations; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. 'A New Area in Our History': 1. The people's Enlightenment: the radical diffusion of knowledge in the late eighteenth century; 2. Writing for their country: the plebeian public sphere in the 1790s; 3. The pax femina? Hannah More, counter-revolution, and the politics of female agency; Part II. 'Virtuous Public Excitement': 4. The Palladium of liberty: radical journalism and repression in the postwar era; 5. 'Democratic fervour and journal ascendancy': popular culture and the 'unstamped' wars of the 1830s; Part III. A Literature of Their Own: 6. The Chartist revolution; 7. Fathers of the cheap press or 'able speculators'? Edward Lloyd and George W. M. Reynolds; 8. The rights and wrongs of women; 9. Acts of oblivion: 1848 and after.