Article
Details
Citation
Weiss L (2017) 'All are instructive if read in a right spirit': Reading, Religion and Instruction in a Victorian Reading Diary. Library and Information History, 33 (2), pp. 97-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/17583489.2017.1299424
Abstract
This paper conducts a study of reading choices and practices through the reading diary of a middle-class reader in mid-nineteenth-century Glasgow within the context of her socio-cultural, intellectual and religious milieu. Anne Galloway (1802-1889) wrote her reading diary between 1850 and 1856, wherein she recorded one hundred and eighty-four books and three periodicals. This study combines an investigation in the availability of books and their circulation with a focus on Âé¶¹´«Ã½AV¡¯s Library, a subscription library founded by Walter Âé¶¹´«Ã½AV in 1791, from which Anne obtained her books. Anne¡¯s borrowing record is re-constructed using the library catalogues. These are used to assess the different classifications of the books she read and their respective numbers to determine the pattern of Anne¡¯s borrowing and reading practices. This investigation offers new insights into Glasgow¡¯s book culture through the reconstructed history of a ¡®lesser-known¡¯ Evangelical, non-professional, married woman reader in the mid-nineteenth century, demographics of which are currently all under-represented in individual case studies in the history of reading.
Keywords
Glasgow; Victorian; the woman reader; subscription libraries; Âé¶¹´«Ã½AV¡¯s Library; Evangelicalism; history of reading; individual case study; commonplacing; conduct literature
Journal
Library and Information History: Volume 33, Issue 2
Status | Published |
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Publication date | 31/12/2017 |
Publication date online | 20/04/2017 |
Date accepted by journal | 20/04/2017 |
URL | |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
ISSN | 1758-3489 |
eISSN | 1758-3497 |