Dramatic changes in the reading public and literary market in early nineteenth-century England not only altered the relationship between poet and reader but prompted new conceptions of the poetic text, literary reception, and authorship. With the decline of patronage, the rise of the novel and the periodical press, and the emergence of the mass reading public, poets could no longer assume the existence of an audience for poetry. Andrew Franta examines how the reconfigurations of the literary market and the publishing context transformed the ways poets conceived of their audience and the forms of poetry itself. Through readings of Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Hemans, and Tennyson, and with close attention to key literary, political, and legal debates, Franta proposes a new reading of Romanticism and its contribution to modern conceptions of politics and publicity.
Contents
Acknowledgements; Introduction: the regime of publicity; 1. Public opinion from Burke to Byron; 2. Wordsworth's audience problem; 3. Keats and the review aesthetic; 4. Shelley and the politics of political poetry; 5. The art of printing and the law of libel; 6. The right of private judgement; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
Review
"A fine study of a still-neglected area in romantic literature, [Franta's] book should be consulted by anyone with an interest in how fundamental changes to literary production and consumption during the romantic period reshaped the relationship between writer and reader."
-Tim Milnes, University of Edinburgh, Journal of British Studies
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