Shakespeare for the People
Working Class Readers, 1800–1900

Review of the hardback: '… engaging and humane new study. Drawing on about a hundred autobiographies, both published and in manuscript, Shakespeare for the People offers an absorbing mosaic of the role played by the national poet in the consciousness of working-class readers (as opposed to theatre-goers) in nineteenth-century England and Wales. … he writes illuminatingly about the history of publishing and book-selling … His book pays poignant abut quite unsentimental homage to innumerable forgotten lives - to people who managed to discover and then to retain a genuine civilization for themselves, usually in dreadful circumstances.' The Times Literary Supplement

Review of the hardback: 'Murphy's book is to be lauded as a much-needed exploration of a hitherto neglected segment of the mass readership of Shakespeare that emerged in the nineteenth century. It is an invaluable work that reveals much new material while tacitly inviting its readers to explore further.' Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America

Review of the hardback: '[An] engagingly written and meticulously researched monograph. … Murphy reveals an extraordinary range of encounters with the national poet, including a wide spectrum of political opinion, as publishers and writers turned to cheap print as a way to advocate both radical and conservative views and to subdue opposing voices. … Once thought to have sunk beneath the surface of the historical record, the reading experiences of Shakespeare by the poorer classes in nineteenth-century England are brought back to life in this wonderful book.' Studies in English Literature

Review of the hardback: 'There are many fascinating stories … in Andrew Murphy's readable and scholarly history.' Around the Globe