Poetry, Drama, and Fiction in the London Marketplace, 1737-1749

Open Access
- Author:
- Gael, Patricia Anne
- Graduate Program:
- English
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- November 14, 2013
- Committee Members:
- Robert Hume, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
John Thomas Harwood, Committee Member
John Philip Jenkins, Committee Member
Laura Lunger Knoppers, Committee Member - Keywords:
- London
literature
eighteenth century
poetry
drama
fiction
British literature
digital humanities
book history - Abstract:
- This project addresses major gaps in our understanding of the mid-eighteenth century book trade and the imaginative literature it produced. The current scholarly view of literature in the mid-eighteenth century argues that the period saw the disappearance of topical poetry, a dearth of interest in drama, and a rise in the popularity of the novel. But we know very little about booksellers’ decisions to invest in literature; less about literary reception, as professional reviewing was in its infancy; and less still about the lives of the period’s mostly anonymous authors. My project challenges standard arguments about mid-eighteenth century imaginative literature by providing a thorough analysis of the London literary trade during the period. I examine more than 2,000 of the works of poetry, drama, and fiction published in the city between the passage of the Theatre Licensing Act in 1737 and the publication of the Monthly Review and Tom Jones in 1749. I arrive at a much more accurate picture of literary development and the publishing world. My research shows that booksellers employed sophisticated strategies to mitigate the financial risks of publishing literary genres; authors often published anonymously and were rarely associated with more than a few works; poetry continued to dominate the market; drama remained a publication mainstay; and no discernible rise in the amount or quality of fiction occurred.