This book is a contribution to the new field of literary studies which is informed by book history and takes interest in the intersection of the ideal and material aspects of literature. It studies the ways eighteenth-century English novels, plays and poems illustrated the changes which the growth of literacy, the proliferation of writing and the emergence of print marketplace made in the social and cultural life of Britain and demonstrated the contingency of the emerging criticism on the technological and economic conditions of book production. The first part focusses on the representation of the tensions created by the emergence of literate society and on the hopes and fears awoken by the expansion of the cultural public sphere caused by the proliferation of print. The second part explores the contribution of literature to the shaping of the roles of authors, readers and patrons in the field of literary production.

This collection studies eighteenth-century British literature as enmeshed within a dynamic intercultural traffic, participating in the import and export of literary and cultural forms. Eighteenth-Century Transplantations places this transcultural circulation at the centre of attention and presents its products in a unique configuration. Literary transplants into the British context, out of it, and their transmedial afterlives are set together in order to showcase the mechanisms of such cultural commerce. The term 'transplantation', borrowed from medical and horticultural discourses and evocative of eighteenth-century experiments in gardening, is offered here as a useful kinetic model to conceptualize the diverse practices involved in relocating a literary text into a new cultural environment.

Writing through Boyhood in the Long Eighteenth Century explores how boyhood was constructed in different creative spaces that reflected the lived experience of young boys through the long eighteenth century—not simply in children’s literature but in novels, poetry, medical advice, criminal broadsides, and automaton exhibitions. The chapters encompass such rituals as breeching, learning to read and write, and going to school. They also consider the lives of boys such as chimney sweeps and convicted criminals, whose bodily labor was considered their only value and who often did not live beyond boyhood. Defined by a variety of tasks, expectations, and objectifications, boys—real, imagined, and sometimes both—were subject to the control of their elders and were used as tools in the cause of civil society, commerce, and empire. This book argues that boys in the long eighteenth century constituted a particular kind of currency, both valuable and expendable—valuable because of gender, expendable because of youth.

This book contributes to the development of contemporary historical fiction studies by analysing neo-Georgian fiction, which, unlike neo-Victorian fiction, has so far received little critical attention. The essays included in this collection study the ways in which the selected twentieth- and twenty-first-century novels recreate the Georgian period in order to view its ideologies through the lens of such modern critical theories as performativity, post-colonialism, feminism or visual theories. They also demonstrate the rich repertoire of subgenres of neo-Georgian fiction, ranging from biographical fiction, epistolary novels to magical realism. The included studies of the diverse novelistic conventions used to re-contextualise the Georgian reality reflect the way we see its relevance and relation to the present and trace the indebtedness of the new forms of the contemporary novel to the traditional novelistic genres.

“Drawing on deep familiarity with the period and its personalities, Rogers has given us a witty and richly detailed account of the ongoing war between the greatest poet of the eighteenth century and its most scandalous publisher.”—Leo Damrosch, author of The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age “What sets Rogers’s history apart is his ability to combine fastidious research with lucid, unpretentious prose. History buffs and literary-minded readers alike are in for a punchy, drama-filled treat.”—Publishers Weekly The quarrel between the poet Alexander Pope and the publisher Edmund Curll has long been a notorious episode in the history of the book, when two remarkable figures with a gift for comedy and an immoderate dislike of each other clashed publicly and without restraint. However, it has never, until now, been chronicled in full. Ripe with the sights and smells of Hanoverian London, The Poet and Publisher details their vitriolic exchanges, drawing on previously unearthed pamphlets, newspaper articles, and advertisements, court and government records, and personal letters. The story of their battles in and out of print includes a poisoning, the pillory, numerous instances of fraud, and a landmark case in the history of copyright. The book is a forensic account of events both momentous and farcical, and it is indecently entertaining.

This innovative book explores forgotten disputes over intellectual property and the ways in which creative people and sovereigns have managed these disputes throughout the centuries. With a focus on reform, it raises important questions about the resilience of legal rules and challenges the methodology behind traditional legal analyses. Focusing on lore and traditions, expert contributors incorporate contextual understandings that are rooted in history, sociology, political science, and literary studies into their analyses.

This book seeks to bridge a gap in the historiography of Spain and Great Britain by arguing that while the eighteenth century witnessed periods of tension, conflict and hostility between the two powers, their relationship remained multifaceted and significant in other spheres. Throughout the eighteenth century, Spain and Great Britain passed through phases of open warfare, armed peace and deep suspicion. The British capture of Gibraltar and Menorca dealt a severe blow to the newly established Bourbon dynasty in Spain. Even in times of war, however, not all communication channels were closed, with numerous formal and informal contacts being made despite the volatile political climate and enmities. The contributors of this book go beyond the well-known animosity and conflicts to explore the spectrum of interactions, encompassing cultural exchange, traditional diplomacy, trade and espionage plus a multitude of other facets. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and students interested in the complex relations between Great Britain and Spain during the eighteenth century, as well as for a broader audience of historians and both undergraduate and postgraduate students of history and international relations.