Description
Book SynopsisMason uses the antics of Romantic-era advertising to illustrate the profound implications of commercial modernity, both in economic practices governing the book trade and, more broadly, in the development of the modern idea of literature.
Trade ReviewA book that has an entire chapter on Lord Byron and 'branding'- who would not be intrigued?... Highly Recommended. Choice This book substantially enriches our understanding not just of British Romanticism but also of the history of advertising... The book's thoroughly historical argument works within the sub-fields of print culture and material culture to reveal the intimate connections between consumer culture and literary writing... Mason's work performs a number of valuable services for the study of Romanticism... This book deserves attention. -- Robert Anderson Review 19 Mason's Literary Advertising provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of how the Romantic literary system actually worked... Mason persuasivley shows how thoroughly connected art and commerce became in the period despite Romantic posturing about artistic independence. -- Daniela Garofalo SHARP News Literary Advertising and the Shaping of British Romanticism helpfully chronicles the rise of advertising in periodicals, highlighting its methods and subjects... A valuable book. -- Mischa Willett Victorian Periodicals Review Mason's book is a timely corrective to the outdated idea that Romantic reviewing was a practice of nonstop aggression. -- Adela Pinch Studies in English Literature As Nicholas Mason notes in his well-rounded study of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century advertising history and literary culture, today's promotional culture owes a great deal to methods pioneered by key figures of the Georgian and Romantic period. -- David Finkelstein Keats-Shelley Journal Literary Advertising effectively draws the right kind of critical attention to the multiple ways in which the trade in Romantic poetic productions both influenced and commercially exploited innovative marketing techniques that quickly became industry norms in the nineteenth century; furthermore, Mason is persuasive in his concluding arguments, supported by testimony from period writers, editors, and booksellers themselves... 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics and Inquiries in the Early Modern Age Nicholas Mason's Literary Advertising and the Shaping of British Romanticism is an illuminating reminder of the importance of economics and system in the production of the literature that we have come to call Romantic. Studies in Romanticism
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Entangled Histories
1. Advertising in the Romantic Century
2. The Progress of Puffery
3. Building Brand Byron
4. L.E.L., Bandwagon Marketing, and the Rise of Visual Culture
5. Puffery and the "Death" of Literature in Late-Romantic Britain
Conclusion: The Art of Advertising
Notes
Bibliography
Index
