Showing posts with label Regency Libraries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regency Libraries. Show all posts
Friday, June 5, 2020
Regency Libraries by Rosemary Morris
To learn more about Rosemary's work please click on the cover above.
Regency Libraries
I am very surprised by the facts I discovered when I researched libraries in the early 19th century for my new novel, Saturday’s Child. I falsely assumed members merely visited libraries to borrow books.
Toward the end of the eighteenth-century subscription libraries became fashionable. By the Regency era subscription libraries had become an important part of fashionable life. People gathered in communal rooms where they met, read newspapers and magazines, drank coffee while chatting and gossiping, or whiled away time in peace and quiet. Some provided collections of caricatures and prints to browse through on the premises or to take out on loan. The collections were bound into large loose-leaf books and laid out on round tables for people to view them at leisure.
Ladies read magazines, which to name a few, included the very popular Ladies Magazine, Gallery of Fashion and Le Beau Monde in which were coloured fashion plates. The Lady’s Monthly Museum published articles and biographies of famous women, prints and short stories. Gentlemen chose newspapers, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and other publications. Men and women enjoyed Ackerman’s extremely popular publication ‘The Repository of Arts, Literature, Literature, Commerce, Manufacturers, Fashions and Politics.’
It was common for families such as Jane Austen’s to join a library because new books were so expensive.
Libraries sold trinkets and Jane’s sister, Lydia, saw beautiful ornaments which made her quite wild in Brighton library.
In my novel, Saturday’s Child, to be published in July, the hero assures his mother she can buy whatever she needs to paint water colours at Motts, the library she had joined in Brighton.
If she had needed to, his mother could have consulted a guidebook, published by her subscription library, which included advertisements for accommodation.
I am jealous of Regency subscribers, who, in addition to borrowing novels enjoyed musical entertainments. My small local library only contains books, a few comfortable chairs arranged around a table, where people read newspapers and magazines, and a computer room.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
Deadly Undertaking Click here to purchase ‘Tis the season of the year when the transformation occurs from the darkness of winter to th...
-
I grew up in a tiny place east of Banff. It was not large enough to be given hamlet status – hence they called us ‘a community.’ But i...
-
A common belief in most of Asia is that of reincarnation. After we die, the eternal soul reincarnates into another body. Some believe in m...
-
Click here for purchase information In my February 7th post I wrote about how I was turning an unused room in my house into a long-desired...
-
I am a Seattleite. I wasn't born there, but when I stepped out of the airport, I knew I'd come home. In the winter, the North...
-
Ko bo Smashwords Amazon Barnes & Noble I-tunes Apple I-tunes Apple Amazon Barnes & Noble Smashwords Kobo More memory lane writ...
-
Find my books here! I love book birthdays! My latest, written with my wonderfu...
-
Please click this link for book and author information On January 25th, I fell on an icy Calgar...
-
Vanessa Hawkins Author Page You ever hear of a word war? If your familliar with Nanowrimo or national novel writing month, then y...
-
We all know about black cats and their associations with “witches” and bad luck if one happens to cross your path. But what about bla...