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The Publishing Industry

The increased consumption of reading materials was one of the key features of the "social" Enlightenment. Developments in the Industrial Revolution allowed consumer goods to be produced in greater quantities at lower prices, encouraging the spread of books, pamphlets, newspapers and journals – or the "media of the transmission of ideas and attitudes". Commercial development likewise increased the demand for information, along with rising populations and increased urbanization.[106] However, demand for reading material extended outside of the realm of the commercial, and outside the realm of the upper and middle classes, as evidenced by the Bibliothèque Bleue. Literacy rates are difficult to gauge, but Robert Darnton writes that, in France at least, the rates doubled over the course of the 18th century.[107]

The practice of reading underwent serious changes in the 18th century. In particular, Rolf Engelsing has argued for the existence of a Reading Revolution brought on by the growth of the print culture. The volume of published material increased dramatically at this time, and changed the way individuals approached reading. Until 1750, reading was done "intensively," meaning that people tended to own a small number of books and read them repeatedly, often to small audience. This also reflected a general inaccessibility to books, as they were generally not affordable for a normal household. The books households did own, however, tended to be primarily religious texts, and intensive reading was done as a devotional aide rather than a learning tool or leisure activity. Individual's proved their faith with the repetition of passages, which only required a small number of texts. These readings would often take place as a household activity, where everyone in the family would gather after church or in the evenings and the head of the household would read these passages out loud. This also helped reinforce the role of reading as an "intensive" practice, as reading out loud is slower than reading silently. This practice was also reflected in the expectations of students in universities, as education was gauged by proficiency and mastery of a few certain texts.

After 1750, people began to read more "extensively", meaning they focused on a great number and variety of texts while increasingly reading them alone.[108] However, it did not replace the actions of "intensive" reading but rather expanded them. This also signified a greater change in a growing literary market that further transformed the print culture. Books were no longer considered rare or sacred object as they once had been, and different kinds of books, periodicals, and newspapers were being printed. This also led to the formation of lending libraries and reading clubs, which became important tools in Enlightenment thinking. Newspapers especially playing an important role, such as with their presence in coffeehouses, as this practice itself was seen as extensive because of its focus on many different subjects. Because of this there was also seen an increase in literacy rates, particularly among women. This led to the rise of certain genres geared towards their tastes, such as the novel. [109]

The literary market itself also reflected the reading practices of various classes. One example of this is the Bibliothèque Bleue, a collection of cheaply produced books published in Troyes, France. Intended for a largely rural and semi-literate audience these books included almanacs, retellings of medieval romances and condensed versions of popular novels, among other things. While historians, such as Roger Chartier and Robert Darnton, have argued against the Enlightenment's penetration into the lower classes, the Bibliothèque Bleue, at the very least, represents a desire of these groups to participate in Enlightenment sociability, whether or not this was actually achieved.[110]

Outside of the lower classes, a variety of institutions offered readers public access to materials beginning in the mid-18th century. Lending libraries that lent out their material for a small price began to appear, and occasionally bookstores would offer a small lending library to their patrons. Prior to this, however, libraries had been viewed as symbolism of the wealth and power of their owners rather than to provide public access to its collections. Because of this, public libraries played a smaller role in the expanding readership of the 18th century, not gaining great popularity until the 19th century.

The Tatler and The Spectator, two influential periodicals written by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, were written and sold from 1709-1714. These publications were the first in the periodical essay genre, which became one of the most characteristic types of eighteenth century literature. The Tatler, first published by Steele in 1709 under the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff, was unique because of their focus on diverse aspects of English life - including such topics as manners, daily happenings in London, gender roles and relations, trade and commerce, and philosophical speculations. The Spectator, on the other hand, sought to educate their readers through entertainment by including charismatic characters, vivid scenes, and even playful allegories. With these approaches, Addison and Steele were commenting on the divide between social and political as well as between the private and the public. Ultimately, they were outlining the modern idea as civil society being separate from the state. These publication were also closely associated with coffee house culture in London, being both read and produced in various establishments in the city.[111] Indeed, this is an example of the triple or even quadruple function of the coffee house: reading material was often obtained, read, discussed and even produced on the premises. [112]

Another important Enlightenment work that emerged at this time was that of Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopédie. It was through this systematic catalog of various aspects of human knowledge, such as arts, sciences, politics, theology, and philosophy. It was through this work that Diderot hoped to "collect all the knowledge that now lies scattered over the face of the earth, to make known its general structure to the men among whom we live, and to transmit it to those who come after us." This is an important example of the scope and range of works that were being produced at this time, all of which were aimed at the transmission and understanding of different forms of human though.

However, as Darnton describes in The Literary Underground of the Old Regime, it is extremely difficult to determine what people actually read during the Enlightenment. For example, examining the catalogs of private libraries not only gives an image skewed in favor of the classes wealthy enough to afford libraries, it also ignores censured works unlikely to be publicly acknowledged. For this reason, Darnton argues that a study of publishing would be much more fruitful for discerning reading habits.[113]

All across continental Europe, but in France especially, booksellers and publishers had to negotiate censorship laws of varying strictness. The Encyclopédie, for example, narrowly escaped seizure and had to be saved by Malesherbes, the man in charge of the French censure. Indeed, many publishing companies were conveniently located outside of France so as to avoid overzealous French censors. They would smuggle their merchandise – both pirated copies and censured works – across the border, where it would then be transported to clandestine booksellers or small-time peddlers.[114]

Darnton provides a detailed record of one clandestine bookseller's (one de Mauvelain) business in the town of Troyes. At the time, the town's population was 22,000. It had one masonic lodge and an "important" library, even though the literacy rate seems to have been less than 50 percent. Mauvelain's records give us a good representation of what literate Frenchmen might have truly read, since the clandestine nature of his business provided a less restrictive product choice. The most popular category of books was political (319 copies ordered).[115]

This included five copies of D'Holbach's Système social, but around 300 libels and pamphlets. Readers were far more interested in sensationalist stories about criminals and political corruption than they were in political theory itself. The second most popular category, "general works" (those books "that did not have a dominant motif and that contained something to offend almost everyone in authority") likewise betrayed the high demand for generally low-brow subversive literature. These works, however, like the vast majority of work produced by Darnton's "grub street hacks", never became part of literary canon, and are largely forgotten today as a result.[115]

Nevertheless, the Enlightenment was not the exclusive domain of illegal literature, as evidenced by the healthy, and mostly legal, publishing industry that existed throughout Europe. "Mostly legal" because even established publishers and book sellers occasionally ran afoul of the law. The Encyclopédie, for example, condemned not only by the King but also by Clement XII, nevertheless found its way into print with the help of the aforementioned Malesherbes and creative use of French censorship law.[116]

But many works were sold without running into any legal trouble at all. Borrowing records from libraries in England, Germany and North America indicate that more than 70 percent of books borrowed were novels; that less than 1 percent of the books were of a religious nature supports a general trend of declining religiosity.[117]

Ultimately, when we examine the trends of the publishing market in the eighteenth century we can see that the growing book industry not only affected Enlightenment thinking, but that The Enlightenment in return impacted the growth of the industry. They were mutually dependent in that as more books began being produced at lower prices, therefore becoming more accessible to the public and influencing them with their content, individuals became more interested in these ideas which in turn increased the demand for more books. It is easy to see how this trend is an incredibly important one when examining the trends of the Enlightenment, as books and other forms of the written words became the biggest tool for both the distribution and understanding of ideas.