Small books and pleasant histories : popular fiction and its readership in seventeenth-century England / Margaret Spufford

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1985. First Paperback Edition. Softcover. Letter from previous owner stapled to cover. Very good paperback copy; cover slightly dulled as with age. Bright and clean internally. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description; xxi, 275 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 21 cm. Contents; The mental world of the peasant reader -- Elementary education and the acquisition of reading skills -- Direct and indirect evidence for readership of the chapbooks -- The fortunes and the volume of stock of the chapbook publishers -- The distributors: pedlars, hawkers and petty chapmen -- The content of Samuel Pepys's collection and the biblioth�que bleue -- Small merry books: courtship, sex and songs -- Small Godly books: popular religion -- Portraits of society: historical and chivalric novels -- Conclusion -- Appendix: The chapbook section of the trade-list of William Thackeray, c. 1689. Subjects; Pepys, Samuel 1633-1703 Library. 17th century. English fiction Early modern, 1500-1700 History and criticism. Working class Books and reading England History 17th century. Book industries and trade England History 17th century. Popular literature England History and criticism.