The Sixteenth International Conference on Books, Publishing & Libraries

Abstract

The functions of gender and age in constructing reading are poorly understood. Yet these concerns have always profoundly structured people’s experiences with texts. This paper will use a case study approach to explore some of their interactions in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, focusing on two women in particular. The first is Melesinda Munbee, a young English girl who in 1750 began documenting her reading: this was probably produced under the influence of adult supervision and also specifically written for her father’s pleasure, circumstances which allow us to see how the selection of texts and the appreciation and appropriation of reading materials could be used to define and strongly reinforce conventional identities (not least Melesinda’s allotted roles as a daughter and a child). The second revolves around Hester Lynch Piozzi, an elderly Welsh woman and one-time member of London’s literary set who in 1813 prepared a record of her own favourite encounters with books which she intended to be given after her death to her nephew John Salusbury: here too considerations of gender and age interacted with the reading strategies employed in the search for authority.