| In late Victorian England the material book played an increasingly important role in the workings of literary culture. The parallels between the changing forms of book production and consumption, in light of the wider changes in social, cultural, and literary history of the period, put the book itself in a central position. The 1890s mark the waning days of exclusively immersive and linear reading practices. Between the years of 1885 and 1900, the vogue for the material book gained prominence in unprecedented ways. Books became spectacles.;Following critical models set forth by Gerard Genette, Thomas Tanselle, Jerome McGann, and others, this dissertation's focus is on the paratextual apparatus of books---the formal elements such as design, format, illustrations, prefaces, title-pages, notes, appendices, and advertisements---that embody the abstraction and ideality of literary texts in physical form. In the books of late Victorian England, the paratext breaks out of perfunctory and generic roles to take an active part in the aestheticization of books and their reading.;The first two chapters examine the theory and history of paratextual reading in the 19th century, with special emphasis on the Revival of Printing movement. In the three case study chapters that follow, I take a closer look at the hand-made books produced by William Morris's Kelmscott Press; the limited-edition books of John Lane and Elkin Mathews' Bodley Head press; and lastly, Aubrey Beardsley's innovative refiguring of the role of illustrator as author/artist. A final short chapter makes the case that the much-prophesied 'death of the book' is still a long way away. The suppleness of the paratext---its ongoing dialogue with continuity and change---may turn out to be one of the most compelling arguments for the endurance of book form. |
