Mastering the Marketplace

Popular Literature in Nineteenth-Century France

Anne O'Neil-Henry

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781496201980
• eBook ISBN: 9781496204653
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

Mastering the Marketplace examines the origins of modern mass-media culture through developments in thenew literary marketplace of nineteenth-century France and how literature itself reveals the broader social and material conditions inwhich it is produced. Anne O'Neil-Henry examines how French authors of the nineteenth century navigated the growing publishing and marketing industry, as well asthe dramatic rise in literacy rates, libraries, reading rooms, literary journals, political newspapers, and the advent of the serial novel. O'Neil-Henryplaces the work of canonical author Honoré de Balzac alongside then-popular writers such asPaul de Kock and Eugène Sue, acknowledging the importance of "low" authors in the wider literary tradition. By reading literary texts alongside associated advertisements, book reviews, publication histories, sales tactics, and promotional tools, O'Neil-Henrypresents anuanced picture of the relationship between"high" and "low" literature, one in which critics and authors alike grappled with the common problem of commercial versus cultural capital. Through new literary readings and original archival research from holdings in the United States and France, O'Neil-Henryrevises existing understandings of a crucial moment in the development of industrialized culture. In the process, shediscloses links between this formative period and our own, in which mobile electronic devices, internet-based bookstores, and massive publishing conglomerates alter—once again—the way literature is written, sold, and read.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Popular Panoramas
• 2. The de Kock Paradox
• 3. The Adaptable Eugène Sue
• 4. Balzac, High and Low
• Conclusion
• Source Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Anne O’Neil-Henry