Book Unbound - Material Cultures of Reading and Collecting, 17501850

How does our understanding of Romantic literature change when we shift the focus from bound books to unbound forms? Assumptions about the book as a bound object have isolated literature from overlapping material cultures of book making, reading, viewing, and collecting. The Book Unbound reconstructs a Romantic textual condition of unbound forms in which the book acted as a repository for open-ended collections of discrete book parts, prints, watercolours, manuscripts, and serial publications, ca. 1750-1850. Three case studies trace changing material practices of book making before and after publisher's bindings marked a turning point from a culture of unbound books. Through the restricted coterie gathered around Horace Walpole's private press at Strawberry Hill, William Blake's printmaker-poet's book making, and Charles Dickens's serialized part publications, this monograph changes understandings of the book as a medium.

List of contents

Introduction: material cultures of reading and collecting, 1750-1850; 1. Walpole's book parts; 2. Blake's scattered leaves: composition, disorder, and the dynamics of the book unbound; 3. Dickens unwrapped; 4. Coda: unbound, disbound; Bibliography.

About the author

Luisa Calè writes about the visual and material cultures of reading, viewing, and collecting in the Romantic period, from literary galleries to extra-illustrations, altered books, periodical, and print culture. She is Exhibitions Editor for Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, Associate Editor at Word & Image. She works at Birkbeck, University of London.

Product details

• Authors: Luisa (Birkbeck College Cale, Luisa Calè
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 31.10.2025, delayed
• EAN: 9781009599986
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0959998-6
• No. of pages: 316
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Illustration, London, Greater London, Book design, History of art & design styles: c 1800 to c 1900, c 1800 to c 1900, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Material Culture, Romanticism, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Art & design styles: Romanticism, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Early 19th century c 1800 to c 1850, History of art & design styles: c 1600 to c 1800, C 1700 To C 1800, Publishing industry & book trade, Later 18th century c 1750 to c 1799, Publishing and book trade, Manuscripts and illumination