Book: “Reading: A Very Short Introduction” by Belinda Jack
Publication Information: Oxford University Press, 2019
Subjects: History of Books and Reading, Literacy, and Social Impact of Reading
Background Information: Belinda Jack is an English scholar specializing in women’s studies. The Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University Press offer concise yet thorough overviews of various topics.
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“Psychologists have conducted extensive research into the reaching and practice of reading. What is clear is that completely to analyse what we do when we read would be the epitome of a psychologist’s achievements. It would mean making sense of the most complex workings of the mind, as well as unraveling the convoluted story of the most remarkable act that civilization has learned in all its history.” From Reading: A Very Short Introduction by Belinda Jack, pp. 8-9
Reading: A Very Short Introduction by Belinda Jack explores the multifaceted history and impact of reading, from ancient times to the digital age. Jack in the book has a particular interest in the role of women in promoting literacy and in the role of the novel as a literary form in stimulating individual and societal thought and action. I will focus on two chapters of the book where Jack’s emphasizes the role of women in promoting reading and the role of the novel in society.
Chapter four of Reading: A Very Short Introduction, “Modern Reading,” covers the period of the 18th and 19th centuries in terms of the industrial revolution, the rise of the modern novel, and the impact of women as readers and writers.
The Industrial Revolution had a profound impact on the field of printing, transforming it from a labor-intensive, artisanal craft into a mechanized, mass-production industry. For example, the introduction of steam-powered printing presses, such as the one developed by Friedrich Koenig for the London Times in 1814, greatly increased the speed and efficiency of printing. These machines could produce thousands of pages per hour, compared to the much slower hand-operated presses.
The 18th century is often considered the birth of the modern novel. Writers like Daniel Defoe (“Robinson Crusoe”) and Samuel Richardson (“Pamela”) introduced new forms of prose fiction that focused on individual characters and their experiences. Novels began to emphasize realistic portrayals of everyday life and human emotions. This period also saw the rise of the epistolary novel, where the story is told through letters, enhancing the sense of immediacy and intimacy.
Belinda Jack is interested in how novels were read during the 18th and 19th centuries and is interested in the impact of women as readers and writers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
For how novels were read she focuses on the epistolary novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) published in 1774. It quickly became a sensation with the novel’s story being letters written by the protagonist, Werther, to his friend Wilhelm about his struggles and about unrequited love, all of which leads to Werther’s suicide. Readers identified strongly with Werther’s emotional struggles and unrequited love. This emotional identification sometimes led to “Werther Fever,” where readers were deeply affected by the novel’s themes and imitated them in their lives. Jack finds no direct evidence that there was imitation of suicide when The Sorrows of Young Werther was in vogue, but it is plausible to believe that there were suicides and authorities in the cities of Leipzig and Copenhagen felt sufficient concern about the book to ban the book.
For the impact of women as readers and writers, one example is Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis (1746-1830 and known as Mme De Genlis) was a French writer, educator, and influential figure in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She sought education reforms for women and for children which had a lasting impact on educational practices.
In particular Mme De Genlis was piqued by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s educational novel Emile: or on Education published in 1762 that placed women in a subservient position as to their education in relation to the education of men. She wrote her own educational book, Adèle et Théodore (1782), which is structured as a series of letters that provide guidance on the education of children. It covers various topics including moral and intellectual development, and it is an important text in the history of educational theory. To quote Belinda Jack on the impact of Adèle et Théodore : “Mme de Genlis was both outraged and intrigued by Emile and it became one of the main inspirations for her own educational treatise, Adele et Theodore, published in 1782. Tellingly, she placed the girl’s name ahead of the boy’s name in her title. It is unimaginable that a long and detailed work of pedagogy would reach the best seller lists today, but Mme De Genlis’s did. Even aboard her work was enormously popular and in England was almost as popular as Rousseau’s and Voltaire’s.” [i]
Chapter Six of Reading: A Very Short Introduction, “Making Sense of Reading,” covers reading as an interpretative act and the modes of interpretation considered in the chapter are rhetoric, translation, modern literary criticism, and rereading a book. I will consider translating a text from one language into another in which women played an important role.
Belinda Jack uses historic examples of the importance of two English women as translators of books from Latin into English. The two women are: (1) Lucy Hutchinson (1620-1681) who in 1675 did the first English translation from Latin of Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things. On the Nature of Things emphasis is on the Epicurean philosophy of seeking pleasure which was against the 17th century prevailing Puritan views. In the 1670s, a translation by a woman of the On the Nature of Things would have raised eyebrows; and (2) Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806) did the translation of Newtonianism for Women (1737) from the French author Francesco Algarotti’s work Il Newtonianismo per le dame. Algarotti’s original work is a series of dialogues that aim to popularize Isaac Newton’s theories on light and color. Carter’s translation brought Newton’s theories to an English-speaking audience, making Newtonian science more accessible to the general public and women of the time. Carter’s translation was an accomplishment and a best seller of its time.
Reading: A Very Short Introduction is an intelligent and knowledgeable book covering a wide range of ideas and concepts. The book should be read in its totality and you are likely to gain something in reading the book given its far reaching scope.
FOOTNOTES
[i] Reading: A Very Short Introduction, 2019, p. 68
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