Posting It [electronic resource] : The Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing /
Golden, Catherine.
Gainesville : University Press of Florida,
c2009.
"Until Queen Victoria instituted the Postal Reform Act of 1839, mail was a luxury affordable only by the rich. Golden demonstrates how cheap postage--which was quickly adopted in other countries--led to a postal "network" that can be viewed as a forerunner of computer-mediated communications. Indeed, the revolution in letter writing of the nineteenth century led to blackmail, frauds, unsolicited mass mailings, and junk mail--problems that remain with us today."--Publisher description.
Why the Victorians needed a revolution in letter writing -- Signed, sealed, delivered : mulreadies, caricatures, and the Penny Black -- "Why is a raven ...?" : the rise of postal products from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Vanity Fair (1848) to the pages of the Great Exhibition catalogue (1851) -- Unwanted missives and the spread of vice : "curious things," slander, and blackmail from Household Words to the fiction of George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Anthony Trollope -- Benefits and blessings : letters home, friendship, death notices, courtship, and Valentines by Penny Post -- Conclusion : looking forward from the Victorian revolution in letter writing to information technologies today.
"Until Queen Victoria instituted the Postal Reform Act of 1839, mail was a luxury affordable only by the rich. Golden demonstrates how cheap postage--which was quickly adopted in other countries--led to a postal "network" that can be viewed as a forerunner of computer-mediated communications. Indeed, the revolution in letter writing of the nineteenth century led to blackmail, frauds, unsolicited mass mailings, and junk mail--problems that remain with us today."--Publisher description.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on print version record.
Material culture
Literature and society
Letter writing
Written communication
Postal service
Communication and technology