Title: Making the modern reader
First published: 1996
Description: Making the Modern Reader, the first full treatment of the early modern anthology, is in part a history of the London printing trade as well as of the professionalization of criticism. Benedict thoroughly documents the historical redefinition of the reader: once a member of a communal literary culture, the reader became private and introspective, morally and culturally shaped by choices in reading.

She argues that eighteenth-century collections promised the reader that culture could be acquired through the absorption of literary values. This process of cultural education appealed to a middle class seeking to become discriminating consumers of art.

. By addressing this neglected genre, Benedict contributes a new perspective on the tension between popular and high culture, between the common reader and the elite. This book will interest scholars working in cultural studies and those studying non-canonical texts as well as eighteenth-century literature in general.
Subjects: History, Literature publishing, English literature, Theory, History and criticism, Books and reading, Editing, Canon (Literature), Literature and anthropology, English literature, history and criticism, 18th century, English literature, history and criticism, early modern, 1500-1700, Books and reading, history
Places: Great Britain
Time periods: 18th century, 17th century, Early modern, 1500-1700
LC classification: PR441 .B38 1996