Question

How had a large number of new readers among children, women and workers increased in nineteenth century Europe? Explain with examples. 

Answer 1

 i) As primary education became compulsory from the late nineteenth century, children became an important category of readers.

ii) A children’s press, devoted to literature for children alone, was set up in France in 1857. This press published new works as well as old fairy tales and folk tales. The Grimm Brothers in Germany spent years compiling traditional folk tales gathered from peasants.

iii) Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny magazines were especially meant for women, as were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping. When novels began to be written in the nineteenth century, women were seen as important readers. Some of the bestknown novelists were women: