Small Books and Pleasant Histories : Popular Fiction and its Readership in Seventeenth-Century England (Paperback)

Illustrations; Abbreviations; Acknowledgements; Dedication; Preface; 1. The mental world of the peasant reader; 2. Elementary education and the acquisition of reading skills; 3. Direct and indirect evidence for readership of the chapbooks; 4. The fortunes and the volume of stock of the chapbook publishers; 5. The distributors: pedlars, hawkers and petty chapmen; 6. The content of Samuel Pepys's collection and the bibliotheque bleue; 7. Small merry books: courtship, sex and songs; 8. Portraits of society: historical and chivalric novels; 10. Conclusion; Appendix; Index.