Important revisions to the history of advertising and its connection to Romantic-era literature.
Outstanding Academic Title, Choice
Literary Advertising and the Shaping of British Romanticism investigates the entwined histories of the advertising industry and the gradual commodification of literature over the course of the Romantic Century (1750â1850). In this engaging and detailed study, Nicholas Mason argues that the seemingly antagonistic arenas of marketing and literature share a common genealogy and, in many instances, even a symbiotic relationship.
Drawing from archival materials such as publishers' account books, merchants' trade cards, and authors' letters, Mason traces the beginnings of many familiar modern advertising methodsâincluding product placement, limited-time offers, and journalistic pufferyâto the British book trade during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until now, Romantic scholars have not fully recognized advertisingâs cultural significance or the importance of this period in the origins of modern advertising. Mason explores Lord Byronâs appropriation of branding, Letitia Elizabeth Landonâs experiments in visual marketing, and late-Romantic debates over advertising's claim to be a new branch of the literary arts. Mason uses the antics of Romantic-era advertising to illustrate the profound implications of commercial modernity, both in economic practices governing the book trade and, more broadly, in the development of the modern idea of literature.
Literary Advertising and the Shaping of British Romanticism - Nicholas Mason
Important revisions to the history of advertising and its connection to Romantic-era literature.
Outstanding Academic Title, Choice
Literary Advertising and the Shaping of British Romanticism investigates the entwined histories of the advertising industry and the gradual commodification of literature over the course of the Romantic Century (1750â1850). In this engaging and detailed study, Nicholas Mason argues that the seemingly antagonistic arenas of marketing and literature share a common genealogy and, in many instances, even a symbiotic relationship.
Drawing from archival materials such as publishers' account books, merchants' trade cards, and authors' letters, Mason traces the beginnings of many familiar modern advertising methodsâincluding product placement, limited-time offers, and journalistic pufferyâto the British book trade during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until now, Romantic scholars have not fully recognized advertisingâs cultural significance or the importance of this period in the origins of modern advertising. Mason explores Lord Byronâs appropriation of branding, Letitia Elizabeth Landonâs experiments in visual marketing, and late-Romantic debates over advertising's claim to be a new branch of the literary arts. Mason uses the antics of Romantic-era advertising to illustrate the profound implications of commercial modernity, both in economic practices governing the book trade and, more broadly, in the development of the modern idea of literature.