Question

Outline the changes in technology and society which led to an increase in the readers of the novel in the eighteenth century Europe.

Answer 1

Answer:

• Earlier manuscripts were handwritten and circulated among very few people. On the other hand, novels were being printed. Therefore novels were widely read and became popular very quickly.
• Technological improvements in printing such as power-driven cylindrical press brought down the price of books. The novel was one of the first mass-produced items to be sold in Europe.
• Big cities like London were growing rapidly and becoming connected to small towns and rural areas through print and improved communications. Novels produced a number of common interests among their scattered and varied readers.
• New groups of lower-middle-class people, such as shopkeepers and clerks, traditional aristocratic and gentlemanly classes in England, and France formed new readership for novels.
• In the eighteenth century, the middle-classes became more prosperous. Women got more leisure to read as well as write novels.

Answer 2

The changes in technology and society which led to an increase in readers in the eighteenth century were manifold. The creation of libraries, cost-cutting printing techniques, and hiring of books of an hourly basis allowed readership to expand beyond the aristocratic class. Socially, as the markets for books grew, novelists were free of aristocratic patronage, and could now explore different dimensions of society in their novels. For example, the life of women and the working class. All this led to an obvious increase in the number of people who read books in the eighteenth century in Europe.

Explanation: