How To Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain

Price (English, Harvard Univ.; The Anthology and the Rise of the Novel) investigates the meanings and uses of books in the lives of Britons during the Victorian era, especially the instances in which books were used for purposes other than reading. Citing the modern example of Barack Obama being sworn into office with Abraham Lincoln's Bible, Price explains how books link us "to not just an author but to those who have touched them before." She delves significantly into the centrality of books to the identities and daily lives of Victorian protagonists David Copperfield and Jane Eyre. Furthermore, she notes how, for the average person, reading material could act as a shield from strangers or, as evidenced in the Punch cartoons she includes, a diversion from one's spouse following the end of the honeymoon phase. Price even analyzes the burden of junk mail and the humor of books becoming waste paper.