What were the effects of growth in readership and expansion of the market for books in 18th century ?
The effects of growth in readership and expansion in the market for books were as mentioned below : With the expansion of market, the earnings of authors increased. This freed the authors from financial dependence on the patronage of aristocrats, and gave them independence to experiment with different literary styles. Henry Fielding, a novelist, claimed he was ‘the founder of a new province of writing’ where he could make his own laws. The novel allowed flexibility in the form of writing. Walter Scott remembered and collected popular Scottish ballads which he used in his historical novels about wars between Scottish clans. The epistolary novel used the private and personal form of letters to tell its story. For example Samuel Richardson’s Pamela told much of its story through an exchange of letters between two lovers. These letters tell the reader of the hidden conflicts in the heroine’s mind.
