Jane Austen's ironic reference to 'the trash with which the press now
groans' is only one of innumerable Romantic complaints about fiction's
newly overwhelming presence. This book draws on evidence from over one
hundred Romantic novels to explore the changes in publishing, reviewing,
reading, and writing that accompanied the unprecedented growth in novel
publication during the Romantic period. With particular focus on the
infamous Minerva Press, the most prolific fiction-producer of the age,
Hannah Hudson puts its popular authors in dialogue with writers such as
Walter Scott, Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth, and William Godwin. Using
paratextual materials including reviews, advertisements, and authorial
prefaces, this book establishes the ubiquity of Romantic anxieties about
literary 'excess', showing how beliefs about fictional overproduction
created new literary hierarchies. Ultimately, Hudson argues that this
so-called excess was a driving force in fictional experimentation and
the advertising and publication practices that shaped the genre's
reception. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also
be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.