This book brings a renewed critical focus to the history of novel
writing, publishing, selling and reading, expanding its viewing beyond
national territories. Relying on primary sources (such as
advertisements, censorship reviews, publisher and bookstore catalogues),
the book examines the paths taken by novels in their shifts between
Europe and Brazil, investigates the flow of translations in both
directions, pays attention to the successful novels of the time and
analyses the critical response to fiction in both sides of the Atlantic.
It reveals that neither nineteenth century culture can be properly
understood by focusing on a single territory, nor literature can be
fully perceived by looking only to the texts, ignoring their material
existence and their place in social and economical practices.