Project Gutenberg 2015-04-27 Public domain in the USA. 189 Ashton, John 1834 1911 11019751 Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century With Facsimiles, Notes, and Introduction Chap-books of the 18th Century Produced by Chris Curnow, Lesley Halamek, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century" by John Ashton is a historical compilation that explores a variety of inexpensive, popular literature produced during the eighteenth century. Written in the late 19th century, this collection aims to preserve and document the unique cultural artifacts of an era when chap-books were a primary source of reading for the lower classes in England. The work highlights the social significance of these chap-books, which encompass tales of romance, adventure, morality, and even folklore that reflect the interests and values of ordinary people of that time. The opening of this volume sets the stage for an in-depth exploration of the chap-book phenomenon, detailing its origins, production, and the various themes that dominated these publications. It mentions the role of "Chapmen," or itinerant traders, who would bring these stories to rural communities, filling a gap in the literary landscape of the age. Ashton describes how these chap-books served as the main form of entertainment and education for many, especially in an era before widespread access to newspapers and more refined literature. The introduction also notes the efforts to categorize these works, emphasizing their diversity—from religious to romantic tales—while outlining the lost art of storytelling that is encapsulated in these simple yet captivating narratives. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en English literature -- 18th century Chapbooks Chapbooks, English -- History -- 18th century Popular literature -- Great Britain Popular literature -- Great Britain -- History and criticism Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century PR Text Browsing: Culture/Civilization/Society Browsing: History - British Browsing: Literature 781326 779752 2024-09-20T10:50:54.951592 2023-09-21T07:29:48.744699 text/html text/html 770262 2015-04-27T10:09:36 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 114373210 2015-04-27T10:10:06 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 128905765 2024-09-20T10:52:06.447757 application/epub+zip 128755569 2024-09-20T10:51:13.230490 application/epub+zip 358901 2024-09-20T10:51:00.224599 application/epub+zip 128825138 2024-09-20T10:52:37.532624 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 128590246 2024-09-20T10:51:41.989881 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 538924 2022-09-22T07:01:50.155362 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 555725 555624 2024-09-20T10:50:48.473632 2023-09-21T07:29:35.734550 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 555721 2015-04-27T10:04:48 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 220643 2015-04-27T10:10:00 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 19633 2024-09-20T10:52:38.220566 application/rdf+xml 12902 2024-09-20T10:51:00.448579 image/jpeg 2265 2024-09-20T10:51:00.337571 image/jpeg 114592475 2024-09-20T10:50:57.218586 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog