Although people may not realize it, the modern Christmas book market carries on a Victorian legacy. An explosion of Christmas print matter reinvigorated and regularized the holiday during the mid-Victorian period, infusing Christmas with emotionally-charged expectations of reading. Tara Moore elucidates the evolution of Christmas publishing trends that dictated authors writing schedules and reflected gift-giving rituals. As Victorian shopping customs evolved, publishers satisfied consumers with a range of holiday print matter, including novels, ghost stories, periodicals, children s books, and poetry. Ultimately, Victorian Christmas in Print analyzes how the revitalized holiday and the flurry of texts supporting it contributed to English national identity.

"Moore has usefully demarcated the terrain and tropes of a seasonal literature central to Victorian cultural experience. Of particular interest to students of the periodical press and nineteenth-century cultural studies, Moore's study demonstrates the very material connections between Christmas past and Christmas present, while setting the stage for Christmas studies yet to come." - Victorian Studies

"Through thoughtful incursions into the print culture of the nineteenth century, Stern revises mistaken assumptions about the Victorian Christmas. Her probing analysis of Victorian writing and reading explodes the myths of an exclusively Dickensian Christmas while at the same time acknowledging the ghost of Charles Dickens in Christmases past and present. Here is a fine read for any student of Christmas culture." - Barbara T. Gates, Alumni Distinguished Professor of English and Women s Studies, University of Delaware

Autorentext
TARA MOORE teaches at Pennsylvania State University, York Campus, USA.

Inhalt
Introduction Books for Christmas, 1822-1860 How Victorians Read Christmas How Mr. Punch Stole Christmas: The Evolution of the Holiday in Periodicals Ghost Stories at Christmas The Expansion of Christmas Consumerism: Gifts and Commodities The Poetry of Christmas Modern Marketing of the Victorian Christmas