Public Reading and the Reading Public in Late Medieval England and France

Author / Editor
Coleman, Joyce.

Title
Public Reading and the Reading Public in Late Medieval England and France

Physical Description
xiv, 250 pp.

Description
Argues that public reading was popular because people enjoyed listening to books in company. Aural audiences included literate upper-middle-class and upper-class readers well into the Renaissance, when aural reading changed. Elite audiences preferred the social experience of literature long after the rise of print expanding literacy. For a chapter that pertains to Chaucer, search for Public Reading and the Reading Public under Alternative Title.

Chaucer Subjects
Background and General Criticism.