"Poetry of Taste and Refinements": Consumer Literature in Nineteenth-Century Annuals

During XIX century, periodicals responded well to the requests of a larger demanding reading audience. After the flourishing of reviews and magazines, a new kind of fashionable publication emerged around the 1830s: the gift-book. Also called annuals, they were collections of engravings accompanied by pieces of poetry, fiction or literary sketches. Especially conceived as sophisticated gifts for middle-up class readers, these books were precious objects to read. They well represented the aesthetic values of an expanding urban society. My article investigates the literary trend of the annuals, and the role played by women writers as their main contributors and shapes of aesthetic fashion.