Children’s Reading in France at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This article presents an overview of children’s reading in France at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a period marked by what Roger Chartier calls “the second revolution of the book”. At that time, new readers, such as women and members of the working class, joined a setting previously reserved to elite minorities. Among the newcomers to the world of popular literacy were the young readers, largely disregarded by the book industry until then. We shall describe the way this expansion occurred, focusing on the Guizot Law of 1833, which–even before Jules Ferry’s relevant school laws– provided an important framework for the development of new segments of reading population. In addition, this essay describes the types of publications which helped to develop the social phenomenon under scrutiny: children’s novels, livres de prix (school reward books), New Year’s gift books, textbooks, and finally, children’s journals.