The Book Unbound

Name: The Book Unbound
Price: 249.22 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781009599986

Material Cultures of Reading and Collecting, 1750–1850

Luisa Calè (Birkbeck College, University of London)

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Hardback

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English

Cambridge University Press
08 January 2026

Illustration; Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800; Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 ; Material culture

Series: Cambridge Studies in Romanticism

How does our understanding of Romantic literature change when we shift the focus from bound books to unbound forms? Assumptions about the book as a bound object have isolated literature from overlapping material cultures of book making, reading, viewing, and collecting. The Book Unbound reconstructs a Romantic textual condition of unbound forms in which the book acted as a repository for open-ended collections of discrete book parts, prints, watercolours, manuscripts, and serial publications, ca. 1750–1850. Three case studies trace changing material practices of book making before and after publisher's bindings marked a turning point from a culture of unbound books. Through the restricted coterie gathered around Horace Walpole's private press at Strawberry Hill, William Blake's printmaker-poet's book making, and Charles Dickens's serialized part publications, this monograph changes understandings of the book as a medium.

By: Luisa Calè (Birkbeck College University of London)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Weight: 645g
ISBN: 9781009599986
ISBN 10: 1009599984
Series: Cambridge Studies in Romanticism
Pages: 330
Publication Date: 08 January 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Luisa Calè writes about the visual and material cultures of reading, viewing, and collecting in the Romantic period, from literary galleries to extra-illustrations, altered books, periodical, and print culture. She is Exhibitions Editor for Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, Associate Editor at Word & Image. She works at Birkbeck, University of London.