Nineteenth-Century Popular Lectures

This collection brings together and contextualizes a wide variety of lectures given in institutions and clubs in 19th century England. The popular lecture became one of the most common artefacts of Victorian culture and yet, due to its ephemerality, we know little about who spoke, who listened, why these lectures were delivered, and how they were received. The volumes in this set show how the lecture emerged as a central part of popular culture, how it changed over time, and how the educational and entertaining components of the popular lecture were in constant tension, preserving a crucial piece of political, social, and cultural history.

Volume III: 1850-1870 Literature, Fine Arts, and Entertainment, includes serious lectures in art history, performances of poetry, literature, and music, and increasingly comical or merely entertaining pieces, including the introduction of magic tricks and other sensational material onto the popular lecture platform.