Jane Austen's ironic reference to 'the trash with which the press now groans' is only one of innumerable Romantic complaints about fiction's newly overwhelming presence. This book draws on evidence from over one hundred Romantic novels to explore the changes in publishing, reviewing, reading, and writing that accompanied the unprecedented growth in novel publication during the Romantic period. With particular focus on the infamous Minerva Press, the most prolific fiction-producer of the age, Hannah Hudson puts its popular authors in dialogue with writers such as Walter Scott, Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth, and William Godwin. Using paratextual materials including reviews, advertisements, and authorial prefaces, this book establishes the ubiquity of Romantic anxieties about literary 'excess', showing how beliefs about fictional overproduction created new literary hierarchies. Ultimately, Hudson argues that this so-called excess was a driving force in fictional experimentation and the advertising and publication practices that shaped the genre's reception. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Winner, 2024 Marilyn Gaull Book Award, The University of Chicago Press

‘The last five years have seen increased scholarly attention to the Minerva Press in the form of monographs and special issues. This book is an invaluable addition to this growing area of study, and one that makes its importance to the wider field clear.’

Kandice Sharren Source: The Wordsworth Circle

‘The last five years have seen increased scholarly attention to the Minerva Press in the form of monographs and special issues. [This book] is an invaluable addition to this growing area of study, and one that makes its importance to the wider field clear … the focus on individual authors and how their literary strategies positioned their works within the literary marketplace make a powerful case for the importance of the Minerva Press to Romantic literary production in general.’

Kandice Sharren Source: The Wordsworth Circle