![Penny Reading 1871](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Penny_Reading_1871.jpg)
The penny reading was a form of popular public entertainment that arose in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
in the middle of the 19th century, consisting of readings and other performances, for which the admission charged was one
penny
A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
.
Impact
Under the heading of "rational recreation", the penny reading proved to be accessible and was taken up by
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
audiences. It built on the tradition of the
penny gaff
A penny gaff was a form of popular entertainment for the lower classes in 19th-century England. It consisted of short, theatrical entertainments which could be staged wherever space permitted, such as the back room of a public house or small hal ...
and "singing saloon". Writing in the mid-1860s,
Thomas Wright as itinerant social observer found penny readings "exceedingly popular all over the country".
Australian historian
Joy Damousi
Joy Damousi, is an Australian historian and Professor and Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at Australian Catholic University. She was Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the U ...
documented the criticism by
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
and
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...
of this passive consumption of literature through
reading aloud
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
, fitting as it did into Victorian culture and in particular
poetry recitation
A poetry reading is a public oral recitation or performance of poetry. Reading poetry aloud allows the reader to express their own experience through poetry, changing the poem according to their sensibilities. The reader uses pitch and stress, and ...
. Penny readings, however, appealed for a period in both urban and country settings. They were significant as a way forward for the
Mechanics' Institutes set up in the early Victorian period, where they became a staple activity, along with
smoking concert
Smoking concerts were live performances, usually of music, before an audience of men only, popular during the Victorian era. These social occasions were instrumental in introducing new musical forms to the public. At these functions men would s ...
s and study for scientific qualifications. In the fictionalised
Candleford Green
''Candleford Green'' is a 1943 semi-autobiographical novel by the English author Flora Thompson. The village of the title is partly modelled on the Oxfordshire village of Fringford.
In 1945 the book was republished as part of the trilogy ''L ...
of
Flora Thompson
Flora Jane Thompson (née Timms; 5 December 1876 – 21 May 1947) was an English novelist and poet best known for her semi-autobiographical trilogy about the English countryside, ''Lark Rise to Candleford''.
Early life and family
Thompson ...
, the penny reading, although outmoded elsewhere, was "still going strong" in the 1890s.
Origins
The Public Reading Society founded in the 1850s was the vehicle of
Charles John Plumptre, a barrister who turned to the teaching of
elocution
Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone as well as the idea and practice of effective speech and its forms. It stems from the idea that while communication is symbolic, sounds are final and compelli ...
. Charles Sulley, editor of the ''
Ipswich Express
The ''East Anglian Daily Times'' is a British local newspaper for Suffolk and Essex, based in Ipswich.
History
The newspaper began publication on 13 October 1874, incorporating the ''Ipswich Express'', which had been published since 13 August ...
'', was credited with starting the penny reading movement in
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
during the 1850s. A short history was given in the 1865 standard reading collection edited by
Joseph Edwards Carpenter
Joseph Edwards Carpenter (2 November 1813, London – 6 May 1885, BayswaterBoase, F., ''Modern English biography'', 6 vols, 1892-1921) was an English playwright, composer, and songwriter.
In 1851, Carpenter moved from Leamington to London. He wr ...
. The Rev.
James Fleming of
Bath was also credited as the "father of the penny-reading movement", for his numerous public readings.
Another view places the origin in 1854 in the Midlands. Dispatches for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' from the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
, by
William Howard Russell
Sir William Howard Russell, (28 March 182011 February 1907) was an Irish reporter with ''The Times'', and is considered to have been one of the first modern war correspondents. He spent 22 months covering the Crimean War, including the Sieg ...
, were read in public in
Hanley by Samuel Taylor, a manual worker who was a Mechanics' Institute secretary and later involved in the ''
Staffordshire Sentinel'' newspaper. From the market square, Taylor moved to the town hall, and in 1856 to a fuller programme of patriotic readings, with music and the national anthem; from free admittance to a penny charge to cut down great demand. ''The Times'' made much of the events, which were widely copied in
the Potteries
The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ...
and Staffordshire by 1857–8. At the
Birmingham and Midland Institute
, mottoeng = Endless Learning
, established = 1854 by Act of Parliament
, city = Birmingham
, province = West Midlands
, country = United Kingdom
, president = Sir David Cannadine
, vice_president = Dr Serena Trowbridge, Sami ...
,
William Mattieu Williams
William Mattieu Williams (6 February 1820 – 28 November 1892) was an English writer on science and educator.
Life
The son of Abraham Williams, a fishmonger in London, and his wife Louise, daughter of Gabriel Mattieu, a Swiss refugee, he was b ...
started to give "penny lectures" in 1856, and C. J. Woodward later claimed that these led to "penny classes" and penny readings, in the cause of
popular education
Popular education is a concept grounded in notions of class, political struggle, and social transformation. The term is a translation from the Spanish educación popular or the Portuguese educação popular and rather than the English usage a ...
.
In 1871, a book review in the ''Literary World'' lamented the trend:
As conducted by their originators, Penny Readings were unquestionably useful and attractive without being frivolous: as conducted by some of those gentlemen's imitators, they ave
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
run riot and become farcical, and have lost almost every philanthropic or praiseworthy element they at first possessed.
Content
An 1887 handbook for
parish priest
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
s suggests a programme of around 15 items, "instrumental pieces, songs, glees, recitation, and readings", recommending variety. It notes that "Comic songs should, as a rule, be avoided".
Legacy
While penny readings, at their height in the 1860s, had lost their popularity before 1900, a tradition of poetry recitation continued in niches such as family events and
temperance meetings
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders em ...
.
Winifred Peck
Winifred Peck, née Knox, (1882–1962) was an English novelist and biographer.
Biography
Winifred Frances Knox was born in Headington, England in 1882. Her father was Edmund Arbuthnott Knox, the fourth Bishop of Manchester. Knox was one of ...
found it "ghastly" and associated, negatively, with the
provincial
Provincial may refer to:
Government & Administration
* Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country
* Provincial city (disambiguation)
* Provincial minister (disambiguation)
* Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...
.
The
Poetry Society
The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...
, founded in 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, began with a parallel mission to the "penny reading movement": event organisation to promote performance of the spoken word. In terms of its content and patrons, on the other hand, it was more discriminating, and lacked the same broad base of appeal.
Notes
{{Reflist
Performing arts in the United Kingdom