Los suscriptores de La Casandra (1792)

Abstract

This article offers an innovative approach to the make-up of the novel-reading public in late 18th-century Spain through subscription lists. The study is based on La Casandra (1792), whose subscriber list of 768 was analysed to build a profile of the readership considering gender, social group, occupation and cultural interests. In addition to this sociological goal, the study focuses on the Spanish publishing and literary context at the close of the century to establish a nexus between the subscription sales system and the development of novel-reading in an up and coming publishing market. The success of La Casandra was decisive for this process in that it met the demand for fictional literature and at the same time encouraged publishers to offer more genre literature. As the study concludes, La Casandra is at the heart of the growth of subscription novels in Spain and the growth of readership.

Keywords

• 18th-century Spain
• La Casandra
• novel
• publishing market
• readership
• subscription lists