There's been a lot in our reading about 19th century librarians disapproving of popular fiction, discouraging people from reading it, or even refusing to carry it in their libraries. What I want to know is, what sort of books did these librarians want people to read? I mentioned this question in class today, but we didn't really have time for it.
Part II of Apostles of Culture has detailed summaries of some of the popular but "immoral" novels of the late 19th century, books that librarians disapproved of, but doesn't say what they recommended instead. According to Quincy, Dickens and Hawthorne were suitable fiction, but that can't be all that was in the library. What sort of thing did the kindly ladies of the library encourage poor factory girls to read? Shakespeare? Plato? The Bible? I'm really curious to know.
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