Narrative

20. Price: 8s.

A Natural History (1826) by Sarah Trimmer is a two-volume non-fiction work, part of Whittingham’s Cabinet Library (parts 56 and 57), including over 300 engravings. Downmarket readers were interested in Shakespeare, Ossian and other British classics, as well as London, the history of foreign parts, and the natural world; they purchased what interested them and what they could afford. There was overlap in terms of content and readerships: Shakespeare was performed at non-patent and Royal theatres; Paul & Virginia was available for sixpence or three shillings. Books such as A Natural History, however, were priced and designed for elite readers with deep pockets.