Narrative

8. The content of chapbooks in the Romantic period was more complex and wide ranging than is commonly accepted, ranging well beyond distressed maidens and ‘nutcrackers.’ Chapbooks enabled the dissemination of popular fiction to downmarket readers; but they also instructed while entertaining. The History of Prince Charles Stuart (Newcastle: Fordyce, n.d.), for example, capitalizes on recent historical events, as well as the rise in popularity of historiography and historical novels, telling an engaging tale of a popular historical figure.