1. According to Peresson if one takes the number of books published in Italy in 1861 as the equivalent of 100, then in 1871 the number of books published would equal 249, in 1881 it would be 296, in 1891 it would be 348 and in 1901 354. See Peresson, Giovanni, ‘Editori e librai: La distribuzione del libro tra Otto e Novecento’, Lavoro critico , 29, May–August, 1983, pp. 73–103 (p. 74). See p. 88 for a breakdown according to category of books published during this period.Google Scholar

2. ‘The nineteenth-century “libraries” can essentially be traced back to two types according to whether they are collections of works with similar content or literary genre (classics, novels, plays, travel, histories, religion, law, medicine, etc.) or collections where the books are clearly different among themselves but are intended for a single category of reader (the “ladies”, children) who want to develop gradually a shelf of books or, indeed, a “library”’ (‘Le “biblioteche” ottocentesche sono sostanzialmente riconducibili a due tipi, a secondo che raccolgono opere affini per contenuto o per genere letterario (classici, romanzi, teatri, viaggi, storici, cultura religiosa, giurisprudenza, medecina, ecc.) o tra loro dichiaratamente diversa ma destinate a una singola categoria di lettori (le “dame”, i fanciulli) cui si vuole gradualmente costruire uno scaffale o, meglio, per l'appunto una “biblioteca”) , Berengo, Marino, Intellettuali e librai nella Milano della Restaurazione , Einaudi, Turin, 1980, p. 134.Google Scholar

3. This has to be seen in the context of a very slow decline in female illiteracy whch saw 74.06 per cent of women nation-wide still unable to read in 1877. See Chiarito, Daniela Maldini, ‘Lettrici ed editori a Milano tra Otto e Novecento’, in Storia in Lombardia , 2, 1988, pp. 33–58, p. 35.Google Scholar

4. 651 titles were published in 1836 and only 460 in 1863. The number rose to 792 in 1872. See Nicola Tranfaglia and Albertina Vittoria, Storia degli editori italiani , Laterza, Bari, 2000, p. 68.Google Scholar

5. In 1894–95 Ojetti, Ugo interviewed twenty-six writers to find out why they wrote, and for whom. It is D'Annunzio who comments on the rise of light reading and the accompanying proliferation of biblioteche for women of all social classes. Pancrazi, Pietro (ed.), Alla scoperta dei lettorati , Le Monnier, Florence, 1946, pp. 351–52.Google Scholar

6. In the Bollettino Bibliografico Sonzogno for 1888 manuals of behaviour costing 1 Lira each are described as: ‘a sort of codex in the alluring shape of a novel’ (‘una sorte di codice, sotto le forme alletatrici del romanzo’), Chiarito, Maldini, ‘Lettrici ed editori’, p. 50.Google Scholar

7. It is worth noting in this context that De Amicis’ Cuore which enjoyed an extraordinary status as a bestseller (forty editions in the first year of publication) constituted, in Asor Rosa's words, ‘a “manual” of acceptable rules of conduct’ (‘un “prontuario” delle regole di comportamento accettabili’) , Rosa, Alberto Asor, ‘La cultura’, in Storia d'Italia, iv, 2, Dall'Unità a oggi , Einaudi, Turin, 1975, p. 928.Google Scholar

8. An interesting and not untypical example is provided by the magazine Vita intima which was launched on 3 June 1890. In a letter to Orvieto, Neera, who was involved in setting it up, describes it as ‘not literary in the true sense, but more to do with human affairs, causeries, chat, intended mainly for women of whom not all (thanks be to God) are interested in literature and who nonetheless want something to read’ (‘non letterario nel senso vero, ma piuttosto di umanità, di causeries, chiacchiere, dedicato principalmente alle donne le quali non tutte (grazie a Dio) si occupano di letteratura e che pur vogliono leggere qualche cosa’) , Arslan, Antonia and Zambon, Patrizia (eds), Il sogno aristocratico. Angela Orvieto e Neera. Corrispondenza 1889–1917 , Angelo Guarini, Milan, 1990, p. 63.Google Scholar

9. Magazines intended for girls and young women were often given the names of flowers as title.Google Scholar

10. Botteri, Inge, Galateo e galatei. La creanza e l'instituzione della società nella trattistica italiana tra antico régime e stato liberale , Bulzoni, Rome, 1999, p. 325.Google Scholar

11. Barbagli, Marzio, Sotto lo stesso tetto. Mutamenti della famiglia in Italia dal xv secolo al xx secolo , Il Mulino, Bologna, 1984, p. 36.Google Scholar

12. In 1827 Tommaseo criticized Manzoni in his review of I promessi sposi for failing to make the novel relevant to a middle-class readership by situating it in an urban rather than than a rural environment. He advised Manzoni to take a poor but kind family from the city in place of peasants and subject them to the same persecution. See Antologia , 28, October 1827, p. 161.Google Scholar

13. Serao, Matilde, Il romanzo della fanciulla , Liguori, , Naples, 1987, p. 113. The story was first published in 1885.Google Scholar

14. La Marchesa Colombi, , Piccole cause , Tipografia editrice lombarda, Milan, 1879, p. 43. Matilde Serao suggests the word flirtare for chiacchierare gaiamente (to chat cheerfully), in Infusino, Gianni (ed.), Saper vivere, Corte, salotti e interni borghesi nella Napoli di fine Ottocento, Quarto Potere, Naples, 1986, p. 93.Google Scholar

15. Barié, Ottavio, L'Italia nell'Ottocento , UTET, Turin, 1964, pp. 129, 173.Google Scholar

16. La Marchesa Colombi, , Dopo il caffé, Racconti , Zanichelli, Bologna, 1878, p. 158. Colombi was ahead of her time in advocating physical exercise, in particular walking, for girls. In Troppo tardi (1880), for example, the protagonist whose life is devoted to caring for her sick mother finds that the regular Sunday walk to and from Church is her lifeline and ‘the only physical exercise’ (il solo esercizio igienico) that she is able to take. La Marchesa Colombi, , Troppo tardi, Galli, Milan, 1890, p. 133.Google Scholar

17. Colombi, , Piccole cause , p. 61.Google Scholar

18. Neera, , Lydia , Baldini e Castoldi, Milan, 1914. For Neera being a member of the aristocracy is often as much a virtue as an indication of class affiliation.Google Scholar

19. Gentile, Anna Vertua, Come devo comportarmi? , Hoepli, Milan, 1899, p. 117. The author notes that it is not that American girls are doing anything wrong, but that they are giving the wrong impression.Google Scholar

20. See for example De Gubernatis’, Angelo column in Cordelia 6 June 1886 p. 231, where he describes the foreign visitors to Florence as ‘intrepid amazons with teeth like a horse and feet like an elephant’ (intrepide ammazzoni dai denti di cavallo e dai piedi di elefante). Google Scholar

21. Beri, Caterina Pigorini, Sorprese del cuore. Novelle , Cogliati, Milan, 1906, pp. 33, 75. The stories were first published individually in magazines in the 1880s.Google Scholar

22. Lorenzini, Carlo, I misteri di Firenze. Scene sociali , Tip. Fioretti, Florence, 1857, p. 121. Lorenzini assumes that his readership will be Florentine.Google Scholar

23. The Pargiters by Virginia Woolf , Leaska, Mitchell A. (ed.), The Hogarth Press, London, 1978, contains the first five chapters and six essays of the then novel–essay that was later to become the novel The Years. The first of the chapters and essays was based on a speech delivered to the London National Society for Women's Service on 21 January 1931.Google Scholar

24. Woolf, , The Pargiters , p. 36.Google Scholar

25. Woolf, , The Pargiters , p. 37 Google Scholar

26. The episode occupies the second chapter in The Pargiters, whereas in The Years the division between the inner, safe world of the drawing-room and the dangerous world outside the front door is not so textually marked and both are contained in the first chapter.Google Scholar

27. Woolf, , The Pargiters , p. 43.Google Scholar

28. Of the public spaces permitted to women, church and theatre are the two most frequently referred to in fiction.Google Scholar

29. Nevers, Emilia, Galateo della borghesia. Norme per trattar bene , delle signore, Biblioteca, Turin, 1883 (3rd edn), p. 2. I have not been able to see all the editions and therefore I cannot identify the date of the edition marking the switch in attention to the Vita esterna (Life Outside); it is not before the 1890s. Nevers writes in her Preface that she finds the word borghesia problematic for it is imprecise and, worse still, foreign.Google Scholar

30. ‘Una volta—noto che parlo principalmente per le signore in questo paragrafo—le donne uscivano di rado per molte ragioni: non era tanto invalso l'uso di mandare le ragazze a scuola; non v'erano conferenze, non pattinaggi, non veloci-clubs, non riunioni per scopi benefici, scolastici o letterari, od almeno queste occasion i erano meno frequenti o diversamente regolate’ , Nevers, , Galateo della borghesia , 1916. Although published after Italy's entry into The First World War, no reference, however fleeting, is made to a Vita esterna other than that provided by the immediate vicinity of her readership. Problems with servants (finding good ones), are attributed to the advent of electric light and water piped into the houses which has made them lazy.Google Scholar

31. See Gentile, , Come devo comportarmi? , p. 133.Google Scholar

32. Lorenzini opens I misteri di Firenze by reminding his readers of conditions before gas lighting: ‘the oil lamps in the streets (gas had not yet arrived to make one aware of their inadequacy) tired out by the movements of the storm, gave off an uncertain flickering light’ ( I lamponi a olio delle strode (il gaz non era ancora venuto a dar saggio della sua insufficienza) affaticati per ogni verso della bufera, mandavano una luce incerta e a balzelloni) , p. 5.Google Scholar

33. For studies of the physical transformation of Florence in this period, see Pesci, Ugo, Firenze Capitale 1865–1870 , R. Bemporad e figlio, Florence, 1904; Contini, Giuseppe, Firenze vecchio. Storia-cronaca aneddotica-costumi, R. Bemporad e figlio, Florence, 1900; Fei, Silvano, Firenze giolittiana, Bemporad, Florence, 1976; and Aranguren, Piero, ‘Il volto di Firenze dal 1870 al 1900’, Rassegna storica toscana, 10, 1964, pp. 109–115.Google Scholar

34. ‘Il grande magazzino, l'industria artistica, la seduzione della donna mediante le vetrine è un ritrovato affatto nuovo. Ad un tratto, invece del fondaco buio o al primo piano, dove la merce era dissimulata, ignorata, ecco manifestarsi allo sguardo magazzini ingranditi, abbelliti, con una legione di commessi azzimati e cortesi, con delle vetrine in cui le novità sono disposte in modo artistico e fantastico. Lungo le vie, nel fiammeggiare del gaz, che ha surrogato il tremulo e rossastro lume del fanale ad olio o nella bianca luce lunare della lampada Edison, si rivela via via una specie di esposizione magica’ , Nevers, Emilia, Vita moderna, Studi sociali , L'Ufficio del Giornale delle donne, Turin, 1889, pp. 35–36. For the code of conduct on entering and leaving shops, see Dau Novelli, Cecilia, ‘Modelli di comportamento e ruoli familiari’, in Fiocca, Giorgio (ed.), Borghesi e imprenditori a Milano. Dall'Unità alla prima guerra mondiale, Laterza, Bari, 1984, pp. 213–290, p. 250.Google Scholar

35. Bonetta, Gaetano, ‘Igiene e ginnastica femminile nell’ Italia liberale’, in Soldani, Simonetta (ed.), L'educazione della donna. Storie e modelli di vita femminile nell'Italia dell'Ottocento , FrancoAngeli, Milan, 1989, pp. 273–294, p. 277.Google Scholar

36. Gentile, , Come devo comportarmi? , p. 148.Google Scholar