| Popis: |
The first chapter deals with the bicycle’s tangible interaction with fiction, text and publishing, drawing attention to the connections between texts and cycling. This is explored through an examination of texts by a group of touring cyclist ‘pilgrims’ including F. W. Bockett, Joseph Pennell (1857–1926), Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855–1936) and Edward Thomas (1878–1917). Subsequently, a parallel reading of two cycling novellas by H. G. Wells and Maurice Leblanc allows us to engage with the narrative role of the bicycle at close range. The vehicle’s interaction with various genres, styles and formats is examined, with a focus on its role in adventure, detective and comic fiction. I then turn my attention to the publishing context in order to argue that the emergence of the cheaply produced pocket classic was symptomatic of a democratisation of knowledge that accompanied major changes in people’s everyday mobility at the turn of the century._ |
