Abstracts
Abstract
The circulation records of the New York Society Library contextualize late eighteenth-century New Yorkers’ engagement with French-language books and authors. Founded in 1754, the Society Library holds extant circulation records that date from 1789–1792 and 1799–1806. These records reveal what eighteenth-century readers were checking out of the library and presumably reading. The paper analyzes both quantitative and qualitative data related to readers’ borrowing practices and examines which French works were most often borrowed. This, in turn, allows us to speculate on what might have been the appeal of these works in the complex cultural environment of the early American republic. Finally, this paper seeks to understand why Anglophone readers chose to read in French, particularly when English-language titles were available, what they gained from this practice, and how these works supported the intellectual aspirations of a new nation.
Keywords:
- Library history,
- reception history,
- Rousseau in early America,
- Voltaire in early America,
- subscription libraries
Résumé
Les registres de prêts de la New York Society Library (NYSL) mettent en contexte l’intérêt qu’avaient les New-Yorkais, à la fin du xviiie siècle, pour les livres en français et les auteurs d’expression française. Fondée en 1754, la NYSL a conservé des registres de prêts datant des années 1789-1792 et 1799-1806. Ces documents révèlent quels étaient les ouvrages que les lecteurs de l’époque empruntaient et, on peut le présumer, lisaient. L’article s’appuie sur des données à la fois quantitatives et qualitatives liées aux pratiques d’emprunt, et relève les ouvrages en français les plus souvent choisis. Nous avançons des hypothèses pouvant expliquer l’attrait de ces derniers dans un milieu culturel complexe, celui des premières années de la république américaine. Enfin, nous cherchons à comprendre les raisons pour lesquelles les lecteurs anglophones lisaient en français alors que des titres en anglais étaient accessibles, ce qu’ils en retiraient, et la manière dont ces oeuvres ont pu soutenir les aspirations intellectuelles de la nouvelle nation.
Mots-clés :
- Histoire des bibliothèques,
- histoire de la réception,
- réception américaine de Rousseau,
- réception américaine de Voltaire,
- bibliothèques de souscription
Appendices
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