ABSTRACT
Prescriptive literature consists primarily of advice sermons, manuals, and periodical articles which offer information, instruction, and guidance on various aspects of human social behavior and experience. Topics covered in this literature include marriage and family relationships, child rearing, household management, fashion, career direction, manners, and morals. While prescriptive literature was published earlier, it proliferated in Western society during the 19th century in the context of urbanization, industrialization, and the expansion of the literate middle class, whose members comprised the major part of its readership.
