ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the spread of print culture in Bengal in the 19th century, taking into account a robust printing and publishing industry that had to contend with thriving performative cultures in the city of Calcutta and beyond, tackling the competition in imaginative ways and ultimately enriching the reading experience for the early book readers. It explores the interface of orality and print in Bengal during the period from the perspective of both the printers and publishers as well as the readers, establish the tremendous vivacity of contemporary performative cultures with which books had to compete, as well as innovative reading and writing strategies through which the printed book endured in its early years.
