Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book challenges the general belief that there was little interest in reading books in colonial Brazil. It analyses how books, booksellers and printers that are characterized by their great diversity require an approach involving historical research of the Brazilian cultural practices in the first decades of the nineteenth century. The book makes the first attempt to reconstruct the history of the Rio de Janeiro British Subscription Library, founded in 1826 by British immigrants. It analyses the editorial history of The Hand of Death, a sequel to the Count of Mount Cristo, published by a Portuguese writer, Alfredo Hogan, and examines its circulation in Portugal, Spain and Brazil. The book discusses Machado de Assis's critical view of the increased speed of news dissemination brought about by new forms of technology, such as the transatlantic cable, improvements in lithographic reproduction and photography.