From Luxury to Literacy: The 18th Century Book Revolution

I'm delighted to welcome back to my blog today, talented author, Jane Davis, to mark the release of her latest novel, The Temple of the Muses, which is Volume 2 of the Chiswell Street Chronicles. Jane is going to tell us some of the fascinating background to the new book, which I look forward to reading, as I loved its predecessor, The Bookseller's Wife.

This story combines economic and political activism, smart commercial savvy, feminism, and sheer love of literature – as a pioneering couple take on the status quo with their wonderful passion project. Every bookseller today owes a debt of gratitude to the Lackingtons and their Temple of the Muses store. Over to Jane!

In the 18th century, revolution was sweeping across continents. Across the Atlantic, the American colonies had declared independence, and in France, tensions were building toward a historic upheaval. Yet in England, a different kind of revolution was quietly taking place — one that didn’t involve armies or munitions, but books.

Literacy Rising — but Book Ownership Remained Rare

By the late 18th century, literacy in England was steadily improving. Historians estimate that roughly half the population could read, based on the ability to sign their names at marriage.

We know that ordinary people read, consuming all forms of cheap print: pamphlets, chapbooks, broadsides, play scripts, and ballads, sold in bookshops, markets, even on street corners. Costing as little as a penny, they were shared among neighbours, read aloud in taverns, coffeehouses, and workshops.

But possessing a book? In Georgian England, books were expensive to produce. Printing costs were high and paper was costly.

But other factors were driving the cost of books. The idea that apprentices, servants, or labourers might be able to get their hands on books was considered radical – even dangerous.

Why Knowledge Was Feared

Many in positions of authority feared that education could make the lower classes restless, prompting them to imagine a world beyond the limits imposed upon them. This fear was not unfounded.

In much of medieval Europe, society was organised around the concept of the “Great Chain of Being” — a hierarchical worldview in which everyone had a “natural” place: kings ruled, nobles led, peasants worked the land. Social mobility was rare, and generally only possible through marriage, the Church, exceptional skill in crafts, trade, or military service.

But Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke emphasised education and reason, suggesting that individuals could better themselves through learning, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire questioned monarchy, religion, and the so-called “natural order” of society.

The American colonies had recently won independence from Britain, and across the Channel, tensions in France were building toward revolution.

And so the price of books was kept artificially high. Not just by using fine leather bindings with gilded titles, but by printing publications in three volumes, by procuring booksellers’ agreement to sell at 6d over the published price, and the destruction of unsold books in order to create scarcity.

Keeping books that carried radical ideas about liberty, equality, and individual rights expensive helped limit the spread of radical ideas. For working families who lived a hand to mouth existence, buying a book that cost a week’s wages was an impossible pipedream.

Enter the Lackingtons: Books for Everyone

Into the rigid systems devised by the Company of Stationers stepped James and Dorcas Lackington, two innovative booksellers who believed that reading should be accessible to all. They rejected the credit-based, high-price model of traditional bookselling and experimented with cash-only sales of cheap editions, combined with large stocks that might otherwise have been pulped.

By lowering profit margins but increasing sales, the Lackingtons allowed people who had never owned a book to buy one.

Ordinary readers encountered philosophies of liberty, equality, and justice for the first time — and started thinking critically about the world around them.

Challenging Tradition

The Lackingtons’ approach was bold and controversial. Authorities and rival booksellers viewed such practices with suspicion. James Lackington recounts in his memoirs that he faced opposition from those threatened by his success. Little wonder, given that he exposed the methods that kept books expensive, and wrote about his success as a “self-made” man. If he had managed not only to haul his way out of poverty, but accumulate wealth, then it stood to reason that anybody who focussed on self-improvement through book-learning might do the same.

By 1794, James Lackington was so famous that caricaturists could depict him by referring only to “A cheap bookseller” and he would be recognised – a testament to the cultural impact of his revolutionary approach to bookselling.

How Affordable Books Changed Lives

When the Lackingtons opened The Temple of the Muses, they proudly proclaimed it the “Cheapest Bookstore in the World.” The effect was transformative. Books became more than entertainment; they were tools of empowerment, offering hope, independence, and a sense of possibility.

Women, often excluded from formal education, found doors opening to knowledge and self-expression. Affordable books fostered a new generation of female readers, writers, and thinkers. The principle that knowledge should be accessible to all laid the groundwork for modern literacy, mass-market publishing, and public libraries.

Why This Still Matters

Sadly, the struggle for access to knowledge continues around the world. In some countries, children—especially girls—are denied the right to formal education, and oppressive regimes use schooling restrictions to control populations.

Book banning remains a common tool of censorship. Governments, school boards, and religious authorities restrict or remove books that challenge official ideologies, address controversial topics, or give voice to marginalised communities.

From novels exploring racial injustice to histories questioning national narratives, literature continues to be viewed as powerful and, at times, dangerous. The fight to make books available to all is not just a historical story, but a pressing global issue, reminding us that access to reading is a cornerstone of freedom, equality, and social progress.

Jane's novel, The Temple of the Muses inspired by the Dorcas and James Lackington, will be released on 2 March 2026 (ebook) and 2 April 2026 (paperback).

Buy the book

About the book :

London, 1780. As the city smoulders in the aftermath of the Gordon Riots, booksellers James and Dorcas Lackington refuse to answer despair with charity. Instead, they place their faith in something far more radical: books.

Convinced that reading offers the surest escape from poverty, the Lackingtons launch a daring experiment—pricing books so cheaply that even apprentices and servant girls can afford them. It is a bold challenge to the rigid social order of Georgian England, and one that places them squarely in danger.

Dorcas knows that life alongside James and his unshakable optimism will never be smooth. But she is no mere helpmeet. She is his compass, his conscience, and often the sharper mind. In a modest corner of Moorfields, their bookshop ignites a quiet revolution as ordinary people encounter philosophy, liberty, reason, and love for the first time.

Not everyone welcomes this awakening. The Junto, a powerful circle of men who believe that books breed dangerous ideas in the minds of the poor, move swiftly to crush the Lackingtons’ venture. As threats and intimidation escalate, Dorcas realises that survival will not come from retreat—but from becoming too large to silence.

Her answer is audacious: to build a cathedral to literature, not for kings or scholars, but for every woman and man who has ever been told that knowledge is not theirs to claim—The Temple of the Muses.

✨ Perfect for readers of Maggie O’Farrell, Tracy Chevalier, Hilary Mantel, Sarah Waters, and Philippa Gregory, and for anyone who loves women’s historical fiction, book club fiction, and stories about books and the lives they change.

‘One woman’s quiet revolution in a time of flux and ferment.’ ~ Lorna Fergusson, author of The Chase

‘I laughed with them, and cried with them, but most importantly, I loved this story’' ~Bronwyn Kotze

‘A historical novel with a timely, modern message.’ ~ Diane Reid Stevens

About Jane

Jane Davis is the author of character-driven historical and contemporary fiction that bridges meticulous research with compelling, emotionally-rich storytelling. Her novels explore subjects ranging from the life of a pioneering female photographer to families searching for justice after a devastating disaster. Interested in what happens when ordinary people are pushed into extraordinary situations, Jane introduces her characters when they’re under pressure and then, by her own cheerful admission, throws them to the lions. Expect tangled relationships, moral crossroads and a smattering of dark family secrets!

Her first novel, Half-Truths and White Lies, won a national award established by Transworld in their quest to find the next Joanne Harris. Since then, her books have continued to earn acclaim. She was hailed by The Bookseller as ‘One to Watch’. An Unknown Woman won Writing Magazine’s Self-Published Book of the Year in 2016 and was shortlisted for the IAN Awards. Smash all the Windows won the first ever Selfies Book Award in 2019. At the Stroke of Nine O’Clock was featured by The Lady Magazine as one of their favourite books set in the 1950s and was a Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choice.

Jane lives in a Surrey cottage that was originally the ticket office for a Victorian pleasure garden, known locally as ‘the gingerbread house’. Her home frequently finds its way into her stories – in fact, it met a fiery end in the opening chapter of An Unknown Woman.

When she isn’t writing, you may spot Jane disappearing up the side of a mountain with a camera in hand, or haunting Victorian cemeteries searching for the perfect name for her next character.

Find out more about Jane on her website

Go to Jane's website

Thank you, Jane, for a fascinating insight into an inspirational couple.

Picture credits: The Temple of the Muses attributed to Rudolph Ackerman, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; 18th century bookshop interior is of Pieter Meijer Warnars's bookshop by Johannes Jelgerhuis, public domain via Picryl.com; cover design of The Temple of the Muses, Jessica Bell