Q1. [4] medium exam-ready
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
'The sale of books in general has increased prodigiously within the last twenty years. The poorer sort of farmers and even the poor country people in general who before that period spent their winter evenings in relating stories of witches, ghosts, hobgoblins … now shorten the winter night by hearing their sons and daughters read them tales, romances, etc.'
— James Lackington, London publisher, 1791
(i) What change in the cultural habits of ordinary rural people does Lackington describe? (1 mark)
(ii) What does this passage tell us about the relationship between oral culture and print culture in the eighteenth century? (1 mark)
(iii) What social and technological developments during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries made this transformation in reading habits possible? Explain with two points. (2 marks)
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 15:01 · grounding rag
Model Answer
(i) Lackington describes that poor rural people, who earlier spent winter evenings telling stories of witches, ghosts, and hobgoblins (oral tradition), now listened to their sons and daughters read aloud tales and romances — shifting from oral storytelling to print-based entertainment.
(ii) The passage shows that oral and print cultures were not opposites but blended together. Even those who could not read personally engaged with print by listening to books being read aloud, so print culture was orally transmitted and the two cultures intermingled.
(iii)
- Rise in literacy: Churches set up village schools through the 17th–18th centuries, raising literacy rates to 60–80% in some European regions by the late 18th century, creating a wider reading public.
- Cheaper books: The printing press reduced production costs and time. Cheap formats like penny chapbooks and Bibliothèque Bleue books were sold by pedlars, making print affordable even for poor rural people.
Source: Chapter 5, Sections 3.1 (A New Reading Public) and 4 (The Reading Mania)
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Explanation
- (i) Focus on the shift — from oral storytelling to listening to printed texts. One clear sentence is enough for 1 mark.
- (ii) The key phrase from the textbook is "oral culture entered print and printed material was orally transmitted." Examiners want this blurring of the boundary highlighted.
- (iii) Two distinct, named points are needed. Literacy (schools/churches) and affordability (printing technology/cheap books) are the textbook's main reasons. Avoid vague answers — name the cause and its effect clearly. Each point should be 1–2 sentences.