Following this fascinating train of thought, one could even argue that JA's period represents the the beginnings of 'pop culture'; the factors behind this phenomenon include: literacy was becoming increasingly widespread (as that great pioneer feminist and intellectual snob Lady Montagu put it, Richardson's _Pamela_ was 'the joy of chambermaids of all nations'); printed matter (the only mass media available at the time) had become cheap enough for most people to be able to afford it (not necessarily novels, but certainly pamphlets), whether through purchase or the new circulating libraries; and newspapers, which promoted the new literary luminaries and their productions, were part of the daily routine of a very wide range of people.

The subject of best-selling novels has been amply analysed here; what about those libraries and newspapers?

- Chapt. 10: for Mr Allen and his peers, part of the 'ordinary course of events' in their daily visit to the pump-room was to 'compare the accounts of their newspapers'.

- Chapt. 14 (perhaps my favourite in NA, btw): 'Miss Morland has been talking of nothing more dreadful than a new publication which is shortly to come out....such words could relate only to a circulating library...'

- Chapt. 24: in Da Man's famous 'Remember that we are English, that we are Christians' speech to Catherine, part of his argument against her wild fancies is that'newspapers lay everything open' (i.e. no one can keep something secret for long anymore).