1. The problem with reading: history and theory in the culture of Georgian England
Part I. Origins: 2. 'Many sketches and scraps of sentiments': what is a commonplace book?
3. A very short history of commonplacing
4. Commonplacing modernity: enlightenment and the necessity of note-taking
Part II. Form and Matter: 5. 'A sort of register or orderly collection of things: Locke and the organisation of wisdom
6. The importance of being epigrammatic
7. Manufacturing an encyclopaedia
Part III. Readers and Reading: 8. Critical autonomy and readership
9. Dexterity and textuality: the experience of reading
Part IV. Ancient and Modern: 10. Sounding the muses' lyre: rhetoric and neo-classicism
11. Invention and imitation: practising the art of composition
Part V. Texts and Tastes: 12. Taming the Bard: dramatic readings
13. Commonplacing and the modern canon
Part VI. Anatomising the Self: 14. The selfish narrator
15. Self-made news
16. Reading excursions: on being transported
Envoi: 17. The rise of the novel and the fall of commonplacing: conjoined narratives?
Bibliography
Index.
