Sterne, Shelley, and Sensibility's Pleasures of Proximity

In 1828 Percy Shelley's essay "On Love" (1818)—composed in the same year that his wife, Mary Shelley, published Frankenstein—appeared in the popular poetic giftbook of the day, the Keepsake for 1829. These annuals, consumed largely by middle-class women, contained verse and prose intended to illustrate the elegantly engraved plates (often portraits of fashionable, aristocratic women) that served as the main attraction to the volumes. In addition to the illustrations, patrons were wooed by the high quality of paper, bindings, cover, and dedication plates, all of which were designed as ornate and decorative hooks to lure subscribers. On top of these attractions, the giftbooks featured aristocratic editors like Lady Blessington and celebrity authors like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, Thomas Moore, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Letitia Landon. As Peter Manning notes, such collections, especially after the elegant innovations of the Keepsake, clearly functioned first and foremost as status-denoting gifts rather than as books one actually read. 1 Or more accurately, what was read were first and foremost the portraits, subscribers, and contributors; in other words, the signs of status with which those who wished to be in the know needed to be familiar.