TheformationoftheRiodeJaneiroreader

For literature to truly exist, it needs an audience. In nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro, and in Brazil in general, the number of literate people was extremely low. The 1872 National Census recorded that only 23% of free men could read and write, while that figure dropped to 13% in the case of women.

This did not prevent, however, an increasing number of people from turning to newspapers and magazines to stay informed after the opening of the free press in the city, starting in 1821. They avidly consumed news, serialized novels, and poems, squeezed in between advertisements for the sale of enslaved people and cosmetic and medicinal novelties arriving from Europe.

It is well known that the genre that solidified a literature in the city was Romanticism, with its stories of heroes and lovestruck young women, cloaks and swords, family intrigues, and a touch of "worldly life" in the ever-growing relationship between young men and women. With the political and economic stabilization of the Second Reign (peaking in the 1850s-60s), public spaces for social interaction grew. Literature became a form of entertainment that spoke of the streets, cafés, and squares frequented by most literate people. In this way, a direct bond between readers and writers was created.

Image description: This is a black-and-white engraving depicting a café. The image shows several people seated at a table, wearing formal nineteenth-century attire, including top hats. On the left, a waiter is serving drinks. In the center, two men are interacting, while others look on. On the right, three men are eating ice cream. Below the image, there is a caption mentioning "Daily Observation" and "At the Café Carceller."

Romantic literature also ended up prioritizing, as its audience, the "dear reader" (querida leitora). Most of those who read the serialized novels were women of different ages. This happened not only because they were the ones with a routine confined to the home, but also because literature did not enjoy great prestige among the political and economic elites. Some short stories and novels of the period even used the image of women who, from "reading too much," developed health problems and strayed from their submissive roles in the patriarchal arrangement of the time.

Image description: The image is the cover of an old magazine, dated March 25, 1909. The cover is predominantly yellow with elements in black and white. At the center, there is a circle containing a photograph of a woman with flowers in her hair. On the left, there is a column with black text on a yellow background. At the top, the title "A Vida Elegante" is written in large, elegant letters. Below, in smaller letters, it reads "O Jornal das Senhoras." The upper background displays information such as the year, issue number, and price of the magazine.

In this scenario, various press outlets already had, in their very names, the definition of this target audience: in 1852, the Jornal das Senhoras appeared (led in a pioneering way by Joana Paula Manso de Noronha and, in the following years, always by other women); in 1863, the Jornal das Famílias achieved success (an initiative by Baptiste Louis Garnier, based on the success of the newspaper aimed at women).

Image description: The image shows the cover of a newspaper called "Jornal das Famílias." The spatial layout is vertical, with the title at the top and a central illustration. From top to bottom, the text reads as follows: "JORNAL DAS FAMILIAS PUBLICAÇÃO ILLUSTRADA RECREATIVA, ARTISTICA, ETC." Next is the date "ANNO DE 1874," and below it, "BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL PUBLICA RIO DE JANEIRO." At the bottom, there is more text: "RIO DE JANEIRO B. L. GARNIER, EDITOR-LIVREIRO 69, RUA DO CEVADOR, 69." The central illustration shows a female figure seated in a chair, holding a book. The colors are predominantly black and white, suggesting that the image is in black and white.

Another key audience that helped deepen the culture of reading in Rio de Janeiro were students. This was a group that, depending on their social class and skin color, romantically aspired to literature as a rite of passage and a natural path for their lives. While they consumed newspapers and the few books in circulation, they were also authors themselves, taking part on different fronts – in print or orally – in shaping this everyday literary life in Rio.

It is also worth remembering that many families had, in their patriarchs – fathers, brothers, uncles – the figure of the reader – that is, the one who read literature and other texts, such as newspaper news, to the rest of the family. Sometimes, instead of the men of the house, the reading was done by whoever had the greatest theatrical flair and conveyed the most emotion. These collective readings also encouraged romantic formats (elaborate in their love drama) and the spread of reading among families.

In addition to newspapers and magazines, starting in the 1840s a fledgling publishing market with printing houses, publishers, and bookstores (often sharing the same space, as was the case with Paula Brito) began to establish the local reading habit. Gradually, the connection with the French language, among the elite and other social classes in contact with reading and writing, allowed for the importation of French and English novels, in addition, of course, to hundreds of Portuguese books.

Image description: This is a black-and-white engraving. At the center of the image, we see a portrait of an adult man, wearing a classic suit with a bow tie. His pose is upright, suggesting dignity and seriousness. At the bottom of the image, there is a signature that reads "Franc de Paula Brito".

The formation of Rio's reading public, therefore, passed directly through a social layer of women who could, through fiction, live the streets of their city in José de Alencar's chronicles or project themselves into the heroines of Alexandre Dumas's serialized novels. It also passed through the growing number of students who filled the city's bookshops, cafés, and social events, all eager for public participation and literary success, and through collective family readings – a habit that expanded a story's range of influence beyond the literate population.