This book announces a new cross-cultural approach to periodical studies, reading both French- and English-language magazines in relation to an emerging transatlantic middlebrow culture. Mainstream magazines, Hammill and Smith argue, forged a connection between upward mobility and geographical mobility. Fantasies of travel were circulated through fiction, articles, and advertisements, and used to sell fashions, foods, and domestic products as well as holidays. For readers who could not afford a trip to Paris, Bermuda, or Lake Louise, these illustrated magazines offered proxy access to the glamour and prestige increasingly associated with travel.
Faye Hammill is Professor of English at the University of Strathclyde and the author of 'Sophistication: A Literary and Cultural History' (Liverpool University Press, 2010).
Michelle Smith is Lecturer in English at the University of Strathclyde.