Vintage canada edition, 1998 Copyright 1996 by Alberto Manguel

TO THE READER
Reading has a history.
ROBERT DARNTON
The Kiss of Lamourette, 1990
For the desire to read, like all the other desires which distract our unhappy souls, is capable of analysis.
VIRGINIA WOOLF
“Sir Thomas Browne”, 1923
But who shall be the master? The writer or the reader?
DENIS DIDEROT
Jaques le Fataliste et son maître, 1796

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CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgements
THE LAST PAGE
The Last Page
ACTS OF READING
Reading Shadows
The Silent Readers
The Book of Memory
Learning to Read
The Missing First Page
Picture Reading
Being Read To
The Shape of the Book
Private Reading
Metaphors of Reading
POWERS OF THE READER
Beginnings
Ordainers of the Universe
Reading the Future
The Symbolic Reader
Reading within Walls
Stealing Books
The Author as Reader
The Translator as Reader
Forbidden Reading
The Book Fool
ENDPAPER PAGES
Endpaper Pages
NOTES
Plate Credits

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THE LAST
PAGE
Read in order to live.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Letter to Mlle de Chantepie, June 1857
A universal fellowship of readers. From left to right, top to bottom: the young Aristotle by Charles
Degeorge, Virgil by Ludger tom Ring the Elder, Saint Dominic by Fra Angelico, Paolo and Francesca by
Anselm Feuerbach, two Islamic students by an anonymous illustrator, the Child Jesus lecturing in the
Temple by disciples of Martin Schongauer, the tomb of Valentine Balbiani by Germain Pilon, Saint Jerome
by a follower of Giovanni Bellini, Erasmus in his study by an unknown engraver. (photo credit p1.1)

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