Question

What were “Penny Chapbooks”?
A)Pocket-sized books
B)Journals
C)Ritual Calendars
D) Newspaper

Answer 1

Hint: The popularity of the chapbooks gradually disappeared from the mid-nineteenth century after facing competition from cheap newspapers. These penny chapbooks were different from Bibliotheque Bleue i.e. the books printed in cheap quality paper.

Complete answer: Option A: A chapbook was a type of printed street literature, these were commonly small, paper-covered booklets usually printed on a single sheet folded into books of eight, twelve, sixteen and twenty-four pages. In the sixteen century, the tradition of chapbooks arose when printed books became affordable. These penny chapbooks were often illustrated with crude woodcuts. These books contained illustrations and were read aloud to an audience.
 Many diverse kinds of literature such as folk tales, ballads, nursery rhymes, pamphlets, political and religious tracts were published as chapbooks. For this type of literature the term “chapbooks” was coined in the nineteenth century. These books were carried by peddlers called chapmen, these were licensed or authorized. So basically we can conclude that chapbooks were small pocket sized books made for poor and always cost exactly a penny and were bound with a saddle stitch ( a sewn book) whereas, the members of upper class owned chapbooks with a personal monogram and were bound in leather. The publication houses and printers tailored the text to cater their desirable audiences.

Option B, C and D can be eliminated as option A, i.e. pocket-sized books is the correct answer.

Note: The chapbooks had a vast and continuing influence, even in the contemporary times short collections of poetry published online or blogs are referred as “ online chapbooks” or “ e-chapbooks”.