ABSTRACT

This paper examines how the gentlemen's club was a space for facilitating business activities in the literary publishing industry of Victorian Britain. These clubs served to blur the boundaries between the social and professional sphere, to the point that many used the club as hub for networking and for providing opportunities. The gentlemen’s clubs of London have been examined within gender studies and in studies on social culture, where emphasis has been placed on its role in elite and middle-class society and its influence on gender and class inequality. However, little attention has been dedicated in academic business research to the club’s influence on shaping the activities of businesses in the publishing industry. By exploring how individuals engaged with so-called ‘club life,’ it is possible to analyze the dynamics of how and why gentlemen’s clubs were important to literary businesses. Through an exploration of narrative and documentary archival sources, this paper explores the perspective and choices of individuals working in the publishing industry, and the extent to which their choices in business were governed by the cultural influences of the gentlemen’s club.

摘要

本文研究了绅士俱乐部如何成为促进维多利亚时代英国文学出版业商业活动的空间。这些俱乐部模糊了社会和专业领域之间的界限，以至于许多俱乐部将俱乐部用作社交网络和提供机会的枢纽。在性别研究和社会文化研究中对伦敦的绅士俱乐部进行了研究，重点放在了其在精英和中产阶级社会中的作用及其对性别和阶级不平等的影响。但是，学术商业研究很少关注该俱乐部对塑造出版行业中企业活动的影响。通过探索个人如何参与所谓的“俱乐部生活”，'有可能分析绅士俱乐部对文学事业如何重要的动态。通过探索叙事和文献档案资源，本文探讨了出版业中个人的观点和选择，以及他们在商业上的选择受到绅士俱乐部文化影响的程度。