"Rarely does one encounter such a brilliant combination of scholarly erudition and incisive literary analysis. Reading It Wrong is a splendid and deeply original book: one of the most important works in eighteenth-century studies for quite some time." --Joseph Hone, author of The Paper Chase: The Printer, the Spymaster, and the Hunt for the Rebel Pamphleteers "An exciting, perceptive and original study of a subject at the heart of our understanding of eighteenth-century British literature--how we read it, learn about it and teach it--questions that have never before been this directly, generously and comprehensively considered." --James Noggle, Wellesley College " Reading It Wrong is engaging, well-informed and interesting, as I'd expect given Abigail Williams's position as one of the most knowledgeable literary historians of early eighteenth-century England. The rigor of her scholarly background is present in the considerable skill and light touch she brings to writing about texts both at the center and the margins of canonical literary culture." --Sophie Gee, Princeton University " Reading It Wrong is deeply immersed not only in the archives and marginalia of the eighteenth century, but also in the critical trends of our own time. Abigail Williams's book, assuming I have read it right, takes our own anxieties about stratified readerships, the push-pull of paternalism and elitism and professional squeamishness around 'relatable' readings, and finds these all alive and kicking at the dawn of the age of print saturation." --Dennis Duncan, author of Index, A History of the.