Audience+of+The+Rose

//**The Rose: or Affection's Gift for 1847 **// **﻿AUDIENCE: ** As a genre, gift books were enjoyed by a broad audience. Although they were extremely popular as Christmas presents for children, they were also exchanged between friends and lovers, although they were likely most often given as a gift from mother to child. As evidenced by the fact that literary annuals were part of what is known as a "gift economy" presenting a loved one with a gift book acted to highlight and reinforce the relationship or bond between the giver and the receiver, resulting in gift books becoming the cherished possessions of many. As a children's book, literary annuals were usually chosen by adults based on the assumption that the books contained the kind of fiction best suited for impressionable young minds. This included poetry and short stories that acted to remind 19th century children of the importance of strong morals and religious values. The fact that the books often included works by well-known American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow acted to increase the regard held for them by parents eager to provide their children with a sense of history, culture and morality. As reading material for a more mature audience, gift books acted as a form of leisure activity, or light reading, and also as a means by which a person could reaquaint themselves with the morals and values that gift books so clearly elucidated. Certainly, for Ms.Turner, a young woman who received //The Floral Forget Me Not// as a gift in 1854, the book became a place where she could both question and reassure herself of the importance of her religious faith. For example, in one of her many margin notes, Ms. Turner responds to a poem with the words, **"Mary Hall was like the 'Flower of Fenestrella' She was my dear friend and when death came I knew it was right for she was going home."** and later with a poem of her own creation, **"I loved the flowers- and even when Mary died** **I placed them in her tiny hand and** **they are now crumbling to dust ["with"?] her"** Clearly, as shown by the varying uses to which gift books were put, from educating young minds, to providing a literary escape, to assuring of the importance of having faith in God, the meanings of gift books varied among the members of its audience.