El lector y los relatos pedagógicos en La Ilustración Española y Americana durante el Sexenio

The text examines the role of the reader in 19th-century Spanish press, focusing on La Ilustración Española y Americana during the Democratic Sexenio (1868–1874). It explores the complex relationship between author, text, and reader, emphasizing the challenge of defining the common reader of the time. Sources such as memoirs, correspondence, and book advertisements help reconstruct the history of reading. Digitalization has recovered forgotten pedagogical narratives, like those of Peregrín García Cadena, which simplified ideological conflicts (idealism vs. positivism) for less-educated readers. Literacy and access to printed culture remained limited, with the press serving as a key medium for knowledge dissemination. The text concludes that the 19th-century reader remains difficult to define but an analysis of the pedagogical stories published in the press helps us determine the cultural level of some of the newspaper readers.