> Books were expensive until mass production in the 1800's and even then only a few people could read due to illiteracy amongst the proletariat.

Reading the history of the Macmillans I was surprised how little was available in print. The early books subscribed to religious ideals, it was only in living memory that anything remotely challenging was published and available freely. The Lady Chatterly trial was only in the sixties and the question was "Would you let you maidservant or wife read this book?"
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/apm/publishing/culture/1997/richards.html

It is only now that we have real-time access to the unedited rambligs of people from other countries!