What are some references to book clubs in the literature of the 19th century or earlier?

In the last few years, a number of films and novels have had their characters participate in book clubs. But book clubs in literature go back at least as far as the nineteenth century. In George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, there is a paragraph in Book 4, Chapter 2 that begins like this



"Did Lucy intend to be present at the meeting of the Book Club next week? was the next question. "



Does anyone know of other references to book clubs in literature earlier than say 1900.What are some references to book clubs in the literature of the 19th century or earlier?
I think most often you'll find references to salons. These to my knowledge never focused on one single book but always discussed numerous intellectual questions.



I'd say you'd want to look at the group of men around Frederick the Great at Sans Souci. Then there's the group of writers and artists with Samuel Johnson at their center. Hopefully The Life of Samuel Johnson by Boswell is online and you can search the massive text for info. You may also want to check into the Bluestockings and the men who attended their meetings (among them Samuel Johnson and Samuel Richardson, whose novel Clarissa is, I think, still the longest novel in the English language, so searching it for references will also be fairly time-consuming): http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/march99/bl鈥?/a>



I think that Henry James's novel The Bostonians includes women's book clubs. Probably Edith Wharton would have something, too.



I wish I could be more definite. I hope I've at least helped.