In my opinion, rather than everything else, we should consider the social changes that have occurred in particular during the last two century. At the beginning of the XIX century, the majority of people, at least in Europe, lived in poor conditions. They had to work all day long and at the end of the day they could not have any leisure time. Moreover, we have to consider that literacy rate was not high, and that only few people were able to read and to write correctly. The ones who could read and write, the nobles, were not simply able to do these things, but they were the producers and the consumers of the whole literary heritage. They could spend their time studying, reading and writing because they did not have to work. In those times there was a great gap between social classes. In the second half of the XIX century, in consequence of the rising of the bourgeoisie, a new class impose herself with her own needs. Aristocracy slowly disappeared: literature and culture did not belong to the nobles anymore. Bourgeoisie could spend leisure doing what aristocracy did before, that is reading and writing. Meanwhile, culture became day after day something pleasant and something to sell and to buy. After Word War II, due to the spread of literacy and in consequence of the improvement of living condition, a large part of people began to enjoy literature, in particular novels. Because of last developments of technologies and because of globalization, people have preferred the entertainment of today.