Sayings and Doings

On February 1824, Sayings and Doings was published. This popular three-volume collection of “silver-fork” fiction by Theodore Hook would be followed by two further series in 1825 and 1828. Image: Engraving of Theodore Hook, circa 1830, from The Life and Remains of Theodore Edward Hook, Volume 2. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Angela Esterhammer, “1824: Improvisation, Speculation, and Identity-Construction”

Dianne F. Sadoff, “The Silver Fork Novel, 1824-41”

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

On June 1824, publication of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Published anonymously, James Hogg’s Gothic-psychological-metafictional novel sells poorly. Image: "James Hogg - The Ettrick Shepherd" by Charles Rogers. Lithographed from an original Portrait in the possession of his widow by Schenck & McFarlane, Edinburgh. From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Angela Esterhammer, “1824: Improvisation, Speculation, and Identity-Construction”

The String of Pearls: A Romance

From 21 November 1846 to 28 March 1847, serial publication of The String of Pearls: A Romance (the anonymously written novel that originated the Sweeney Todd story) in 18 numbers in The People’s Periodical and Family Library, edited by Edward Lloyd.

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Sharon Aronofsky Weltman, “1847: Sweeney Todd and Abolition”

"Realism in Art"

In October 1858, publication of George Henry Lewes’s “Realism in Art: Recent German Fiction” in the Westminster Review 70.138. Image: Engraving of George Henry Lewes (author unknown), Popular Science Monthly, Volume 9 (1876). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Jonathan Farina, “On David Masson’s British Novelists and their Styles (1859) and the Establishment of Novels as an Object of Academic Study”

All the Year Round founded

First issue of All the Year Round appears on 30 April 1859.

All the Year Round was the first magazine with Dickens as proprietor-editor, and home to first important sensation novel, Woman in White.

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Linda K. Hughes, "On New Monthly Magazines, 1859-60"

Macmillan's Magazine founded

Founding of Macmillan’s Magazine in November 1859. Macmillan’s was the first of new generation of shilling magazines emphasizing opinion and signature as well as literature.

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Linda K. Hughes, "On New Monthly Magazines, 1859-60"

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Jonathan Farina, “On David Masson’s British Novelists and their Styles (1859) and the Establishment of Novels as an Object of Academic Study”

All Sorts and Conditions of Men

From January to December 1882, Walter Besant published his novel of the East End, All Sorts and Conditions of Men imagining a People's Palace in the East End of London. A three-volume book edition appeared in October 1882.

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Heidi Kaufman, “1800-1900: Inside and Outside the Nineteenth-Century East End”

People's Palace opening

In May 1887, A People's Palace opened in London, prompted in part by Walter Besant's novel, All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882).

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Heidi Kaufman, “1800-1900: Inside and Outside the Nineteenth-Century East End”

End of the 3-Volume Novel

On 27 June 1894, Mudie’s Select Library and W. H. Smith’s, the largest of the private circulating libraries that provided many Victorians with their reading material, issued simultaneous announcements specifying the new terms on which they would buy novels from publishers, beginning in the next calendar year. This change spelled the effective end of the 3-volume system; whereas 112 three-volume works were published in 1894, only two were published in 1897. Image: "Going to Mudie's," London Society v.16, no. 95, Nov. 1869. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

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Richard Menke, “The End of the Three-Volume Novel System, 27 June 1894″

The Purple Cloud

In September 1901, publication of M. P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud. This “last man” novel uses a volcanic eruption as a key plot point, alludes to Krakatoa, and incorporates some of the media and genres of communication that dominated discussions of Krakatoa. Image: Photograph of Mr. and Mrs. M. P. Shiel. Third generation image adopted from a photo published in "The Candid Friend" in 1901. Since it was published prior to 1923, it would be in the public domain under US law, and a minimum of fair use elsewhere.

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Monique R. Morgan, “The Eruption of Krakatoa (also known as Krakatau) in 1883″

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Gillen D'Arcy Wood, "1816, The Year without a Summer"