The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Three-Volume Novel 2020 Edition Contributor(s): Bassett, Troy J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 3030319288 ISBN-13: 9783030319281 Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan OUR PRICE: $85.49 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2021 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Books & Reading - Literary Criticism | Modern - 19th Century - History | Europe - Great Britain - General |
Dewey: 002 |
Physical Information: 0.62" H x 5.83" W x 8.27" (0.80 lbs) 256 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Utilizing recent developments in book history and digital humanities, this book offers a cultural, economic, and literary history of the Victorian three-volume novel, the prestige format for the British novel during much of the nineteenth century. With the publication of Walter Scott's popular novels in the 1820s, the three-volume novel became the standard format for new fiction aimed at middle-class audiences through the support of circulating libraries. Following a quantitative analysis examining who wrote and published these novels, the book investigates the success of publisher Richard Bentley in producing three-volume novels, the experiences of the W. H. Smith circulating library in distributing them, the difficulties of authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson and George Moore in writing them, and the resistance of new publishers such as Arrowsmith and Unwin to publishing them. Rather than faltering, the three-volume novel stubbornly endured until its abandonment in the 1890s. |