Victorian culture was dominated by an ever expanding world of print. A tremendous increase in the volume of books, newspapers, and periodicals, was matched by the corresponding development of the first mass reading public. It has long been acknowledged that the growth of the popular publishing industry played an instrumental role in the success of most major Victorian novelists. Traditional critical positions have, nevertheless, recently expanded into a much broader field concerned with media history, book studies, modes of textual production and consumption, and concepts of "popular literature." One of most notable current critical trends is a renewed interest in the importance of all aspects of nineteenth-century print culture. Victorian Print Media: A Reader collects primary sources from nineteenth century journals, newspapers, and periodicals into an anthology that can be used for teaching purposes, but is also intended to complement and encourage ongoing research. The extracts are organized into ten thematically arranged sections. Each section addresses a specific conceptual or historical issue, such as the impact of serial publication upon practices of reading and authorship. The sections demonstrate the multiple factors upon which the aesthetics of print media depended, making this anthology of use to all researchers, teachers, and students of the period.

List of Illustrations

xiii

Editors' Note

Introduction

(10)

I: SETTING THE SCENE

Introduction

(3)

James Mill, 'Periodical Literature', Westminster Review (1824)

(8)

Henry Brougham, 'Progress of the People—The Periodical Press', Edinburgh Review (1833)

(3)

Archibald Alison, 'The Influence of the Press', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1834)

(10)

II: THE INFLUENCE OF PRINT

Introduction

(3)

'The March of Knowledge: or Just Come from Seeing "Jack Sheppard" ', Penny Satirist: A Cheap Substitute for a Weekly Newspaper (1839)

(2)

F.[anny] M.[ayne], 'The Literature of the Working Classes', The Englishwoman's Magazine, and Christian Mother's Miscellany (1850)

(4)

William Rathbone Greg, 'Newspaper Press', Edinburgh Review (1855)

(4)

'S.', 'What is the Harm of Novel-Reading?' Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine (1855)

(2)

William Rathbone Greg, 'False Morality of Lady Novelists', National Review (1859)

(5)

Henry Longueville Mansel, 'Sensation Novels', Quarterly Review (1863)

(3)

'Sensation Novels', Medical Critic and Psychological Journal (1863)

(3)

'Reading as a Means of Culture', Sharpe's London Magazine (1867)

(2)

Thomas Cooper, The Life of Thomas Cooper. Written by Himself (1872)

(5)

Edward G. Salmon, 'What Girls Read', Nineteenth Century (1886)

(5)

Netta Syrett, The Victorians (1915)

(8)

III: THE WORD OF LAW/THE LAW OF THE WORD

Introduction

(4)

James Bronterre O'Brien, 'Persecution and Imprisonment of Mr. Hetherington', Poor Man's Guardian (1833)

(4)

'Law of Newspapers', The Newspaper Press Directory (1851)

(3)

'The Copyright Question', The Times (1851)

(4)

Collet Dobson Collet, History of the Taxes on Knowledge: Their Origin and Repeal (1899)

(5)

'The Queen v. Benjamin Hicklin', 29 April 1868, Law Reports: Queen's Bench, III, 1867-68 (1868)

101

(4)

'Prosecution for Publishing an Alleged Obscene Book', The Weekly Times: A London Newspaper of History, Politics, Literature, Science and Art (1877)

105

(5)

Matthew Arnold, 'Copyright', Fortnightly Review (1880)

110

(11)

IV: PUBLISHING, PRINTING, COMMUNICATION

Introduction

121

(3)

'Friends, Brethren, and Fellow-Countrymen', Poor Man's Guardian (1833)

124

(2)

Charles Knight, 'The Commercial History of a Penny Magazine', Penny Magazine (1833)

126

(10)

John Chapman, A Report of the Proceedings of a Meeting (Consisting Chiefly of Authors), held 4 May, at the House of Mr. John Chapman, 142, Strand, for the Purpose of Hastening the Removal of the Trade Restrictions on the Commerce of Literature (1852)

136

(5)

Andrew Wynter, 'Our Modern Mercury', Once a Week (1861)

141

(5)

Andrew Wynter, 'Who is Mr Reuter?', Once a Week (1861)

146

(4)

William Heinemann, 'The Hardships of Publishing', Athenaeum (1892)

150

(6)

Walter Besant, 'The Rise and Fall of the "Three-Decker" ', The Dial (1894)

156

(9)

V: INVESTIGATING THE POPULAR, 1840's-1860's

Introduction

165

(5)

The Editor J. Malcolm Rymer, 'Popular Writing', Queen's Magazine: A Monthly Miscellany of Literature and Art (1842)

170

(6)

J.F. Smith, The Will and the Way, from The London Journal and Weekly Record of Literature, Science and Art (1853)

176

(20)

Margaret Oliphant, 'The Byways of Literature: Reading for the Million', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1858)

196

(11)

Wilkie Collins, 'The Unknown Public', Household Words (1858)

207

(10)

Bennett G. Johns, 'The Poetry of Seven Dials', Quarterly Review (1867)

217

(20)

VI: READING SPACES

Introduction

237

(3)

William Newmarch, 'Mechanics Institutions', Westminster Review (1844)

240

(6)

Angus B. Reach, 'The Coffee Houses of London', New Parley Library (1844)

246

(4)

Mrs Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Young Ladies' Reader; or, Extracts from Modern Authors, adapted for Educational or Family Use (1845)

250

(4)

Report from the Select Committee on Public Libraries (1849)

254

(14)

John Naule Allen, 'Railway Reading. With a Few Hints to Travellers', Ainsworth's Magazine (1853)

268

(3)

Henry Mayhew, 'The Literature of Costermongers', in London Labour and the London Poor (1861)

271

(4)

Andrew Wynter, 'Muclie's Circulating Library', in Subtle Brains and Lissom Fingers (1863)

275

(6)

'A Day at the London Free Libraries', All the Year Round (1892)

281

(10)

VII: AUTHORS, JOURNALISTS, REVIEWERS

Introduction

291

(4)

'Penny-A-Liners', Chambers's Edinburgh Journal (1845)

295

(4)

George Henry Lewes, 'The Condition of Authors in England, Germany, and France', Fraser's Magazine (1847)

299

(7)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Doctor's Wife, from Temple Bar (1864)

306

(7)

John Morley, 'Anonymous Journalism', Fortnightly Review (1867)

313

(4)

Alexander Innes Shand, 'Novelists', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1879)

317

(6)

W.T. Stead, 'The Future of Journalism', Contemporary Review (1886)

323

(7)

Charlotte O'Conor Eccles, 'The Experiences of a Woman Journalist', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1893)

330

(9)

VIII: NEWSPAPERS

Introduction

339

(3)

Gibbons Merle, 'Newspaper Press', Westminster Review (1829)

342

(4)

'Useful Sunday Literature for the Masses', Punch (1849)

346

(2)

'The Penny Daily Paper', Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and the Arts (1855)

348

(2)

John Chapman, 'The London Daily Press', Westminster Review (1855)

350

(3)

A Journeyman Engineer Thomas Wright, Some Habits and Customs of the Working Classes (1867)

353

(4)

'A Conservative Journalist', 'Why is the Provincial Press Radical?', National Review (1886)

357

(4)

T.P. O'Connor, 'The New Journalism', New Review (1889)

361

(5)

Evelyn March-Phillips, Women's Newspapers', Fortnightly Review (1894)

366

(9)

IX: GRAPHIC MEDIA

Introduction

375

(4)

'Our Address,' Illustrated London News (1842)

379

(7)

Catherine Gore, 'The New Art of Printing', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1844)

386

(5)

'Illustrated Periodical Literature', Bookseller (1861)

391

(8)

John Ruskin, 'Notes on the Present State of Engraving in England', in Ariadne Florentina (1876)

399

(5)

Clement Shorter, 'Illustrated Journalism: Its Past and Its Future', Contemporary Review (1899)

404

(13)

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Victorian Print Media A Reader

9780199270378

0199270376

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