“The Victorian Novel”
A talk by Dr. David Grylls - March 2017
At their general meeting on 21st March, members were entertained with great wit and humour by Dr. David Grylls, an Oxford academic, who explained the modes of production, themes and preoccupations of the Victorian novel.
Such was the prohibitive cost of purchasing a book in those days (£150 at today’s value) that authors were obliged to channel their work through the lending library system, the largest of which was Mudie and, subsequently, W.H. Smith. However, it was only economic for publishers to accept an author’s work if it could be produced in three volumes of around 160,000 words each. Thus, authors adopted various ‘padding’ techniques for ensuring their work met the target, notably by including a measure of psychological analysis (love and hate), a great deal of page-filling dialogue and a number of unrelated side issues and convoluted side plots. Particular attention was paid to the ending of the first two of the three volumes in order to tempt the reader to borrow the sequel.
The alternative to book publication in Victorian times was the serialization of an author’s work in magazines, which employed techniques such as suspense (the ‘cliff-hanger’), humour and pathos to feed the reader’s appetite for the next spell-binding instalment! The most popular themes of serialisation were the individual and society, growing up, courtship and marriage, social criticism and bonds/affiliations. Serialisation of an author’s work could also help the magazine publisher control sales because both the characterisation and plot could be changed easily if public interest in the stories (and hence circulation) flagged.
Following David’s highly entertaining presentation, his response to a couple of questions from the audience illustrated an impressive grasp of his subject. Thank you to Colin for finding such an interesting speaker.
Janet Cato
March 2017
Such was the prohibitive cost of purchasing a book in those days (£150 at today’s value) that authors were obliged to channel their work through the lending library system, the largest of which was Mudie and, subsequently, W.H. Smith. However, it was only economic for publishers to accept an author’s work if it could be produced in three volumes of around 160,000 words each. Thus, authors adopted various ‘padding’ techniques for ensuring their work met the target, notably by including a measure of psychological analysis (love and hate), a great deal of page-filling dialogue and a number of unrelated side issues and convoluted side plots. Particular attention was paid to the ending of the first two of the three volumes in order to tempt the reader to borrow the sequel.
The alternative to book publication in Victorian times was the serialization of an author’s work in magazines, which employed techniques such as suspense (the ‘cliff-hanger’), humour and pathos to feed the reader’s appetite for the next spell-binding instalment! The most popular themes of serialisation were the individual and society, growing up, courtship and marriage, social criticism and bonds/affiliations. Serialisation of an author’s work could also help the magazine publisher control sales because both the characterisation and plot could be changed easily if public interest in the stories (and hence circulation) flagged.
Following David’s highly entertaining presentation, his response to a couple of questions from the audience illustrated an impressive grasp of his subject. Thank you to Colin for finding such an interesting speaker.
Janet Cato
March 2017