The Victorian Serial (Hardcover)

Linda K.Hughes and Michael Lund offer a new approach to the study of installment literature by showing how it embodied a view of life intrinsic to Victorian culture. They examine how the serial format (a continuing story over an extended time with enforced interruptions) affected the ways Victorian audiences interpreted 16 major works of poetry and fiction. Their findings, based on actual accounts of Victorian readers, show that Victorian interpretations were different from those of 20th-century single-volume readings. These differences suggest that for the Victorians the publishing format became an essential factor in creating meaning and that effects of this publishing format have been neglected in the 20th-century.