From Penny Dreadfuls to Paperlike
Serial Fiction in the 19th Century vs. Today
Serial fiction is trending. With platforms like Wattpad and Substack, it’s hailed as the future of publishing.
In fact, this is not completely unprecedented as the nineteenth century saw not only the rise of the novel but also the first boom of serial fiction. Looking at the state of publishing and literature 200 years ago helps us understand what is happening now and might even provide direction for the future1.
In my research and thinking, I noticed four similarities between the nineteenth century novel and contemporary serial fiction.
1. The availability and literacy boom
Due to advances in printing, books could be produced cheaper and a higher volume than ever before.
Literary and intellectual currents were flowing strongly and the number of new books rose by leaps and bounds. Rough figures for Britain indicate 100 new titles per year up to about 1750, rising to 600 by 1825, and to 6,000 before the end of the century. Equally characteristic was the appearance of popular series at low prices, “literature for the millions,” as Archibald Constable was the first to call it. The forerunner was the publisher John Bell’s The Poets of Great Britain (rivaling Dr. Johnson’s), which appeared in 1777–83, in 109 volumes at six shillings each, when even a slim volume usually cost a guinea or more.2
At the same time, the literacy rate was higher than ever before. With at least one person in every household able to read aloud to the others, the novel in particular was growing more and more popular.
Due to the rise of computers and the internet, we have a staggering amount of fiction available to us nowadays. Of course, reading has taken a backseat compared to TV and videogames but it’s far from being eclipsed entirely. There’s a new generation of authors making a living from the new landscape of ebooks and webnovels. In fact, if we take reading to include not just books but also essays, blogs, emails, even social media posts, it could be argued that the world is reading more than ever before.
2. Dickens pioneered serialisation
In the nineteenth century, many authors first serialised their stories in newspapers and magazines before lightly editing and compiling them into novels. This custom existed in many European countries, including Great Britain, France, and Russia, as famous authors such as Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, and Fyodor Dostoevsky used the serial format.
Dickens in particular seems to have acted as a pioneer in order to make his works cheaper and available to a wider readership.
Novels issued in several monthly parts were framed by advertisements for a variety of items pitched towards the middle-class reader. They were surrounded by news reports, critical articles, and the latest reviews. This meant that for Victorian readers, the novel was not a self-contained entity but rather a text surrounded by a material framework of various fonts and images, which created a different reading process when reading the novel as we would encounter when reading a work of fiction today.3
Doesn’t that remind you of blogs and newsletters bracketed by ads and sponsorships? Who would have thought that writers were looking for strategies to monetize their writing as far back as the Victorian era!
The crucial point, however, is that serial fiction was enjoying its first boom in the nineteenth century. With webnovel platforms such as Wattpad, Royal Road, WuxiaWorld and yes, even Substack4 on the rise, serial authors of the second wave might be able to learn from the greats like Dickens and Dumas.
3. Multiple releases and Alexandre Dumas’ ghostwriting business
Once nineteenth century authors completed their serial publication, they would often re-release it in book format.
Once a serial had been completed, it was often reprinted in a cheaper (usually 6 shilling) one-volume edition, and then again as a yellowback available in the Railway Libraries. The second-half of the nineteenth century saw the 6 shilling novel emerge as the preferred form for publishing new fiction.5
This is similar to online writers compiling their newsletters, essays, or stories into ebooks to self-publish on popular platforms such as Kindle or Vella. The reasons were likely the same then as they are now: appealing to a wider audience (newspaper readers vs. book readers vs. webnovel readers), releasing a full version for those who missed instalments, giving readers something to add to their personal library, and last but not least, making a bit of money in the process.
Not that Victorian writers couldn’t live on their newspaper serial salaries. Dumas, at least, seems to have earned enough to employ a whole stable of writers to churn out words under his name.
Historians disagree about the extent of his collaborators' contributions, but there is no doubt that Dumas energetically increased his output by relying on other writers to flesh out ideas and sometimes write large portions of his books. This process allowed him to maximize his income and become incredibly prolific as a writer. (The fact that Dumas was frequently paid by the word or line is reflected in the surfeit of dialog in his books.)6
He was effectively running his own ghostwriting agency! However, after spending exorbitantly and even building a chateau that cost 500,000 gold francs, he ran out of money later in life…
4. Realism and social commentary as common themes
While previous arguments focused on reading habits and publishing formats, it could be argued that the nineteenth century novel and contemporary fiction share some common themes as well. With the realism movement, social commentary grew popular in the emerging novel.
Authors such as Dickens, Dostoevsky and Dumas, for example, wrote about class disparities, poverty, and the moral decline of the old aristocracy. They tackled political and economic issues of the time, brought on by urbanisation and industrialisation. Even institutions such as slavery and traditional gender roles were challenged.
Today, we see the same trends even in genre fiction. Instead of pure escapism, fantasy and science fiction stories include social commentary, exploring political and economic alternatives. Of course, with the sheer volume of writing being published and consumed nowadays, social commentary is only one of many categories. This similarity between the nineteenth century and the contemporary serial might be the most tenuous out of the four.
In conclusion
Some remarkable similarities between the nineteenth century novel and contemporary publishing landscape include: the sheer volume of available reading material and high literacy rate, the serialisation boom, the release of serialised novels in book format after completion, as well as the presence of social commentary in fiction. I believe it is worth studying this early serial novel not only for its own sake but also for the parallels it displays to our current situation.
No idea or situation is entirely new. Even if we live in unprecedented times, with publishing and literature facing unique challenges and opportunities, we can always learn from the history of the nineteenth century novel. I hope you found some inspiration!
This is mostly talking about Europe, with Great Britain and France serving as well-documented examples.
Britannica on the History of Modern Publishing
Barrett, Charlotte (2012): Victorian Publishing History
Simon K. Jones has written more on the Substack fiction experience and Elle Griffin on the future of book publishing.
Barrett (2012), again.
ThoughtCo on The Life of Alexandre Dumas