1) Butt, John and Kathleen Tillotson. Dickens at Work. London: Metheune & Co. 1957. Print.
Although scholarship was done on the idea of serialized publishing and Dickens prior to this work, Butt and Tillotson’s text is perhaps the most important to this topic. Their aim is two-fold: to examine several novels “in the light of the conditions under which he wrote them” and to suggest “more than one new direction in the criticism of his work.” This work functions as a collection of nine essays by the two scholars, the most important being the first essay, “Dickens as Serial Novelist.” The chapter utilizes primary resources, such as Dickens’s letters and margin notes from original documents to showcase Dickens’s practice and problems of serial novelization. Butt and Tillotson’s work emphasizes the “process rather than the result, upon Dickens’s craft rather than his art.” The book uses the outdated system of notes at the bottom of each page, which actually proves more useful than end notes. The general index includes chapters on specific texts in bold, although this is not clearly stated. While other texts listed in this bibliography may prove more useful to the study of serialization and Dickens, this work should be regarded as the primer for such studies.
2) Coolidge, Archibald Cary Jr. Charles Dickens as Serial Novelist. Ames, IA: Iowa State UP, 1967. Print.
Information provided within the Preface claims that “[t]he backbone of the book is an original study (copyrighted in 1956) of the relationship of serialization to the forms and techniques of Dickens’s novels.” It can be understood then that this text may not be a direct re-printing of Coolidge’s assumedly copyrighted dissertation 37), but a more thorough version of it. Coolidge’s work provides interesting “first” (as he claims) information, the most important being the chapters regarding interchangeable “stock” characters, giving in-depth descriptions of the serial installment patterns, and demonstrating the techniques used by Dickens to arouse “constant curiosity and anxiety about an endangered protagonist.” These three specific details work to prove the idea that Dickens “developed a highly sophisticated structural method in response to serial publication so that his novels might embody more and more of the world he saw.” Coolidge also includes a descriptive bibliography that includes only works with important theories about story and the novel, featuring works emphasizing audience reaction, and works emphasizing the author and the artistic work created by the author. While the bibliography does not include other works focusing on the process of serialization and Dickens, the works listed provide a “history of the theory of fiction” (other useful works about serialization and Dickens can be found in Coolidge’s ‘Acknowledgements’). There is a comprehensive subject index. Aside from a poor chart of serialization releases, Coolidge’s work is thorough and easily accessible. While noted by other critics and reviewers that the book is pompous, Coolidge is recognized as a pioneer in the topic, and this book should still be regarded as such as well.
3) Patten, Robert L. Charles Dickens and his Publishers. Oxford: Clarendon. 1978. Print.
Using correspondences, biographies, and account books, Patten writes a book that operates as a historical, linear, biographical narrative of how and with whom Dickens published his works. Each of Dickens’s major works is at least briefly mentioned. Special note should be given to Chapter 3 (pg. 45), which focuses specifically on the “Development of Serial Fiction.” Appendices include sales & profits of his works, printing history of only monthly works (which also includes how many copies were printed and how many stitched), income from his publishers (including himself), and income from his periodicals. There is a select bibliography, split between writings done by Dickens and writings done by others. It concludes with an index of people, periodicals, and books. Patten provides an enjoyable, simple read, although he occasionally gets bogged down in the numbers behind publishing, which are never adjusted to give relation to modern times. This text is necessary for any study that deals specifically with Dickens’s publishing history, and provides a detailed account of how much the author made, from whom, and how. The book is long (502 pages), but it worth the read.
4) Hayward, Jennifer. Consuming Pleasures: Active Audiences and Serial Fictions from Dickens to Soap Opera. Lexington: The UP of Kentucky. 1997. Print.
Hayward’s book aims to establish common features of mass-marketed serials across historical eras and genres, and to also disprove the idea that forms such as soap operas are unscholarly. She focuses on the active roles of readership in regard to serial novels, and the other mass marketed media she writes of. Hayward maintains that while many Victorian authors adapted the serial form, it was Dickens who most closely attained mass-market status. She chooses to focus on how each installment included marketing for the next. While she notes that responses of Victorian serial readers is difficult to track, she makes use of serial reviews and other reported experiences in order to asses serials and class. The text itself is split into three parts, the most important to this bibliography being the first, which consists of an analysis of Our Mutual Friend. Hayward utilizes true endnotes at the very end of her text. Her bibliography is organized to separate general works, the Nineteenth-century novel, comics, and soap opera. The text concludes with a general index. Hayward’s work proves useful for a scholar who is attempting to cross boundaries between the serialization of Dickens (or any other Victorian author who employed the practice) and other media that utilize episodic narration.
5) Grubb, Gerald Giles. “Dickens’ Pattern of Weekly Serialization.” ELH. 9.2. (1942): 141-156. Web. 7 October 2011.
Unlike 6), Giles’s article provides no periodical chart tracing the publishing history of Dickens’s novels that were serially published weekly. Instead, Giles focuses on the problems that arose in writing and publishing in such a manner. Publishing weekly (instead of monthly or even bi-monthly) resulted in shorter installments, which meant that more story had to be covered in less space. Giles states that he is only concerned only with the historical aspect, and is focusing more on Dickens the editor than Dickens the novelist. This article discusses Dickens’s particular pattern of weekly serialization, points out applications of this pattern in the works of other authors, reviews the difficulties Dickens experienced, and the influences of serialization on his editorial process.
6) Fielding, J. K. “Dickens’ Pattern of Monthly Serialization.” The Dickensian. 54. (1958): 4-11. Print.
Fielding provides little context for what amounts to be essentially a chart showing the release dates of Dickens’s monthly serialized works. While the context he does give is similar to 5), it is nowhere near as exploratory. The novels are organized chronologically by title, with month, installment number, and the chapters contained. This chart proves useful in understanding what parts of what book where published together, for the means of determined how each installment ended.
7) Axton, William F. "'Keystone' Structure in Dickens' Serial Novels." University of Toronto Quarterly: A Canadian Journal of The Humanities. 37. (1967): 31-50. Print.
This article discusses the idea of a “special design” for writing serially. Axton begins his writing with an example of a letter to Ms. Brookfield explaining why he has not chosen to publish one of her stories serially in All the Year Round citing a need for “narrative speed” and economy in her writing. Axton explains this to mean that each installment of a serialized text must operate on its own, but also forward narration of the work as a whole. He then includes plot summarizes of Bleak House, Dombey & Sons, and Pickwick Papers, showing how certain installments of these works achieve this. He focuses specifically on the two crucial events of Bleak House in the work’s tenth installment, these beings Krook’s combustion and Esther’s fever. He also then does similar work with Great Expectations.
8) Schacterle, Lance. “Bleak House as Serial Novel.” Dickens Studies Annual. (1970). 1. 212-224. Print.
Schacterle writes in this article about the Dickens’s art as a methodical pacing mechanism. He provides a close reading of Bleak House. He makes a clear distinction about serial publishing, maintaining that these texts are “novels as serials to be published in parts, not as novels merely printed serially.” He draws the important distinction between chapters and installments. He focuses on the techniques utilized by Dickens to connect parts of the novel and to allow each installment to stand on its own. Schacterle also lists what he deems to be the five most important serial devices within Bleak House: installment conclusions, transitions between installments, dual narratives, thematic juxtapositions (which reveal fragments of a pattern of relationships), and symbolic repetition. He also argues that Dickens never aroused suspense by putting characters in jeopardy “in the shopworn way” that most Victorian authors used.
9) Meckier, Jerome. “Parodic Prolongation in North and South: Elizabeth Gaskell Revaluates Dickens's Suspenseful Delays.” Dickens Quarterly. 23.4. (2006): 217-228. Web. 7 October 2011.
This article discusses the role of Dickens as editor of the serialized publication of North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell. Meckier performs a close reading of Gaskell’s work, compares it unfavorably to Dickens’s, and utilizes primary source letters to determine how and why Gaskell might have made changes to her installments, and which at the behest of Dickens. A reader who is unfamiliar with Gaskell’s work will have a difficult time understanding most of Meckier’s work, as a plot summary is never given, and key elements of the plot are discussed extensively with little to now context.
10) Grubb, Gerald Giles. “On the Serial Publication of Oliver Twist.” Modern Language Notes. 56.4. (1941): 290-294. Print.
Grubb writes in this article about the curious interruptions which took place in the initial publication of Oliver Twist in 1837. What follows is a historical approach towards explaining why these interruptions occurred, and whether or not the novel ended when it was intended to. Grubb explores the bizarre notion of these interruptions, only one of which is ever discussed by editors. A second interruption occurs due to the length of another article, and a third takes place which Grubb can find no reasoning for. Grubb reads between the lines and believes that perhaps Dickens’s deadline got the better of him, and he was unable to finish the installment in time for publishing.
11) Lansdown, Richard. “The Pickwick Papers: Something Nobler Than a Novel?” Critical Review. 31. (1991): 75-91. Print.
This article begins with a brief contextualization of Pickwick Papers, and how Dickens came to write the novel. Lansdown then begins a discussion on character analyses, showing how characters are created in a way that requires them to have been thought out ahead of time, not created on the fly as some critics suggest. He then provides an argument and counter-argument over whether or not Pickwick Papers is actually a novel. He attacks claims made by Kathryn Chittick in Dickens in the 1830’s that Pickwick Papers was arbitrarily bound together and called a novel. Lansdown then compares Pickwick Papers to other serialized novels, such as Bleak House and Oliver Twist, to show how their architecture is similar. He ends by quoting from Forster’s biography of Dickens, showing how he believes Pickwick Papers to be the genesis of Dickens’s other serial work.
12) Chaudhuri, Brahma. “Dickens’s Serial Structure in Bleak House.” The Dickensian. 86. (1990): 66-84. Print.
Chaudhuri’s article is written to remind scholars that while everyone now realizes that Dickens (and other Victorian authors) published their novels as serials originally, not many recognize an effect of this practice – that these installments were also reviewed serially. Chaudhuri includes information about reviews of installments of Bleak House, and how these reviews did little to influence Dickens’s method. He also usefully points out that the reviewers failed to view each installment as part of a larger work, generally attacking the slow-moving installments that were necessary, as Chaudhuri claims, to develop suspense and anticipation. He also discusses how Dickens’s structural pattern played a key role in his serialization method, and how reviewers nearly always failed to see this throughout his works.
13) Rubery, Matthew. “Bleak House in Real Time.” English Language Notes. 46.1. (2008): 112-118. Print.
Rubery provides an intriguing article on how Victorian readers discussed and “digested” the serial works of Dickens. He provides first-hand accounts of the immense popularity of the story Bleak House, and how it was very much a novel that was discussed by different social classes. Rubery also makes the clear distinction of “fictional time” – how time passes quickly in most one volume novels – and “real time.” He uses Bleak House as a prime example of this, utilizing the example of a character leaving for sea, only to return months later looking entirely different. When presented in a one volume format, one in “fictional time,” this change takes place over the course of a few chapters. But when presented in the original serial format, the months between these appearances actually are months between installments. He also makes mention of a recent BBC edition of the novel, and how it is shown in episodes, better capturing the original serial nature of the story.
14) Lund, Michael. “Clocking the Reader in the Long Victorian Novel.” The Victorian Newsletter. 59.2. (1981): 22-25. Print.
Similar to 13), Lund makes the case that literature exists within a certain time. Serial novels provided a convenient model for studying the temporal nature of literature because of the way it was published. Lund uses the example of David Copperfield as the first successful English bildungsroman because as the main character ages and gains more life experience, so too does the reader age alongside him. He also states that reading serially created a long-term commitment to a novel; instead of being able to finish a story in a few days or a weekend, the reader had to spend some twenty or so months creating a connection with the story.
15) Turner, Mark W. “Time, Periodicals, and Literary Studies.” Victorian Periodicals Review. 39.4. (2006):309-316. Web. 27 September 2011.
Turner uses this article to advance the notion of the digital age, and how this approaching epoch offers “the potential to provide a watershed moment which could transform [Victorian] studies by providing far greater access to many more titles, in various searchable, online facsimile forms.” While the article is seemingly going to discuss the role of time and periodicals, Turner instead focuses more on how the changes of the digital age will positively affect literary studies. The only author mentioned within the piece is Gaskell, a marginal author in periodicals of that era. This article may be useful for those scholars attempting to draw comparisons between Dickens’s Victorian serial fiction, and more recent serialized or episodic narration, similar to 4).
16) Casey, Ellen. “'That Specially Trying Mode of Publication': Dickens as Editor of the Weekly Serial.” Victorian Periodicals Review. 14.3. (1981): 93-101. Web. 27 September 2011.
Casey examines Dickens’s work as an editor to clarify his theory of weekly serialization and suggest the usefulness of Victorian periodicals for studying the Victorian novel. Similar to 7), Casey begins her article with discussions of a letter from Dickens to Ms. Brookfield about why her work has been rejected for printing. Casey focuses then on the texts that he recommends her to look over, and attempts to explain why he recommended those specific texts. She tries to quantify how Dickens wanted characters introduced, the scheme of the chapters and which installments that should have the major events of the story. Casey uses primary sources such as Dickens’s letter in her attempts to do this. She concludes with empirical data which shows that novels edited by Dickens for All the Year Round “demonstrate greater differences between installments and interior chapters.” This is in comparison to the editor of that periodical following Dickens’s death, his son Charlie.
17) Lilly, Thomas Howard. “Contexts of Reception and Interpretation of the United States
Serializations of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1851-1852) and “Bleak House” (1852-1853).” Emory Univ., 2003. United States – Georgia: ProQuest Dissertaions & Theses A & I. Web. 29 September 2011.
Lilly’s dissertation examines the ideological pressures that influenced popular periodical literature in the mid-Nineteenth Century United States. He observes how periodicals obtained and distributed serial fiction, and how authors, editors, and reviewers responded to the fiction they wrote and read. He writes that the serialization of Bleak House in Harper’s Monthly Magazine from 1852-1853 helped to manufacture a national literature and reading community, both of which were focused on racial and ethnic otherness.
18) Payne, David. The Reenchantment of Nineteenth-century Fiction: Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, and Serialization. New York: Palgrave. 2005. Print.
Payne’s book offers a new perspective on the social and cultural work of the Victorian serial novel. He uses theories of Marx and Weber to argue that the serialized novel negotiated tensions between spiritual values and an economic system “based on individualism.” He uses the term “reecnchantment” to characterize the irony of writers critiquing modern times devoid of spiritual values by the materiality of the format of serialized publishing, which acted as a “potent sign of the commodification of culture.” Of particular use are the two chapter directly concerned with Dickens: Chapter 1, The Cockney and the Prostitute: Dickens from Sketches by Boz to Oliver Twist, and Chapter 3, Dickens Breaks Out: The Public Readings and Little Dorrit.The latter of these is immensely useful, as it provides a close reading of the text along with Dickens’s development as a novelist, actor, public reader, and political activist. The bibliography is not split up by authors or chapter, instead clumping all works together. There is an index including subjects and authors. Payne unfortunately focuses on what he considers to be the “gold standard” of serial publishing, that of the monthly installment, and discounts other methods, such as weekly. Payne’s work is valuable for its many original insights on the uneven developments of Victorian literary culture.
19) Jordan, John O. and Robert L. Patten, eds. Literature in the Marketplace: Nineteenth-century British Publishing and Reading Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1995. Print.
This book is a collection of fourteen critical essays, four of which deal directly with Dickens and serial publishing. Each essay has its own set of end notes, making it easy to find referenced works. The introduction of the text includes information on Dickens as well as information on serial publishing, and also provides acknowledgements. It also thoroughly surveys the history and development of publishing history. Chapter 6 is “Serialized Retrospection in The Pickwick Papers, by Patten, which argues that the text of this work functioned to remind readers of earlier installments and how the reader is “propelled by the reiterated disruptions of traditional closures.” Chapter 7, “Textual/Sensual Pleasure and Serial Publication,” by Hughes and Lund, explores how there are two rhythms of serial reading: a “goal-oriented” male, and a female identity focusing on periodicity, and anticipation and delay. They explore how because of these rhythms, serialized novels appealed to both sexes. Chapter 9, “How Historians Study Reader Response,” by Jonathon Rose, uses empirical data to show how Dickens provided working class people with the examples, inspiration, and conventions to create narratives of their own lives. Finally, chapter 10, “Dickens in the Visual Market,” by Gerard Curtis, studies the exchange between the visual and the literary within the formats Victorian publishers employed. It also discusses the commodities advertised in serial publications. There is an index containing “real” persons, place, things, and concepts pertaining to the Nineteenth-century. The book as a whole provides interesting ideas to understand the interplay of the effects of the serial format on author, production, and audience.
20) Chavez, Julia. "From Wandering Writing to Wandering Reading: Productive Digression in Victorian Serial Fiction." The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2008. United States -- Wisconsin: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. Web. 10
Nov. 2011.
This dissertation utilizes the methodologies of both book history and novel studies to reveal an “alternative” theory of productive “wandering” in the mid-Victorian serial novel. Chavez begins with an analysis of Pickwick Papers, and uses the work of twentieth century theorists such as Barthes, Foucault, and de Certeau to argue that the Victorian serial is a powerful form because of its “irregularity and lack of unity.” Even though there is a fixed publication schedule that suggests regulation and order, serial fiction serves as a location for developing critical consciousness. Chavez also uses Out Mutual Friend to explore how urban strolling empowers the underprivileged in Dickens’s fictional London.
21) Hughes, Linda K. and Michael Lund. The Victorian Serial. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia. 1991. Print.
Hughes and Lund’s book represents an effort towards a sustained evaluation of the literary and cultural functions of the serial. They focus on the serial’s links to the “fundamental assumptions and values of the dominant middle class.” The term serial, as they utilize it, includes books in parts and periodicals. The authors spend time discussing the nonverbal aspects of serial publication, such as advertisements and illustrations, and the role of those in breaking down the barriers of reality and fiction. The book is split into six main parts, and a conclusion. of particular note are the portions devoted to Dombey and Son in chapter 2 (pg. 29-44), and A Tale of Two Cities in chapter 3 (pg. 61-74). Included is an illustration of the cover of the monthly installments of Dombey and Son. Hughes and Lund utilize end notes, and have a bibliography that is not separated in any way. The book concludes with an index including authors, books, and periodical titles.
22) Hack, Daniel Smith. “The Material Interests of the Victorian Writer.” University of
California, Berkeley, 1998. United States – California: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A & I. Web. 29 September 2011.
Hack uses his dissertation to discuss how writers in Victorian England understood and represented the materiality of literature. Hack argues that instead of denying literature, Victorian authors such as Carlyle, Collins, Dickens and Thackeray wanted to find meaning in their writing, how it was published, the commerce of it, and the physical effects of its rhetoric. Of note is his third chapter, which pertains to Bleak House. He argues that the advertisements that preceded the monthly installments display a similar pattern of analogy within the text, one the reveals the limitations of allegorical conventions and underwrites Dickens’s authority to describe the natural world.
23) Law, Graham. Serializing Fiction in the Victorian Press. New York: Palgrave. 2000. Print.
This book is split into three main sections: Context (with sub-sections including 18th Century, Transition into Book Market, Victorian Serial Market, and International Market), Narrative(which focuses on the publishing house of Tillotsons), and Analysis(further split into Readership, Authorship, and Genre). The book functions as an empirical study of the development of the publishing industry. There is not a specific portion to the book on Dickens, but his name is mentioned throughout. Law writes how Dickens’s death caused a decline in serial sales, his role in establishing copyright laws in foreign countries (specifically the US), and how he lead the experiment of serial publishing. Appendices include extensive serialization charts, but none on any works by Dickens. There is a work cited, usefully split into sections for Contemporary and Modern sources. The book concludes with a general index.
24) Sutherland, J.A. Victorian Novelists & Publishers. Chicago: The U of Chicago P. 1976. Print.
Of note in the book is the eighth chapter, pages 166-187, which focuses on “Dickens as Publisher.” This chapter includes information on how publishers moved from being responsible for many different aspects of book manufacturing to becoming merely a printer. This was mostly because of authors such as Dickens inserting themselves into the process. Outside of this chapter, there are other mentions of Dickens, most generously when Sutherland discusses how serialization began as breaking all the rules previously established in the printing world. He also notes the commerce and capital involved, “monthly serials… were a way of producing novels as sumptuous as the three-decker, but at a more affordable price.”
25) Brown, James M. Dickens: Novelist in the Market-Place. London: MacMillan. 1982. Print.
One would imagine that a book with a title such as this would involve a discussion on Dickens’s role within the marketplace of book publishing. However, the book is actually a study in the ways in which the worlds of business and industry are portrayed in Dickens’s work from Bleak House to Our Mutual Friend.Brown claims that these novels “repeatedly identify the spread of a degrading business of money ethos into all areas of life, a pervasive spread of a dehumanizing philosophy.” He provides close readings of the novels, and utilizes end notes. There is a selective bibliography which is split into four sections: Social/Historical Background, Literature and Society, The English Victorian Novel, and Dickens Criticism. The work concludes with a general index.
26) Harden, Edgar F. The Emergence of Thackeray’s Serial Fiction. Athens: U of Georgia P. 1979. Print.
Although this work does not deal specifically with Dickens, Thackeray was a contemporary of his, and also published serially. Conclusions and comparisons between the two can be made to advance multiple different types of scholarship in the field of serialization, or in either or both of the authors. Dickens is referenced a handful of times within the book. Harden organizes the book in sections concerning Thackeray’s main novels. He does not include a bibliography, and an index including names, places, and books concludes the work.
27) Hamer, Mary. Writing by Numbers: Trollope’s Serial Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1987. Print.
Hamer’s work is similar to 26), in that is too does not deal specifically with Dickens, but with another contemporary, Anthony Trollope. Dickens is mentioned numerous times in the introduction, perhaps the most useful portion of this text on this topic, and specifically along the lines of his serialization techniques. Hamer does include a bibliography, which is organized by Trollope’s work and by books and articles. There is also an index which lists people, periodicals, and subjects.
28) Zboray, Ronald J. and Mary Saracino Zboray. Literary Dollars and Social Sense: A People’s History of the Mass Market Book. New York: Routledge. 2005. Print.
In this book, the Zborays focus on the history of readers and reading, and how this aspects factor into the role of a writer. While their discussion is nearly entirely on the subject of serialized novels in America, Dickens is mentioned throughout. The Zborays seem to be most interested in the ways reception of serial novels shaped “social authorship,” and explores the relations between readers and writers. There are comprehensive (of anything, too comprehensive) end notes and general index, which provides almost too much information.
29) Okker, Patricia. Social Stories: The Magazine Novel in Nineteenth-century America. Charlottesville: UP of Virgina. 2003. Print.
Okker argues in this book that the “magazine novel” documents an American effort to bring the “one” from “the many.” While the detailed readings she includes do not have Dickens, she does base most of her work on the premise that he pioneered the serial publication market, which in turn influenced the idea of a “unified vision of American literary history out of a number of individual works.” She discusses at length the communal discussion that serialized offered its readership. She does include a bibliography (works cited), that is separated between “Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century Periodicals” and “Other Sources,” the latter being far more comprehensive. There is also a general index.
30) Ford, George H. ed. Victorian Fiction: A Second Guide to Research. New York: MLA, 1978. Print.
This reference guide was designed to complement, not replace the first guide, 41). It includes similar information as its predecessor, but for the years 1963 to 1975. This version offers a similar bibliographical essay on Dickens, but this time by Philip Collins. Sections regarding Dickens include two pages specifically on serialization, and include works by Coolidge, Schacterle, and Patten, also noted in this bibliography.
31) Vann, J. Don. Victorian Novels in Serial. New York, NY: MLAA, 1985. Print.
This guide provides an index to publication dates and contents of the serial fiction of several prominent Victorian era writers, including Dickens. Because the majority of the original periodicals and magazines that his works were published in are difficult, if not impossible to find, “this work allows the researcher to know the exact date on which specific parts of the text were available to Victorian readers.” The body of the work is arranged alphabetically by author. The text includes an introduction on the history and the impact of serialized fiction, summaries of the periodicals contained therein, and a selective bibliography. Because other serialization charts are listed in the bibliography, this text may be useful only for the informative introduction.
32) Altick, Richard Daniel. Guide to Doctoral Dissertations in Victorian Literature, 1886-1958. Urbana, IL: U of Illinois P, 1960. Print.
This reference guide includes 2,105 dissertations from universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland. These dissertations are classified by generalities, literary forms, literary criticism, and individual authors. It provides an index for only the dissertation writers. There are some 81 dissertations credited to being on or about Dickens. Unfortunately, the titles of the dissertations are in their original language, not translated, so an understanding of French and German to compliment the English language are necessary to see if there are any useful dissertations.
33) Vann, J. Don and Rosemary T. VanArsdal, eds. Victorian Periodicals: A Guide to Research. New York: MLA, 1978. Print. 188 p.
This volume was created to guide researchers who want to work with Victorian periodicals but do not know the specific resources. It is organized into eight chapters that address chief issues with using Victorian magazine and/or newspapers. Although there are no portions directly on Dickens, his name is mentioned throughout. This would be most useful to a scholar attempting to show a historical perspective on the general Victorian printing market. An index of authors and titles is included. Recent issues are addressed in 46).
34) Brattin, Joel J. “Teaching “Bleak House” in Serial Installments.” Approaches to Teaching World Literature. Ed. John O. Jordan and Gordon Bigelow. New York: MLA. 2008. Print. 185-190.
This is a chapter from a book of lesson plans geared towards teaching students about other cultures and their writing. This particular chapter deals with a pedagogical approach to teaching the “correct” method of reading Bleak House: in parts. Reading the novel as it was originally serialized forces the student to understand what is going on in sections, allowing a certain ease when reading. I was unable to locate a copy of this text, but the work of Jordan in the field of Dickens and serials is noted in this bibliography, and I would think this would be a very useful addition for teaching any text originally published serially.
35) Case, Alison and Harry E. Shaw. Reading the Nineteenth Century Novel. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. 2008. Print.
This book would be of usefulness in teaching practices, as it is a survey of Nineteenth Century novels. The scholarship is minimal, and would be teachable to freshman or sophomore literature students. Of particular note in this book is chapter 7, which focuses on Bleak House. A section of this chapter deals specifically on the serial aspect of the novel, and how it was more important to Dickens’s work than perhaps to any other Victorian author. The section also discusses how Dickens usually wrote as he published.
36) Patten, Robert L. “Publishing in Parts.” Palgrave Advances in Charles Dickens Studies. Ed. John Bowen. London: Palgrave MacMillan. 2006. Print.
This is a chapter of a book written to advance scholarship on Charles Dickens. Although I was unable to find a copy of this book, Patten’s work on Dickens and serialization makes this chapter seem as though it would be very helpful in any discussion on said topic. It could however, also be an abridged version of 3), giving information about how much money Dickens was able to make by publishing in parts.
37) Coolidge, Archibald Cary Jr. “Serialization in the Novels of Charles Dickens.” Brown University, 1956. United States – Rhode Island: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. A & I. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.
I was unable to locate an abstract for this dissertation, but as is stated in 2), it is most likely the predecessor to that book.
38) Schachterle, Lance Edward. “Charles Dickens and the Techniques of the Serial Novel.” University of Pennsylvania, 1970. United States – Pennsylvania: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. A & I. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.
I would gauge that this dissertation reads similar to Schachterle’s article 8), and most likely includes more than one text by Dickens.
39) Allen, Robert. “Perpetually Beginning Until the End of the Fair: The Paratextual Poetics of Serialised Novels.” Neohelicon: Acta Comparationois Litterarum Universarum. 37.1. (2010): 181-189. Web. 7 October 2011.
I was unable to find a copy of this article during my searches. However, EBSCO lists the primary subject author to be Dickens, and it has both Pickwick Papers and Our Mutual Friend as primary subject works. As it was published in a special issue dealing with paratext, it may include insights about adverts, or other supplemental material that came along with an installment.
40) Annual Bibliography of Victorian Studies. 1976- Present . Edmonton, AB: LITIR Database, c1980 – Present. Print.
This is an annually classified bibliography of principally English language journals, books and reviews on Victorian Britain, with a time frame approximately of 1830-1914. There is an emphasis on language and literature. It is arranged alphabetically by author, with subdivisions in broad categories of: general and reference, fine arts, philosophy and religion, history, social sciences, science and technology, language and literature. Work done with this bibliography should be supplemented with the journal, Victorian Studies. Although I was unable to locate a copy, most of the work is edited by Chaudhuri, who has provided excellent scholarship in Dickens and serial publications studies, and I would imagine that devotion continues to this bibliography.
41) Stevenson, Lionel, ed. Victorian Fiction: A Guide to Research. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1964. Print.
This reference guide is designed as a companion to a research guide for Victorian poets and their works. It is comprised of twelve bibliographical essays on Victorian authors, including one on Dickens, by Ada Nisbet. The information offered in this text is on scholarship and criticism in the field up to 1962. The essays offered in this text are supplemented by those in 30). I was unable to locate this first edition, but as 30) provided helpful information, it would be interesting to note where scholarship on the topic was prior to 1962.
42) Bradbury, Nicola. “Dickens and the Form of The Novel.” The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens. Ed. John O. Jordan. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 2001. 152-166. Print.
I was unable to locate a copy of this book, but judging from both the reputations of Cambridge UP and the scholarship of Jordan on the topic, I would gauge this to be a helpful chapter in an already helpful book.
43) Patten, Robert L. “Dickens as Serial Author: A Case of Multiple Identities.” Nineteenth-Century Media and the Construction of Identities. Ed. Laurel Blake, Bill Bell, and David Finkelstein. New York: Palgrave. 2000. Print. 137-153.
The primary noted work in this essay is Oliver Twist. I was unable to get my hands onto a copy of the book, but Patten’s reputation as a scholar in the field of Dickens speaks for itself.
44) Casey, Ellen M. "Novels In Teaspoonfuls: Serial Novels In ‘All The Year Round,’ 1859-1895." Dissertation Abstracts: Section A. Humanities and Social Science 30. (1969): 1521A. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
I was unable to find a copy of this dissertation. Casey’s information in 35) may play a pertinent role in this work. It is probable that Casey has analyzed information regarding editorial practices by both Dickens and his son, Charlie, in his magazine All The Year Round. The serial publishing practices of both editors may be explored from an empirical standpoint, similar to how Casey uses statistics in the differing methods of serialization editorial practices of father and son in 35).
45) Moon, Sangwha. “The Pickwick Papers: An Encounter of Serial Fiction.” Nineteenth Century Literature in English. 5. (2001): 53-66. Web. 7 October 2011.
This article appears to be about the commercial aspects of serial fiction, relating directly to The Pickwick Papers. Although I was unable to find a copy of the article, MLAIB includes capitalism, and Dickens’ early publishers, Chapman and Hall. An understanding of Korean would be necessary to read the article, as that is its language of publication.
46) “Victorian Periodicals [1971/72-]: A Checklist of Scholarship and Criticism.” Victorian Periodicals Review [former title: Victorian Periodicals Newsletter, 1968-1978], vol. 6-. Toronto: Research Society for Victorian Periodicals, 1973-.
This annual bibliography includes books, articles, and important reviews about the study of Victorian periodicals. The bibliography is a sheer list, annotated only to clarify titles. It is arranged alphabetically by author, and serially numbered. Indexes include names, periodical titles, and subjects in each edition. I was unable to find a copy of the bibliography, and am unsure if it would prove fruitful to this topic.
References Utilized
Databases:
JSTOR
Modern Language Association IB
Project Muse
Academic Search Complete
AB/INFORM
EBSCO
Lexis/Nexis Academic
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
Libraries:
Edith Garland Dupre Library, University of Louisiana-Lafayette
Sims Memorial Library, Southeastern Louisiana University
The LSU Libraries, Lousiana State University
The US Library of Congress
National Library of Britain
The French International Library
Inter Library Loan
Louisiana LINC System
Books:
A Reference Guide for English Studies
Bibliographies of Studies in Victorian Literature
Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Vol. III, 1800-1900
Guide to Reference Books, 11th Edition
Journals:
Victorian Studies
Victorian Periodical Review
Dickens Studies Annual
Dickens Quarterly
The Dickensian
Websites:
BibSite
Catalogues:
WorldCat
CardCat
Index
All the Year Round: 1,2,3,7,16,44
Advertisements/Marketing: 4,19,22
Barnaby Rudge: 1,2,3
Bleak House: 1,2,3,7,8,11,12,13,17,22,25,34,35
Christmas Carol: 1,3
David Copperfield: 1,2,3,14
Digital Age: 4,15
Dombey and Son: 1,2,3,7,21
Editor (Dickens as): 3,5,9,16,44
Edwin Drood: 1,2,3,
Great Expectations: 1,3,7,25
Hard Times:1,3,25
Household Words:1,3
Little Dorrit: 1,3,18,25
Martin Chuzzlewit: 1,2,3
Monthly, serialization: 6
Nicholas Nickleby: 1,3
Old Curiosity Shop: 2,3
Oliver Twist:1,2,3,7,11,18,19,20,39,45
Our Mutual Friend: 1,2,3,4,20,25,39
Pickwick Papers: 1,2,3,7,11,18,19,20,39,45
Printing History: 3,36
Publishers: 3,23,24,36,45
Readership: 4,14,19,23,28,29
Release Schedules: 2,6,31
Reviews, serially: 12
Sketches by Boz: 13,18
Social Class: 4,13
Structural Methods: 2,8,16,35
Tale of Two Cities: 1,2,3,4,20,25,39
Teaching: 34,35
Thackeray: 26
Time: 13,14,15
Trollope: 27
United States: 17,28,29
Weekly, serialization: 5