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Dickens’S Bleak House

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Dickens’S Bleak House Introduction THE VANN VICTORIAN COLLECTION The Vann Victorian Collection is a treasure of the University of North Texas Libraries and an exceptional resource for the study of Victorian literature. This exhibit showcases some pieces from the collection, including rare first editions, part-issue editions, and association copies. Dr. J. Don Vann, Professor Emeritus at UNT, curated this exhibit. Don and Dolores Vann began collecting Victorian books in 1962, when they acquired a first edition of Dickens’s Bleak House. They spent the summer of 1965 in London, conducting research in the British Library and buying first editions of works by Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray. During their subsequent trips to London, the Vanns came to know many of the city’s booksellers and were offered first editions they kept hidden from all but their most favorite customers. In 2004 Don and Dolores established the Vann Victorian Endowment to provide a permanent fund to pur- chase Victorian books for the Vann Victorian Collection in Special Collections at the University of North Texas Libraries. Since 2004 the Vanns have made additional contributions to the collection, most recently in 2014. Opposite: Portrait of Charles Dickens by C. Watkins, London Stereoscopic Company, 1861. University of North Texas Special Collections, Image No. UNTA_AR0823-01-02. Acquired with funds from the Vann Victorian Endowment, 2014. THE VANN VICTORIAN COLLECTION | 1 Introduction THE VANN VICTORIAN COLLECTION The Vann Victorian Collection is a treasure of the University of North Texas Libraries and an exceptional resource for the study of Victorian literature. This exhibit showcases some pieces from the collection, including rare first editions, part-issue editions, and association copies. Dr. J. Don Vann, Professor Emeritus at UNT, curated this exhibit. Don and Dolores Vann began collecting Victorian books in 1962, when they acquired a first edition of Dickens’s Bleak House. They spent the summer of 1965 in London, conducting research in the British Library and buying first editions of works by Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray. During their subsequent trips to London, the Vanns came to know many of the city’s booksellers and were offered first editions they kept hidden from all but their most favorite customers. In 2004 Don and Dolores established the Vann Victorian Endowment to provide a permanent fund to pur- chase Victorian books for the Vann Victorian Collection in Special Collections at the University of North Texas Libraries. Since 2004 the Vanns have made additional contributions to the collection, most recently in 2014. Opposite: Portrait of Charles Dickens by C. Watkins, London Stereoscopic Company, 1861. University of North Texas Special Collections, Image No. UNTA_AR0823-01-02. Acquired with funds from the Vann Victorian Endowment, 2014. THE VANN VICTORIAN COLLECTION | 1 Dickens and Victorian Britain Part Issue Publishing The Victorian era in Britain was a period of unprece- THE PART-ISSUE FORMAT dented population growth, urbanization, and industri- Beginning with his first novel, The Posthumous Papers of alization. It was also a period of deep division between the Pickwick Club, Dickens used a “part issue” format, the rich and poor. While the wealthy and growing with each part containing thirty-two pages of text with middle-class populations were entertained by two engraved illustrations bound in green paper. There spectacular exhibitions of art and natural history, were twenty monthly parts appearing on the last day times were much harder for the poor and of the month, the last part a double issue containing working classes. both parts XIX and XX. Each part contained several Rapid industrialization and urbanization pages of advertisements. The last part contained a title resulted in high unemployment and housing page, preface, dedication, and table of contents, so the shortages. Many people were forced into tenement purchaser could take the entire thing to a binder and houses and lived in deplorable conditions. It was in this have it made into a bound volume. atmosphere that a young Charles Dickens grew up, in Until Dickens began publishing, the part issue a slum he described as “as shabby, dingy, damp, and had been used almost exclusively for reprinting pop- mean a neighborhood, as one would desire not to see.” ular works, such as encyclopedias and the Bible. Nine Shortly after his twelfth birthday Dickens was sent of his novels were published in this format, with the by his debt-ridden family to work in a shoe-blacking unfinished work The Mystery of Edwin Drood projected factory alongside other children, some as young as four for twelve parts. His other six novels were published in years old. Dickens’ family could only afford to keep The Life of Charles Dickens magazines. After serialization the novels were offered him in school for a few short years. His father served on sale as bound volumes. time in a debtors’ prison. Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. London, The experiences of Dickens’ childhood left him 1900. Print. Pickwick Abroad with a lifelong concern for the most helpless and At Dickens’s request, his best friend, literary and Posthumous Papers of neglected members of society. legal advisor, and executor of his estate, John Forster the Pickwick Club Reynolds, George W. M. Pickwick Abroad: Or, the Tour in France. London:, 1839. Print. His experiences in early (1812–1876), wrote the first authorized biography. Dickens, Charles, Robert Seymour, and Hablot K. Browne. life provided him with much The novelist left Forster all his papers—manuscripts, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. London, Because of lax enforcement of copyright law, Dickens 1837. Print. inspiration for his corrected proofs and letters—to use as sources. Forster was the victim of plagia- later novels. Dickens began work shortly after Dickens’s death in 1870. In a matter of months, The Pickwick Papers skyrocketed rism from the beginning, especially had sympathy The first volume appeared in 1872 and two further the young Dickens from obscurity to the position of with artists selling “extra” for children, whom volumes in 1873 and 1874. Forster’s Life has remained the best-selling novelist of his time. While the first sets of illustrations (not he compassionately the classic, essential source for all subsequent biog- three monthly parts sold only a few hundred copies, his authorized by Dickens) portrayed again and raphies despite Forster’s reticence about details of final installments sold approximately 40,000 copies, as to the novel. When the again in characters Dickens’s private life. everyone seemed to be reading the novel. Published in serialization was complete, like Tiny Tim Forster gave all of Dickens’s papers to the twenty parts, Pickwick was the publishing sensation of George Reynolds began a Cratchit, David Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where they the century. All sorts of association merchandise could new serial, Pickwick Abroad, Copperfield, and are gathered in the Forster Collection, a treasure trove be found for sale in shops: plates, mugs, teapots, pitch- purported to be a continua- Oliver Twist. for scholars. ers, spoons, many with images of the Pickwick characters. tion of Dickens’s novel. 2 | THE VANN VICTORIAN COLLECTION THE VANN VICTORIAN COLLECTION | 3 Dickens and Victorian Britain Part Issue Publishing The Victorian era in Britain was a period of unprece- THE PART-ISSUE FORMAT dented population growth, urbanization, and industri- Beginning with his first novel, The Posthumous Papers of alization. It was also a period of deep division between the Pickwick Club, Dickens used a “part issue” format, the rich and poor. While the wealthy and growing with each part containing thirty-two pages of text with middle-class populations were entertained by two engraved illustrations bound in green paper. There spectacular exhibitions of art and natural history, were twenty monthly parts appearing on the last day times were much harder for the poor and of the month, the last part a double issue containing working classes. both parts XIX and XX. Each part contained several Rapid industrialization and urbanization pages of advertisements. The last part contained a title resulted in high unemployment and housing page, preface, dedication, and table of contents, so the shortages. Many people were forced into tenement purchaser could take the entire thing to a binder and houses and lived in deplorable conditions. It was in this have it made into a bound volume. atmosphere that a young Charles Dickens grew up, in Until Dickens began publishing, the part issue a slum he described as “as shabby, dingy, damp, and had been used almost exclusively for reprinting pop- mean a neighborhood, as one would desire not to see.” ular works, such as encyclopedias and the Bible. Nine Shortly after his twelfth birthday Dickens was sent of his novels were published in this format, with the by his debt-ridden family to work in a shoe-blacking unfinished work The Mystery of Edwin Drood projected factory alongside other children, some as young as four for twelve parts. His other six novels were published in years old. Dickens’ family could only afford to keep The Life of Charles Dickens magazines. After serialization the novels were offered him in school for a few short years. His father served on sale as bound volumes. time in a debtors’ prison. Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. London, The experiences of Dickens’ childhood left him 1900. Print. Pickwick Abroad with a lifelong concern for the most helpless and At Dickens’s request, his best friend, literary and Posthumous Papers of neglected members of society. legal advisor, and executor of his estate, John Forster the Pickwick Club Reynolds, George W. M. Pickwick Abroad: Or, the Tour in France. London:, 1839. Print. His experiences in early (1812–1876), wrote the first authorized biography.
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