Bangor University DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY
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Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The innovation of nineteenth-century annuals : a new social influence Schmitz, Lyane Award date: 2012 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 The Innovation of Nineteenth-Century Annuals: A New Social Influence Lyane Schmitz DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PhD English Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BANGOR UNIVERSITY SEPTEMBER 2012 Acknowledgment This research project would not have been possible without the support of many people. I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Stephen Colclough, who was abundantly helpful and offered invaluable assistance, support and guidance and who first introduced me to literary annuals. Deepest gratitude is also due to the members of the supervisory committee without their knowledge and assistance this study would not have been successful. I would also like to convey thanks to the English Department for providing the Bradbrook Scholarship in 2007-2008 and their help throughout this project. Finally, I wish to express my love and gratitude to my beloved family; for their understanding, their support & endless love, through the duration of my studies. iii ABSTRACT The overall image of giftbooks remains very negative for much of their critical history, and their contents are frequently depicted as unworthy of further attention. As a result, little is known about the social influences literary annuals triggered. By analysing the mediations between annuals and the context in which these books evolved, this thesis firstly tries to demonstrate their high popularity. As a social phenomenon of the nineteenth century, literary annuals cannot longer be ignored. To validate this proposition, advertisements published in periodicals of the years 1827, 1828, 1829, 1832, 1835 and 1838 have been analysed and some critical reviews written by several contemporary critics, especially William M. Thackeray and Christian Isobel Johnstone have been explored. Even though annuals were very popular with the reading public in the early nineteenth century, their negative reputation persists. Therefore, by examining the Keepsake from 1829 until 1839, in terms of numbers of male and female contributors, this project seeks to show that although male writers felt threatened by female authors their fears were groundless. However, the bad perception of annuals affected works by canonical authors such as Mary Shelley, whose tales have often been excluded from the recognised canon. This thesis is therefore focusing on the short stories Mary Shelley has provided for the Keepsake, in order to show that the techniques (frame narratives, first person narratives and the introduction of Gothic elements), she used, permitted her to write stories dressed up for the Keepsake audience by including moral behaviour. That annuals were sources of morality and public education cannot only be seen in these writings but also in the engravings and themes depicted. In addition, this project will contribute to future research on literary annuals as it reveals both the importance of tales over poetry, and the importance of Gothic and Oriental writing in the culture of the 1820s and 30s. iv CONTENTS PAGE List of Illustrations/Engravings vii List of Graphs and Tables viii Introduction 1 Nineteenth Century Annuals 1 Prior Research Conducted on Literary Annuals 12 Chapter 1 21 The Popularity of Annuals 21 The appearance of literary annuals in novel writings 22 Early print advertisements and the promotion of the Keepsake 29 Reception of nineteenth-century contemporaries 51 Thackeray and Johnstone 61 Thackeray and the annuals 64 Johnstone and the annuals 70 The Keepsake in Numbers 78 Chapter 2: The Short Story in the Keepsake 95 The Short Story 95 Mary Shelley in the Keepsake 105 The fame narrative 109 First person narrator 113 Shelley’s life and personal influences in her Keepsake stories 116 Gothic Stories 121 Keepsake stories 136 Moral Stories 149 Chapter 3: Engravings in the Keepsake 164 Writing as Illustrations 180 Techniques Used to Illustrate Engravings 184 Reception of the Engravings and Variety of Themes 203 Depiction of the role of women 207 Historical Themes Depicted 220 Chapter 4: A New Interest in Foreign Cultures: Orientalism 230 Travel Annuals and the Orient 241 The Oriental Stories in the Keepsake 242 v The Bengal Annual 271 The Oriental Annual – Or Scenes in India 293 Depiction of Human Sacrifice and Suttee death 309 Conclusion 325 Bibliography 331 vi List of Illustrations/Engravings Figure 1 Steel engraving on separate page (Keepsake 1829) 168 Figure 2 Wood engraving incorporated in the text (Keepsake 1828) 169 Figure 3 Different stages to create an engraving (Heath 86) 172 Figure 4 Engraver and painter (Keepsake 1828) 174 Figure 5 Detail of the Vignette Title Page (Keepsake 1830) 175 Figure 6 Presentation Plate (Keepsake 1835) 177 Figure 7 Title Page (Keepsake 1828) 179 Figure 8 “Pepita” (Keepsake 1833) 186 Figure 9 “Lake of Albano” (Keepsake 1829) 188 Figure 10 "Helen Lagarde" (Keepsake 1837) 190 Figure 11 “Camilla” (Keepsake 1836) 193 Figure 12 “The Portrait” (Keepsake 1830) 194 Figure 13 “Interior of Zwinger Palace, Dresden” (Keepsake 1832) 198 Figure 14 “Princess Doria and the Pilgrims” (Keepsake 1830) 199 Figure 15 "Lucy" (Keepsake 1829) 201 Figure 16 “The Merchant and his Daughter” (Keepsake 1834) 208 Figure 17 “Caroline Dammerel” (Keepsake 1832) 212 Figure 18 “The unlocked-for return” (Keepsake 1833) 214 Figure 19 “The Mother” (Keepsake 1837) 214 Figure 20 “The Grecian Wife” (Keepsake 1837) 215 Figure 21 “Francis I and his Sister” (Keepsake 1830). 226 Figure 22 Reproduction of Anacreon’s Bengali poem (Bengal Annual 1830) 284 vii List of Graphs and Tables Figure 1 Male & female contributors 79 Figure 2 Number of contributions written by men/women 80 Figure 3 Prose & poetry contributions 82 Figure 4 Poetry contributions 83 Figure 5 Prose contributions 85 Figure 6 Prose & poetry contributions written by male/female authors 85 Figure 7 Engravings & prose versus engravings & poetry 88 Figure 8 Contributions including engravings 89 Figure 9 Contributions by male & female writers incorporating engravings 90 Figure 10 Authors incorporating engravings 92 Table 1 Keepsake print-runs and sales from 1832 until 1844 37 viii The Innovation of Nineteenth-Century Annuals: A New Social Influence Introduction: Nineteenth-Century Annuals In the early nineteenth century, Rudolph Ackermann introduced the first literary annual, the Forget-Me-Not for 1823 to the British market. Inspired by what he called ‘the elegant publications of the Continent,’1 Ackermann combined features of the German Taschenbuch and the French Almanac. The result was a book that included poetry, prose and engravings in one volume. Such annuals were attractive little objects that could be displayed and cherished on the drawing-room table. The idea was a success, and the first Forget-Me- Not ‘sold in its thousands; even in tens of thousands.’2 Hence, it is not surprising that Ackermann found many imitators. For example, The Literary Souvenir for 1825 sold 6000 copies in the two weeks after its first appearance, a fact which earned the editor, Alaric A. Watts, the title of ‘Father of the Annuals’.3 Many other publishers followed, and a large number of annuals were published each year for the Christmas and New Year seasons. ‘[T]he number of these [annuals] now begin to be sickening, and the market is decidely over- stocked’ wrote a critic in 1829,4 unsuspecting of the large number of annuals still to come. Leigh Hunt wrote in the Keepsake for 1828: ‘If publications of this nature proceed as they 1 Paula R. Feldman, ed., ‘Introduction,’ The Keepsake for 1829 (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2006), p. 13. 2 Victoria Sackville-West, ‘Introduction,’ The Annual, ed. Dorothy Wellesley (London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1930), p. ii. 3 Peter J. Manning, ‘Wordsworth in the Keepsake,’ Literature in the Marketplace, ed. John O. Jordan and Robert l. Patten (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 44. 4 John Bull 30 Nov. 1829, p. 381. 1 have begun, we shall soon arrive at the millennium of souvenirs.’5 Hunt was right about the rapid expansion in the number of titles. By 1832, the reader could pick from sixty-three giftbooks and there were more than two hundred by the end of the decade.6 In 1839, the Art Journal highlighted the production costs of an annual. This article suggested that due to their popularity nearly £100,000 per year was expended on the production of annuals. Furthermore, it stated that for many years 150,000 volumes were in circulation; using this number it is possible to extrapolate that the public spent £90,000 on annuals during this period. The distribution of the money was as follows:7 Authors and editors £6000 Painters £3000 Engravers £12000 Copper-plate printers £4000 Printers £3500 Paper makers £5500 Binders £9000 Silk manufacturers and Leather £4000 sellers For advertising, &c £2000 Incidental matters £1000 £50000 Publishers’ profits £10000 Retail Booksellers’ profit £30000 £90,000 5 Leigh Hunt, ‘Pocket-Books and Keepsakes,’ The Keepsake for 1828, ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds (London: Hurst, 1827), p.