Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-318) and index.
Contents:
Introduction. Material Matters: The Illustrated Victorian Serial -- Imagining the Self: Illustration and the Technology of Selfhood in David Copperfield and Cousin Phillis -- Picturing the Past: Illustration and the Making of History in The Tower of London, Vanity Fair, and A Tale of Two Cities -- Hallowing the Everyday: Illustration and Realism in Wives and Daughters, Mistress and Maid, and The Small House at Allington -- Arousing the Nerves: Illustration and Sensation in The Notting Hill Mystery, Griffith Gaunt, and The Law and the Lady -- From Peter Ibbetson to Pickwick and Back: The Lives and Afterlives of Illustrated Victorian Serials.
Summary:
"In the early 1800s, books were largely unillustrated. By the 1830s and 1840s, however, innovations in wood- and steel-engraving techniques changed how Victorian readers consumed and conceptualized fiction. A new type of novel was born, often published in serial form, one that melded text and image as partners in meaning-making. These illustrated serial novels offered Victorians a reading experience that was both verbal and visual, based on complex effects of flash-forward and flashback as the placement of illustrations revealed or recalled significant story elements. Victorians' experience of what are now canonical novels thus differed markedly from that of modern readers, who are accustomed to reading single volumes with minimal illustration. Even if modern editions do reproduce illustrations, these do not appear as originally laid out. Modern readers therefore lose a crucial aspect of how Victorians understood plot--as a story delivered in both words and images, over time, and with illustrations playing a key role. In The Plot Thickens, Mary Elizabeth Leighton and Lisa Surridge uncover this overlooked narrative role of illustrations within Victorian serial fiction. They reveal the intricacy and richness of the form and push us to reconsider our notions of illustration, visual culture, narration, and reading practices in nineteenth-century Britain"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.