A while ago, I discovered the website 'Reading Like a Victorian', a digital humanities project from The Ohio State University and collaborators.
Since tumblr's been going through a bit of a serial-literature revival, I thought I would share...
Here are some extracts from the website's 'About Us':
RLV is an interactive timeline of the Victorian period. It focuses on serialized novels [...] and adds volume-format publications for context.
When we read Victorian novels today, we do not read them in the form in which they originally came out. Most Victorian novels appeared either as “triple deckers,” three volumes released at one time, or as serials published monthly or weekly in periodicals or in pamphlet form. Serialized novels’ regularly timed, intermittent appearance made for a reading experience resembling what we do when we are awaiting the next weekly episode of Game of Thrones, watching installments of other TV serials in the meantime. Whenever we pick up a Penguin or Oxford paperback of a Victorian novel today, we are engaged in the equivalent of binge-watching a series that has already reached its broadcast ending [and is] a very different experience from what Victorian audiences were doing with novels. Reading Like a Victorian reproduces the “serial moment” experienced by Victorian readers [...]
More info and screenshots and so on below the cut:
[...] if reading serial installments at their original pace is valuable, it is even more valuable to read them alongside parts of novels and of other kinds of texts that Victorian readers could have been following at the same time [...]
[...] a reader who, in 1847, had been following the part issues of both Dickens’s Dombey and Son and Thackeray’s Vanity Fair and then picked up Jane Eyre, published in volume form in October of that year, might notice in Florence Dombey, Becky Sharp, and Jane Eyre a pattern of motherless or orphaned girls trying to negotiate a hostile world on their own. While this figure is well known to be a character type in Victorian fiction perfectly embodied by Jane Eyre and Florence Dombey, Becky Sharp does not often emerge among the heroines who fit that type; reading the novels simultaneously foregrounds parallels between Becky, Florence, and Jane that are not at all obvious if their storylines are experienced separately
I find that, for browsing, the website is easier to use on a computer or tablet than a phone, but it's ok on phone to search for something specific.
The timeline:
Here's what the timeline looks like:
It shows 12 months at a time, and using the left and right arrows will move you back or forward by a month. You can use the 'Jump To Date' function to navigate to a different twelve-month period. Or you can use the 'Author Search' function to navigate to particular works if you know the author's name.
In the above screenshot of the timeline, which shows the period January to December 1852, there are several works shown, including:
ongoing serialised works which had at least one installment published prior to 1852;
works which began serialisation during 1852;
works published in three-volume format during 1852;
other works published during 1852
Details about each work:
You can click on the bar that represents a book's publication to get a drop-down that provides information about that book, its publication, and links to help you read the relevant serial parts.
Here's what happens if you click on Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford:
On the left of the drop-down, there's some general information about the work, its publication history, and how to use the links.
On the right, there's information and links to help you experience the book in its serial parts: it separates out the parts, indicates the month and the year they were published, and what chapters of the work were published in that part. It also provides notes on each part where helpful. There is a scroll-bar at the right of the drop-down, so you can scroll down to the later installments of the work.
[I chose Cranford as an example as it helps demonstrate the value of the Reading Like a Victorian website... From what I understand, Gaskell initially wrote 'Our Society at Cranford' as a standalone piece of short fiction, but was encouraged to write more, so further pieces also set in the fictional town of Cranford were published intermittently in the same magazine over the next year or so. While a particularly dedicated Gaskell fan who wanted to 'read along' with Cranford following the original publication could probably search 1.5-years-worth of a weekly magazine to find the 9 issues which included the material which would later be published as Cranford, the Reading Like a Victorian website has already done that work for them... and also for anyone else who might be interested, but not quite that interested.]
The links
You can then click on an individual chapter to get links to various places to read it online:
When available / where possible, the website tends to include links to:
a facsimile copy of either the relevant serial part in the original publication, or in an 'annual' or similar volume collecting together the content of that publication, or a volume-form edition of that work if the work was not published serially or if facsimile copies of the original serialised publication are not available. [Most of the facsimiles are hosted by either the Internet Archive or the Hathi Trust Digital Library, but some are hosted as part of smaller, more specific collections, such as - in the case of Cranford - Dickens Journals Online which provides online access to the journals/magazines edited by Charles Dickens);
the text, usually on Project Gutenberg (this is usually the volume-form text, so the exact content and chapter breaks and so on may be different than originally published in serial parts; the Reading Like A Victorian website will generally explain when this is the case);
audio recordings, usually volunteer recordings from Librivox (again, the recordings are usually based on the volume-form text, so the exact content and chapter breaks and so on may be slightly different than originally published in the serial parts).
So yeah, I just thought it was a cool website and worth sharing. I believe the website is already used as a resource by some University courses and for academic research, but it can also be used by book clubs and to aid personal reading, etc. I'm using it to inform a personal reading project for 2024-26 where I follow along with six or seven novels serialised in 1864-66.
To save a scroll to the top, here's the link to the RLV website again: Reading Like A Victorian (osu.edu)
[If you want to join an already-planned read-along based on the original serialisation schedule, @dickensdaily will be doing Charles Dickens's historical novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty from mid-February 2024 to late-November 2024, to follow along with the original weekly publication of the novel in Master Humphreys Clock from February 1841 to November 1841. I personally found Barnaby Rudge a really engaging, thought-provoking read, and I'm really looking forward to reading it again. (Anyone with particular triggers or other reasons to be wary of the content or language used in older books may find it helpful to look up content warnings for the book before making a decision to read it.)]
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To celebrate the beginning of @dickensdaily, a substack which sends out Dickens Novels in line with their original serialisation schedule, beginning with Great Expectations (serialised December 1860 to August 1861), here's:
Reasons to read Great Expectations
I've done my best to keep this spoiler-free, so you should be able to read without ruining anything for yourself.
The characters
PIP: a Perfectly Imperfect Protagonist
Himbo With A Hammer
Local Woman Knows How To Hold A Grudge
Out Of Your League
Cinnamon Roll with Fruit (slightly squashed)
...and more...
Queer Themes
Obviously this is very much a matter of interpretation, but Great Expectations has room for readings around:
Homosociality / homoromanticism / homoeroticism
Compulsory (hetro-)sexuality
Non-traditional families and domestic arrangements
Other Themes
Social class (especially: "What makes a gentleman?")
Trauma
Child and domestic abuse (physical and emotional)
The law (criminality, punishment, money, property, etc)
...and more...
Genres
Great Expectations fits into several genres. [Descriptions below drawn from wikipedia.]
'Coming of Age' story / Bildungsroman (a genre that focuses on the psychological and/or moral growth of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood)
Sensation novel (a genre which reached peak popularity in the 1860-70s, and which 'has been variously defined as a "novel-with-a-secret" and which combines "romance and realism"')
elements of the social novel (a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel".)
elements of the Gothic (a 'loose literary genre of fear and haunting', often including 'the intrusion of the past upon the present')
One of Dickens' best novels
Great Expectations was Dickens' second-to-last completed novel, so he was at the top of his game at this point.
According to wikipedia, "in the 21st century, the novel retains good ratings among literary critics."
It's also popular with the general public. In 2003, the BBC surveyed 750,000 people in 'The Big Read' to find the UK's "best-loved novel", and Great Expectations ranked 17th.
The first Dickens novel I read, it remains my favourite Dickens, both as a story and as a work of art.
One of his most accessible novels
If you haven't read any Dickens before (or have, but struggled), Great Expectations may be the place to start.
It's one of his shorter novels, so less intimidating and easier to finish than many other Dickens books.
It's also in first person which mitigates some of the things people often struggle with in Dickens' writing:
With some Dickens novels, it can be difficult to tell what the 'main story' is because there are so many intersecting plotlines. In Great Expectations, we're essentially reading Pip's memoirs from his childhood to his young-adulthood, so we can understand all the other stories through Pip's story.
Likewise, we meet all the other characters through Pip, so the feeling of "who are all these people???" I often get from Dickens novels is reduced. We know characters through their relationship to Pip.
Dicken's minor characters are often caricatures, with features of their personality, appearance or manner exaggerated to create a comic or grotesque effect. Dickens likely did this to help readers more easily recall characters over the stretched-out timeframe of serial publication, but it can be jarring to modern readers. Because Great Expectations is from Pip's point of view, his subjectivity frames the caricatures; it feels natural that they lack complexity because Pip doesn't know the inner world of everyone he passes on the street any more than you or I do.
Dickens can often go on tangents/'rants' about society and social injustice at the time he was writing. This was a force for social change at the time, but can be baffling and/or boring to modern readers. Because Great Expectations is in the first person, when these 'rants' appear they feel more like 'my friend Pip grumbles about things that affect his life and the people around him' so are easier to engage with.
Bonus: a Choice of Endings...
Dickens originally wrote one ending for the novel, and then - following conversation with another novelist - changed it ahead of publication. This means that there are two endings of the novel to choose from, which is an interest interactive element.
Alice touched a hand to her hair, twisting a curl around her finger. It sprang upwards in a little spiral when she let it go. She’d found a styling tutorial online and so far it seemed to be working. On the counter in front of her lay an entire pharmacy worth of curly hair products that she had tried in the past few months as she prodded and poked her way through learning how to style her curly hair.
“Now, repeat that for the rest of your hair,” the video said. Alice looked at the size of that one tiny ringlet and then the cloud of the rest of her hair. She sighed and sectioned off another piece of hair to style. She paused the video and got to work. As she coated each section in curl cream and gel, she watched the light outside of her bathroom window fade.
“There has got to be a faster way to do this,” Alice grumbled to her reflection as she wrapped the last section around her fingers. She let it slide off with a spring and then scrunched it to her scalp. With one final twist, she let it go. She smelt like an ice cream shop as she tied her bonnet over the coconut coated concoction that used to be her frizzy hair. “This better work.”
With the bonnet tied up at the top of her head, she brushed her teeth and left the bathroom, tumbling into her bed. Her shift tomorrow started at 11 so she wouldn’t have mush time to fix it tomorrow if it didn’t work this time.
Alice woke up and rolled over, reaching for her phone. 8am, ugh. She rolled onto her back, spread eagle across her empty double bed. She could still smell coconut, which she hoped was a good sign for her hair. As she stared at the ceiling, willing herself to get up, she realised that her bonnet had fallen off at some point in the night. Both of her hands flew to her hair and found it somehow both a dry frizzy mess and oil slicked down.
“Ugh, not again.” With a disaffected sigh, Alice reached over and grabbed a claw clip from her nightstand. She forced her mass of crusty hair into the clip and then padded, barefoot, into the kitchen to gather herself with a cup of coffee and a granola bar. “One of these days I’ll find a way to tame this mess.”
As the coffee brewed, Alice munched on her granola bar and thought about the butch from her last shift. Had she been flirting with her? Was Margie right? Or was it that Teddy was just naturally flirty with everyone?
Alice could admit to herself that Teddy had been attractive; short floppy brown hair, that dress shirt with it’s rolled up sleeves and enough confidence to make anyone swoon. Alice was a goner. But, she was also a professional. She knew that a customer on a date was not an appropriate flirtation partner. No matter what Margie said, Alice had not been flirting. She hoped. Her coffee machine beeped its cheery little tune at her, breaking her train of thought before it could spiral any further. She sighed, grabbed the mug from under it and burned herself on the first sip. Sticking her tongue out to try and cool it down, Alice leant back against the counter and cupped the mug between her hands.
With her fresh coffee procured and warming both her hands and her heart, Alice got herself ready. The handsome butch almost gone from her mind until she arrived at work.
Margie had a stupidly large grin on her face as Alice walked up to her.
“What’s got you all giddy?” Alice asked, tying her apron around her back.
“The homewreckers here!” Margie called through the passthrough instead of answering Alice.
“Alice!” Chris said as he leant through. “You planning on homewrecking anyone else tonight?”“You are both so funny,” Alice said, rolling her eyes. “What section am I on tonight?” After that, both of her coworkers settled down and Alice managed to have a mostly normal shift. No ruined first dates of any kind. Though there was a botched proposal but that had nothing to do with her.
Really enjoyed the first letter from The Lightning Conductor today! This is the first of the book serialisations I've taken part in that I haven't previously read, so I'm excited to see where it'll go...
My main wonder is about whether Reginald Cecil-Lanstown (not a very "plain" name at all, Molly!) will end up being the love interest or if he's just part of the inciting incident... time will tell...
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I have this fairly standard piece of writing advice that I give to people struggling with longer projects. The advice goes thus: make a note of what you want to change earlier in the story and then continue writing as if you’ve made that change. It’s wildly common to get stuck on any kind of creative project and, for me, this technique works when I get stuck on a longer writing…
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Starting today with the Prologue, I'll be making regular posts that contain a chapter of the book, whilst I continue to work on it.
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