Chapter 5

Victorian fiction: shapes shaping reading

This chapter confronts the potentially large obstacles in turning print literature into electronic forms. Much of the recent literary theory and criticism centers on making us realize that the present skews our perspectives on the past. While original books offer meanings through their age and their texts, modern paperbacks do not. For example, a reader who reads Victorian fiction in modern paperbacks likely misses cultural and domestic documents of the time that provide context. Such readers probably omit modern works of criticism about the fiction they read and create unfounded interpretations without context.

Historically ignorant readers certainly exist, but the ideally equipped reader probably does not. But while Nigel Cross reported in 1985 that there was scant interest in Victorian writers, statistics of literary thesis titles show a dramatic surge over the last 20 years. Such interest in Victorian fiction is warranted. The period is referred to as the Age of the Novel because an estimated 40,000-50,000 novels were written by around 3,500 authors between 1830 and 1900.

There is no comprehensive bibliography or official repository of Victorian novels available for aspiring academics. The Wolff Collection at the Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, UCLA, the University of Illinois, the University of Toronto, Oxford, the British Library, and the University of Sydney Library have the most famous collections. But what forms of Victiorian fiction would be available?

Likely, first, second, and subsequent editions of the most popular authors of the time, as well as first editions and a few later editions of some lesser-known Victorian authors would be found. The highest number they'd likely find in such repositories would be 10,000-15,000. Novels published in literary magazines or newspapers are probably lost. Also, thousands of novels were never produced because of the price. Finally, damaged books are not typically not collected, and are rarely found in repositories.

The vast amount of original editions limits comprehensible historical knowledge. Thus, there are more studies of publishing practices, and authorial issues of the time. Marxist approaches argue that such studies are more interesting, but N.N. Feltes' scholarship on the subject is disappointing. Such disappointment results from the wide array of study topics and the gaps in history. The notion of creaing a satisfactory history of Victorian fiction is likely impractical.

For example, in 1842, Baron Bernhard Tauchnitz of Leipzig, Germany started publishing “The Collection of British Authors.” His series grew along with the British Empire and spread worldwide. Thinking he was serving British authors and global readers, Tauchnitz actually used imperialism to spread his series. Historians Ann Bowden and William Todd found that the series was to be found in libraries across America, Australia, and South Africa, but overuse and lack of repair is leading to its disappearance.

Comparisons show that Tauchnitz volumes may contain authorial readings that don't exist elsewhere. Collating the volumes is difficult because of the numbers and because Tauchnitz only dated books one time--later editions carried the same date. Whether an exploiter or patron of art, Tauchnitz's series illustrates the importance of the history of the book.

Though evidence can mislead, we know that authors gave their work to publishers, who often influenced the text. Buyers then bought the books, thus beginning a cycle of spreading the work. It distresses me, though, to see historians conveying misinformation about the history of the book. All such work is subject to limitations of evidence, but our readings of books are influenced by our knowledge of the particular edition. For historians, the question lies in the difference between first editions and reprints. What is historic and what makes it so? Most importantly, though, script act theory states that the information around a book influences, or even governs the interpretation of the text. Thus, the history of a book is important, as is aiming to find the most detailed facts possible when constructing an electronic knowledge site about it.