Introduction

Abstract

This introduction gives a brief history of nineteenth-century British fiction publishing culminating with the publication of Walter Scott’s popular novels in the 1820s that established the three-volume novel as the standard format for new fiction aimed at middle-class audiences through the support of circulating libraries. It then reviews the published research in Victorian book history pertaining to the publication of fiction in multiple volumes especially works on British publishers such as Richard Bentley and circulating libraries such Mudie’s Select Library and W. H. Smith and Sons Subscription Library.