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Victorian Periodicals in Special Collections: Charles Dickens

Household Words

Household Words: A Weekly Journal. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1850-1859. AP4 .H9 

Edited by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

We have the full print run bound into 19 volumes post-publication, each with index. We also have the following numbers as issued weekly:

293-296 (Nov. 3 - Nov. 24, 1855)

298-300 (Dec. 8 - Dec. 22, 1855)

308 ( Feb. 16, 1856)

310-321 (March 1 - May 7, 1856; March 1 - March 29 contains first appearance of Wilkie Collins' A Rogue's Life.)

 

We have the Christmas issues for [1850] The Christmas number -- [1851] Extra number for Christmas of Household Words  -- [1852] A round of stories by the Christmas fire --  [1854] The seven poor travellers -- [1855] The Holly-Tree Inn -- [1856] The wreck of the Golden Mary -- [1857] The perils of certain English prisoners -- [1858].

Digital reproductions are available in many databases.

We also have one monthly issue (December 1856) of the American edition. This one is has its wrapper and original advertisements: 

Household Words: A Weekly Journal. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1850-.  AP4 .H92

 

The Household Narrative of Current Events: Being a Monthly Supplement to Household Words. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1850-55. AP4 .H89 

Intended as a supplement to Household Words, providing the facts and data on which its arguments were based. It has nine subdivisions ‘Parliament and Politics,’ ‘Law and Crime,’ ‘Accident and Disaster,’ ‘Social, Sanitary and Municipal Progress,’ ‘Obituaries, Colonies and Dependencies,’ ‘Foreign Events,’ ‘Commercial Record,’ ‘Stocks and Shares,’ and ‘Emigration Figures.’ Special Collections has the first bound volume with issues for January 1850 to December 1852.

 

All the Year Round

All the Year Round: A Weekly JournalLondon: Chapman & Hall, 1859-1895. AP4 .A4.

This one picks up where Household Words leaves off. It ran until 1895, but after his death in 1870 his son, Charles Dickens, Jr., took over editorship. Special Collections has the post-publication 16 volume set of issues for 1859-1866 with title page and indexes. We also have several parts (monthly issues of the original weeklies) issued with original wrappers and advertisements:

3-5 ( July - Sept. 1859, these parts contain a good chunk of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities (Book Two, Chapters 9-24 and Book Three, Chapters 1-2)

9 (January, 1860, this part has a portion of Collins' A Woman in White.

11-15 (March - July 1860)

Extra Christmas Numbers for 1859-1867. PR4557 .A1 1863-1867. 

These copies were purchased as a set, with a bifolium for the title page and an insert for advertisements. Happily, the owner did not have them bound together so they still appear as issued.

A digital reproduction is available through Early British Periodicals.

University of Pennsylvania has digitized their copies of the whole run. 

Figaro in London

Figaro in LondonNumerous Squibs on Passing Events, Theatrical, Biographies, Etc.London: William Strange, 1831-39. AP101 .F46.

Illustrated weekly penny paper edited by Charles Dickens and Gilbert Beckett. We have issues for Dec. 1831-Dec. 1833. 

Digitized version available through British Periodicals Collection II and 19th Century UK Periodicals, Series 1.

Bentley's Miscellany

Bentley’s Miscellany. London: Bentley, 1837-1868. AP4 .B43

Special Collections has ten volumes bound post-production for the years 1837-41.

Digital reproductions are available through Early British Periodicals and the American Antiquarian Society.