Refletion 2

Emily Dodd

Reflection 2

1/17/13

            During my afternoon reading of the Bleak House installment I was able to closely examine the piece as it was published in Dickens’ time. It was very interesting to note even the texture and make of the print and the paper. The print was bumpy when you ran your fingers across it as in you could tell where the press was pushed into the paper creating the words. There were many ads in the front and back of the installment for all different objects. Some of them were for fake hair and others for clothing. When I skimmed through further I noticed the drawings were in the front of the installment rather than within the work. Also, when looking at the paper they were drawn on I noticed it was much thicker.

            The fact that the illustrations came at the beginning of the installment rather than throughout could be seen as a way to give those reading the installment a preview as what was to come and who or what they should expect to see while reading this installment. Today, having the illustrations within the text is a way for us to comprehend what is happening and see how it could be interpreted. Writing stories in serials was a way to get more people talking over a work and to get them excited about it. As the interest grew demand would also grow and lead to the selling of a greater number of copies seeing as everybody would want to know what happened next right away.

            Dickens has strategic ideas of where to end installments, generally leaving his readers with a cliffhanger that would cause them to want to buy the next installment. It points to his great ability to write commendable works since he was able to keep his readers interested for so long.

                One such advertisement I found was one advertising patent letter copying press. It gives listings of different prices for different options of copying. I thought this fit well with my reflection since I focused on how the pages and the words on the pages felt. I found this advertisement very fitting for this reflection. It was extremely grand to be able to feel the words on the page as that is something we do not get today.  

Critical Response #2: Bleak House Installments

Reading today’s printed edition of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House allows readers the opportunity to gain and lose aspects from the Victorian Era.  While the fortunate 21^st Century readers are provided a fully-compiled book to sift through and read at their leisure, the Victorians were only offered the text in what were considered “installments”.  Much like television episodes people watch today, the Bleak House installments were a printed series of about three or four chapters which Dickens wrote and published on a monthly basis.  Although the modern print of Bleak House has been conveniently incorporated into one massive text, today’s readers lose the novelty of the Victorian advertisements, coupons, and pictures.

            As I held the sixth installment of Bleak House, I took the time to notice the detailed front cover, which was a collage of busy characters all in a hectic state.  At the top, there appeared to be a blindfolded court riot, while the bottom portrayed a happier street parade.  Along the side borders, several scenes depicted important characters from Bleak House, such as Esther, Richard and Ada, Mr. Tulkinghorn, and Mr. Bucket. (See picture below)

            After admiring the front matter, I pealed back the cover and found a multitude of Victorian advertisements.  There were ads for clothes with pictures of “new” shirt designs, ads for toilets, stoves, and insurance companies, and there was even an announcement section for upcoming family education classes.  I noticed the Victorians used many exclamation points to emphasize these various ads.

            When I came across the chapters within Dickens’ installment, I noted the arrangement of the illustrations, which came before the chapters, while the pictures are spread throughout the entire novel in the modern print edition.  Because ink smeared easily back in the Victorian Era, the pages were separated by a piece of tissue paper.  Also, the captions were written in fine cursive rather than typed.

            As I finally came to the end of the installment, I found a smaller flyer that appeared to be a children’s section.  Here I noted that this piece could have easily been ripped out of the larger text and that it contained a short children’s story and provided book recommendations that they could rent at the library for a price.  There were also religious aspects about the section and most of the posts were recommended by reverends.

            While modern readers are privileged to have the opportunity to purchase Bleak House as a full book, they also lose the historical aspects of the installments.  If all readers of Dickens’ Bleak House were able to experience Loras College’s Rare Books Room, as I have, they would be inspired to learn all the history that goes missing from the combined, printed novel.

Critical Response2

Tim Vorwald

1/17/2013

Bleak House in Context

            When I went to the Rare Books Room at the library to read certain installments of the original work of Bleak House. There were a myriad of things that were very different from what I read in the copy of the book that we use in class. The first and most obvious thing was that the first part of the little booklet that it was published in did not contain the story itself but actually advertisements which for a person that is reading the book and trying to put context to it the advertisements are very helpful. The reason that these advertisements were so helpful to me was that they helped me to visualize the things that were taking place in the story because it shows what they would have been using during that time period. The advertisements also appeared at the end of the book as well providing even more context. Another interesting thing is the illustrations of events in the book.

            The illustrations in the book that we have with us in class are the same as the ones in the original but there is a difference between the two. After flipping through the advertisements in the beginning one would come to the illustrations of the events in the book one right after the other before the story itself. This is a very interesting thing but it is something that could potentially give the reader interest in reading it. This is because, I think, the pictures could have served as something to grab the reader’s attention and thus pull them into the story. The use of illustrations is something that I find interesting because of how in the book they are right in with the text. Another thing that should be touched upon is how the book was written in monthly installments.

            The fact that the book was not released as a whole when it was originally written is something that is very interesting. It is a good way to keep the readers interested because they would constantly have to wait for the next month’s chapters to come out. If a person was really into reading the story then it is something that would definitely cause excitement and that excitement would bring in readers from the outside. With all these factors being brought into just one installment of the work it makes for a very interesting read. I rather enjoyed getting the opportunity to read the actual and original installment of the book because while it is still the same story it is something that is an experience all its own.

Critical Response 2

Nate Fuller

Critical Response 2

            The smaller installments of Bleak House have a much different feeling to reading them over the thick novel.  The fact that they are the originals is just one aspect that one must think about.  They could be replicas or re-made in some way, but the fact that they are the original published copies makes the reader feel much more into the story and Victorian Era.  It is also much less overwhelming only holding a small thin pamphlet over holding a thick and hefty novel. 

            I really enjoyed reading the advertisements and seeing all of the neat items that people were selling in the Victorian Era.  Having those interesting items and advertisements bombard the reader before opening up to the story is a good way of catching initial attention to the pamphlet.  There many have even been people that only read the installments for the advertisements.  Since only about 1/3 of the population could read at that time, the pictures may have been quite intriguing and eye catching to the general public.

            While reading the pamphlet I noticed the feeling that the installment put out.  First of all it felt as old as it actually was.  The pages were brittle and the fonts were much different from the thick book.  The form of how the installments were read really made a difference in the feeling of the story.  Since the paper was brittle and brown it constantly reminded me that I was holding a piece of history.  Knowing that in the back of my head changed the way I looked at the story and changed my entire perspective on the feeling that the story gives me while reading it.

            It is quite an experience reading something so old and historical in a novel, but reading the actual published copy is a rare and uplifting experience.  The class and story would not be near as interesting and as easy to stay focused on if we only read the novel.  In every other class we have only read the re-published novels and never get to see the piece of history it was made from.   Being able to see the format, font, and pictures of the original copy opens the eyes of the reader to what life was like when the installment was written instead of just imagining it for oneself and possibly getting the wrong interpretation. 

Critical Reflection Two

Stephanie Austin-Reed

Critical reflection two

The idea of publishing a novel in installments is…interesting to me. It also feels like a great big opportunity to make a little more money. There are ads everywhere, and the story seems to cut off at rather convenient points. The whole thing feels like a wonderful opportunity to ensure readers.

First, as usual, those ads were hilarious. I sat in the rare books room with four other people giggling as I read these ads out of context. It really is a lot of fun looking through the numerous pages of ads. I’ll be the first to admit that I may have spent more time looking through the ads than the actual story. The more I thought about these ads, the more I realized that this little installment of a greater work is heavily comparable to television shows today. Commercials. I was looking at commercials. There were even testimonials attached to some of the product ads! Of course, they sounded much more intelligent than the testimonials in today’s television commercials, but they were pretty golden. I was also looking at the latest episode of a popular television show. With that realization, I found a way to connect with the time period. I probably wouldn’t have made that connection had I not read the actual physical installments.

As for the question, what influence does form have over content? Well, I think the form here has a lot to do with the content. I feel like Dickens would constantly have to be thinking about how he was going to dissect his story for publishing. How he leaves his audience is incredibly important because that could easily make or break his readership. Obviously if a writer or a television show producer leaves the audience off on a cliffhanger, it’s rather likely that when the next bit comes out a vast majority of the audience will return out of sheer curiosity.

All in all, reading in installment form is interesting. Holding a physical, original copy of the published work is pretty exciting. I definitely find myself wondering how frustrated Victorian’s got over cliffhanger endings and if it’s anything comparable to how I feel at the end of an episode of Doctor Who.