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.