Literature Network » Victor Hugo

The serialist vanishes: Producing belief in George Eliot

Content courtesy of

From: Novel
Date: 19991001
Author:Payne, David

Why should one expect the truth to be consoling?

--George Eliot to Edith Simcox1

Though the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton and the publisher John Blackwood had discussed the idea more than two decades before, Middlemarch was the first Victorian serial novel to be published in eight half-volumes or "books," priced at 5s., and issued bimonthly from November 1871 to December 1872.2 It is possible that George Henry Lewes got the idea from Victor Hugo's 1862 half-volume sale of Les Miserables; what is clear is that Middlemarch marked another in a series of attempts by the Leweses and Blackwood to ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Victor Hugo

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.