how and why were serial novels a phenomenon in the nineteenth century
improved economics of distribution technological advances in printing the rise of literacy
title: Serial (literature) text: produced large works in lower-cost installments called fascicles. Serialized fiction surged in popularity during Britain's Victorian era, due to a combination of the rise of literacy, technological advances in printing, and improved economics of distribution. Most Victorian novels first appeared as installments in monthly or weekly periodicals. The wild success of Charles Dickens's "The Pickwick Papers", first published in 1836, is widely considered to have established the viability and appeal of the serialized format within periodical literature. During that era, the line between "quality" and "commercial" literature was not distinct. Other famous writers who wrote serial literature for popular magazines title: Crime fiction text: century was Fergus Hume's "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" (1886), set in Melbourne, Australia. The evolution of the print mass media in the United Kingdom and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century was crucial in popularising crime fiction and related genres. Literary 'variety' magazines like "Strand", "McClure's", and "Harper's" quickly became central to the overall structure and function of popular fiction in society, providing a mass-produced medium that offered cheap, illustrated publications that were essentially disposable. Like the works of many other important fiction writers of his day—e.g. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens—Arthur Conan title: Horror fiction text: scenario being a resourceful female menaced in a gloomy castle. The Gothic tradition blossomed into the genre modern readers call horror literature in the 19th century. Influential works and characters that continue resonating with film and cinema today saw their genesis in such works as the Brothers Grimm's "Hänsel und Gretel" (1812), Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818), Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), Jane C. Loudon's "" (1827), Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1831), Thomas Peckett Prest's "Varney the Vampire" (1847), Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" (1850), the works of Edgar Allan Poe, the works of Sheridan title: Panic of 1825 text: Hurst and Robinson, and Taylor and Hessey suffered during the crisis, and some even collapsed entirely. The setback of the established publishing houses allowed newer and less-reputable publishers to change the market. High end works were in declining demand, but the market for cheaper productions, pamphlets, and children's books was rapidly developing. Smaller publishers bought up the stocks of their former competitors at a discount and issued cheap editions. This led to a demand for cheap fiction and inspired the trend of serialization. The crisis of 1825, although it did shake public confidence, did not destroy the market but ultimately title: Victorian era text: with industrialisation. Though it remained influential throughout the period, there was a notable resurgence of Gothic fiction in the fin de siecle, such as in Robert Louis Stevenson's novella "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1886) and Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1891). Popular forms of entertainment varied by social class. Victorian Britain, like the periods before it, was interested in literature (see Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, Robert Louis Stevenson and William Makepeace Thackeray), theatre and the arts (see Aesthetic movement and Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood), and music, drama, and opera were