During the middle of the 1800’s changes in Victorian culture and lifestyle made it possible for even the most mediocre of writers to build a reader base. Before the mid 1800’s the cost of producing books was expensive due to the stamp duty, which was phased out in 1855, on printing paper. This meant that publishers were choosy about the quality of the literature they printed, the popularity of that literatures’ authors, and the revenues those books brought in.
Other changes added to the increase in potential readership, these included a larger number of readers within the population, due in large part to public education, the ever broadening circulation of newspapers and periodicals, and the scandalous crimes and court proceedings that were reported about in early tabloid journalism. Many of the sensation novels of the time were thinly veiled re-tellings of these crimes and court cases.
Plot Devices
The low cost and lurid stories made sensation novels cheap and exciting entertainment. For travelers and bored housewives these books filled in the dull spaces in their days. What made these stories so interesting were the recurrent plot devices and themes the authors’ employed to maintain their audiences’ interest.
Some of the typical devices included murder, mystery, bigamy, and scandal-filled court cases. Writers often rewrote the news of the time as fiction and added embellishments of their own. Many of the stories contained supernatural elements and dual plots that kept the readers interest piqued.
There were certain characters that frequently made appearances in these books. Philandering husband, detectives with uncanny powers of detection, dishonest servants, earnest policemen, heroines in dangerous situations, the not –so-pious clergyman, and ladies of the night were common persons of interest in these fictional works.
Typical settings in these tales included manor homes, abandoned buildings, brothels, railcars, attics, museums, and glades. The settings were places familiar to the readers, but not necessarily places the readers frequented.
Possible Reasons for the Popularity of Sensation Novels
These yarns were the stuff modern-day soap operas are made of. They allowed readers to not only pass time in an entertaining manner, but take a peak into a world many of the readers had little or no access to. In their way the authors made nobles and the wealthy more like the readers of the novels. The writers’ pointed out that those heretofore untouchable members of society put their pants on one leg at a time and suffered the same woes as the rest of the populous.
This may have been reassuring to their readership, because a new and rapidly growing middle-class was forming in British society, something that had only existed in small numbers before. The upheaval and constant change that British society was undergoing made excellent fodder for these fictions. This new and more literate middle-class now could afford to purchase books to pass the time at home and on long train rides and sea voyages. This change made the works accessible to a new section of society and the low cost of the books made them more reasonable purchases.
References
Lyn Pykett, The “Improper” Feminine: The Women’s Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing, Routledge, New York, 1992
Nineteenth- Century Literary Criticism
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