Category:Belgravia

Title(s)

Belgravia (1866-1899)

Editor(s)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1866-1876, 1890-1893)

Overview

First published in 1866, Belgravia was created by publisher John Maxwell as a place where his mistress (and future wife), Mary Elizabeth Braddon, could publish her fiction. Belgravia was issued monthly with the occasional subtitle of “a magazine of fashion and amusements” and was intended to appeal to a “genteel, middle-class, lady public, of low to fair educational standard.”^[1] It was also published under the name Belgravia Annual in 1868.^[2]

Although the primary content of the journal was serialized fiction, it also featured poetry, biographies, travel accounts, literary criticism, and essays on issues of the time, which allowed a level of social conversation among women. In 1867, Belgravia began adding full page illustrations along with its text. The addition of illustrations, as well as the addition of prominent works from more renowned writers, served to increase Belgravia’s popularity. As time went on, however, newer and more fashionable journals took precedence, leading to the journal’s deferring to new ownership in 1889. From then on, the quality of Belgravia’s content steadily decreased as the publication dropped in price, omitted its illustrations, and featured only “second-rate novelists,” finally leading to its discontinuation in 1899.^[3]

For Further Reading

Chang, Junghee. “Victorian Family Magazine and Woman Reader: Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Belgravia: A London Magazine.” Nineteenth Century Literature in English 10.1 (2006): 117-36, ProQuest. Web. 9 May, 2015.

Mullin, Katherine. “Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (1835–1915).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP. 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. May 2009. Web. 9 May, 2015.

Onslow, Barbara. “Sensationalising Science: Braddon's Marketing of Science in Belgravia.” Victorian Periodicals Review 35.2 (2002): 160-77. ProQuest. Web. 21 May, 2015.

Schroeder, Nicole. “Reading Popular Culture in Victorian Print: Belgravia and Sensationalism/ /Victorian Sensational Fiction: The Daring Work of Charles Reade.” Victorian Studies 53.3 (2011). ProQuest. Web. 9 July, 2015.

Notes

1. ↑ William H. Scheurele qtd. in “Belgravia; a London Magazine,” The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900, Series 2, Ed. John S. North, Waterloo, Ont: North Waterloo Academic Press, Web, 6 May 2015.
2. ↑ "Belgravia; a London magazine," The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900, Series 2, Ed. John S. North, Waterloo, Ont: North Waterloo Academic Press, Web, 6 Aug. 2015.
3. ↑ "Belgravia; a London magazine," The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900, Series 2, Ed. John S. North, Waterloo, Ont: North Waterloo Academic Press, Web, 6 Aug. 2015.

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Submitted by: Elliott, Rebekah: section 1, Winter 2013

Submitted by: Spencer, Marian: section 1, Fall 2013