Category:Bentley's Miscellany
Title: Bentley’s Miscellany
Editor: Charles Dickens / "Boz" (1837-1839); William Harrison Ainsworth (1839-1841, 1854-1868); Dickens Smith (until 1839); Dickens Forster (?-1840); Richard Bentley (1841-1854)
Publisher: Richard Bentley (1837-1861, 1868); Chapman and Hall (1861-1868)
Bentley’s Miscellany was founded in 1837 by publisher Richard Bentley and editor Charles Dickens (pen-named “Boz”), and continued printing monthly issues for the next thirty-two years. The Miscellany is an illustrated periodical that emphasizes original literature (especially fiction), though in its later years its focus shifted more towards literary criticism.[1] Over the course of its publication, the magazine included contributions from such widely respected writers as Hans Christian Andersen, George Eliot, Victor Hugo, and, of course, Charles Dickens.[2] Bentley’s also deserves much credit for introducing many American authors to the British audience, publishing works by James Fenimore Cooper, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, and Washington Irving.[3] Furthermore, acclaimed etcher George Cruikshank’s work as staff artist (and sole illustrator for many of the periodical’s serial novels, including Oliver Twist) served as one of Bentley’s principal attractions; John Ruskin called Cruikshank’s works “the finest things, next to Rembrandt's, that, as far as I know, have been done since etching was invented.” Though Cruikshank eventually left the Miscellany, John Leech’s debut and continuance sustained the magazine’s reputation for quality illustration.[4] Despite contribution by so many established authors and artists, however, Bentley’s was also known for introducing promising young writers to its readership. Dickens said that the magazine would make room for beginners: “Its pages will not be closed against those who, possessing real talent and sterling merit, have yet a name to earn. It is confidently hoped that, conducted as the periodical will be, it may be the means of bringing before the public many a rising author who, but for the opportunity thus afforded him, would have languished unknown.”[5]
The Miscellany targeted readers of the middle and upper classes who had a fair educational background, but its articles were notably clearer and more easily read than those of other contemporary periodicals.[6] The nature of the magazine, as stated in the “Prologue” written by William Maginn, was to avoid deep science or politics, promising “something more in the world to be talked about than Whig and Tory.”[7] In addition to short fiction as well as long, serialized, illustrated novels—a form that the magazine popularized—the Miscellany also contained many biographical sketches; papers on drama, theatres, and actors; sketches of legendary cities; military autobiographies; popular accounts of animals and reptiles; and accounts of travel and experiences.[8] Due to differences with Bentley, Dickens left the Miscellany after only two years as editor, and his successor, W. H. Ainsworth, left a short two years after that. For the next thirteen years, Richard Bentley took over, during which time the magazine declined in quality. Eventually, in 1854, Ainsworth returned to resume editing, under a new publisher, and stayed with the periodical until George Bentley’s ultimate recovery and merging of Bentley’s Miscellany with Temple Bar in 1868.[9]
Notes
Co-Written by: Bradley, Kadan: section 1, Fall 2008, and Reynolds, Harrison: section 1, Winter 2009
Articles in category "Bentley's Miscellany"
The following 15 pages are in this category, out of 15 total.
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