Bleak House (Dickens 1852)

About the Serialization

Serialization is a printing format in which a single larger work is published in smaller, sequential installments. Dickens popularized this format through his novels and in turn, grew his readership through the more affordable installment payment plan serialization offered. Publishers benefitted from increasing sales and offering advertisements in each installment. However, serialization was not without problems unique to the novel as a genre.

Serial plotting required the production of a story with few connections between the different parts and with little development of any individual part. However, Dickens was able to masterfully create a fictional world which overlapped installments while maintaining their standalone properties as individual elements. He addressed the problem of a constant need for plot development by interweaving sub-lines into a mystery plot, which allowed him to pursue any one of multiple characters' lives but still moved the plot forward overall.

Finally, Dickens increasingly concentrated his stories on the life of a single protagonist who, through events and plot progression, would develop and grow to connect different parts of the story together as a cohesive whole. Dickens' tales skilfully navigated the problems serialization posed, resulting in the genre's massive popularization and expansion in the 19th century.

Sources: 

Brattin, Joel J. "Dickens & Serial Fiction." Project Boz, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, dickens.wpi.edu/history.html.

Coolidge, Archibald C. Charles Dickens as Serial Novelist. The Iowa State University Press, 1967.