The original serialized form of Charles Dickens's Bleak House novel. Original serial cover illustration by H.K. Browne. Audiobook files posted at the beginning of each chapter have been published in the public domain by Librivox.
The text of Bleak H...
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The original, serialized edition of Bleak House contained illustrations by H.K. Browne, who often used the pen name "Phiz." Some of those illustrations are reprinted here.
Illustrations accompanied many serialized novels, as the advent of mass literacy led to the association of letters with pictorial learning tools. Illustrators like Phiz often served as the first reader of serialized text and worked with the author editorially, thus creating a dynamic relationship between text and illustration.
Engraved boxwood blocks served as the primary technology used to print these illustrations. Phiz, who personally found engraving laborious and tedious, submitted his illustrations to experienced engravers who created blocks or plates reproduce the images multiple times -- sometimes, as noted above, this multi-step operation created accident that resulted in the delay of illustrations.
Works Cited:
Steig, Michael. "Dickens and Browne: Illustration, Collaboration, and Iconography." Victorian Web. www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/steig/1.html. Accessed 13 October 2018.
Barrett, Charlotte. "Victorian Publishing History." Writers Inspire from the University of Oxford. www.writersinspire.org/content/victorian-publishing-history. Accessed 13 October 2018.
