Bentley's Miscellany - Volume XXII
Published by Richard Bentley, London, 1847. First Edition. Bound in contemporary half leather with marbled boards, worn to the edges and corners, boards with some scuffing. Banded spine with gilt lining, titled in gilt on morocco to the upper spine, lacks the volume plate. Spine edge worn. Inner hinges A little weak. All plates present and complete, browned and foxed, though pages are generally clean and tight with the block sound, no pages detached. Good overall.
Wonderful collection of early Victorian fiction, serial stories, history, poetry and prose from some of the leading authors of the day. Includes pieces by Alfred Crowquill, Sir Alexander Duff Gordon, Charles Whitehead and notably Hans Christian Andersen's "The Neighbouring Families" which was first published in English in this periodical, the same year as the original Danish version - another biographical piece by Andersen Albert Thovaldsen is also included (I could find no reference to this piece on the HCA database, though the two were friends. Other notable pieces cover a Steam boat voyage to Barbados, An account of the last Niger Expedition, Rajah Brooke of Sarawak, A sentimental journey through Normandy, and 5 Mr Straggles stories by Albert Smith. RARE with the Hans Christian Andersen pieces.
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Bentley's Miscellany was an English literary magazine started by Richard Bentley. It was published between 1836 and 1868.
Already a successful publisher of novels, Bentley began the journal in 1836 and invited Charles Dickens to be its first editor. Dickens serialised his second novel Oliver Twist but soon fell out with Bentley over editorial control, calling him a "Burlington Street Brigand". He quit as editor in 1839 and William Harrison Ainsworth took over. Ainsworth would also only stay in the job for three years, but bought the magazine from Bentley a decade later. In 1868 Ainsworth sold the magazine back to Bentley, who merged it with the Temple Bar Magazine.
Aside from the works of Dickens and Ainsworth other significant authors published in the magazine included: Wilkie Collins, Catharine Sedgwick, Richard Brinsley Peake, Thomas Moore, Thomas Love Peacock, William Mudford, Mrs Henry Wood, Charles Robert Forrester (sometimes under the pseudonym Hal Willis), Frances Minto Elliot, Isabella Frances Romer, The Ingoldsby Legends and some of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. It was also the first place to publish cartoons by John Leech, who became a prominent Punch cartoonist.
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