MUDIE'S CIRCULATING LIBRARY AND THE VICTORIAN NOVEL.
Pp. xiv+272, text illustrations, select bibliography, notes, index; demy 8vo; red boards, spine lettered in gilt; dust wrapper, backstrip faded; free endpapers lightly browned, Readers Union sticker on title page, a little light soiling; David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1970. First U.K. edition. *Charles Edward Mudie opened his Select Library in London in 1842, ushering in an era in English literature dominated by the "three decker" novel - and by the tastes of the middle class subscribers to the circulating libraries. For half a century, Mudie's was the most important distributor of fiction in England, exerting profound influence over publishers, readers and critics, until 1894, when Mudie and his chief rival, the firm of W. H. Smith, united to abolish the three decker, thereby unintentionally destroying the prosperity of the circulating libraries as well. Item #043722
Price: $45.00