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Serialization and Evan Harrington

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Royal A. Gettmann
Royal A. Gettmann*
Affiliation:
University or Illinois Urbana
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Extract

In the following article I shall describe the circumstances in which Meredith wrote Evan Harrington as a serial for Once a Week, and I shall-submit some suggestions about the effect of this mode of publication upon the novel.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 64 , Issue 5: Issue 1 part 1 , December 1949 , pp. 963 - 975
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1949

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References

1 George Meredith in Anecdote and Criticism (London, 1909), p. 13. With respect to Meredith's early years we should keep in mind the fact that in 1849 he inherited 1150. See G. K. Zipf, “New Facts in the Early Life of George Meredith”, Harvard Studies and Notes in Philol. and Lit., xx (1938), 144.

2 Really a set of tales under the title “A Story-Telling Party. Being a recital of certain miserable days and nights passed, wherewith to warm the heart of the Christmas season”, Once a Week (24 Dec. 1859).

3 Bertha Coolidge, A Catalogue of the Altschul Collection of George Meredith in the Yale University Library (Privately Printed, 1931), p. 143. Miss Coolidge printed most of Meredith's letters to Lucas that are in the Altschul Collection. The officials of the Yale University Library kindly supplied me with a film of the letters relating to Evan Harrington. From it I have occasionally quoted brief passages not found in the Catalogue; in each case I have cited the letter by the date given by Miss Coolidge. Some of the letters are dated only by the day of the week, and I have, by means of a calendar and some conjecture, suggested tentative dates for a few of them, always within brackets and followed by a question mark.

4 Ibid., pp. 82–83. The publisher Meredith referred to was Field, who had been impressed by The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. In the end Evan Harrington was published by Harpers, who paid Meredith “liberally.” See M. B. Forman, Meredith Bibliography (London, 1922), pp. 22–23.

6 S. M. Ellis, George Meredith (New York, 1920), p. 104, gives the date as 1859; R. M. Sencourt, The Life of George Meredith (New York, 1929), p. 149, gives it as 1860. F. E. Bailey, Six Great Victorian Novelists (London, 1947), pp. 154–155, names the later date and the salary.

6 But he did not live up to his intention. See Letters (New York, 1912), I, 137.

7 On the advice of his doctor Meredith spent the summer of 1861 on the continent. He ran short of funds and asked Evans, the publisher of Once a Week, to send 30 (see Letters, i, 28). I have been unable to discover how much he received for the serial rights of Evan Harrington.

8 Coolidge, pp. 131 and 159. The letter was sent from 7 Hobury Street and must therefore have been written during the first half of 1859. Meredith had moved from London before the “prime of summertime.” See Ellis, p. 105.

9 Ellis, p. 103.

10 Charles L. Reade and Compton Reade, Charles Reade (London, 1887), II, 93 ff.

11 Coolidge, p. 81.

12 Actually it consisted of only the first of these, “On Board the Jocasta.”

13 Coolidge, p. 82.

14 A week earlier he had sent the two following chapters, 8 and 9.

15 Coolidge, p. 83.

16 Ibid. There may have been good reason for Meredith's apologetic tone, for it was rumored that Evan Harrington damaged the circulation of Once a Week. See Siegfried Sas-soon, Meredith (London, 1948), p. 33. Lucas must have decided against “another time”, for he presumably showed no interest in Dyke Farm [Rhoda Fleming?], which Meredith offered him in 1861. See Letters, I, 27, 29. Two years later Lucas raised the question of a Meredith serial, but in the end he chose a novel by Thomas Trollope. Letters, i, 114,116.

17 Coolidge, p. 131. “Facts on the grin” is an accurate description of Dickens' intention in Household Words—“to provide cheerful compilations” on such subjects as “a history of Piracy”, “a history of Knight-errantry”, “the wild old notion of the Sangreal”, and “a history of Savages.” The emphasis was to be on “cheer” and “heart.”

18 Coolidge, pp. 143, 161. The only thing Meredith found to praise in Dickens' weekly was his practice of placing the “principal tale” at the beginning of the issue. He wrote Lucas that this was “far preferable to its being in the middle; and if you'll allow me I'll stipulate thereupon.” See Coolidge, p. 83.

19 Ibid., pp. 131–132.

20 “What fools they [Bradbury and Evans] are! As if a mole couldn't see that their only chance was in a careful separation of themselves from the faintest approach to assimilation to All the Year Round.” Nonesuch Letters, iii, 108–109.

21 These first appeared in the Times and were reprinted in Eminent Men and Popular Books (1859).

22 Nonesuch Letters, in, 168, 219.

23 Una Pope-Hennessy has recently suggested: “In those days authors had no second copy to refer to and it is doubtful whether Dickens ever let them see proofs.” I am not sure about this: it may be that he sent proof with the strong suggestion that his corrections were final. See, for example, his letter to Miss Power, Nonesuch Letters, in, 181.

24 Coolidge, p. 82. In submitting a poem Meredith wrote: “I leave it to you, of course (to strike out—not to alter).” See Coolidge, p. 162. With respect to the description of the cricket match in Evan Harrington (chap. 13) Meredith invited his editor to “cut it in what pieces you please—especially the early part.” Ibid., p. 83.

25 Coolidge, p. 78.

26 Letters, I, 20, 59.

27 Eminent Men and Popular Books (London, 1859), pp. 150 ff.

28 Coolidge, p. 83.

29 See my article, “Meredith as Publisher's Reader”, JEGP, XLVIII (1949), 45–56.

30 Coolidge, p. 81.

31 Probably in no. 8, chapts. 11 and 12, which describe the dinner at the inn.

32 Coolidge, p. 83.

33 Nonesuch Letters, iii, 187.

34 Coolidge, p. 81.

35 Ibid., p. 83. Meredith reminded his editor that “full half the incident of Smollett trenches on amusing matter not permitted me by my public.”

36 Ibid., pp. 81,83. Miss Coolidge places the fifth letter, which is dated Tuesday, between those of 28 Dec. 1859 and 1 Jan. 1860, but I surmise, on the basis of the calendar, that it should precede the earlier letter.

37 From a letter to Lucas, October 1859. See Coolidge, p. 79.

38 In negotiating for North and South Dickens specified 22 parts of 5 pages each. He divided A Tale of Two Cities into parts of almost uniform length, but he allowed Collins considerable freedom. The 40 installments of The Woman in While vary from 4 to 9 pages.

39 The divisions may be summarized as follows: each chapter was printed as a separate installment except for these: chapts. 1, 2, and 3=no. 1; chapts. 5 and 6=no. 3; chapts. 11 and 12 = no. 8; chapts. 19and20=no. 15; chapts. 21 and 22=no. 16; chapts. 34and35=no. 28;chapts. 36and37=no. 29; chapts. 38and39=no. 30: chapts. 42 and43=no. 33; chapts. 40 and 47=no. 36.

49 Coolidge, p. 82.

41 “Ibid.

42 For other examples see the endings of nos. 17 and 30.

43 In the correspondence about A Day's Ride Dickens explained to Lever that “some of the best books ever written would not bear the serial mode of publication.” Of course Dickens would never have admitted that this necessarily involved a difference in quality. Nonesuch Letters, iii, 187.

44 Op. cit., pp. 132–133.

45 This is not to be charged wholly to serialization; it is partly due to Meredith's abiding wish to avoid “flabbiness” and to achieve resonance in his dialogue. See Letters, ii, 542. Even a severe critic would wish to retain many of the comic scenes in Evan Harrington, e.g. the one in chapt. 44 in which Andrew Cogglesby is outwitted by his wife.

46 In this connection we might notice the change in the title of chapt. 14. Meredith originally planned to call it “The Comic Muse surveys the position”, but in Once a Week it appeared under the title “The Countess Describes the Field of Action.” See the letter dated Thursday (Coolidge, p. 83).

47 Letters, i, 143. Meredith once insisted that two stories which he wrote for Once a Week were not to be published over his name because they did not have his “stamp.” Lucas did not use them, and there is no further trace of them (see Letters, I, 22). It should be added that in The Adventures of Harry Richmond the use of the first person as narrator no doubt restrained Meredith.

48 Letters, I, 240–242. It was serialized in the Fortnightly but only after considerable alteration.