5,130 itemsWelcome to 19th Century Novels
The "triple-decker" novel was a standard form of publishing for British
fiction from the early 1800s until the 1890s. The market for this form of
fiction was closely tied to commercial "circulating libraries," such as
Mudie's and W. H. Smith. Unlike free public libraries, these circulating
libraries charged patrons to borrow books, much like video rental stores do
today. Publishing longer works of fiction was quite expensive, and by
releasing them in multiple parts publishers captured an audience who eagerly
awaited the next installment while proceeds from the first volumes paid for
the printing of later volumes. Often sensational in subject matter, the
genre was populated by heroines in danger, characters in disguise, potions
and poisons. The University of Illinois Library is digitizing and making
openly accessible via the Internet Archive its extensive collections of
triple-decker novels.
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