A Dance of Pen and Pencil: Illustrated Victorian Serials
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Legacy Maltwood at McPherson Library 3800 Finnerty Road, Mearns Centre, McPherson Library, Room 027 (Box 3025, Stn CSC), Victoria, British Columbia V8P 5C2
Legacy McPherson Library, "A Dance of Pen and Pencil: Illustrated Victorian Serials," 2019
A Dance of Pen and Pencil: Illustrated Victorian Serials
Curated by Dr. Mary Elizabeth Leighton and Dr. Lisa Surridge (Department of English)
In the early 1800s, books were largely unillustrated. By the 1830s and 1840s, however, innovations in wood- and steel-engraving techniques changed how Victorian readers consumed and conceptualized fiction. A new type of novel was born, often published in serial form, one that melded text and image as partners in meaning-making.
These illustrated serial novels offered Victorians a reading experience that was both verbal and visual, based on complex effects of flash-forward and flashback as the placement of illustrations revealed or recalled significant story elements. Victorians’ experience of what are now canonical novels thus differed markedly from that of modern readers, who are accustomed to reading single volumes with minimal illustration. Even if modern editions do reproduce illustrations, these do not appear as originally laid out. This exhibit celebrates the critical role of pictures in Victorian serials—stories delivered in both words and images, over time, and with illustrations playing a key role.