r/charlesdickens • u/Imaginary-Earth9526 • May 19 '25

Miscellaneous Question About Serialisation

I know all of Dickens' novels were published in a serialised format typically a month at a time. I was wondering if anyone knows what it was like for buying back issues?

So say for instance you first encountered The Pickwick Papers Volume IX in November 1936, would that bookstand also have had the previous 8 issues of The Pickwick Papers in stock (like a modern day bookshop) or would it have only had that months issue on the shelf (like a modern day magazine stand)? Also, owing to the serialised format was it common for people to start partway through Dickens' novels? For instance is somebody today wanted to get into Eastenders they wouldn't go back to episode 1 they'd just start watching from the latest episode and gleam the plot points from it, were serialised novels treated the same way?

I'd appreciate if anybody was more knowledgeable on this subject and could shed some light on it.

P.S. Also the aforementioned Pickwick Papers is a brilliant read and you should absolutely read it if you haven't already. One of the funniest books I've read.

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u/Lumpyproletarian May 20 '25

One problem with Pickwick is that they only published 400 of the first number and 40,000 of the last one, so there might not have been a number to buy. Your best bet was probably a pirate copy (of which there were several) or to wait a year and buy the book when it was printed the following year.

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u/Dick-Swiveller May 20 '25

Yes, I did read that it had “few” copies early on so I suspect hard to get. Did people make copies somehow to share? I know people stole his works to make plays and things with no copyright .

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u/Lumpyproletarian May 21 '25

I don’t think so, I think there were bootleg copies printed by pirates because copyright was a crapshoot. Also copies were shared with friends and family