Little Dorrit was a serial novel that fascinated the
Victorian world. However as systems of communication expanded and the process
of creating physical books became cheaper and more standardized the process of
reading a serial novel began to die.
The serial novel was a brilliant move at the time because it allowed an author to judge the audience reaction to a story or particular character of the month and mold the next installment of the story to fit the needs of the audience. The story also had the added advantage that there was no complete copy until it was finished in print. A person could not have already read ahead of you and was incapable of ruining the ending until the last monthly installment came out making each segment an effective cliffhanger. Many people, myself included, will continue to read a story even if they do not care for it because it is human nature to want to know how a story ends and what fate awaited the characters. The serialization also created a communal aspect to the story that must have been vital during the Victorian era.
Given that there was no television or internet the people of the Victorian era had a much more limited spectrum from which they could find entertainment particularly if one wanted to stay away from aspects or was too young to be a part of the drinking or gambling culture. Dickens work was a family friendly equivalent to a popular tv series. Each installment could be read in a family setting each month and then it could be discussed. Just as now people enjoy talking about their fates and speculations of a favored character the serial novel allowed for the same kind of interaction.
Unfortunately since I have lived in a world of instant knowledge attempting to read a novel in this format was often more of a trial than I received pleasure from. The story is set up in such a way where each segment is meant to draw in the reader by introducing dozens of little plot concepts and the audience receives very little about the character for whom the book is named. Little Dorrit herself can be seen as the heroine of the story however it isn’t until the final chapters that I feel as if I understand the character. The Leader aptly points out as early as 1855 “Of Little Dorrit herself we as yet only get the vaguest of glimpses” and I feel this persists until the end. Also each character tends to fall into an easily typed person so that a reader could identify the characters with people they would know in real life. When reading through the book it was easy to identify people I know that had traits very similar to those of Mr. Dorrit or Pet. By allowing these characters to be easily identified it loses quite a bit in the modern era. For Victorian era novels this was an essential aspect as posted in The Athenaeum “No man has been more true to English subjects than the author of “Little Dorrit””.
There is so much exposure to generic characters through film and various other media that there is little joy in reading about them. The modern era has been conditioned to look for the extraordinary in people as well as a more personal experience where they can follow a primary protagonist on a journey of change and come to a satisfying conclusion. Little Dorrit does not permit this. There are too many characters with too great a disconnect to ever feel anything more than a meager intrigue at what will become of this cast. The Victorian era was a much more social time where there was less of an emphasis placed on the individual and I imagine this is because of the larger effort that was required to connect with a singular person rather than their family and their station.
Another aspect of the serial novel that I found unfortunate is the aspect that I am typically a fast reader. I tend to read a novel until I have completed it and I try to do that in one day whenever possible; though I admit it took me a whole weekend to read the final Harry Potter book. I think this is another problem of the modern era. Being able to buy books for a quarter a piece second hand or rent a stack from the library takes away something away from the amazing process that an author had to endure to produce a serial novel in the Victorian age. “[The] interactive relationship with the public, the possibilities of change and modification in the light of changing patterns of sales and audience response” put an extraordinary amount of pressure upon Dickens when he was working to meet deadlines and expectations (159).
In many ways the serial novel is a tribute to the concept that patience is a virtue. Even one of my favorite authors, Steven King, noted during his serial novel experiment that internet uses have the attention span of “grasshoppers” and I concur with this assessment. As I stated before in this age people have become accustomed to getting information when they want it whether or not the ending of their story has been officially released. Serial novels require a long term investment from readers and in this age fewer and fewer people are willing to make that investment. Time is considered to be money and time wasted waiting for the next piece of the story is time that could be spent on another project that doesn’t have the same constraints until the entirety of the serial is published. As Barndollar and Schorn’s article explains, the cost benefit analysis of serial novels shows that those most likely to profit from the experience would be specialists, such as ourselves, who are looking to study literature and culture in all its forms.
In short I believe that reading a serial novel in its original format is a worthy experiment for anyone with the time and patience to attempt it. Unfortunately, this format is no longer capable of being the primary format in the modern world without a drastic reformatting to enforce the personal connection that new readers are looking for.
The serial novel was a brilliant move at the time because it allowed an author to judge the audience reaction to a story or particular character of the month and mold the next installment of the story to fit the needs of the audience. The story also had the added advantage that there was no complete copy until it was finished in print. A person could not have already read ahead of you and was incapable of ruining the ending until the last monthly installment came out making each segment an effective cliffhanger. Many people, myself included, will continue to read a story even if they do not care for it because it is human nature to want to know how a story ends and what fate awaited the characters. The serialization also created a communal aspect to the story that must have been vital during the Victorian era.
Given that there was no television or internet the people of the Victorian era had a much more limited spectrum from which they could find entertainment particularly if one wanted to stay away from aspects or was too young to be a part of the drinking or gambling culture. Dickens work was a family friendly equivalent to a popular tv series. Each installment could be read in a family setting each month and then it could be discussed. Just as now people enjoy talking about their fates and speculations of a favored character the serial novel allowed for the same kind of interaction.
Unfortunately since I have lived in a world of instant knowledge attempting to read a novel in this format was often more of a trial than I received pleasure from. The story is set up in such a way where each segment is meant to draw in the reader by introducing dozens of little plot concepts and the audience receives very little about the character for whom the book is named. Little Dorrit herself can be seen as the heroine of the story however it isn’t until the final chapters that I feel as if I understand the character. The Leader aptly points out as early as 1855 “Of Little Dorrit herself we as yet only get the vaguest of glimpses” and I feel this persists until the end. Also each character tends to fall into an easily typed person so that a reader could identify the characters with people they would know in real life. When reading through the book it was easy to identify people I know that had traits very similar to those of Mr. Dorrit or Pet. By allowing these characters to be easily identified it loses quite a bit in the modern era. For Victorian era novels this was an essential aspect as posted in The Athenaeum “No man has been more true to English subjects than the author of “Little Dorrit””.
There is so much exposure to generic characters through film and various other media that there is little joy in reading about them. The modern era has been conditioned to look for the extraordinary in people as well as a more personal experience where they can follow a primary protagonist on a journey of change and come to a satisfying conclusion. Little Dorrit does not permit this. There are too many characters with too great a disconnect to ever feel anything more than a meager intrigue at what will become of this cast. The Victorian era was a much more social time where there was less of an emphasis placed on the individual and I imagine this is because of the larger effort that was required to connect with a singular person rather than their family and their station.
Another aspect of the serial novel that I found unfortunate is the aspect that I am typically a fast reader. I tend to read a novel until I have completed it and I try to do that in one day whenever possible; though I admit it took me a whole weekend to read the final Harry Potter book. I think this is another problem of the modern era. Being able to buy books for a quarter a piece second hand or rent a stack from the library takes away something away from the amazing process that an author had to endure to produce a serial novel in the Victorian age. “[The] interactive relationship with the public, the possibilities of change and modification in the light of changing patterns of sales and audience response” put an extraordinary amount of pressure upon Dickens when he was working to meet deadlines and expectations (159).
In many ways the serial novel is a tribute to the concept that patience is a virtue. Even one of my favorite authors, Steven King, noted during his serial novel experiment that internet uses have the attention span of “grasshoppers” and I concur with this assessment. As I stated before in this age people have become accustomed to getting information when they want it whether or not the ending of their story has been officially released. Serial novels require a long term investment from readers and in this age fewer and fewer people are willing to make that investment. Time is considered to be money and time wasted waiting for the next piece of the story is time that could be spent on another project that doesn’t have the same constraints until the entirety of the serial is published. As Barndollar and Schorn’s article explains, the cost benefit analysis of serial novels shows that those most likely to profit from the experience would be specialists, such as ourselves, who are looking to study literature and culture in all its forms.
In short I believe that reading a serial novel in its original format is a worthy experiment for anyone with the time and patience to attempt it. Unfortunately, this format is no longer capable of being the primary format in the modern world without a drastic reformatting to enforce the personal connection that new readers are looking for.
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