Mudie s Select Library and the Shelf Life of the Nineteenthcentury - Nove

This Element describes a data analysis of a collection of Mudie's catalogues spanning eighty years, in order to reassess understandings of the library's role in the nineteenth-century publishing industry. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

List of contents

1. Introduction; 2. Accession, retention, and delisting of novels; 3. Selection in practice: a ten-year sample of published novels and their shelf lives; 4. Cents and censorship: representation in Mudie's and its impacts; 5. Conclusion.

Summary

Mudie's Select Library was a major nineteenth-century literary institution. Substantially larger than its competitors, the library leveraged regional and global distribution networks and close commercial ties with publishers which allowed it to maintain a key position within the British publishing industry. In its heyday, it was widely believed that novelists and publishers were required to conform to aesthetic, moral and formal standards established by Mudie's, or risk the rejection and consequent failure of their books. However, the lack of a comprehensive study of the library's holdings leaves open questions about what the library actually stocked, and to what extent the library could determine a novel's fate. This Element describes a data analysis of a collection of Mudie's catalogues spanning eighty years, in order to reassess understandings of the library's role in the nineteenth-century publishing industry. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Product details

• Authors: Karen Wade, Karen (University College Dublin) Wade
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.02.2025
• EAN: 9781009479004
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0947900-4
• No. of pages: 94
• Series: Elements in Publishing and Book Culture
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication > Book trade, library system; LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Library & information services, Library and information services, Publishing industry & book trade, Publishing and book trade