The Late-Victorian Little Magazine - (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture) by Koenraad Claes (Paperback)

About the Book

This book offers detailed discussions of the background to thirteen major little magazines of the Victorian era, both situating these within the periodical press of their day and providing interpretations of representative items.

Book Synopsis

Charts the origins and development of the little magazine genre in the Victorian period
Fed up with the commercial and moral restrictions of the mainstream press, the diverse avant-garde groups of authors and artists of the Aesthetic Movement developed a new genre of periodicals in which to propagate their principles and circulate their work. Such periodicals are known as 'little magazines' for their small-scale production and their circulation among limited audiences, and during the late Victorian period they were often conceptualized as integrated designs or total works of art in order to visually and materially represent the ideals of their producers. Little magazines like the Pre-Raphaelite Germ, the Arts & Crafts Hobby Horse and the Decadent Yellow Book launched the careers of innovative authors and artists and provided a site for debate between minor contributors and visiting grandees from Matthew Arnold to Oscar Wilde. This book offers detailed discussions of the background to thirteen major little magazines of the Victorian era, both situating these within the periodical press of their day and providing interpretations of representative items, in doing so, it outlines the earliest history of this enduring publication genre, and of the Aesthetic Movement that developed along with it.
Key Features:
First monograph to focus on the origins and development of the little magazine genre during the Victorian periodEach chapter provides a representative introduction to the respective little magazinesCombines new insights with a critical overview of the state of the art on each discussed little magazine

From the Back Cover

'A notable intervention in the history of little magazines that counters the modernist-centric focus of the field. This detailed and much-needed account of late-Victorian little magazines deftly argues for the importance of these publications in this history, attending carefully to the aesthetic, material, social and political contexts of their production.' Kirsten MacLeod, Newcastle University The first monograph to chart the origins and development of the little magazine genre in the Victorian period Tired of the commercial and moral restrictions of the mainstream press, the diverse avant-garde groups of authors and artists of the Aesthetic Movement developed a new genre of periodicals in which to propagate their principles and circulate their work. Such periodicals are known as 'little magazines' for their small-scale production and their circulation among limited audiences, and during the late Victorian period they were often conceptualised as integrated designs or total works of art in order to visually and materially represent the ideals of their producers. Little magazines like such as the Pre-Raphaelite Germ, the Arts & Crafts Hobby Horse and the decadent Yellow Book launched the careers of innovative authors and artists and provided a site for debate between minor contributors and visiting grandees from Matthew Arnold to Oscar Wilde. This book offers detailed discussions of the background to thirteen major little magazines of the Victorian era, both situating these within the periodical press of their day and providing interpretations of representative items. In doing so, it outlines the earliest history of this enduring publication genre and of the Aesthetic Movement that developed along with it. Koenraad Claes is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Research Foundation Flanders, based at the Department of Literary Studies at Ghent University (Belgium). Cover image: 'The Quest of the Soul's Desire' Ernest Treglown, frontispiece for Quest 1 (November 1894) Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-14744-2621-3 Barcode

Review Quotes

The Late-Victorian Little Magazine is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on nineteenth-century periodicals, adding substantially to our knowledge of this area of the press.--Mark W. Turner, King's College London "Journal of European Periodical Studies, 4.1"

[R]eaders are most likely to relish his careful, lively descriptions and descriptive analyses of the magazines themselves in the context of the larger world of late-Victorian English art (fine and applied, literary and commercial). The book will serve not only specialists in the Victorian periodical but also readers new to periodical studies looking to understand what these magazines have to offer. They will find a wealth of information here that might move them to investigate the varied nooks and crannies upon which Claes has shed light.--Lisa Rodensky Wellesley College, Wellesley, Masschusetts "Review19"

A notable intervention in the history of little magazines that counters the modernist-centric focus of the field. This detailed and much-needed account of late-Victorian little magazines deftly argues for the importance of these publications in this history, attending carefully to the aesthetic, material, social, and political contexts of their production.-- "Kirsten MacLeod, Newcastle University"

Koenraad Claes's The Late-Victorian Little Magazine provides an insightful overview of where the little magazine genre came from, how it has changed over time, and how different magazines within the category have shifted the genre's direction.--Keelia Estrada Moeller, University of St. Thomas "Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 52, Number 1, Spring 2019"

About the Author

Koenraad Claes is Lecturer in English Literature at Anglia Ruskin University (Cambridge, UK). He has published on several topics related to British literature and print culture of the long nineteenth century, focusing on the Romantic period and the Victorian Fin de Siècle. He serves as the Managing Editor for the journal Authorship and as the Biographies Acquisitions Editor for the online resource Yellow Nineties 2.0.