Critical Essay Reflection: Original Installments

During my time with the serial version of Bleak House I found the advertisements were rather interesting. It was strange to think that one piece of parchment in a magazine was a major way of advertisement back then. It seems very simple compared to all of the vast multimedia we have today. Also, I realized how much detail was put into these advertisements to sketch the product and giving the customer all of the information about the product, such as furniture and silverware.

Furthermore, I found it interesting that reviews of other literature were contained at the end of the installment. There would be a concise description of the character and the general plot of the story. It would try and get a general audience interested, it is similar movie previews for us today. The fact the more literature was advertised in shows that literature was very important to the Victorians.  

In addition, being able to see Charles Dickens’ Bleak House in installments seemed to make the reading much more manageable. Seeing Bleak House in smaller chunks could also make the Victorians more enthused about the reading. This allowed them to think about what has happened and wonder what will happen next. With this month wait, the suspense might have  built and people would be excited for the new edition; similar to how people today would be excited for the next episode of their favorite television show. On the other hand if people took their time with it and if they could not read it at a certain point, they would still have time to read the latest edition of Bleak House.

While reading the thirteenth installment of Bleak House I found it interesting how there was a little bit of everything, which was one of the great things about the format. There was a whole spectrum of characters that were included such as Richard and Vholes discussing Jarndyce versus Jarndyce matters to Mr. Tulkinghorn telling Lady Dedlock he knows her secret. It gives the reader an update on everything going on in the story in small segments. I feel this format helps the reader tackle the novel, it is easier to read the little segments and not know when the story will end. Another quick aspect of the serial is I enjoyed the illustrations being at the beginning of each installment. The illustrations allowed one some foresight into what the reading would be about I thought that was really interesting.

In conclusion, the way the serial was designed was very fascinating containing many things of interest. One of these fascinating aspects of the serial were the advertisements and how much detail was included. Furthermore, I found reviews describing other pieces of literature, showing how important literature was to Victorian culture. Last of all the format of the serial Bleak House did a great job of pulling people in for a variety of reasons. 

- Michael Uhl