![]() ![]() Appearing in 1836-37, by 1879 it had sold 800,000 copies … which may not be a shocking quantity by publishing standards today, but was unheard of then. One of the first bestsellers - and of course a literary icon as well - was _Pickwick Papers_, Dickens’ first novel. I read a New York Times review of this show, and was struck in particular by 2 of the works mentioned. The above musings were occasioned by a show, “Victorian Bestsellers”, at the Morgan Library in New York City, that started in January of this year (2007), and will run through May 6. Lastly, it can be interesting to see what “ripples”, if any, might still exist in the popular culture from the initial sensation that the bestseller caused. ![]() Second, a bestseller from long ago, since by definition it had a big audience, can illuminate the popular tastes, preoccupations, and prejudices of the time. First, a past bestseller can show us what life was like back then - better, I think, than can some classic from the same period, which often draws us more to itself as a book, for its genius, than to an involvement with the period it describes. ![]() ![]() With so many books to read out there - innumerable classics, plus the latest all-the-rage books which are clamoring for attention, not to mention the relaxing “comfort reading” of reliable mystery series – why bother to read a bestseller, with no particularly outstanding literary merit, from more than 100 years ago? I can think of at least 3 reasons. ![]()
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