Mudie's Circulating Library 1842-1937

On my recent visit to London, just before everything 'shut down', I did my usual book-hunting trawl of Charing Cross Road and Cecil Court. Nothing took my eye or, rather, nothing I was prepared to pay the asking price for. Just one book, for £4.00, did not escape: Mudie's Circulating Library and the Victorian Novel by Guinevere L. Griest (David & Charles, 1970), which I found in the basement of Quinto/Francis Edwards. I dimly recalled occasionally seeing the yellow stickers on some volumes, proclaiming their source from Mudie's Emporium, but W.H. Smith's and Boot's lending libraries sprang more readily to mind.

Griest's book is a fascinating (well, not fascinating perhaps, but eye-opening) account of how Charles Edward Mudie (born in 1818 in Chelsea), son of a small newspaper and stationer seller, set up a circulating library in Southampton Row (then Upper King Street) in 1842. Adding the word 'Select' to its name and excluding certain books for 'moral reasons', he tapped a ready and increasing literate market. In 1852, he moved to larger premises on the corner of New Oxford Street and Museum Street. He used two, successful, methods which quickly made his library almost synonymous with the novel in Victorian England. He advertised extensively 'the principal New and Choice Books in circulation, itemizing the Constant Succession of the Best New Books, Exchangeable at Pleasure';  and, secondly, he acquired new works rapidly and in large quantities. Between 1853 and 1862, he added almost 960,000 volumes, nearly half being fiction. By 1900, he had acquired more than seven and a half million books.

Charles Edward Mudie

Branches opened in the City, Birmingham and Manchester; deals were made to supply book clubs and societies and provincial libraries. However, in 1858, he refused to start libraries on W.H. Smith's railway bookstalls. This forced Smith to set up a competing business which lasted until 1961, long after Mudie's closed on 12th July 1937. The latter's stock was bought by Harrod's and the Emporium remained empty until destroyed by German air raids in the Second World War.

One of Griest's chapters is entitled Mudie's and the Three-Decker. I found this the most interesting, as I have collected over the years a fair few three-volume novels. The term triple-decker was derived from the 18th century three-decked ships. In the 18th century, novels could be anything from two to seven volumes. Sir Walter Scott, with his three-deckers between 1814 and 1832, did much to promote the fashion. Novelists realised that the way to establishing a reputation lay through the circulating library, and almost the only way was through the three-, or more rarely, the two-volume issue. The downside was that this often led to 'padding' - writers needing to reach 150,000-250,000 words. Even though a less expensive, one-volume edition would be issued a year later, the latter seem 'cheap', even questionable; exceptions were novels of religion (Emily Holt?) and of adventure. It was the three-decker at 31s. 6d. that ruled. Too expensive for most pockets, readers needs must use Mudie's or others. A problem was that every copy of a novel bought by a library probably stopped the sale of two other copies.

Neither Charles Edward Mudie, dying in October 1890, or William Henry Smith, dying in October 1891, were alive to see the demise of the three-decker in 1894. By then, the libraries and reading public wanted the 6s. novel. The quick appearance of cheap reprints had been a crucial point in the libraries' decision. Mudie's advertisements, for the first time, now headlined 'Novels in One Volume'. By 1895, the shift from three-volumes to one was clear. The Spectator, for August 1901, was to cite the abolition of the three-volume novel as a major reason for the huge expansion of the reading public. The genre ended due to a combination of the libraries, the publishers and the authors; no one person or firm destroyed the form. Now, only collectors such as myself look for, purchase and read the three-volume book. I must get back to Scott's The Antiquary, before I shed a tear.

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There is a useful chapter in Amy Cruse's book The Victorians and their books (George Allen & Unwin, 1935) which I purchased and read last year. Entitled Books from Mudie's , Chapter XV, it was written while Mudie was still struggling on. Cruse ends the chapter: The increase of cheap editions was a far more serious danger to the circulating libraries than any attack from hostile critics could be. But even that danger Mudie's triumphantly met and overcame. The library was firmly established as a national institution, secure against the shocks that overthrow less stable structures, and an abiding witness to the Englishman's need and love of his books. Not for much longer!.

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Will I never learn? I have just had through the post (Monday, 30th March), a large book parcel. It contains Mudie's Library - Established 1842 - English Catalogue 85th Edition (1931). It runs to 1282 pages - obviously a hernia inducing 'dip and skip' effort required, or I could still be reading it when the Coronavirus scourge has finally ended.

Amazingly, the yearly subscription for a recent novel (library copy), chosen by Mudie's, cost only £1 10s. 0d. post free. It cost three times as much just to send this catalogue to me in 2020!