The Nineteenth Century Three-Volume Novel

Palgrave Macmillan first edition - 2020

Browsing my bookshelves, as is my abiding pleasure, I picked out Troy Bassett's excellent and exhaustive analysis of the dominating effect the [in]famous three volume novel - often referred to as the three-decker - had on nineteenth century publishing.  As Troy remarks in his Introduction, nearly every canonical author of the period appeared in the ubiquitous format of three octavo volumes priced at one-an-a-half guineas, including first editions of Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, William Makepeace Thackeray and Anthony Trollope. To collect any of these authors in first editions is way beyond my pocket, but I have amassed quite a selection of less well-known and (luckily) much 'cheaper' authors. Back on the 27th March 2020, I published an early Blog on my collection; over five years later, this has grown considerably. As much for my own sake as anyone else's, I have attached the updated list below. The twenty works of Sir Walter Scott I have not included, although I have all his novels in first edition, bar Waverley, which is merely a third edition, albeit published in 1814 - the same year as the first. Many of them form the backbone of my Scottish Novels 1808-1850 Collection, with John Galt, J.G. Lockhart, Mary Brunton and Susan Ferrier figuring amongst them. I have also collected 17 novels of G.P.R. James and four of R.D. Blackmore - I am actively hunting down yet more of both authors. Over the past five years ('Lockdown' did have its positive side), I have read nearly all of the novels laid out below. By next Spring, I shall have finished off the remaining Scottish books. 

NINETEENTH CENTURY TWO AND THREE VOLUME NOVELS

(Excluding Sir Walter Scott’s 20 novels)

 1810      Jane Porter                                       The Scottish Chiefs   [5 volumes]

1811      Mary Brunton                                   Self-Control

1812      Hector Macneill                               The Scottish Adventurers

1814      Mary Brunton                                  Discipline

1817      Jane Porter                                       The Pastor’s Fire-side

1818      Susan Ferrier                                    Marriage            

1818      James Hogg                                      The Brownie of Bodsbeck

1819      Alexander Balfour                          Campbell; or The Scottish Probationers

1821      David Carey                                     A Legend of Argyle

1821      John Gibson Lockhart                   Valerius

1822      [Thomas Gaspey]                           The Lollards: A Tale

1822      John Galt                                          Sir Andrew Wylie of that Ilk

1822      Allan Cunningham                         Traditional Tales

1822      John Galt                                          The Entail or The Lairds of Gippy

1823      John Galt                                          Ringan Gilhaize or The Covenanteers

1823      John Gibson Lockart                      Reginald Dalton

1823      Eliza Logan                                       St. Johnstoun; or, John, Earl Gowrie

1823      John Galt                                          The Spaewife

1824      Susan Ferrier                                    The Inheritance

1824      John Galt                                          Rothelan

1825      Grace Kennedy                               Dunallan; or Know what you Judge

1825      Thomas Dick Lauder                      Lochandhu: A Tale of the Eighteenth Century

1826      Allan Cunningham                         Paul Jones

1827      Thomas Hamilton                           The Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton

1828      Allan Cunningham                         Sir Michael Scott

1829      Eliza Logan                                      Restalrig; or, The Forfeiture

1830      George Robert Gleig                      The Country Curate

1831      Susan Ferrier                                   Destiny or the Chief’s Daughter

1831      Hannah Maria Jones                      The Scottish Chieftains

1832      [Edmund Duros?]                           Otterbourne; A Story of the English Marches

1832      G.P.R. James                                   Henry Masterton

1833      Michael Scott                                  Tom Cringle’s Log

1834      G.P.R. James                                   The Life and Adventures of John Marston Hall

1835      G.P.R. James                                   The Gipsy

1835      [Peter Leicester]                             Bosworth Field; or, The Fate of a Plantagenet

1836      Michael Scott                                  The Cruise of the Midge

1838      G.P.R. James                                   The Robber: A Tale

1840      G.P.R. James                                   The King's Highway  

1841      Major Michel                                   Henry of Monmouth: or the Field of Agincourt

1841      Catherine Sinclair                           Modern Flirtations

1842      [Major Michel]                                Trevor Hastings or the Battle of Tewkesbury

1843      G.P.R. James                                    Forest Days

1843      [Edward Bulwer-Lytton]               The Last of the Barons

1844      G.P.R. James                                    Arabella Stuart. A Romance from English History

1844      G.P.R. James                                    Agincourt. A Romance

1845      G.P.R. James                                    The Smuggler. A Tale

1845      John Brent                                        The Battle Cross: A Romance of the Fourteenth Century

1846      G.P.R. James                                    The Step-Mother

1847      Capt. Marryat                                  The Children of the New Forest

1847      G.P.R. James                                    Russell. A Tale of the Reign of Charles II

1848      G.P.R. James                                    Beauchamp

1848      G.P.R. James                                    Margaret Graham

1849      G.P.R. James                                    The Woodman; A Romance of the Times of Richard III

1853      Rev. R.W. Morgan                          Raymond de Monthault, The Lord Marcher

1870      Benjamin Disraeli                           Lothair

1871      Trois-Etoiles                                     The Member for Paris: A Tale of the Second Empire

1872      R.D. Blackmore                               The Maid of Sker

1874      W. H. Ainsworth                             Merry England: or, Nobles and Serfs

1875      R.D. Blackmore                               Alice Lorraine

1880      R.D. Blackmore                               Mary Anerley

1887      R.D. Blackmore                               Springhaven

1888      Mrs. Humphry Ward                     Robert Elsmere

1891      Stanley Weyman                            The New Rector

1893      Stanley Weyman                            A Gentleman of France

1894      Stanley Weyman                            Under the Red Robe