Nostalgia

Pip and Magwitch, from Great Expectations

I’ve been thinking about how books used to be, inspired partially by this article from Sam Sacks about what illustrations contributed to novels in the nineteenth century. Sacks writes that illustrations were used in novels by Dickens, Carroll, Thakerey, and many others to clarify points from the book or to make jokes, not just to show the reader what the characters and settings looked like.

Sacks writes that illustration went away when readers started to look down on them. There’s an idea even now that serious books don’t have pictures in them. But when you read old illustrated version of Dickens and Conan Doyle, it’s easy to feel like you’re missing out with modern books.

But then, compared to medieval illuminated texts, even pen and ink illustrations are a bit of a come down.

The other thing that I wish would come back are serial publications. I remember an old story a professor in one of my British literature classes told about Americans asking incoming British ships if Little Nell had died during the publication of Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop because they just couldn’t wait for the next episode to come out. I suppose TV shows have replaced the serials. I know Stephen King tried to start a pay-per-view book a while back, but couldn’t get enough subscribers to make a go of it. There are comics, which even include comics, but those just don’t seem quite the same thing.

Thinking about serials does make me wonder what it would be like if everyone read the same (good*) books, waiting for the next chapter to find out what happens next. With pictures.

* So as to exclude Twilight and its sequels.