COLBURN'S MODERN STANDARD NOVELISTS (HENRY COLBURN)
Series Notes:
(1)
Colburn’s Modern Novelists
Reprint series issued from about 1833 by H. Colburn, consisting largely of rebound sheets of earlier editions of fiction. It was initially published by his former partner, R. Bentley (1794–1871). Retitled ‘Colburn’s Modern Standard Novelists’ in 1839, it was much less innovative and successful than Bentley’s ‘Standard Novels’ series, and seems to have come to an end in 1841.
-- Graham Law
-- The Oxford Companion to the Book
(2)
His name is now chiefly remembered in connection with his magazine, and with the series of ' Colburn's Modern Standard Novelists' (1835-41, 19 vols. 12mo), containing works by Bulwer Lytton, Lady Morgan, R. P. Ward, Horace Smith, Captain Marryat, T. H. Lister, Theodore Hook, G. P. R. James, and G. R. Gleig. There were also numbered among 'my authors' Ainsworth, Disraeli, Banim, and all the fashionable novelists of the day.
-- Dictionary of National Biography entry on Henry Colburn
(3)
Essay on The VIctorian Web
(4)
Google Books
(5)
Henry Colburn (Wikipedia article)
BOOK SERIES LIST
(a) Arranged by serial numbers
Vols. 1-2.
Pelham : or, The adventures of a gentleman. - Edward Bulwer Lytton (Baron Lytton). 1833; 1835; 1839.
3.
O'Donnel : a national tale - Lady Morgan. 1836.
4-5.
Tremaine ; or, The man of refinement - R. Plumer Ward [Robert Plumer Ward]. 1836.
6-7.
Brambletye House, or, Cavaliers and roundheads - Horace Smith. 1836.
8-9.
The disowned - Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton, Baron. 1833; 1835.
10.
Frank Mildmay : or, The Naval officer - Frederick Marryat. 1835; 1839.
11.
Granby: A Novel - T. H. Lister. 1836.
12.
Devereux - Edward Bulwer Lytton (Baron Lytton). 1833; 1836.
14.
Sayings and doings, first series in three volumes - Theodore Edward Hook. 1834; 1838.
16.
Florence Macarthy: an Irish tale - Lady Morgan. 1839.
18.
Zillah; a tale of the Holy City - Horace Smith. 1839.
19.
The Chelsea pensioners ... - G. R. Gleig. 1841.
(b) Further titles (serial numbers to be identified)
De Vere : or, The man of independence - R. Plumer Ward [Robert Plumer Ward]. 1833.
Gaston de Blondeville; or, The court of Henry III a romance ... to which is prefixed a memoir of the authoress, with extracts from her private journals ... - Ann Ward Radcliffe. 1834.
Herbert Lacy - T. H. Lister. 1833.
Highways and by-ways, or, Tales of the road side : picked up in the French provinces - Thomas Colley Grattan. 1833; 1834.
Reuben Apsley - Horace Smith. 1834.
The romance of real life - Mrs. Gore. 1834.
Sayings and doings New [i.e. third] series ... - Theodore Edward Hook. 1834.
The Tor Hill... - Horace Smith. 1834.
Vivian Grey - Benjamin Disraeli. 1833.
(c) Series Listing as at 1840
SIR L. BULWER'S PELHAM
SIR L. BULWER'S DEVEREUX
SIR L. BULWER'S DISOWNED
MR. WARD'S TREMAINE
MR. H. SMITH'S BRAMBLE-TYE HOUSE
CAPTAIN MARRYAT'S FRANK MILDMAY
MR. LISTER'S GRANBY
MR. JAMES'S RICHELIEU
MR. HOOK'S SAYINGS AND DOINGS-FIRST SERIES
MR. HOOK'S SAYINGS AND DOINGS-SECOND SERIES
MR. HOOK'S SAYINGS AND DOINGS-THIRD SERIES
LADY MORGAN'S FLORENCE MACARTHY
LADY MORGAN'S O'DONNEL
Source:
Colburn's Kalendar of Amusements in Town and Country, for 1840
Comprising London Seasons and Sights; Balls, Masquerades, Theatres, Summer, and Harvest Sports, Cricket, Wrestling, Swimming, Skating, Rowing, and Sailing Matches; Races, Hunts, and Steeple-Chases; Shooting Seasons; Fishing and Watering-Place Seasons; Fairs and Other Sports.
With twelve illustrations by R. Cruikshank.
Edited by Boleyne Reeves, Esq.
London, Henry Colburn, Publisher, 1840.
Online copy of this source here.
MORE INFORMATION
Prospectus of the Series
PROSPECTUS
OF
COLBURN'S
MODERN
STANDARD NOVELISTS,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE FINDENS
AND OTHER EMINENT ARTISTS.
EACH WORK COMPLETE IN A SINGLE VOLUME,
PRICE 6d. ELEGANTLY BOUND IN MOROCCO-CLOTH.
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
GREAT MARLBOHOUGII STREET.
"TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS.
COMPANION TO THE WAVERLEY NOVELS.
Now in course of publication, each work complete in a single volume, elegantly hound in cloth, price 6s., printed uniformly with Byron and Scott, and beautifully embellished with the Portraits of the Authors, and other Engravings, by the Findens, and other eminent Artists,
COLBURN'S
MODERN
STANDARD NOVELISTS
A SELECT COLLECTION OF
The Best Works of Fiction
OF
THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ENGLISH WRITERS,
WHICH CANNOT BE PROCURED IN ANY OTHER COLLECTION.
THE Proprietor of the Series here announced having had the good fortune to publish a very large proportion of the most masterly modern Works of Fiction—such as have become incorporated with the literature of the country,— is obviously placed in the most favourable position for an undertaking of this nature ; and he has determined that no composition of inferior or ephemereal character shall be admitted into the collection; but that those works alone which have received the stamp of unequivocal public approbation, and which may be read from time to time with still recurring pleasure and profit, shall constitute the Series.
" 'Colburn's Modern Standard Novelists' present a series of those works of fiction that have most tended, with the writings of Sir Walter Scott, to elevate this description of literature. This publication presents a concentration of imaginative genius."—Globe.
WORKS ALREADY PUBLISHED IN THIS COLLECTION.
EITHER OF WHICH MAY BE HAD SEPARATELY, PRICE ONLY 6s. EACH.
SIR L. BULWER'S PELHAM
SIR L. BULWER'S DEVEREUX
SIR L. BULWER'S DISOWNED
MR. WARD'S TREMAINE
MR. H. SMITH'S BRAMBLE-TYE HOUSE
CAPTAIN MARRYAT'S FRANK MILDMAY
MR. LISTER'S GRANBY
MR. JAMES'S RICHELIEU
MR. HOOK'S SAYINGS AND DOINGS-FIRST SERIES
MR. HOOK'S SAYINGS AND DOINGS-SECOND SERIES
MR. HOOK'S SAYINGS AND DOINGS-THIRD SERIES
LADY MORGAN'S FLORENCE MACARTHY
LADY MORGAN'S O'DONNEL
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
" The collection continues to realize the most sanguine expectations of that large class of leaders who, with ourselves, are anxious to have all the best modern works of fiction brought out on the plan which Mr. CoIburn has so judiciously adopted, and in which elegance and economy are so happily combined."—Sunday Times.
" A truly popular undertaking. The series so got up and embellished, and so cheap, must extend the fame even of the author of 'Pelham.' "—Literary Gazette.
"We earnestly press this cheap and elegant publication of Mr. CoIburn's on the notice of our readers, under a sincere conviction that we are doing them a service."— Scotsman.
" What an admirably opportunity is here presented to such as are about to form a select library of fiction ! "—Globe.
"Thousands, and tens of thousands, will patronize this undertaking."—Kidd's Journal.
CRITICISMS
ON THE
WORKS
THAT HAVE ALREADY APPEARED.
PELHAM;
OR
THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN.
BY SIR EDWARD LYTTON BULWER.
" In the order of Novels of Fashionable Life, we never expected a production of the talent and utility of ' Pelham,' which immeasurably excels all other performances of the same genus. We have no hesitation in affirming that, of all the novel writers of the present day, the author of ' Pelham' is the best moralist—perhaps we ought to say the only moralist, in the scientific sense of the word. The appearance of such a book is the outward and visible sign of an improvement which we have hailed with delight in the rising generation."—Examiner.
DEVEREUX.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "PELHAM."
" Men of all grades, and of every character, have been familiar to me. War—love—ambition —the scroll of ages — the festivals of wit— the intrigues of states— all that agitates mankind, the hope and tho fear, the labour and the pleasure—the great drama of vanities, with the little interludes of wisdom; these have been the occupations of mv manhood—these will furnish forth the materials of that history which is now open to your survey."—Introduction.
" A first-rate Novel, the production of a first-rate mind.!'—Literary Gazette.
" This tale includes a series of years, from Charles the Second; and all the celebrated public characters who figured during that brilliant and eventful period are introduced as agents in the story. Lord Bolingbroke is a leading character; and the picture, drawn by the novelist, of this great man, is one of the finest and most dramatic specimens extant of literary portraiture."—Globe
THE DISOWNED.
BY THE AUTHOR OF " PELHAM."
" If 'Felham' justly raised for its Author a very high character, the 'Disowned' will raise it far higher."—Literary Gazette.
" If I were asked which of my writings pleased me the most in its moral—served the best to inspire the younger reader with a generous emotion and a guiding principle—was the one best calculated to fit us for the world, by raising us above its trials— and the one by which I would most desire my own heart and my own faith to be judged— I would answer—'The Disowned.'"— Author's Preface.
SAVINGS AND DOINGS.
BY THEODORE HOOK, ESQ.
FIRST SERIES.
Comprising Danvers, the Friend of the Family, Merton, &c.
" I have for.many years watched the world, and have set down all that I have seen ; andout of this collection of materials, I have thrown together a few historic illustrations of quaint sayings, the truth and sagacity of which the characters introduced by me have unconsciously exemplified in their lives and conduct; and which I have the small merit of bringing to bear, after long observation, upon the axioms affixed to each tale. In short, I have thought it a curious matter of speculation to compare the doings of the moderns with the sayings of the ancients; and therefore submit to the public a few wise saws' illustrated by ' modern instances.'" —Author's Preface.
" Sir Walter Scott was a prophecier of things past—he wears the palm of legendary lore alone—to him the past is every thing, the present nothing. Mr. Hook, on the contrary, is a man of the present world—he writes down what he has actually seen, and puts it into print. The sketches are full of the ' Doings' of real life, and his characters are real cliameters, drawn with a fidelity seldom witnessed in works of this nature."
" Skimming on the surface of living manners, and pourtraying fashionable follies and eccentricities, this production combines with these fleeting materials such an acute perception of general character, and such a lively method of inculcating profound truths, that were there six, instead of three, volumes, the reader would rise from the perusal of the last with a relish as keen as accompanied him through the first. It is said, we knew not how truly, that many of tho characters, and the circumstances connected with them, are drawn from real life, and we have even heard parties named as tho originals. Be this as it may, however, ' Sayings and Doings' is a work which betrays the hand of no ordinary writer. The satire, though always playful is keen, and though essentially dramatic in its structure, the narrative portion of it is replete with deep and affecting interest."— Observer.
SAYINGS AND DOINGS,
SECOND SERIES.
Comprising The Sutherlands, The Man of many Friends, Doubts and Fears, and Passion and Principle.
" This is a book abounding in pleasant scenes, good sayings, and witty dialogues. The eye of a keen playful wit and satirist has been upon the world in a vast variety of its spheres of action and affectation, and here we have ' the harvest of that unquiet eye.' "—Blackwood's Magazine.
" ' Sayings and Doings' is a work of more than ordinary merit, comprising admirable portraits of human character with tales of real or fictitious life."—Literary Chronicle.
SAYINGS AND DOINGS.
THIRD SERIES.
Comprising Cousin William, and Gcrvase Skinner.
" These tales partake of the merits of the two former series, while they excel them in vivacity, truth, and copiousness of character. In the facility with which Mr. Hook sketches personal peculiarities, he is unrivalled : the readiness with which he falls into all the little niceties and familiarities which ma1k the tone of society, is equally striking. The little appearance of labour in his writings—the singular warmth and unstudied vigour of his sentences, complete the effect, and make his works the most lively, and, at the same time, the truest pictures of life we have yet met with among late writers.'—Atlas.
TREMAINE;
OR
THE MAN OF REFINEMENT.
BY B. P. WARD, ESQ.
" We feel assured that no fastidio us person who is at all awake to his own defects, can read ' Tremaine' without being persuaded that it affords most useful and practical lessons of conduct. Our youth look to the poetry, and not to the reality, of life ; and it is the object of this book to show that the individual who adopts such an idea mars his own happiness, as much as he fails in his duty toward the community. It is the object of this novel to show that no duty or innocent occupation which occupies with contempt; that society, if worthy in other respects, is not to be shunned because it is not super .eminently refined ; and that even the sweets of literature are to be sipped rather than swallowed in a draught."—Quarterly Review.'
" Mr. Ward's writings are of a higher purpose and value than to be read and forthwith dismissed ; they are of the kind to be stored in private libraries, and recurred to from time to time, as a still fresh solace and delight."— Sun.
FRANK MILDMAY,
OR
THE NAVAL OFFICER.
BY CAPTAIN MARRYAT.
"The author of 'Frank Mildmay,' ' Peter Simple,' and' Jacob Faithful' stands alone amongst the writers of his century."—Spectator.
" Our naval officer sketches his life and adventures almost with the naivete and candour of Rousseau in his ' Confessions/ but his adventures are infinitely more numerous and diversified. Commencing with his boyish days, and his midshipman's berth, we arc carried through calm and hurricane, in all quarters of the globe ; \ve are mixed in fights, from the adventurous and desperate boarding expedition, to the scientific battle of fleets, and from the action purely naval, to the mixed service of which the sailor becomes amphibious, defending forts as he would a maintop, and swimming off, when beaten, to his ship, as he would descend from a tottering mast by a haul-yard or backstay. We should not be surprised if this production of Captain Marryat be comes even more popular than his ' Jacob Faithful,' or his ' Peter Simple ;' for it ought to be the future vade-mecum of every midship man on his entering the service."—Morning Post.
BRAMBLETYE HOUSE;
OR
CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
BY HORACE SMITH, ESQ.
"The best of all the Novels of Horace Smith."— Atlas.
"A work which may justly claim to rank with the choicest productions of the great literary ' Wizard of the North.' "—Bull Packet.
"The characters (like Sir Walter Scott's) from the highest to the lowest, have individuality. Their qualities, manners, and forms, are distinctive and real. Constantia Beverning may be placed in competition with the Rebecca of ' Ivanhoe.' "—Scotsman.
GRANBY.
BY T. H. LISTER, ESQ.
"'Granby' will always be read with pleasure. Its pictures of life are interesting without being forced ; and, as a narrative, it is replete with incident."—Atlas.
" This tale of fashionable life is one of the best and most successful of its kind. It is deservidly admired for the unexaggerated vivacity of its portraits and the spirit of its descriptions."—Sun.
"The great success of this novel is owing chiefly to its very easy and natural pictures of manners, as they really exist among the upper classes ; to the description of new characters, judiciously drawn and faithfully preserved, and to the introduction of striking and well managed incidents."—Edinburgh Review.
O'DONNEL;
A NATIONAL IRISH TALE.
BY LADY MORGAN.
"'O'Donnel,' one of the best works in our language: For masculine vigour, originality of thought, and penetration, Lady Morgau stands first on the list of female writers."—Morning Chronicle.
" Assuredly the public benefit by the new fashion of cheap reprints. Here is ' O'Donnel,' one of the cleverest works of a clever writer, offered in an elegant volume, with Portrait and Preface, for SIX SHILLINGS."— Athenaeum.
FLORENCE MACARTHY.
BY THE AUTHORESS OF "O'DONNEL"
"'Florence Macarthy" contains sketches of Irish characters, political and national, some of which are as remarkable for their fidelity as personal portraits, as the others are striking from their characteristic truth. This Irish picture gallery embraces both the aristocracy and democracy of the country—the former paiuted with the pencil of an artist, who has long had opportunities of observation, as well as the skill to delineate ; and the groups of the lower class are drawn with the force and freedom of Miss Edseworth, and with more than her brilliancy and accuracy."—Morning Chronicle.
RICHELIEU;
TALE OF FRANCE.
BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.
" This new and striking story of the French court commences with the last year of the reign, as it may be termed, of the Cardinal de Richelieu, who governed not only Louis XIII., but all of France with a despotic and resistless sway. Among the numerous characters introduced are the king ; his consort, Anne of Austria ; her Majesty's dame d'honneur, Clara de Hauteford ; the Duc d'Orleans ; the Cardinal's great friend and coadjutor, Chavigni ; Cinq-Mars ; de Thou &c. the ostensible hero is the Count de Blenau, chamberlain to the queen ; the heroine Mademoiselle de Beaumonth." —Morning Journal.
"We congratulate Mr. James no less on the judgement which has chosen the subject, than on the talent which has developed it. The eventful days of Richelieu are an admirable period, quite untrodden ground, and abounding in events of every species of the picturesque, the terrible, the mysterious, and the romantic.''—Literary Gazette.
On the 1st of October will appear
ZILLAH;
A TALE OF THE HOLY CITY.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "BRAMBLETYE HOUSE," &c.
Source:
Colburn's Kalendar of Amusements in Town and Country, for 1840
Comprising London Seasons and Sights; Balls, Masquerades, Theatres, Summer, and Harvest Sports, Cricket, Wrestling, Swimming, Skating, Rowing, and Sailing Matches; Races, Hunts, and Steeple-Chases; Shooting Seasons; Fishing and Watering-Place Seasons; Fairs and Other Sports.
With twelve illustrations by R. Cruikshank.
Edited by Boleyne Reeves, Esq.
London, Henry Colburn, Publisher, 1840.
Online copy of original print edition here.
* * *
Victorian Fiction - John Carter and Michael Sadleir, eds.
Section "Colburn's Modern Novelists, 1831-1836, and Standard Novels, 1835-1848"
pp. 11-12
Online copy here.
* * *
Henry Colburn
(1784—1855) publisher
publisher who founded the New Monthly Magazine in 1814 and the Literary Gazette in 1817. He published the fashionable novels of T. Hook; Evelyn's Diary (1818); and Pepys's newly_deciphered Diaries (1825). In 1830 he went into partnership with Richard Bentley and together they published a successful series of Standard Novelists (1835–41).
-- The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
* * *
Colburn, Henry (1784/5–1855) Much-vilified London publisher,
in business c.1806–53, from 1829 to 1832 in bad-tempered partnership with R. Bentley (1794–1871). Until 1824 Colburn published from his own circulating library, creating two ground-breaking literary periodicals, the miscellaneous New Monthly Magazine and the Literary Gazette, a weekly review. From the mid-1820s he led the vogue in ‘silver fork’ fiction—triple-decker novels with aristocratic settings, often by titled authors—introducing the reading public to Bulwer-Lytton and Disraeli. Colburn’s partnership with Bentley produced one more innovation, the ‘Standard Novels’ series, single volume reprints of recent fiction, which was taken over by Bentley as part of the severance agreement. Colburn eventually re-established himself in London, seeking to rival his ex-partner, notably with the resurrected series ‘Colburn’s Modern Novelists’, but without recapturing his earlier successes.
Bibliography
- ODNB
- J. Sutherland, ‘Henry Colburn Publisher’, PH 19 (1986), 59–84
-- Graham Law
Source:
The Oxford Companion to the Book
* * *
Bentley, Richard (1794–1871) English publisher.
Initially in partnership with *Colburn and alone from 1832, Bentley ranks among the leading publishers of 19th-century fiction. In 1834, he had great commercial success with Lytton’s Last Days of Pompeii and Ainsworth’s Rookwood, and in 1837 he founded Bentley’s Miscellany which promptly serialized its first editor’s Oliver Twist. Although the firm was in difficulties by the 1850s (competition undercut the ‘Standard Novels’ reprint series and the Miscellany was sold in 1854), the publication of Mrs Henry Wood’s East Lynne (1861) began a revival, and in 1866 Bentley bought the magazine Temple Bar, which enlisted a wealth of late Victorian writers from Trollope to Marie Corelli. The business survived Bentley’s death under his son George, but its fortunes declined with those of the *three-decker novel; following George’s death in 1895, the firm’s assets were sold to *Macmillan.
-- Robert Dingley
Bibliography
ODNB
The Oxford Companion to the Book
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