Examiner and its editor Leigh Hunt. John Gibson Lockhart produced a series of articles for Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine mocking the Cockney School, and his arrogant critique of Keats was particularly vicious. Noting Keats’s previous employment, Lockhart wrote, “It is a better and wiser thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to the shop Mr John’. Another journal, the Quarterly Review, also attacked Keats, leading poet Percy Shelley to claim (falsely) in his 1821 elegy Adonais that harsh reviews had doomed his friend.]]> Z. [John Gibson Lockhart]]]> Periodicals]]> This early issue of the Boy’s Own Paper (1879-1967) offers insights into the range of diverting material that its publisher, the Religious Tract Society, thought suitable for boy readers. In addition to its weekly serial (in this case by the prolific adventure-writer W.H.G. Kingston), the BOP featured puzzles and games, accounts of sporting achievements, and other articles designed to be morally and spiritually improving. The magazine circulated across the British Empire and became known for its patriotic values.

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W. H. G. Kingston]]> Periodical]]>
Friendship’s Offering and a request for further work. Their relationship soured when Pringle deemed one of Hogg’s later contributions to be inappropriate for his mostly middle-class and female readers.]]> Thomas Pringle]]> Manuscripts]]> In 1874, when Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd was published in the Cornhill Magazine, readers were shocked at some of the work’s sexually explicit scenes. Although the Cornhill received complaints, Hardy’s work continued to be in demand. The twelve illustrations accompanying the tale were by Helen Paterson Allingham, a watercolourist whose work also appeared in the Graphic. The scene depicted here shows the farmer William Boldwood on the verge of proposing to the novel’s complex heroine, Bathsheba Everdene.

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Thomas Hardy]]> Periodical]]>
Vanity Fair: A Weekly Show of Political, Social, and Literary Wares(1868-1914) took its name from Thackeray’s novel and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Established by Thomas Gibson Bowles, it was intended to be a ‘society’ magazine. In its early years, Bowles wrote most of the articles himself, hiding behind a range of pseudonyms to make it look as though the magazine boasted more contributors. Adopting a clear satirical mission, Vanity Fair’s first editorial pledged to ‘display the vanities of the week’, which it achieved through its distinctive caricatures of prominent public figures. The publication’s eventual success led to Bowles selling it off in 1889 for £20,000.]]> Thomas Gibson Bowles, founder]]> Periodical]]> ‘The Coming Man’s Arrival’ is one of Dunedin Punch’s better-known images, drawing attention to the arrival of Chinese gold miners in Otago. These miners were invited by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce in the hope that they would replace those who had been lured by the promise of better and more plentiful gold on the West Coast. Dunedin Punch first appeared on 27 May 1865. On 1 September 1867, it changed its name to the Otago Punch.

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The Punch Office]]> Periodical]]>
Punch, or the London Charivari led to many imitations. The best-known in the Southern hemisphere was the Melbourne Punch (1855-1928), which, like its London counterpart, also circulated in New Zealand. Regional versions appeared in Auckland (1868-1869), New Plymouth (1860), Canterbury (1865-1866), Wellington (1868), and Dunedin (1865-1867). There was also a New Zealand Punch (1898-1900). The magazine covered a mixture of local and national issues, particularly politics. Featured here is a parody of the journalist, politician, and explorer Vincent Pyke’s West Coast Expedition to discover a route from Lake Wanaka to the West Coast. Pyke is pictured astride a moa, since he was known for his theories relating to its extinction (he was to publish a pamphlet on the topic in 1890).]]> The Punch Office]]> Periodical]]> Poet Thomas Pringle edited the 1829-1833 issues of the popular annual Friendship’s Offering. Early in his editorship, he contacted many of the most popular writers of the day in search of contributions. William Wordsworth and Joanna Baillie politely declined, but the Scottish poet James Hogg sent him several works, including ‘The Minstrel Boy’, which appeared with a suitably sentimental engraving of a young shepherd.

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The Ettrick Shepherd [James Hogg]]]> Periodicals]]>
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is given the title ‘A Feminine Philosopher’, which reflects both his support of women’s suffrage and his public persona as a sensitive man. The accompanying text describes Mill as ‘a man of vast intellect and tender feelings’.

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Spy, that is, Sir Leslie Ward]]> Periodical]]>
Sponsored by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Saturday Magazine (1832-1844) was an Anglican rival to the Penny Magazine. As the issue featured here suggests, it closely modelled its design on the Penny Magazine, but its wood engravings lacked the quality of its competitor.

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Society for the Promoting Christian Knowledge]]> Periodical]]>
Penny Magazine (1832-1845) was a Whig competitor to the more conservative Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal. Sponsored by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,the Penny Magazine was known for the striking wood engravings on its cover pages. Early sales were strong, and the journal achieved a weekly circulation of 200,000 in its first year.]]> Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge]]> Periodical]]> Punch cartoons of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny led to a surge in the magazine's popularity. This image may also have pushed reader numbers up. It was a staple read for many in British drawing rooms. After closure in 1992, and a strt up in 1996, Punch finally closed in 2002 after 161 years of publication.]]> Sir Francis Burnand, editor]]> Periodical]]> The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine (1860).]]> Samuel Beeton, publisher]]> Periodical]]> The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine (1852-1879) was published by Samuel Beeton. Its aim was to become ‘an encouraging friend to those of our country women already initiated in the secret of making ‘‘home happy.”’ Between 1859 and 1861, the journal included regular supplements by Samuel’s wife Isabella, and these became the basis for her 1861 Book of Household Management. A conservative publication, themagazine featured domestic advice and fashion tips for the middle-class woman. The monthly publication also included ‘The Englishwoman’s Conversazione’, an advice section which attracted some notoriety in the 1860s through a series of letters relating to the tight-lacing of corsets and the disciplining of young women.

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Samuel Beeton]]> Periodical]]>
Robert and Thomas Redmayne, publishers]]> Periodical]]> Dunedin Punch of weather in Dunedin.]]> Robert and Thomas Redmayne, publishers]]> Periodical]]> Dunedin Punch was published by Robert and Thomas Redmayne in Dunedin. The first issue appeared 27 May 1865; the last 6 January 1866. There were 41 issues in total.]]> Robert and Thomas Redmayne, publishers ]]> Periodical]]> 2018 is the bicentennial of the publication of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Though the novel received limited attention when it first appeared, several theatrical adaptations in the 1820s brought it a larger audience. In 1831, it was republished in the Standard Novels series, with a frontispiece that offered an early vision of Victor Frankenstein and his creation. In the following decades, journals like Punch regularly turned to Mary Shelley’s story when commenting on current events. In doing so, they made Frankenstein a familiar representative for figures whose dangerous creations escape their control.

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Richard Rothwell]]> Painting (reproduction)]]>
Leisure Hour, Sunday at Home was published by the Religious Tract Society. Both publications are notable for their wood engravings, and they were designed for family consumption, with the aim of countering the effects of ‘pernicious’ reading. However, Sunday at Home included serialized novels, signalling a departure from the tract-based education for which the RTS was known. The journal’s featured stories showcase the reward of virtue, and they are characterized by their strong Christian message, rather than their literary qualities. Nevertheless, in its annual report for 1879, looking back on twenty-five years of publication, the RTS claimed that between them Sunday at Home and The Leisure Hour ‘have together addressed not far short of a million readers monthly’.]]> Religious Tract Society]]> Periodical]]> Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation (1852-1905) was a weekly periodical published by the Religious Tract Society. Committed to providing the public with appropriate, moral reading for the Sabbath, the Leisure Hour was usually sold on a Saturday. The contents included religious poetry and stories from the Bible, along with articles detailing the work of missionaries, and fiction that upheld the RTS’s values. The publication was priced at a penny, making it accessible to working-class readers. It occasionally included colour plates, as is exemplified here by the rather startling image of a young man having his head measured by a phrenologist. Contributors included Margaret Oliphant, Frances Browne, and Mary and William Howitt.]]> Religious Tract Society]]> Periodical]]> Pierce Egan’s Life in London began in July 1821 as a monthly publication. It followed the high and low adventures of three young men about town: Tom, Jerry, and Logic. The series was an instant success and inspired a number of theatrical versions (and yes, the animated cat and mouse take their names from Egan’s characters). The dazzling illustrations, by artist brothers Isaac and George Cruikshank, were central to the work’s popularity. George Cruikshank would become one of the century’s most successful commercial artists, illustrating some of Charles Dickens’s early writings, including Oliver Twist.

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Pierce Egan]]> Periodicals]]>
Science-Gossip (1865-1893, 1894-1902) was a popular science magazine, aimed at the educated lay reader. Its first editor was the botanist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, and the journal purported to be ‘a medium of interchange and gossip’ regarding discoveries, developments, and the scientific world. In 1871, a review of the magazine in the scientific journal Nature noted that Science-Gossip was perceived as a scientific equivalent to Notes and Queries: ‘The two resemble each other, indeed, in many particulars, and in none more than in the very unequal value which attaches to the articles contained in their pages’.

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Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, editor]]> Periodical]]>
Chums was a weekly paper for boys that first appeared in 1892. It was best known for publishing pirate stories, including an 1894 re-publication in serial form of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883). Its weekly papers were gathered into annual editions, which featured decorative crimson covers.

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Max Pemberton, editor]]> Periodical]]>
Mary Shelley]]> Book]]> Mary Shelley]]> Book]]>