Newspapers

Newspapers were one of the principal venues for the publication of literature in the period. For writers, this meant that the newspaper press was an important source of publicity and income; for readers, it meant that literature was read in daily or weekly parts alongside the newspaper’s other contents. However, newspapers were also one of the most common kinds of printed object in the period, with readers at all levels of Victorian society. The newspaper helped its readers make sense of the world around them, circulating a range of representations that writers could draw upon in their works. The newspaper was both a source of inspiration, offering textual representations that could find their way into literature, and an important part of the world that literary works described.