Aspects of the Victorian Book

November 17, 2002 1:16 AM

Aspects of the Victorian Book is a Sunday morning kind of site, a relaxed but vivid tour of 19th century British publishing that explores production techniques such as lithography, binding and illustration, and looks at the printed works of the period (including forms such as the inexpensive "Yellowbacks" and their cousins, the usually lurid "Penny Dreadfuls").
posted by taz (6 comments total)

Also, more on the art of bookbinding at Victorian Bookbinding: Innovation and Extravagance, and more on illustration and authors from the rather amazing Victorian Web.
posted by taz at 1:17 AM on November 17, 2002

By this time the readership was largely juvenile, and from gothic, historic or domestic romances with some attempt at motivation and characterisation, penny dreadfuls became merely brutal tales of adventure, and later still, lively school stories with simple, bold illustrations.

Sounds like what happened to the movies, doesn't it? Thanks for a sweet Sunday morning, taz!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:39 AM on November 17, 2002

Great site--I hadn't found that one yet. Yet another site to add to my Victorian weblog sidebar-in-progress! For more about penny dreadfuls in particular, head on over here.
posted by thomas j wise at 7:31 AM on November 17, 2002

What a delightful exhibit, taz...I love all the illustrations, and the bindings are spectacular. Thanks.

The Victorian Web is a great resource too - you're right - these are fun Sunday kind of links to explore!
posted by madamjujujive at 7:53 AM on November 17, 2002

I love stuff like this! For the less attention-span-challenged MeFite. Great link.
posted by condour75 at 11:41 AM on November 17, 2002

Taz, I love this whole site. I'm especially taken with the children's book illustrations - the hand lettering on some is really beautiful. If you back out to the main domain, there's a section called The Magic Pencil, with modern day children's book ilustrations, which leads to yet another link to more classic ones. Heaven! I love children's books. LOVE. Imagine me screaming the word LOVE as loudly as you can.
posted by iconomy at 4:54 PM on November 17, 2002