On display are three of the twenty installments of The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. This type of publication known as serial publication was popularized by Dickens. It had many advantages such as: reducing the author’s financial start-up cost of publication; expanding the author’s readership, since the cost of one installment was cheaper than entire novel; and allowing the author to change the narrative of the plot if he so desired. Dickens added the American adventures chapters to this serialized novel in order to improve lagging sales in England. Dickens’s works were recognized by their green colored paper. After buying the last installment, wealthy patrons could choose to bring the installments to the bookbinder and have them bound.
Gift of William M. Elkins
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