Reading Thackeray

Book excerpt: Although scholars are aware that serialization was the usual publication format for the Victorian novel, few take into account how this special reading experience affected the meaning of Thackeray's novels for his audience. Thackeray used a number of techniques to encourage his readers to take an active and prolonged part in his installment fiction. Michael Lund's study focuses on the reading of Thackeray's novels and investigates how Victorian understanding of Vanity Fair and Thackeray's other major texts was significantly shaped by the manner in which readers encountered these novels. Situating modern readers in the context of the Victorian audience, particularly within the monthly serial mode, Lund demonstrates in what ways Thackeray made use of his readers' prolonged commitment to his fictional worlds to shape and refine Victorian culture in positive ways.