DHSI 2014: UNDERSTANDING THE PRE-DIGITAL BOOK

Reading Tess in The Graphic

O U R G R O U P C H O S E T O E X A M I N E T H E F I R S T   E D I T I O N O F T H O M A S

H A R D Y ' S   T E S S O F T H E D ’ U R B E R V I L L E S , W H I C H W A S

P U B L I S H E D I N T H E G R A P H I C J U L Y 4 , 1 8 9 1 T H R O U G H D E C E M B E R 2 6 , 1 8 9 1 .

T H E G R A P H I C , F O U N D E D B Y W I L L I A M L U S O N T H O M A S , W A S A

W E E K L Y P A P E R N O T E W O R T H Y F O R I T S E L A B O R A T E I L L U S T R A T I O N S .

T H E G R A P H I C W A S P U B L I S H E D E V E R Y S A T U R D A Y F O R T H E P R I C E O F S I X P E N C E — O N E P E N C E M O R E T H A N

T H E C O S T O F I T S C O M P E T I T O R P A P E R , T H E I L L U S T R A T E D L O N D O N N E W S . T H E G R A P H I C W A S P R I N T E D O N H I G H Q U A L I T Y P A P E R , A L A R G E

F O R M A T ( 3 8 C M B Y 2 9 C M ) , O F T W E N T Y- F O U R P A G E I N S T A L L M E N T S . T H E P A P E R S O L D T H R O U G H O U T T H E

B R I T I S H E M P I R E A S W E L L A S T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S , A N D C O V E R E D A

R A N G E O F T O P I C S I N C L U D I N G L I T E R A T U R E , S P O R T S , M U S I C , A R T S ,

A N D S C I E N C E S .

T H E F I R S T I S S U E O F T H E G R A P H I C A P P E A R E D O N D E C E M B E R 4 , 1 8 6 9 , A N D C O N T I N U E D T H R O U G H 1 8 3 2 , AT W H I C H

P O I N T T H E PA P E R C H A N G E D I T S N A M E T O T H E N AT I O N A L G R A P H I C . I L LU S T R AT I O N S

F O R T E S S W E R E C R E AT E D B Y A T E A M W O R K I N G U N D E R T H E S U P E RV I S I O N O F

P R O F E S S O R H U B E R T H E R K O M E R , R A . T H E N U M B E R A N D Q UA L I T Y O F I L LU S T R AT I O N S I N E A C H I S S U E A R E I N C O N S I S T E N T: S O M E

A R E S T E E L P L AT E S, W H E R E A S O T H E R S A P P E A R T O B E W O O D E N G R AV I N G S ; S O M E

I L LU S T R AT I O N S TA K E U P A N E N T I R E PA G E , W H E R E A S O T H E R S A P P E A R O N T H E PA G E

W I T H L E T T E R P R E S S .

F I R S T A N D T W E N T Y- T H I R D I S S U E S H A V E D O U B L E - PA G E I L L U S T R AT I O N S . T H E F I N A L I S S U E I N C LU D E S A F U L L -

PA G E I M A G E O F L A R G E R T H A N L I F E S T O N E H E N G E . A L L I L LU S T R A T I O N S A R E I N B L A C K A N D W H I T E . T H E N O V E L’ S

T I T L E D O E S N O T I N C LU D E T H E S U B - T I T L E T H A T A P P E A R E D O N L A T E R E D I T I O N S O F T H I S N O V E L .

In examining this edition of Tess, our group looked to create a list of the edition’s material features that we thought would be important to convey in a digital format, and that were conspicuously absent from existing digitizations of The Graphic. The most striking of these features is the impressive size of the paper: the large folio pages of The Graphic were intended to showcase images, and thus provided the illustrators of Tess with the freedom and space to create vivid, detailed representations of scenes in the novel, which are not always included in modern editions. With this in mind, we wondered how these illustrations might have influenced the experience of Victorian readers of Tess. In our own interaction with the library’s copy of The Graphic, we were struck both by the richness of the illustrations, but also by the practical challenges of reading a serialized work of fiction in this large format.

Though digital images of The Graphic exist in numerous locations online, they fail to convey some aspects of the materiality of this process. What, for example, was it like to read Thomas Hardy in the image-to-text ratio that we get in the Graphic, where one page of text is accompanied by a full-page illustration? What can this form of publication tell us about the experience of reading the first edition of Tess?

IMAGE AND TEXT

SHARING THE

SPACE OF A

SINGLE FOLIO OF

THE GRAPHIC.

The above image shows the relative size of The Graphic (below) and Tess in a later book edition of three volumes.

READING BY CANDLELIGHT

This image conveys the difficulty of reading a large

page by candlelight: the candle is only able to

illuminate a small part of the page. Interacting with Tess in

The Graphic spurred us to ask questions about the

necessary material conditions for reading this

kind of magazine.