Creator
[Walter Scott.]
Title
Kenilworth; A Romance.
Coverage
Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.;
Publisher
and John Ballantyne, Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London,
Date
1821.
Description
Although it was not the very first three-decker novel produced in Britain, Scott’s Kenilworth made the format popular. Multi-volume novels were common in the 1700s and early 1800s. The term “three-decker” was reserved for novels printed and bound in three post-octavo volumes and sold at the fixed price of £1 11s. 6d—the first being Anastasius, published by John Murray in 1819. The high price, about an entire week’s wages of a skilled laborer, was not affordable for most readers. Most copies were sold to circulating libraries, which charged readers an annual subscription.
Source
From the collection of Rare Book School