ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the broader print cultural dynamics that impacted upon and interacted with the ghost story during the nineteenth century. Emerging during the twilight of the Romantic Gothic novel, the ghost story enjoyed sustained popularity throughout the nineteenth century, building upon the exponential growth of print culture during the early Victorian era. The early Victorian publishing trade witnessed a shift away from the more “personal”, “genteel” relations between publishers and authors of the Romantic period, towards a more commercial and professionalized structure. What is striking about the Victorian literary marketplace is the quantity and diversity of formats in which the readers could consume their fiction. While many of these formats had been in existence since at least the eighteenth century, the innovation lay in the unprecedented scale of the various aspects of the fiction trade—the large print runs, the huge sums passed between authors and publishers, the multiplicity of formats.
