ABSTRACT
William Morris Thackeray's professional career began at a moment in time that was of great consequence for the cultural development of Britain. A.W.N. Bayley's magazine, the National Standard, was a literary review that had begun publication on 5 January. In order to understand Thackeray's editorial ideas for the National Standard, it is first necessary to consider the magazine as a whole and see where it came from and how it was situated within the market-place. Thackeray came to feel that he was sold a liability and was duped into paying for a commercial property that was never likely to succeed. The National Standard of Literature, Science, Music, Theatricals, and the Fine Arts was a weekly Saturday magazine running to 16 pages. The National Standard was one of several journals which failed to break the market strangle-hold enjoyed by the Literary Gazette and, by 1833, the Athenaeum.
