ABSTRACT
By the mid-1860s, the illustration was firmly established as a part of the narrative structure of the novel. Generally produced by the artist in close collaboration with the writer, it offered a means of comment as well as a redefining of viewpoint which ensured that the reader, while remaining a privileged observer outside the sequence of events, was nevertheless offered guidance as to how the events offered in the discourse should be perceived. If we add to this complex reading experience the circumstance that novel reading was socially quite pervasive, ranging from those who bought the complete three-volume edition of the novel for 31s 6d on its appearance right the way across to those who contributed a halfpenny a week to buy a shared copy of a fortnightly part of the latest bestseller, we must conclude that the combination of printed text and single visual image was one of the dominant cultural modes of the time. A specific index of this can be provided by comparing A. & C. Black's twenty-volume edition of the Waverley Novels, published in 1860, with Constable's six-volume edition of 1824. Each volume contains over thirty illustrations, either wood or steel engravings, taken from the much more expensive Abbots ford Edition: their provision in a small format edition, cheaply bound and aimed at a much larger reading public, clearly indicates the much greater importance of illustrations.
