The Diverse Nature of the Contents: Information, Entertainment, and Instruction
Household Words betrays itself as a Shakespearean allusion in its full title: "Familiar in their mouths as Household Words" (Henry V, Act IV, Scene iii, line, 52 — in the young monarch's famous "Saint Crispin's day" speech). Dickens and his London publishers, Bradbury and Evans, founded Household Words as a weekly magazine with the announced purpose "to show to all, that in all familiar things, even those which are repellant on the surface, there is Romance enough, if we will find it out" ("Preliminary Word," 1). It provided each week three distinctly different kinds of articles: "Material of social import, informational articles, and material for entertainment" (Lohrli 4). Although Household Words pilloried the goverment over its corrupt and incompetent handling of the Crimean War; championed the cause of health, sanitation, and clean water; and agitated for a national and truly accessible system of public education,
None of the abuses decried in Household Words, none of the reforms advocated, none of the conditions criticized, were first brought to public attention by Household Words; but the popular — "readable" — discussion of these matters in Dickens's widely read periodical brought them attention that their sober presentation in specialized journals and in upper-class journals did not give them. [Lohrli 5]
Despite the fact that it was always dated on Saturday, it was actually published every Wednesday from 27 March 1850 to 28 May 1859 at the offices at No. 16 Wellington Street North, Strand (Covent Garden). Each number cost a mere tuppence, thereby ensuring a wide readership. Theoretically, it championed the cause of the poor and working classes, but in fact Household Words addressed itself almost exclusively to the burgeoning middle class. Only the name of Charles Dickens, the journal's "Conductor," appeared; articles were unsigned (although authors of serialised novels were identified) and, in spite of its regularly featuring an "advertiser," unillustrated.
During its first years the magazine did valuable work in the cause of sanitary reform (especially London's water supply and sewerage system), than a topical issue and provided information about emigration to Australia. [Bentley et al, 124]
Typically, each issue or number offered readers six to ten items, was printed in double columns, and was twenty-four pages or 22,000 words in length. When the second instalment of his article on the lost Franklin expedition appeared on 9 December 1854, for example, Household Words for that week also contained "Madame Busque's" by George A. Sala, "The Saucy Arethusa" by Grenville Murray, Chapters 29 and 30 of Gaskell's North and South, and "The Great Red Book," also by Sala. "Poems, for edification and for pleasure, appeared more frequently in earlier volumes than in later ones" (Lohrli 18).
The style of the articles, whether verse, non-fiction, or fiction, was decidedly rhetorical and fanciful. Inspired by (or perhaps consciously emulating) Dickens, contributors used figure rather than journalistic language, frequently employing such devices as personification, contrived conversation, exaggeration, and distortion. Even reportage and social commentary utilized "fantasy, vision, fable, imaginary travels, . . . and the use of fictitious characters to serve as mouthpieces of information and opinion" (Lohrli 9).
Although the lead item might sometimes be an article dealing with an issue of social import, the instalments of both Hard Times and The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices always led off the issues in which they appeared. although serialising his own novels had not originally figured in Dickens's plans for Household Words, which he primarily intended to be a vehicle for topical journalism, essays, short fiction, and occasional poetry, in 1853 he determined to run Hard Times for These Times (1 April through 12 August 1854) in order to bolster the sagging circulation and ensure his income as writer, editor, and publisher should not be jeopardized, for as the founder and conductor he received both a salary and a share of the profits. He found the experience of writing for weekly serialisation, however, quite wearing, and determined not to engage in the practice again — and, in fact, he did not until the launching of his new weekly, All the Year Round in 1859.
Related Material
- Introduction to Household Words (1850-59)
- Contributors to Household Words
- Wrapping up Household Words
- Charles Dickens and George Elgar Hicks’ representations of the General Post Office on St-Martin’s-le-Grand
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicholas; Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.
Fido, Martin. The World of Charles Dickens. Vancouver: Raincoast, 1997.
Lohrli, Anne. Household Words: A Weekly Journal 1850-1859 Conducted by Charles Dickens — Table of Contents, List of Contributors and Their Contributions Based on The Household Words Office Book in the Morris L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists, Princeton University Library. Toronto: U. Toronto Press, 1973.
Oppenlander, Ella Ann. Dickens's "All the Year Round": Descriptive Index and Contributor List. New York: Whitson, 1984.
Parrott, Jeremy. "Lohrli Revisited: Newly Identified Contributors to Household Words." Dickens Quarterly 35, 2 (June 2018): 110-126.
Schlicke, Paul. Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Created 11 July 2004
Last modified 3 July 2020