A cheeky Victorian publisher apparently made a fortune from copying novels by Charles Dickens and is now the subject of a new book.
The 1840s saw Edward Lloyd publish parodies of Dickens such as Oliver Twiss, Nickelas Nickelbery and Martin Guzzlewit, releasing the books soon after Dickens printed his.
Despite being parodies of original novels by Charles Dickens, and meant to ‘cash in’ on Dickens’ popularity, they were not cheap copies, nor badly written. Lloyd’s Oliver Twiss is actually longer than Dickens’ original Oliver Twist, noted Prof McWilliam, Victorian Britain history expert.
McWilliam has explored the fascinating writers’ drama in his published book ‘Edward Lloyd and His World: Popular Fiction, Politics and the Press in Victorian Britain’, co-edited by Sarah Louise Lill.
Charles Dickens and Edward Lloyd
“Dickens was outraged that other authors and publishers were making money from his creations, but he was unable to get a judge to ban them,” Professor McWilliam said.
“What’s particularly interesting is that many Victorian readers may have first encountered Dickens not through his own work, but through one of these imitations. There were many titles produced, which indicate that they were incredibly popular. And in some ways the plagiarisms could be seen as the original form of fan fiction.”
Edward Lloyd, one of the original press barons of Fleet Street- had helped create the first popular fiction mass movement with his “penny dreadfuls”- writing aimed at millions of working class people. One piece included Varney the Vampire, a novel thought to have influenced Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
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