A book series is a sequence of
book
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...
s having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same
author
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
, or marketed as a group by their
publisher
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
.
Publishers' reprint series

Reprint series of public domain fiction (and sometimes nonfiction) books appeared as early as the 18th century, with the series ''The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill'' (founded by British publisher
John Bell in 1777).
In 1841 the German
Tauchnitz
Tauchnitz was the name of a family of German printers and publishers. They published English language literature for distribution on the European continent outside Great Britain, including initial serial publications of novels by Charles Dickens. ...
publishing firm launched the ''Collection of British and American Authors'', a reprint series of inexpensive paperbound editions of both public domain and copyrighted fiction and nonfiction works. This book series was unique for paying living authors of the works published even though copyright protection did not exist between nations in the 19th century.
Later British reprint series were to include the ''Routledge's Railway Library'' (
George Routledge
George Routledge (23 September 1812 – 13 December 1888) was a British book publisher and the founder of the publishing house Routledge.
Early life
He was born in Brampton, Cumberland on 23 September 1812.
Career
Routledge gained his early ex ...
, 1848–99), the ''
Oxford World's Classics'' (
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, from 1901), the ''
Everyman's Library
Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It began in 1906. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division ...
'' (
J. M. Dent, from 1906), the ''
Penguin Classics
Penguin Classics is an imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Korean language, Korean amon ...
'' (
Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
, from 1945) and the ''
Penguin English Library
The Penguin English Library is an imprint of Penguin Books. The series was first created in 1963 as a 'sister series' to the Penguin Classics series, providing critical editions of English classics; at that point in time, the Classics label was res ...
'' (from 1963).
Reprint series were also published in the United States, including the ''
Modern Library
The Modern Library is an American book publishing Imprint (trade name), imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Moder ...
'' (
Boni & Liveright
Boni & Liveright (pronounced "BONE-eye" and "LIV-right") is an American trade book publisher established in 1917 in New York City by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright. Over the next sixteen years the firm, which changed its name to Horace Liv ...
, from 1917), in Germany, including the ''Universal-Bibliothek'' (
Reclam, from 1867), and in most other countries of the world.
Fiction books
A novel sequence is a set or series of novels which share common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence. A novel sequence contains story arcs or themes that cross over several books, rather than simply sharing one or more characters.
Fictional series typically share a common
setting,
story arc
A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of a plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing narrative, storyline in episode, episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strip ...
, set of
characters or
timeline
A timeline is a list of events displayed in chronological order. It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with dates paralleling it, and usually contemporaneous events.
Timelines can use any suitable scale representing t ...
. They are common in
genre fiction
In the book-trade, genre fiction, also known as formula fiction, or commercial fiction,Girolimon, Mars"Types of Genres: A Literary Guide" Southern New Hampshire University, 11 December 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2024. encompasses fictional ...
, particularly
crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...
,
adventure fiction
Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of Romance (prose fiction)#Definition, romance fiction.
History
In t ...
, and
speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term, umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from Realism (arts), realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or ...
, as well as in
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
.
Some works in a series can stand alone—they can be read in any order, as each book makes few, if any, reference to past events, and the characters seldom, if ever, change. Many of these series books may be published in a numbered series. Examples of such series are works like
The Hardy Boys,
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and TV shows as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudo ...
, and
Nick Carter.

Some series do have their characters go through changes, and make references to past events. Typically such series are published in the order of their internal chronology, so that the next book published follows the previous book. How much these changes matter will vary from series to series (and reader to reader). For some, it may be minor—characters might get engaged, change jobs, etc., but it does not affect the main storyline. Examples of this type include
Tony Hillerman
Anthony Grove Hillerman (May 27, 1925 – October 26, 2008) was an American author of detective novels and nonfiction works, best known for his mystery novels featuring Navajo Nation Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Several of his w ...
's
Jim Chee
Jim Chee is one of two Navajo Tribal Police detectives in a series of Mystery fiction, mystery novels by Tony Hillerman. Unlike his superior Joe Leaphorn, the "Legendary Lieutenant", Chee is a staunch believer in traditional Navajo culture; indeed ...
and
Joe Leaphorn books. In other series, the changes are major and the books must be read in order to be fully enjoyed. Examples of this type include the
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
series.
Some book series are not exactly proper series, but rather single books that are so large that they are published in two or more volumes. Examples of this type include ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...
'' volumes or the ''
Dark Tower'' series by Stephen King.
Some authors make it difficult to list their books in a numerical order when they do not release each work in its 'proper' order by the story's internal chronology. They might 'jump' back in time to early adventures of the characters, writing works that must be placed before or between previously published works. Thus, the books in a series are sometimes enumerated according to the internal chronology rather than in publication order, depending on the intended purpose for the list. Examples of this series include works from the ''
Chronicles of Narnia
''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven portal fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, the series is set in the fictional realm of Narnia, ...
'', where the fifth book published, ''
The Horse and His Boy'', is actually set during the time of the first book, and the sixth book published, ''
The Magician's Nephew
''The Magician's Nephew'' is a portal fantasy novel by British author C. S. Lewis, published in 1955 by The Bodley Head. It is the sixth published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). In recent editions, which sequence ...
'' is actually set long before the first book. This was done intentionally by
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...
, a scholar of medieval literature. Medieval literature did not always tell a story chronologically.
Definitions
There is no useful, formal demarcation between novel sequences and multi-part novels. Novels that are related may or may not fall into a clear sequence. It is also debatable whether a
trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...
is long enough and whether its parts are discrete enough to qualify as a novel sequence.
For example, the
Barchester novels of
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...
are only loosely related, although they contain a recurring cast of characters; his political novels about the
Pallisers have a tighter connection and dynamic.
A strict definition might exclude both.
History
With precedents such as
Madeleine de Scudéry's magnum opus,
Artamène, the novel sequence was a product of the nineteenth century, with
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...
's works appearing in the 1820s, and
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...
's Barchester books in the 1850s. In
French literature
French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by French people, French citizens; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of Franc ...
,
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...
's ambitious ''
La Comédie humaine
(; English: ''The Human Comedy'') is Honoré de Balzac's 1829–48 multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration (1815–30) and the July Monarchy (1830–48).
''La Com� ...
,'' a set of nearly 100 novels, novellas and short stories with some recurring characters, started to come together during the 1830s.
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...
's ''
Rougon-Macquart'' cycle is a
family saga
The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often ...
, a format that later became a popular fictional form, going beyond the conventional
three-volume novel
The three-volume novel (sometimes three-decker or triple decker) was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern novel as a form of popular literatur ...
.
A ''roman-fleuve'' (French, literally "river-novel") is an extended sequence of novels of which the whole acts as a commentary for a society or an epoch, and which continually deals with a central character, community or a saga within a family. The river metaphor implies a steady, broad dynamic lending itself to a perspective. Each volume makes up a complete novel by itself, but the entire cycle exhibits unifying characteristics.
The metaphor of the roman-fleuve was coined by
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
to describe his 10-volume cycle ''
Jean-Christophe
''Jean-Christophe'' (1904‒1912) is the novel in 10 volumes by Romain Rolland for which he received the Prix Femina in 1905 and which contributed to his receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. It was translated into English by Gilb ...
''. In the preface to the seventh volume, ''Dans la maison'' (1908/1909) he wrote: "When you see a man, do you ask yourself whether he is a novel or a poem? ... Jean-Christophe has always seemed to me to flow like a river; I have said as much from the first pages."
The term has subsequently been applied to other French novel sequences, particularly of the years between the world wars, notably:
*
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...
, ''
À la recherche du temps perdu'' (1908–22)
*
Georges Duhamel, ''
Vie et aventures de Salavin'' (1920–32) and ''
Chronique des Pasquier'' (1933–45)
*
Roger Martin du Gard, ''
The Thibaults'' (1922–40)
*
Jules Romains
Jules Romains (born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule; 26 August 1885 – 14 August 1972) was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement. His works include the play '' Knock ou le Triomphe de la médecine'', and a cyc ...
, ''
Les Hommes de bonne volonté'' (1932–47)
*
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon (; 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the Surrealism, surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littératur ...
, ''
Cycle du monde réel'' (1933–51)
*
Jacques Chardonne, ''
Les Destinées sentimentales
''Sentimental Destinies'' () is a 2000 French drama film directed by Olivier Assayas. Running from the 1890s to the 1930s, the film tells the story of two wealthy French Protestant, Protestant families in the south-west of France: the Pommerels ...
'' (1934–36)
The 19th-century predecessors may be distinguished as being rather "family sagas", as their stories are from the perspective of a single family, rather than society as a whole.
Marcel Proust's ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' has come to be regarded as a definitive ''roman fleuve''. Today, however, its seven volumes are generally considered to be a single novel.
Proust's work was immensely influential, particularly on British novelists of the middle of the twentieth century who did not favour
modernism
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
. Some of those follow the example of
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work '' A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English.
Powell ...
, a Proust disciple, but consciously adapting the technique to depict social change, rather than change in high society. This was a step beyond the realist novels of
Arnold Bennett
Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...
(the ''
Clayhanger'' books) or
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called '' The Forsyte Saga'', and two later trilogies, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of th ...
.
Twentieth century
The twenty-novel
Aubrey-Maturin series by the English author
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series. These sea novels are set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and ...
has been called perhaps the best-loved ''roman fleuve'' of the twentieth century: "
nepic of two heroic yet believably realistic men that would in some ways define a generation".
Development of the novel sequence
Although sequences of
genre fiction
In the book-trade, genre fiction, also known as formula fiction, or commercial fiction,Girolimon, Mars"Types of Genres: A Literary Guide" Southern New Hampshire University, 11 December 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2024. encompasses fictional ...
are sometimes not considered to be ''romans-fleuves'', novel sequences are particularly common in
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
and
epic fantasy
High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot. Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', (p. 198), Scarecrow Pres ...
genres.
The introduction of the preconstructed novel sequence is often attributed to
E. E. Doc Smith, with his ''
Lensman'' books. Such sequences, from contemporary authors, tend to be more clearly defined than earlier examples. Authors are now more likely to announce an overall series title, or write in round numbers such as 12 volumes. These characteristics are not those of the classical model forms, and become more like the
franchises
Franchise may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Media franchise, a collection of related creative works, such as films, video games, books, etc., particularly in North American usage
* "Franchise" (short story), a 1955 short story ...
of the film industry.
Other examples
*
Jacques Abeille's ''
Le Cycle des contrées''
*
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon (; 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the Surrealism, surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littératur ...
's ''
Cycle du Monde Réel''
*
Hirohiko Araki's ''
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly manga magazine ''Ultra Jum ...
''
*
A. S. Byatt's "Frederica Potter" quartet
*
Jacques Chardonne's ''
Les Destinées sentimentales
''Sentimental Destinies'' () is a 2000 French drama film directed by Olivier Assayas. Running from the 1890s to the 1930s, the film tells the story of two wealthy French Protestant, Protestant families in the south-west of France: the Pommerels ...
''
*
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...
's ''
Leatherstocking Tales''
*
John Crowley's ''
Ægypt'' Cycle
*
Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.
Born in India to British colonial pa ...
's ''
Alexandria Quartet'' and other sequences
*
Ford Madox Ford
Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...
's ''
Parade's End
''Parade's End'' is a tetralogy of novels by the British novelist and poet Ford Madox Ford, first published from 1924 to 1928. The novels chronicle the life of a member of the English gentry before, during and after World War I. The setting is ...
''
*
C. S. Forester's "
Horatio Hornblower
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films and radio and television programmes, and ...
" series
*
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called '' The Forsyte Saga'', and two later trilogies, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of th ...
's ''
The Forsyte Saga''
*
Carolyn Keene
Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and ''The Dana Girls'' mystery stories, both produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In addition, the Keene pen name is credited with the Nancy Drew spin-off, ''Riv ...
's "
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
The ''Nancy Drew Mystery Stories'' is the long-running "main" series of the ''Nancy Drew'' franchise, which was published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. There are 175 novels — plus 34 revised stories — that were published between 1930 and ...
"
*
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing ( Tayler; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British novelist. She was born to British parents in Qajar Iran, Persia, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where ...
's ''Children of Violence''
*
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha (, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy described him as a writer "who, through wo ...
's ''
The Cairo Trilogy''
*
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
's ''
Joseph and His Brothers
''Joseph and His Brothers'' (, ) is a four-part novel by Thomas Mann, written over the course of 16 years. Mann retells the familiar stories of Genesis, from Jacob to Joseph (chapters 27–50), setting it in the historical context of the ...
''
*
Roger Martin du Gard's ''
Les Thibault''
*
Yukio Mishima
Kimitake Hiraoka ( , ''Hiraoka Kimitake''; 14 January 192525 November 1970), known by his pen name Yukio Mishima ( , ''Mishima Yukio''), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalis ...
's ''
The Sea of Fertility''
*
Anaïs Nin's ''
Cities of the Interior''
*
Benito Pérez Galdós
Benito María de los Dolores Pérez Galdós (; 10 May 1843 – 4 January 1920) was a Spanish Spanish Realist literature, realist novelist. He was a leading literary figure in 19th-century Spain, and some scholars consider him second only to Mi ...
's ''
Episodios nacionales''
*
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work '' A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English.
Powell ...
's ''
A Dance to the Music of Time
''A Dance to the Music of Time'' is a 12-volume ''Book series#History, roman-fleuve'' by English writer Anthony Powell, published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power ...
''
*
Dorothy Richardson's ''
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...
''
*
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
's ''
Jean-Christophe
''Jean-Christophe'' (1904‒1912) is the novel in 10 volumes by Romain Rolland for which he received the Prix Femina in 1905 and which contributed to his receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. It was translated into English by Gilb ...
''
*
John Roman Baker's "The Nick & Greg Books"
*
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...
's "Zuckerman" novels
*
Paul Scott's ''
Raj Quartet''
*
C. P. Snow's ''
Strangers and Brothers''
*
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...
's ''
Chronicles of Barsetshire
The ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' is a series of six novels by English author Anthony Trollope, published between 1855 and 1867. They are set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire and its cathedral town of Barchester. The novels concer ...
'' and
Palliser novels
The Palliser novels are six novels written in series by Anthony Trollope. They were more commonly known as the Parliamentary novels prior to their 1974 television dramatisation by the BBC broadcast as '' The Pallisers''. Marketed as "polite li ...
*
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...
's "
Rabbit Angstrom
''Rabbit, Run'' is a 1960 novel by John Updike. The novel depicts three months in the life of a 26-year-old former high school basketball player named Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, who is trapped in a loveless marriage and a boring sales job, and at ...
" books
*
Henry Williamson's ''
Chronicles of Ancient Sunlight''
*
A. N. Wilson's ''
Lampitt Papers''
Publishers' nonfiction series
Notable nonfiction book series for the general public have included:
* Architecture: ''
Pevsner Architectural Guides
The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pu ...
''
* Biography: ''
The Republic of Letters''; ''Great Lives''
* History: ''
History of the Great War''
* Science: ''
New Naturalist Library''
* Self Instruction: ''
Teach Yourself''
* Sport: ''
Badminton Library''
* Travel: ''
Murray's Handbooks for Travellers''; ''
Blue Guides''
Academic and scholarly publications
In scholarly and
academic publishing
Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes Research, academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or Thesis, theses. The part of academic written output that is n ...
, scientific and non-fiction books that are released
serially (in successive parts) once a year, or less often, are also called a series. (Publications that are released more often than once a year are known as
periodical
Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...
s.) The connection among books belonging to such a series can be by discipline, focus, approach, type of work, or geographic location. Examples of such series include the "Antwerp Working Papers in Linguistics", "Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile", "Garland Reference Library", "Canterbury Tales Project", "
Early English Text Society
The Early English Text Society (EETS) is a text publication society founded in 1864 which is dedicated to the editing and publication of early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes contain editions of ...
", and "
Cambridge Companions to Music
The Cambridge Companions to Music form a book series published by Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was th ...
".
Compared with editorial collection
Book series can be compared with editorial collection, a type of serial publication which is common in the
Romance-speaking world
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family.
The f ...
, especially in France. Although the two are similar in many ways, book series and editorial collection differ because books in a series generally have a common subject, character, or universe; in other words, a set of volumes that are related to each other by certain thematic elements. While books in a collection do not necessarily have a common subject, or a specific order, but with a certain affinity in the content of books (collections on art, on religion, on science...), as well as in the
format, spine and
page layout
In graphic design, page layout is the arrangement of visual elements on a page. It generally involves organizational principles of composition to achieve specific communication objectives.
The high-level page layout involves deciding on the ...
, even
grammage
Grammage and basis weight, in the pulp and paper industry, are the area density of a paper product, that is, its mass per unit of area. Two ways of expressing the area density of a paper product are commonly used:
* Expressed in grams (g) per s ...
, number of pages and
style
Style, or styles may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal
* ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film
* ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film
* '' ...
of
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...
.
See also
*
List of children's book series
A children's book series is a set of fiction books, written specifically for child readers. Most books have with a connected storyline, filled with a setup of intertwining elements for the reader to follow along in the progressing plot. However, s ...
*
Monographic series
Monographic series (alternatively, monographs in series) are scholarly and scientific books released in successive volumes, each of which is structured like a separate book or scholarly monograph.
Semantics
In general books that are released ser ...
*
Partwork
*
Sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
**
Continuation novel
A continuation novel is a sequel novel with continuity in the style of an established series, produced by a new author after the original author's death.
Continuation novels may be official, produced with the permission of the late author's lite ...
*
Tetralogy
A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...
*
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...
*
Volume
Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...
References
Further reading
* Peter Harris. ''International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature''. London: Taylor & Francis, 2014.
* Frank Arthur Mumby. ''Publishing and Bookselling: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day''. London: Jonathan Cape, 1930. Revised edition, 1949.
* Frank L. Schick. ''The Paperbound Book in America: The History of Paperbacks and Their European Background''. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1958.
* John Spiers, ed. ''The Culture of the Publisher's Series''. 2 vols. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
* Jack David Zipes, ed. ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature''. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2006. 4 volumes.
External links
PublishingHistory.com- List of hardback and paperback book series with titles listed in each series
A Series of Series- List of hardback publisher’s book series with detailed historical commentary on each
FantasticFiction.comFictFact.comFictionDB.comOrderOfBooks.comStopYoureKillingMe.com Vintage Series Books for Girls . . . and a Few for BoysBookSeriesFinder.com
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