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
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
as a form of popular literature in Western culture.
History
An 1885 cartoon from the magazine ''Punch'', mocking the clichéd language attributed to three-volume novels
Three-volume novels began to be produced by the Edinburgh-based publisher
Archibald Constable
Archibald David Constable (24 February 1774 – 21 July 1827) was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer.
Life
Constable was born at Carnbee, Fife, son of the land steward to the Earl of Kellie.
In 1788 Archibald was apprenticed to P ...
in the early 19th century. Constable was one of the most significant publishers of the 1820s and made a success of publishing expensive, three-volume editions of the works of
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
; the first was Scott's historical novel
''Kenilworth'', published in 1821, at what became the standard price for the next seventy years.
rchibald Constable published Ivanhoe in 3 volumes in 1820, but also, T. Egerton had been publishing the works of Jane Austen in 3 volumes 10 years earlier, Sense and Sensibility in 1811 etc.
This continued until Constable's company collapsed in 1826 with large debts, bankrupting both him and Scott.
As Constable's company collapsed, the publisher
Henry Colburn quickly adopted the format. The number of three-volume novels he issued annually rose from six in 1825 to 30 in 1828 and 39 in 1829. Under Colburn's influence, the published novels adopted a standard format of three volumes in
