Literary Annual

Abstract

Literary annuals were early nineteenth‐century British texts published yearly in England from 1822 to 1860, intended primarily for a middle‐class audience and therefore moderately priced (12s.–£3). ‘“The Annuals,” wrote Southey in 1828, “are now the only books bought for presents to young ladies, in which way poems formerly had their chief vent.” And the young ladies found them much more to their liking than the manuals of conduct’ (Erickson 1996: 30). Initially published in duodecimo or octavo, the decoratively bound volumes – filled with steel plate engravings of nationally recognized artwork and sentimental poetry and prose – exuded a feminine delicacy that attracted a primarily female readership. The engravings were typically copied from various artwork, varied in theme, and verbally illustrated with a poem. Published in November and sold for the following year, the annual constituted an ideal Christmas gift, lover's present, or token of friendship. It was produced as a small, portable volume with paper or leather boards and gilt edges, and marketed both as an extravagant object because of its rigid boards and material stability and as an object to be desired, reread, memorized, memorialized, and treasured for its internal and external beauty.