‘The Cheapest Work Ever Printed’: Illustrating the Classics in Limbird's British Novelist

Abstract

AbstractLimbird's Novelist draws inspiration from eighteenth‐century sources, reprinting some of the most popular novels of that era for a nineteenth‐century readership. Often overlooked, Limbird's work in the 1820s' reprint trade places him in a long line of publishers who hawked affordable editions enhanced by illustrations. While Limbird was certainly not the only nineteenth‐century stationer engaging in illustrated reprints, his wood‐engraved endeavour offers a compelling visual response to familiar narratives. As an heir to the reprint tradition of James Harrison and Charles Cooke, Limbird's collection adapts scenes and illustrations from eighteenth‐century novels for a new edition and a new medium.