Victorian Weekly Reviews and Reviewing after 1860: R. H. Hutton and the 'Spectator'

Abstract

restrictions in the I85os and 186os (the lifting of the tax on advertisements in 1853, of the stamp duty in 1855, and of the paper tax in 1861). These and other changes, such as advances in production, newsgathering, and information technology, had their most dramatic effect on the daily press in London and the provinces. These changes also affected, however, the weekly 'literary' journal, as they did every specialized periodical: in London alone an astonishing 115 periodicals were launched in 1859.2 Indeed the weekly review was influenced by the publishing trade in general to a far greater extent than was the quarterly review. The literary content of the latter tended to be essayistic, reflective, and not necessarily concerned with contemporary literature or even with the books ostensibly under review. The quarterly reviewer was not above inventing books on subjects to which he wished to address himself.3 The weekly reviewer was directly concerned with those products which the publishing trade thought it worthwhile to issue, even if his indirect concerns were more personal. It is these more indirect concerns which I shall be discussing later. Not only was the press a growth industry in I86o, but it has also provided material for a growing academic industry in more recent years. The notable monument to this interest is the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, which lists and attributes authors to the contents of selected fortnightly, monthly, and quarterly periodicals (such as the Fortnightly Review, Contemporary Review, Westminster Review, Fraser's Magazine, Cornhill Magazine, and Macmillan's