The MU Libraries collections include many 19th century periodicals in print format. We list here some of the major examples. If you need to request volumes from the Depository, click on the title below to open the MERLIN catalog record, then click on "Request" at the top of the screen and follow the directions.
Most of these have also been digitized and are searchable in full text as part of the Hathi Trust Digital Library or may be available online in the British Periodicals database. To search within a specific journal in the Hathi Trust Digital Library, use the Advanced Catalog Search to locate the specific journal record, then view the catalog record to see the individual years. Click on a year to open the full text and search within that volume. Note that different catalog records come from different libraries and may contain different years. A volume that is not available in one place, may well be in another.
English Literary Periodicals 1681-1941 is a set of microfilm that includes many journals of interest. These are shelved alphabetically by the title of the journal or magazine in the microforms area of Special Collections. This collection is reproduced online as part of British Periodicals, but the microfilm may still be of use if you find the quality of the digital image to be less than satisfactory. The guide Accessing English Literary Periodicals (Special Collections Reference PN5124.P4 A25 1981) includes a subject index, listing journals by broad subject category. Those focusing on 19th century fiction include:
These sources list additional periodicals.
C19 provides a collection of indexes and catalogs of 19th Century materials, but does not search the full text of periodicals.
British Periodicals (the separate database, not the section within C19) searches the full text of articles within journals.
The Reader's Guide Retrospective indexes periodicals from 1890-1982.
All of these offer the option to limit your search to reviews only, but the tagging of reviews is not always thorough, so this may accidentally exclude some reviews.
The Hathi Trust Digital Library contains the full text of many periodicals and books. Using the advanced full text search you can limit a full text search to serials or journals ("Limit to original format") or to a specific periodical.
If you don't have a specific author or title in mind, but want to browse fiction within the periodicals, use the British Periodicals and limit to document type "fiction/narrative".
If the full text of an article is not immediately available, the FindIt@MU links will appear and link you to online or print copies. If we have neither, it'll link you to ILL@MU. We should be able to get copies of things we don't have via interlibrary loan.
See Lionel Madden and Diana Dixon, "Histories and Studies of Individual Periodicals," and Joel H. Wiener, "Circulaton and the Stamp Tax" in Victorian Periodicals: A Guide to Research (Reference PN 5124 .P4 V5) for excellent directions on researching publishing history.
Use these resources for quick background information on specific serials:
To find studies on periodicals, use the standard research tools (MLAIB, LION, MERLIN, etc.) but also consult these more specialized bibliographies:
The following works are helpful in exploring the world of Victorian publishing and reading habits:
These 19th Century sources give insight into the marketing and distribution of reading material:
These sources help locate archival records for periodicals, publishers and authors.
