Romanen som vardagsvara : förläggare, författare och skönlitterära häftesserier i Sverige 1833-1851 från Lars Johan Hierta till Albert Bonnier

This dissertation is a study of four Swedish publishing houses and the serialized fiction they published between 1833 and 1851. The focus is on Lars Johan Hierta's Läsebibliothek (Readers' Library) 1833-1851, N.H. Thomson's Kabinetsbibliothek (Home Library) 1835-1846 and Nya Svenska Parnassen (New Swedish Parnassus) 1847-1848, Östlund & Berling's Originalbibliothek (Original Library) 1845-1851 and Albert Bonnier's Europeiska Följetongen (European Series) 1846-1851. Serialized fiction is defined for the purposes of this study as a series of novels published in parts on a weekly basis over the course of a year. This method enabled publishers to keep prices down and entice new readers as subscribers to the series. The concept was so successful that by 1850 two-thirds of the prose fiction published in Sweden took this form. Thus the publishers had found an effective, new channel for the circulation of fiction.