All the Year Round

#1. All the Year Round, The Moonstone, Title Page

#2. All the Year Round p.170-171, The Moonstone

#3. All the Year Round p.174-5, The Moonstone

#4. All the Year Round p.176, The Moonstone

#1. All the Year Round, The Moonstone, Title Page

                The All the Year Round title page for Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone serves as the main point of comparison and contrast to Harper’s Weekly. This journal is concerned entirely with its own reputation, harnessing not only the fame of Dickens’ to propel it into further success and increased readership, but also exploiting an unrelated Shakespeare quote to elevate All the Year Round above any other journal.

                Catherine Waters, in her book mainly discussing Dickens’ other weekly journal Household Words (which took its name from a Shakespearean quote), asserts that       “the material form is certainly not attractive [...] boldface capitals linking the title to the concluding announcement that the 'weekly journal' is 'CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKEN.'S [...] a form of branding that capitalized on Dickens's reputation and resembles the rhetoric of authenticity established through stamps and seals used to verify patent-protected products in advertisement" (21).

While Waters is not specifically discussing this page in her comment, the argument holds its validity. The journal’s title as well as Dickens’ name are capitalized and much larger than that of The Moonstone. Furthermore, Collins’ name is not even mentioned, only identifying him as “the author of “The Woman in White,” &c &c”, perfectly illustrating the unimportance of the individual author and his or her story in Dickens’ journal. 

#2. All the Year Round p.170-171, The Moonstone

While the text itself of the second and third page of All the Year Round’s publication of The Moonstone does not differ much from the second page of the same publication in Harper’s Weekly, the display of the journal on these pages do contrast with one another.

                Unlike Harper’s, All the Year Round displays Dickens’ name (‘Conducted by Charles Dickens’) in the corner of every page of text. There are no images, and paired along with the title page before it, the alluring draw of the story present in Harper’s is entirely non-existent. 

#3. All the Year Round p.176, The Moonstone

                Almost indistinguishable from the pages before, the sixth and seventh pages of All the Year Round’s The Moonstone do little to stimulate the imagination or attention of its readers. It is important to note that page 172 and 173 were missing from the source, however, it seems hard to believe it would make much of a difference having those pages present to analyse, given the mundane similarity between those remaining. However, it is interesting to consider how those pages and what they contain might affect an examination of the publication.

                While there are surprisingly no advertisements on these pages, the focus on the journal itself as a commodity is once again apparent. The lack of images in this story suggests a concern regarding monetary gain and material value that is not as evident in Harper’s Weekly. All the Year Round appears to be interested primarily in making money, and the publication and display of individual works seems to take a backseat in terms of importance. 

#4. All the Year Round p.174-5, The Moonstone

                The last page of All the Year Round’s publication of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone does not surprise the reader with any interesting images or foreshadowing illustrations. This is especially interesting when considering the fact that this page contains the revelation readers have been awaiting for months; Godfrey is the thief! This climax is realised only in the text itself. As mentioned, there are no images at all throughout the publication, and even the placement of the text sullies the big reveal.

                The thirty-first installment of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone is followed immediately by an article titled ‘BEAVERS’. The readers’ eye goes directly from ‘GODFREY ABLEWHITE!’ to ‘BEAVERS’ with little more than a small dividing line to separate these two proclamations. While the inconspicuous title of the next article does seem to be commonplace in weekly journals, its presence here only heightens the underwhelming nature of how Collins’ narrative is presented in All the Year Round.

                All the Year Round appears to be entirely interested in promoting itself as a journal, rather than advertising its necessary contributors. This is especially evident when compared to Harper’s, which took nearly every opportunity to at least make the first page engaging. The commodity focus of All the Year Round is particularly thought provoking when considering the fact that Dickens was an author himself. It is strange that someone who has gained fame from publishing periodical works would be so uninterested in adequately displaying other authors’ texts, and rather would utilize their place in the print industry to further their own reputation.

Works Cited

Waters, Catherine. Commodity Culture in Dickens's Household Words: The Social Life of Goods. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Co. 2008. Print.