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Household Words – 1850-1859 – a weekly magazine
 A weekly magazine, its name taken from Shakespeare’s Henry V – ‘familiar in the mouth as household words’. Dickens edited it. He received a salary and extra payments for his own works. Its full title was Household Words, A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens. It was published by Bradbury & Evans. It was published every Saturday from 30 Mar 1850 to 28 May 1859 (478 weekly issues) and sold for tuppence. It was a 24-page non-illustration work (other than advertisements). There were some 380 contributors to the nine-year run of the magazines including Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins. Dickens produced 108 full-length essays and articles himself and included two of his novels (one major, one minor).He also co-wrote another 45 pieces. It was launched with a Preliminary Word, a sort of declaration of intent. This included ‘We hope to be the comrade and friend of many thousands of people, of both sexes, and of all ages and conditions, on whose faces we may never look’. In theory it championed the working classes and poor, though it was a middle-class purchase. It included fiction and non-fiction, for example Dickens serialised both his Hard Times novel (from 1 Apr 1854 and 12 Aug 1854 and his A Child’s History of England (from 25 Jan 1851 – 10 Dec 1853). Other non-fiction looked at the social issues of the day. It also included poems and songs.  Household Words contained a number of stand-alone tales: · The Poor Relations Story and The Child’s Story in A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire, in the Christmas Number of Household Words, 1852 · The Schoolboy’s Story and Nobody’s Story in Another Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire, in the Christmas Number for Household Words, 1853 · The Seven Poor Travellers, Old City of Rochester, The Story of Richard Doubledick in the Christmas Number for Household Words, 14 Dec 1854 · The Holly-tree Inn, The Guest, The Boots, and The Bill afterwards retitled as First Branch: Myself, Second Branch: The Boots, and Third Branch: The Bill in the Christmas Number for Household Words, 15 Dec 1855 · The Wreck of the Golden Mary in the Christmas Number of Household Words, 6 Dec 1856 · The History of a Self-Tormentor, Miss Wade’s Manuscript or Miss Wade’s Autobiography in Chapter 21, Book Two, No. 16 of Little Dorrit, Mar 1857 · The Doctor’s Story in Ch. 2 and The Old Man’s Story in Ch. 4 of The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, originally published in five parts in Household Words, Oct 1857, a collaboration with Wilkie Collins · The Perils of Certain English Prisoners, The Island of Silver-Store and The Rafts on the River a collaboration with Wilkie Collins in the Christmas Number for Household Words, 1857 · A House to Let, and Going into Society in the Christmas Number for Household Words, 1858 Dickens fell out with Bradbury & Evans and ceased Household Words. He replaced it with All the Year Round over which he had a stronger control. In 1858 they were 31 of Dickens’ articlesassembled and included in Reprinted Pieces. |
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