Serial (literature)
A format releasing fiction in sequential installments.
A serial is a publishing format in which a larger work, typically narrative fiction, is released in smaller, sequential installments. These installments, also called numbers, parts, fascicules, or fascicles, may appear as separate publications or within periodicals such as magazines or newspapers. Serialization can also begin with a single short story that later expands into a series, often collected into book form.
Quick Facts
- Field
- Literature
- Known for
- Publishing larger works in sequential installments, often in periodicals
Facts from the source article.
Early history
The 17th century's movable type led to episodic narratives like L'Astrée and Le Grand Cyrus. Books were expensive, so publishers issued large works in cheaper fascicles. This method let them test a work's popularity before committing to bound volumes; if serial installments sold well, bound volumes were likely to succeed.
19th and early 20th centuries
Most Victorian novels first appeared as monthly or weekly periodical installments. Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers (1836) established the format's viability. Writers such as Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope, and Arthur Conan Doyle produced serial literature for magazines. American periodicals initially syndicated British writers but later drew on domestic authors; Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly grew alongside American literary talent. A Scribner's Monthly piece in 1878 noted that the best novelists appeared first in magazines, while second- or third-rate ones published in volumes. Henry James and Herman Melville wrote in serial form. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, a significant early American serial, ran for 40 weeks in The National Era starting June 5, 1851.
Late 20th and early 21st centuries
Broadcast radio and television series contributed to a decline in printed periodical fiction, though some serialization continued. Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City appeared as newspaper installments from 1978. Similar serials ran in other city papers, including The Serial, Tangled Lives, Bagtime, and Federal Triangle. Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities ran in 27 parts in Rolling Stone starting in 1984.
Alexander McCall Smith published 44 Scotland Street in daily installments in The Scotsman in 2004. Michael Chabon serialized Gentlemen of the Road in The New York Times Magazine in 2007. The web prompted new serial formats: Stephen King experimented with The Green Mile (1996) and The Plant (2000); Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White was serialized by The Guardian; Orson Scott Card's Hot Sleep appeared in his online magazine in 2005; McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions was serialized online in 2008; and Wildbow's Worm debuted in 2011.
Graphic novels like Alan Moore's Watchmen and Japanese manga such as Eiichiro Oda's One Piece (over 1133 chapters since 1997) also used serial formats.
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