Historical Context

     This edition of Night and Morning was published in 1841 by Haper & Brothers in New York. Edward Bulwer-Lytton was one of the most popular British novelists of the nineteenth century, his works blended melodrama, social criticism, and moral lessons. American publishers, like Harper & Brothers, quickly reprinted his novels for readers craving British literature but without the import prices. This was during a time prior to international copyright enforcement, and American publishers reissued British novels for a mass market.[1] Firms like Haper & Brothers built their business on quick, inexpensive editions of British bestsellers, allowing readers across the United States, including Columbus, Georgia, and other small southern cities, access to the same literature circulating London.

     Bulwer-Lytton’s novels fit perfectly into this print environment. Victorian fiction is often centered on themes of morality, respectability, class mobility, and family reputation.[2] These stories were more than entertainment, they taught readers how to imagine themselves as moral and socially successful individuals. A book like Night and Morning, with its drama of legitimacy, ambition, and moral testing, reflected the anxieties and aspirations of the people who read it. Transatlantic publishing allowed for Victorian social values from London to migrate to John Fontaine’s home in Columbus Georgia.

[1] Meredith L. McGill, American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting 1834-1853 (University of Pennsylvania, 2003).

[2] Christopher R. Vanden Bossche, Reforming Men and Women: Gender in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).