Wilkie Collins sensational novel, The Moonstone was serialized concurrently in both the American periodical of Harper’s Weekly, as well as in the British periodical of All The Year Round. Though Collins’ serialized installments were printed in the same format on either side of the Atlantic, the content surrounding each publication within the context of the differing periodicals can operate to alter how one can interpret the serialized segments of this novel. The American publication, Harper’s Weekly seems to be driven with intent of entertainment; it is bursting with illustrations, “Humors of the Day” (347), and advertisements. Conversely, the British publication of All The Year Round seems more focused on academic stoicism; it lacks the vibrant and opulent images, adverts and humors that are found in Harper’s, which functions to make this publication appear more phlegmatic in its presentation.
Mary Leighton and Lisa Surridge discuss the way that the "illustrations [in Harper's] formed an intrinsic part of the American Moonstone, heightening the text’s sensationalism, complicating its already intricate narrative structure, and shifting its treatment of […] disability” (208). This highlights the way that these disparate printing practices can delineate reader perception of disability and difference as performed in this novel. Leighton and Surridge argue that the illustrative printing practices seen in Harper’s actually operates to “de-emphasize disability, [and] heighten the novel’s sympathetic treatment of […] differences” (234). However, by looking at the content that surrounds the May 30, 1868 publication of The Moonstone, a serialized episode that deeply interrogates difference and disability, it can be seen that the Harper’s Weekly publication is actually involved in displaying and delineating difference, as opposed to de-emphasizing it. In the same week's publication of All The Year Round, a pressing call for ignorance of disability and differance is displayed, and thus the British All The Year Round, seems to be more involved in de-emphasizing physical difference than Harper's Weekly.
Therefore, this exhibit employs itself in displaying how the American publication of Harper’s Weekly actively displays difference; exploiting, sensationalizing, and calling to actively cure it. Where as on the other side of the Atlantic, the British publication of All The Year Round, treats difference by de-emphasizing and ignoring it.
Works Cited:
Collins, Wilkie. “Third Narrative” The Moonstone. Ed. John Sutherland. New York: OUP, 2008. 292-307. Print.
Leighton, Mary Elizabeth, -, and Lisa A. -- , - Surridge. “The Transatlantic Moonstone: A Study of the Illustrated Serial in Harper's Weekly.” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 42, no. 3, 2009, pp. 207–243.