Dickensblog

We've all heard of the widespread literary plagiarism and piracy in Dickens's time, but a new biography of publisher Edward Lloyd suggests that it was even more widespread than we knew. Biographer Rohan McWilliam explains, “What’s particularly interesting is that many Victorian readers may have first encountered Dickens not through his own work, but through one of these imitations. There were many titles produced, which indicate that they were incredibly popular. And in some ways the plagiarisms could be seen as the original form of fan fiction, as they took familiar characters and did different things with them.” For more on Oliver Twiss and other plagiarisms of Dickens, go here.