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Uitgave even before the Dickens-editie was completely finished. The Geïllustreerde Uitgave ran to 1882,
being overlapped by the Stuivers-editie from 1881 and 1882.
The apparent success of the Dickens-editie unfortunately gives no insight into the possibility of an
increase of interest for Dickens' work since 1870. For one thing, there are no edition size figures
available; for another thing, the series was already going well before Charles Dickens died. Nor does the
fact that 12 novels at least were brought out separately in 1871 say anything. For Roelants this was a way
to encourage the reader to buy a whole set of Dickens' works at once ("19 deelen ineens gekocht
ƒ26,40").
Judging from the list of books it seems likely that the publishers of Dickens' works could count on a large
audience. Leven en Lotgevallen van Maarten Chuzzlewit, for instance, was published in instalments as
"goedkope uitgave" by A.C. Kruseman in 1862, from May to November; in December the novel as a
whole was brought out once more in 3 parts. Both publications ultimately cost the same - ƒ6,30; but A.C.
Kruseman took into consideration the reader who could only afford it if the payment was spread over a
couple of months, as well as the well-to-do. This is practically the same with other publishers.
Most titles appeared more than once during the 16 years under consideration. The novel Groote
Verwachtingen is in the lead: It was reissued at least six times, (including the publication of 1871). It is
followed by Onze Wederzijsche Vriend with five reissues, and In Londen en Parijs was issued four times.
What they have in common is that they are the novels -apart from Edwin Drood- which Charles Dickens
wrote during the last twelve years of his life. So it can be suggested that they could count on a relatively
high interest because they were quite new to the public. The older novels did not do very badly either.
Most were reissued twice or thrice in the period. In itself this does not appear to be so much, but it has to
be considered that they were part of a large collection of writings. Dickens was not liked merely for one
particular book he wrote.
Hopefully the list has given some idea about the extend to which Dickens was read in The Netherlands.
The research I have done is in fact only a beginning. There are further methods, for instance, to look for
information about numbers of copies printed. There also must be ways to find figures on the number of
copies sold. Another step which could be taken is to compare Dickens' success with Van Lennep's.21 But
that Charles Dickens' work was well-known and loved in The Netherlands of the last century, is
something which cannot be denied.
?1
See the quotation from the Leidsch Dagblad above.
