Bentley's Miscellany

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bentley's Miscellany was a literary magazine started by Richard Bentley. It was published between 1836 and 1868.

Already a successful publisher of novels, Bentley began the journal in 1836 and invited, then up-and-coming author, Charles Dickens to be its first editor. Dickens serialised his second novel Oliver Twist but soon fell out with Bentley over editorial control, calling him a "Burlington Street Brigand". He quit as editor in 1839 and William Harrison Ainsworth took over. Ainsworth would also only stay in the job for three years but would buy the magazine off of Bentley a decade later. In 1868 Ainsworth re-sold the magazine back to Bentley who merged it with the Temple Bar Magazine.

Aside from the works of Dickens and Ainsworth other significant authors published in the magazine included: Wilkie Collins, Catharine Sedgwick, Thomas Moore, Thomas Love Peacock, The Ingoldsby Legends and some of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. It was also the first place to publish cartoons of John Leech who became a prominent Punch cartoonist.