bestsellers, Miscellaneous

The Bestselling English Novels of the Nineteenth Century, Ranked: Part Three

Posted by Karen Wade on
Collage of brightly-coloured novel front covers, featuring images from A Christmas Carol, Black Beauty, Through the Looking Glass, Pelham, The History of David Grieve, and The Murder of Delicia

Which nineteenth-century novels sold the most in their first few decades?

Part One, on instant successes, is here.
Part Two, on novels which were successful in their first few years, is here.
Part Four, on successful novels that don’t really fit into any of the other categories, is available here.

In this post, we provide sales figures for novels which did well over the course of their first few decades in print. With time periods ranging from as little as one year to as many as 42 years, our rankings are at their most dubious, so – as always – take these rankings with a pinch of salt! (For more information on why sales figures for the ninteenth century are complicated, you might enjoy our post on circulating libraries.)

1         Ellen Wood, Total book sales (East Lynne, The Channings, Mrs. Halliburton’s Troubles, Roland Yorke), 1861-1898                          
2.5+ million of her four main titles over 37 years: annual average of 67568 over 37 years [Altick 1957, p385]

2         Marie Corelli, The Murder of Delicia, 1896 
1899 “new and cheaper” edition, 52,000 in one year [Altick 1986, p238]

3         Mrs. Humphry Ward, The History of David Grieve, 1892
80,000 within two years :  average over 2 years, 40000 annually [Altick 1986, p238]

4         Fergus Hume, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, 1887         
From 1887-1898, 377,000 copies:  average over 11 years, 34273 annually [Altick 1969, p202]

5         Hugh Conway, Called Back, 1883       
From 1883-1898, 400,000:  average over 15 years, 26667 annually [Altick 1957, p386]

6         Mrs. Humphry Ward, Robert Elsmere, 1888          
From 1888-1891, 70,500, with “hundreds of thousands more later”: average over 3 years, 23500 annually [Altick 1957, p386]

7         Ian MacLaren , Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush, 1894
From 1894-1907, 256,000: average over 13 years, 19692 annually [Altick 1969, p202]

8         Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843   
15,000 in a year [Altick 1957, p384]

Frontispiece of a 1950s edition. The left page features an inset woodcut-style illustration of a young Dickens with wavy hair, turned to his left. The right page has an inset title with title, author, and a decorative element. Both insets are surrounded by ornate leafy and floral motifs.
A twentieth-century reprint of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, illustrated by Charles E. Brock.

9         Ellen Wood, East Lynne, 1861 
From 1861-1898, 430,000: average over 37 years, 11622 annually [Altick 1957, p385]

10       Anna Sewell, Black Beauty, 1877         
From 1877-1894, 180,000: average over 17 years, 10588 annually [Altick 1957, p389]

Plain title page of Black Beauty, His Groom and Companions, on cream-coloured paper, by J. Hovenden & Company, New York. A subheading describes the book as "The Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Horse".
A late nineteenth-century American edition of Black Beauty, describing itself as “The ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ of the Horse”.

11       H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines, 1885    
From 1885-1895, sales of 100,000; from 1885-1925, sales of 650,000: average over 10 years, 10000 anually, rising to 16250 per annum by the early 20th century [Altick 1969, p202]

12       Charles Reade, It is Never Too Late to Mend, 1856
65,000 in seven years: average over 7 years, 9286 annually [Altick 1957, p385]

13       Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pelham, 1853        
Railway edition, 46,000 in five years (with strong additional later sales in cheap editions): average over 5 years, 9200 annually [Altick 1957, p385]

14       George Eliot, All books, 1866-76
Total sales, first 10 years of Blackwood’s lease of her books, 73,398 copies (46,765 in the second five years):  average over 10 years, 7340 annually [Altick 1969, p201]

15       Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, 1865    
From 1865-1898, 180,000: average over 33 years, 5455 annually [Altick 1957, p389]

16       Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836-7     
Book sales from 1837-1863, 140,000; 1837-1879, 800,000. Average over first 26 years, 5385; average over first 42 years, 19048 annually [Altick 1957, p383]

17       Cuthbert Bede, The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (three series), 1853-7
107,000 in 20 years; average over 20 years, 5350 annually [Altick 1969, p201]

18       Marie Corelli, The Master Christian, 1900 reprint
250,000 in “a few years”: average over (approximately) 5 years, 5000 annually [Altick 1957, p386]

19       Ellen Wood, The Channings, 1862
From 1862-1898, 180,000; average over 36 years, 5000 annually [Altick 1957, p385]

Frontispiece of an 1881 edition of The Channings. The left page shows an illustration in which a woman and a young girl are hugging, standing in front of a large set of open doors. A quote at the bottom reads "Am I to find a little rebel in you, Annabel? Page 46." The right page shows the title and author information, and also has an inset illustration of an imposing church with a tall tower and trees in the front, labelled Helstonleigh Cathedral.
Frontispiece of an 1881 edition of The Channings, published by Bentley and Co., indicating that this is the twenty-first edition.

20       Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s Schooldays, 1857
From 1857-1863, 28,000; average over 6 years, 4667 annually [Altick 1957, p385]

21       Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, 1855        
8,000 in two years (6p reprint (1889 and later) sold 500,000 copies).  Average over first 2 years, 4000 per year [Altick 1957, p385]

22       John Henry Shorthouse, John Inglesant, 1881      
80,000 copies in first 20 years; average over 20 years, 4000 per year [Altick 1969, p202]

23       Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, 1838-9          
From 1838 to 1863, book sales 100,000+; average over 20 years, in excess of 4000 annually [Altick 1957, p383]

24       Ellen Wood, Roland Yorke, 1869
From 1869-1898, 115,000: average over 29 years, 3966 annually [Altick 1957, p385]

25       James Grant, Romance of War, 1856
A cheap reprint sold 100,000 between 1856 and 1882: average over 26 years, 3846 annually [Altick 1957, p385]

26       Ellen Wood, Mrs Halliburton’s Troubles, 1862
From 1862-1898, 120,000: average over 36 years, 3333 annually [Altick 1957, p385]

27       Lewis Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass, 1871
From 1871-1893, 60,000: average over 22 years, 2727 annually [Altick 1957, p389]

28       William Harrison Ainsworth, Windsor Castle, 1849
From 1843-1850, 18,000: average over 7 years, 2571 annually [Altick 1986, p238]

29       Walter Scott, Rob Roy, 1818
40,000+ sold between 1818 and 1836; average over 18 years, 2222 annually [Altick 1957, p383]

30       Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, 1815
10,000 sold from 1815-1820; 50,000 sold from 1820 to 1836.  Average over first 5 years, 2000 annually; average over following 16 years, 3750 per year. [Altick 1957, p383]

31       Frederic William Farrar, The Three Homes, 1873
From 1873-1903, 30,000 copies; 1896 signed edition 29,000 copies.  Average over first 30 years, 1000 per year, plus sales of special signed edition [Altick 1969, p201]

32       Helen Mathers (Reeves), Comin’ Thro’ the Rye, 1875   
From 1875-1898, 35,000: average over 23 years, 1522 annually [Altick 1969, p202]

Two full-colour illustrations from Comin Thro the Rye. Left, a young woman wearing a flower crown and a white dress walks through a field of tall grass and red flowers. A quote at the foot of the page reads "My feet scarcely touch the ground". Right is the title page. The novel title is in red and blue letters, with an illustration in a different style, showing a woman in a blue 19th-century walking dress and straw bonnet, holding a book and walking along a road. The image is surrounded by a decorative border with dandelions.
A 1900 edition of Helen Mather’s Comin Thro’ the Rye, with colour plates

33       Walter Scott, Waverly, 1814
6000 in 6 months (average 1000 per year); 11,000 (collected editions) 1820-29 (average 1222 per year);  40,000 copies (new edition) 1829-1836 (average 5714 per year) [Altick 1957, p383]

Sources

Altick, Richard D. The English Common Reader: a social history of the mass reading public, 1800-1900. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957.

  • This is available at the above link as a PDF. The Internet Archive also holds copies that can be borrowed if you sign up for a free account.

Altick, Richard D.  “Nineteenth-Century English Bestsellers: A Further List”.  In Studies in Bibliography 22, 1969, pp197-205. 

Altick, Richard D.  “Nineteenth-Century English Bestsellers: A Third List”.  In Studies in Bibliography 39, 1986, pp235-41.

How to cite this post

Wade, Karen. “The Bestselling English Novels of the 19th Century, Ranked: Part Three.” The Sea of Books, 14 May 2024, https://theseaofbooks.com/2024/05/14/the-bestselling-english-novels-of-the-nineteenth-century-ranked-part-three/.