author
Hurst & Blackett
A major Victorian publishing house, it helped shape 19th-century popular fiction and became especially known for bringing novels to a wide readership. Founded in London in 1852, the firm published many well-known writers of its day and later issued inexpensive reprint series that kept popular books in circulation.
1 Audiobook
Hurst & Blackett's Standard Library (1895)
by Hurst & Blackett
About the author
Founded in London in 1852 by Daniel William Stow Hurst and Henry Blackett, Hurst & Blackett quickly took over the business of the long-established publisher Henry Colburn. The firm became an important name in Victorian publishing, especially in fiction, and built a list that included many widely read novelists of the period.
It was particularly associated with the three-volume novel and with popular, accessible publishing. One of its best-known ventures was a cheap reprint line often referred to as the Paternoster Library, which helped bring successful books to a broader audience beyond their first edition readers.
Hurst & Blackett remained a familiar imprint well into the 20th century. Its history reflects a key moment in British literary culture, when publishers were not only printing books but also shaping how fiction reached the reading public.