Confused and Ill-Arranged: Reading Miscellaneity with Enquire Within

Enquire Within was a domestic miscellany published monthly from January to November 1856. Reprinted on completion as a volume, it quickly became one of the best-selling books of the period. It offered a bewildering range of articles, but it was not until the publication of the final number that readers received the index and so were finally able to enquire within. Randomness can be unsettling, yet difference produces meaning. Taking Enquire Within as a case study, this paper examines the role of miscellaneity in the press and considers how the miscellaneous was made meaningful.