Thackeray’s Articles in the Morning Chronicle

During the early years of the Victorian era the major novelist-to-be, William Makepeace Thackeray, wrote over six hundred separately published articles encompassing a variety of literary styles and genres for over twenty different periodicals (Harden, Checklist of Contributions). Much of Thackeray’s periodical satiric fiction–particularly the pseudonymous stories and novels serialized in Fraser’s Magazine from 1837 to 1847 (such as The Yellowplush Correspondence, Catherine, and Barry Lyndon) and the satires published in Punch during the years 1842–54 (as exemplified by articles by “the fat contributor” or series such as The Snobs of England, or Punch’s Prize Novelists)–has received considerable scholarly attention (Pearson, W. M. Thackeray and the Mediated Text; Sanders, “Thackeray and Punch”). However, partially because of difficulties in attribution, the many anonymous critical articles Thackeray wrote during those same years for two of London’s leading newspapers, The Times (1837–40) and The Morning Chronicle (ca.1838–48), have been relatively unnoticed.

This lack of attention is regrettable, as Thackeray’s newspaper articles often metamorphosed into revealing essays on the manners and life of the early Victorian world. These essays include: assessments of the world of art; reviews of the works of leading English and American authors and the literary trends of the day; ruminations on the aesthetics of poets and poetry; remarks on leading thinkers and politicians of the era; examinations of England’s relationships with America, France, Ireland, and Russia; sentiments regarding Evangelicalism and Catholicism; thoughts on the roles of commoners, aristocrats, and royalty, and on the essential nature of republics and totalitarian regimes; considerations regarding travel to and the cultures of countries of Europe, Africa, and Asia; observations on medieval and modern history; and comments on commerce and colonialism. Further, embedded in these articles are many markers of Thackeray’s development as a novelist and essayist.

Unfortunately, Thackeray never collected and republished his Times or Morning Chronicle articles. Consequently, one of the most comprehensive editions of Thackeray’s works, the 1908 Oxford Thackeray, includes only one article from the Morning Chronicle.¹ During the twentieth century Harold Gulliver (in his 1934 book Thackeray’s Literary Apprenticeship) and Gordon Ray (as part of his 1945–46 The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray and his subsequent 1955 republication of some of these articles in William Makepeace Thackeray: Contributions to the Morning Chronicle) brought to light some of Thackeray’s work in this newspaper.

Most of Gulliver’s and Ray’s attributions are based on uncertain internal evidence. There is, of course, an inherent tension between the need to avoid (or minimize) erroneous attributions and simultaneously to achieve as complete and representative a bibliography as possible. Diversity and range of attributions is important, as different articles may provide different insights into Victorian affairs and attitudes, Thackeray’s perceptions and thinking, and his development as an author. Indeed, despite the lack of supporting external evidence, scholars and biographers–such as Robert Colby, Laura Fascik, Judith Fisher, Donald Hawes, Charles Mauskopf, John McAuliffe, Claire Nicolay, Lidmilla Pantûˇková, Richard Pearson, Catherine Peters, S. S. Prawer, and D. J. Taylor–have relied upon and drawn from Ray’s over sixty-year-old Morning Chronicle list to support their respective analyses of Thackeray’s life and work.² Accordingly, it seems appropriate to reconsider and update Thackeray’s Morning Chronicle bibliography in the same manner as a previous paper updated Thackeray’s 1837–40 enumerative bibliography for the Times.³ This paper: (1) overviews Thackeray’s contributory arrangements with the Morning Chronicle; (2) summarizes and assesses prior attributions; (3) and proposes additional attributions to flesh out an understanding of Thackeray’s contributions to this periodical.

Thackeray and the Morning Chronicle

As Gordon Ray has noted, “During the eighteen-thirties and eighteen-forties the Morning Chronicle was the chief rival of the Times for the title of London’s principal newspaper” (Ray, Contributions xi). Under the editorship of John Black in 1834 the Morning Chronicle had been revitalized and converted into a Whig organ to act as counterweight to the Toryish Times. By 1844 Black...