Hubert Crackanthorpe and The Albemarle: A Study of Contexts

The short life of The Albemarle (January-September 1892), edited by Hubert Crackanthorpe and W.H. Wilkins, makes it possible to see clearly how short fiction engages in a dialogue with the articles, visual materials and advertising that surround it. Although short stories play an important role in the journal (and Crackanthorpe was a prominent short-story writer of the early 1890s), they are immersed within a mass of different material. The socially critical import of several is attenuated by the periodical’s implied readership (well-off, traditionally educated). Indeed, the technical conservatism of most short stories in the journal suggests a readership without innovative literary interests. Although The Albemarle was edited by a short-story writer, short fiction is ultimately peripheral to it.