SOURCE: Feltes, N. N. “Anyone of Everybody: Net Books and Howards End.” In Modes of Production of Victorian Novels, pp. 76-98. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

In the following essay, Feltes examines the ways in which Forster's narrative strategy in Howards End reflects the history of the publishing industry at the time.

In her book on Mudie's Library, Guinevere Griest's answer to her own question, “Who killed the three-decker?” is neither precise nor satisfying. She rightly dismisses the proud claims of individuals, of George Moore or his publisher, Henry Vizetelly, or of other publishers who had independently issued single-volume novels in the 1890s, but she then cites only “years of economic pressure” before shifting her attention completely: “What is remarkable about the end of the three-volume form is the completeness and rapidity of its disappearance.”¹ Royal Gettmann, in the other extended study of the sudden disappearance of novels...