Among the many bestselling novels published in England between 1837 and 1861, a few employed first-person narration:
William Makepeace Thackeray's Fitz-Boodle's Confessions, 1843
William Makepeace Thackeray's Barry Lyndon, 1844
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, 1847
Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, 1850
Charles Dickens's Bleak House first-person (part of novel), 1853
Edward Bulwer Lytton's My Novel, by Pisistratus Caxton; or, Varieties in English Life, 1853
R. M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island, A Tale of the Pacific Ocean, 1853
Edward Bulwer Lytton's What Will He Do with It? by Pisistratus Caxton, 1853
Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, 1860
Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, 1860
If you have more examples, please send them to apalling@tbaytel.net or george at landow.com (replace "at" by "@").].
Last modified 29 January 2001