{{short description|Cheap novel published in Britain in the 19th century}} [[File:The jealous wife julia pardoe 1865 cover.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Cover of ''The Jealous Wife'' (1865) by Julia Pardoe]] [[File:Cora by Gertrude Fenton.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Cover of ''Cora: Or, The Romance of Three Years'' (1869) by Gertrude Fenton]] A '''yellow-back''' or '''yellowback''' is a cheap novel which was published in Britain in the second half of the 19th century. They were occasionally called "mustard-plaster" novels.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Introduction · Yellowbacks|url = http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/yellowbacks/introduction|website = omeka.philaathenaeum.org|access-date = 2016-01-18}}</ref>
Developed in the 1840s to compete with the "penny dreadful", yellow-backs were marketed as entertaining reading. They had brightly coloured covers, often printed by chromoxylography, that were attractive to a new class of readers, thanks to the spread of education and rail travel.
Routledge was one of the first publishers to begin marketing yellow-backs by starting their "Railway Library" in 1848.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hooked on books|first=Judith|last=Flanders|author-link=Judith Flanders|work=The Sunday Telegraph|location=London|date=2006-08-20|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3654668/Hooked-on-books.html|access-date=2015-04-10}}</ref><ref>[https://www.publishinghistory.com/routledges-railway-library.html Routledge's Railway Library (George Routledge) - Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 17 January 2021.</ref> The series included 1,277 titles, published over 50 years. These mainly consisted of stereotyped reprints of novels originally published as cloth editions. By the late 19th century, yellow-backs included sensational fiction, adventure stories, "educational" manuals, handbooks, and cheap biographies.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,805526,00.html "Books: The Yellowbacks"], ''Time'', 10 July 1950. Retrieved 17 January 2021.</ref>
Two typical examples of authors of yellow-backs include James Grant and Robert Louis Stevenson.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.32000006889283;view=1up;seq=14|title=The eighteen nineties; a review of art and ideas at the close of the nineteenth century|last=Jackson|first=Holbrook|publisher=New York, Kennerley|year=1914|location=London|pages=44}}</ref>
The color yellow is similarly associated with fast-paced crime thrillers in Italy, where the word for "crime story" is giallo even nowadays.
==See also== {{portal|Novels}} *Airport novel *Sensation novel *''Kibyōshi'' ({{Literal translation|yellow cover}}) – a genre of Japanese humorous picture books published in 18th - 19th century
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Michael Sadleir, ''Collecting "Yellowbacks"'', London: Constable, 1938 (Aspects of Book-Collecting series). * Michael Sadleir, ''XIX Century Fiction. A Bibliographical Record based on his own Collection'', Constable & Co. and University of California Press, 1951; reprinted by Cooper Square Publishers, New York, 1969. 2 volumes. Vol. II lists Sadleir's personal "Yellow Back Collection". * Chester W. Topp, ''Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905'', Denver, Colorado: Hermitage Antiquarian Bookshop, 1993, 9 volumes, as follows: Vol. 1. George Routledge; Vol. 2. Ward & Lock; Vol. 3. Hotten, Chatto & Windus; Vol. 4. Frederick Warne & Co., Sampson Low & Co.; Vol. 5. MacMillan & Co., Smith, Elder & Co.; Vol. 6. Longmans, Green & Co.; Vol. 7. F.V. White & Co. Cassell & Co., W. Blackwood & Sons, Vizetelly & Co.; Vol. 8. Simpkin, Marshall & Co., J.W. Arrowsmith, R. Bentley, Ward & Downey, J. Blackwood; Vol. 9. David Bryce, Ingram, Cooke & Co., David Bogue, Henry Lea, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., J & C. Brown & Co. * Robert Lee Wolff, {{cite book|title=Nineteenth-Century Fiction: A Bibliographical Catalogue based on the Collection formed by Robert Lee Wolff|volume=5 vols.|location=New York|publisher=Garland Publications|year=1981–1986}} Yellowbacks occupy a prominent position in this catalogue.
== External links == *[https://www.flickr.com/photos/yellowbacks/ Digital collection of Yellowback covers] UCLA *[https://yellowbacks.digitalscholarship.emory.edu/ Yellowbacks at Emory], Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University - digitalized yellowbacks available for download * [https://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0032106/00001 Guide to the Yellowback Press collection, 1981-1995] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122045008/https://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0032106/00001 |date=2021-01-22 }} at University of South Florida Libraries * {{Internet Archive|yellowbacks|Yellowbacks Collection}} * [http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/yellowbacks/ Yellowbacks: Don’t Judge These Victorian Books by Their Covers], Antheneaum of Philadelphia * [http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/yell_thu.html Aspects of the Victorian book: Yellowbacks] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116153328/http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/yell_thu.html |date=2020-01-16 }}, at British Library * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1108451.stm Now that's a novel idea] at BBC * [https://repository.monash.edu/items/show/13203#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0 Yellowbacks : an exhibition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122052426/https://repository.monash.edu/items/show/13203#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0 |date=2021-01-22 }}, at Monash University Library - also: [https://repository.monash.edu/files/original/e1736d02c6f6c0f6798c94776a7c8132.pdf Exhibition catalogue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122211551/https://repository.monash.edu/files/original/e1736d02c6f6c0f6798c94776a7c8132.pdf |date=2021-01-22 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20030910113148/http://www.nls.uk/collections/rarebooks/news/acquisit1001.html Recent acquisitions - Rare Books] at National Library of Scotland
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow-Back}} Category:19th-century British literature Category:Novel forms Category:Literary genres Category:Culture of the United Kingdom Category:Pulp fiction