Project Boz

Every one of Charles Dickens’s novels was published serially--that is, the novels appeared not all at once, but in parts or installments, over a space of time. Publishing his novels in serial form expanded Dickens’s readership, as more people could afford to buy fiction on the installment plan; publishers, too, liked the idea, as it allowed them to increase sales and to offer advertisements in the serial parts. And Dickens enjoyed the intimacy with his audience that serialization provided.

Project Boz began as an initiative by Gordon Library of WPI to digitize all of Charles Dickens's novels in their original serial form. Project Boz ("Boz" was Dickens's early pen name) seeks to promote a greater appreciation for Dickens by offering an online means for researchers and the general public to read, experience, and study Dickens’s works in their original 19th-century form. The project was made possible by a Library Service Technology Act grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, and with the guidance of Professor Joel J. Brattin, Honorary Curator of the Robert D. Fellman collection on Charles Dickens.

Just as Dickens's novels were published serially, so with Project Boz: the digital form of the novels will appear in parts, as the work of imaging and processing is completed.