All The Year Round, Paratext: Advertisement

All The Year Round, Paratext: Advertisement

In this Christmas 1866 issue of All The Year Round, the stories featured are Charles Dickens' "The Signalman," Andrew Halliday's, "The Engine-Driver," and Amelia B. Edwards, "The Engineer" amongst others. It is worth noting that "The Signalman" features a series of deaths due to being struck by a train. Furthermore, many of the pieces featured in this issue surround some sort of engine or locomotive. Which is why I find it both interesting and clever that a full page advertisement is featured on the back cover for life insurance. While readers have just finished reading stories which described gruesome and random deaths, the editors knew that the random cessation of life would be fresh on the reader's mind. So, it is both smart, and was probably effective, to have an advertisement for life insurance as a closing for this issue. The advertisement itself says, "Accidents will happen!"

New York Public Library: rare books division

Chapman & Hall

Christmas 1866

New York Public Library

Magazine