231:, but which some twenty years later had run out of steam. In 1868 Ainsworth was content to sell it back to the Bentleys. Editing Temple Bar himself, Bentley was able to make it "one of his three most valuable literary properties". Many of those contributing to the magazine were, or became, some of the best known novelists of Victorian England. Most had novels that were serialised in the monthly magazine which were subsequently published in book form. Under Bentley's editorship and direction published authors and contributors to
195:. A cause of tension between father and son arose when Richard Bentley believed he had been excluded from commercial discussions involving George Bentley and the author. Sources imply that this was not the only time that disagreements broke out between Richard and George Bentley during the early years of George's publishing career. As George became more of a driving force in the inter-generational partnership, the firm became known for its eye-catching and confidence inspiring book bindings. A later admirer was the novelist
351:, a standard format during the mid nineteenth century from which published novelists deviated at their peril. Bentley had a concern that the rigidly formulaic three-volume structure could restrict literary creativity and excellence: he was on occasion content to depart from the formula. Three-volume novels were also expensive for readers to buy, creating a quasi-monopoly for commercial lending libraries. During the 1850s he attacked the commercial lending libraries' cartel by cutting the price of his own
421:
for just £8,000. George
Bentley was survived by his widow by less than three years. His son, Richard Bentley lived on at The Mere estate till 1936. This Richard Bentley married in 1905 a cousin, Lucy Rosamond Bentley. George's posthumously acquired daughter-in-law, Lucy, lived on at the house
416:
which became a consuming interest during the final part of his life, and one that was taken up keenly by his son
Richard after he died. By the time George Bentley died at The Mere, of "angina pectoris" at the end of May 1895, the publishing business had become more cut-throat and less lucrative.
403:
a futuristic half-timbered mansion constructed using cavity walls and double glazed windows. Possibly the most innovative feature of the house was the elaborate hot and cold piped water supply. Robert Patten describes the house, which was named "The Mere", admiringly as "a refuge from the fierce
126:
Born into a family of publishers and printers, Bentley entered into partnership with his father around 1845, at a time when the firm's fortunes were in decline. Relations between father and son were sometimes difficult, and on at least one occasion George removed himself from the business. After
385:
died in 1871 the business had been renamed "Richard
Bentley and Son". George Bentley was now 43 and during the 1880s George Bentley showed himself content, increasingly, to leave the daily running of the business to his own son, the next Richard Bentley (1854-1936). During the mid-1880s George
376:
The 1860s was a decade of relative prosperity for the business and the father-son business relationship between George
Bentley and his father seems to have been harmonious, so that it is hard to identify from the sources which of them was setting the strategy. Old Richard Bentley suffered an
131:. During the 1860s George Bentley identified and published a number of other authors who later achieved notability. He became increasingly influential and knowledgeable as a publisher of fiction, formally taking control of the business after his father's death in 1871.
454:
where they lived together till 1887, when they moved to a larger house which they had built less than a mile away. In the meantime the couple's only recorded son, another
Richard Bentley, had been born in north London in May 1854.
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where he had lived with his family since 1860. Other contiguous plots were purchased by his son, Richard, and by the mid 1880s the two of them had purchased 15 plots. They now commissioned the fashionable architect
355:
to 10 shillings, less than a third of the "normal" price, hoping that in this way readers would be persuaded to buy their own copies. The strategy failed, however, and
Bentley accepted defeat, buying a share in
134:
Bentley also diversified successfully into magazine publishing, exploiting the synergies available from simultaneously publishing novels serialized in monthly servings and thereafter in book form.
364:
to the lending library trade. Nevertheless, by the 1880s
Bentley and Mudie (who continued to participate actively in the business he had created) seem to have been on the same side in the
417:
The
Bentleys' business was valued at £20,000 in a valuation which included a significant element for "goodwill", but George's son nevertheless sold the business in 1898 to
199:, who wrote that no rival publisher "went in so thoroughly and so persistently ... for all the panoply of glitter and colour ... ... prosperity, confidence, and peace".
175:, concluding his formal education and entering his father's "publishing office" when he was 17. During the next few years he was able to travel abroad, and was in
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219:, but he resigned in July 1867. After searching unsuccessfully for a suitable successor, in November 1867 George Bentley himself took on the editorship of
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Bentley found a time-consuming new project, having spent twenty years buying up a number of contiguous plots of land as they became available, beside
215:, who had himself purchased it from the founder, John Maxwell, a couple of years earlier. The magazine was edited briefly by the novelist-dramatist
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commercial lending library business when it was floated as a public company in 1864. Bentley now himself became a major supplier of standard format
191:
Bentley's father had launched a literary magazine in 1836 to which the son contributed positive reviews of novels by the still relatively unknown
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368:
debate, and
Bentleys were increasingly supplying novels in the cheaper one-volume format, both to the lending libraries and to reader-buyers.
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183:. Later in life he restricted his travel to occasional vacations at health resorts in the British Isles. He was a lifelong asthmatic.
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718:
688:
633:
319:, Bentley extended his publishing remit beyond fiction. Works of scholarship that he published included the "History of Rome" by
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486:
924:
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After moving into it in 1887, George
Bentley ran his publishing business from his new home, also devoting increasing energy to
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1857, he became more confident of his position in the firm, increasingly steering its progress. An early "find" was
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Although the business flourished by exploiting the synergies between novel publishing and serializing the novels in
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had boasted a direct rail connection to London since 1840, and in 1860 the Bentleys relocated to 2 East Villas at
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283:. Bentley was also able to introduce readers to translated contemporary classical works from writers including
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155:(1794-1871) by his marriage to Charlotte Botten/Bell (1800–1871). An uncle was the printer-antiquarian
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800:"Addresses and information for visitors: National Foundation for Educational Research (head office)"
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till 1961, when the "35 room mansion" was sold. Today it serves as the headquarters of the
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at St. James's, Westminster in 1853 and the two of them set up home together on the edge of
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159:. Two elder brothers died in infancy. George Bentley's education included a period at
151:, then on the western edge of London, fourth of nine recorded children of the publisher
442:, a few minutes from the Bentley family home in Dorset Square. To the west of London,
381:
in 1867 in which he broke a leg, and was forced to retire from the firm. By the time
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George Bentley was born "at seven o'clock in the morning of Saturday" at an address in
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The Mere. site acquisition, building, furnishing, ground and house notices
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The Mere. site acquisition, building, furnishing, ground and house notices
119:(7 June 1828 – 29 May 1895) was a 19th-century English publisher based in
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Despite the success that the firm enjoyed publishing novels and with
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327:. Beyond the world of printing and publishing, he also joined the
223:. Bentley merged the publication with the former house-journal,
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347:, another important pillar during the 1870s and 1880s was the
802:. National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), Slough
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in 1849 when French troops entered the city to put down a
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cost-cutting competition of late Victorian publishing".
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In January 1866 Bentley's firm purchased the magazine
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run by the nonconformist minister, John Potticary, in
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A Victorian Publisher: A Study of the Bentley Papers
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529:Patten, Robert L. "Bentley, George (1828–1895)".
687:Reg Harrison, Langley (Slough) (31 March 1985).
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535:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
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424:National Foundation for Educational Research
606:. Cambridge University Press. p. 242.
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748:"Index of marriages Lucy Rosamond Bentley"
434:George Bentley married Anne Williams from
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532:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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211:for £2,750 from its proprietor-editor,
171:among its alumni. Bentley went on to
7:
774:"Index of marriages Richard Bentley"
930:19th-century English businesspeople
450:, a modern housing development at
14:
689:"The Bentley family and The Mere"
110:Charlotte Botten/Bell (1800–1871)
89:Anne Williams/Bentley (1826-1898)
717:Reg Harrison, Langley (Slough).
632:Reg Harrison, Langley (Slough).
567:Reg Harrison, Langley (Slough).
491:. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
487:Dictionary of National Biography
920:Publishers (people) from London
659:"Bricks & Mortar: The Mere"
323:and the "History of Greece" by
1:
390:, the residential quarter of
719:"Weather recording at Upton"
549:UK public library membership
474:Rae, William Fraser (1901).
331:and became a fellow of the
97:Richard Bentley (1854-1936)
946:
598:Royal A. Gettmann (1960).
333:Royal Geographical Society
229:William Harrison Ainsworth
227:, which had been sold to
634:"Bentleys at East Villa"
379:Chepstow railway station
728:. Slough History online
698:. Slough History online
661:. Slough History online
639:. Slough History online
574:. Slough History online
477:"Bentley, George"
311:Beyond novel publishing
305:Hans Christian Andersen
925:People from Marylebone
383:Richard Bentley senior
339:The three volume novel
265:Robert Louis Stevenson
235:included the brothers
167:, which also numbered
541:10.1093/ref:odnb/2165
173:King's College London
848:"Index of marriages"
822:"Index of marriages"
399:to design and build
225:Bentley's Miscellany
181:republican rebellion
366:Three-volume novels
362:three-volume novels
353:Three-volume novels
345:Temple Bar magazine
329:Stationers' Company
317:Temple Bar magazine
600:"The Three-Decker"
569:"Bentley ancestry"
349:Three-volume novel
273:Arthur Conan Doyle
874:"Index of births"
613:978-0-521-05072-2
547:(Subscription or
169:Benjamin Disraeli
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16:English publisher
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915:English printers
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285:Honoré de Balzac
277:Maarten Maartens
253:Sheridan Le Fanu
241:Anthony Trollope
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358:Charles Mudie's
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321:Theodor Mommsen
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289:Alphonse Daudet
245:Rhoda Broughton
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197:Michael Sadleir
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153:Richard Bentley
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106:Richard Bentley
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269:George Gissing
261:Henry Kingsley
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193:Wilkie Collins
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157:Samuel Bentley
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129:Wilkie Collins
117:George Bentley
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297:Ivan Turgenev
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293:Anton Chekhov
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149:Dorset Square
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76:Occupation(s)
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38:Dorset Square
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882:. Retrieved
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856:. Retrieved
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830:. Retrieved
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641:. Retrieved
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576:. Retrieved
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397:George Devey
377:accident at
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342:
314:
217:Edmund Yates
206:
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116:
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18:
910:1895 deaths
905:1828 births
884:12 December
858:12 December
832:12 December
806:13 December
784:13 December
758:13 December
732:13 December
702:12 December
665:13 December
643:13 December
578:13 December
482:Lee, Sidney
436:Aberystwyth
414:meteorology
408:Final years
301:Leo Tolstoy
281:Henry James
213:George Sala
143:Early years
108:(1794-1871)
56:29 May 1895
34:7 June 1828
899:Categories
551:required.)
459:References
448:Upton Park
419:MacMillans
388:Upton Park
249:Ellen Wood
233:Temple Bar
221:Temple Bar
209:Temple Bar
203:Temple Bar
187:Publishing
165:Blackheath
161:the school
61:Upton Park
59:The Mere,
372:Moving on
102:Parent(s)
79:Publisher
430:Personal
401:The Mere
94:Children
878:FreeBMD
852:FreeBMD
826:FreeBMD
778:FreeBMD
752:FreeBMD
484:(ed.).
69:England
46:England
610:
545:
452:Slough
444:Slough
392:Slough
279:, and
237:Thomas
121:London
86:Spouse
81:Writer
65:Slough
42:London
880:. ONS
854:. ONS
828:. ONS
780:. ONS
754:. ONS
722:(PDF)
692:(PDF)
637:(PDF)
572:(PDF)
480:. In
886:2015
860:2015
834:2015
808:2015
786:2015
760:2015
734:2015
704:2015
667:2015
645:2015
608:ISBN
580:2015
303:and
239:and
177:Rome
138:Life
53:Died
31:Born
537:doi
901::
876:.
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750:.
724:.
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675:^
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