With readerships sometimes numbering in the tens and hundreds of thousands, popular magazines were one of the foremost conduits of fiction in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. This chapter examines representations of emigration in fiction published in ten popular magazines between 1870 and 1914 – magazines which were bestsellers among the working and middle classes. It shows that emigration was not only frequently portrayed, but was also often depicted in a specific fashion, with emigration tales being largely stories about men venturing to the wilder, more undeveloped regions of the New World, where they make fortunes and encounter adventure.

The Appeal of Emigration

Nearly six hundred stories were found containing characters who emigrate to the New World – ranging from stories which centre on emigration to those in which minor characters are sent overseas with little more than an acknowledgement of their departure. A number of factors likely motivated authors to include emigrant characters in their stories. Some authors were probably inspired by the heavy contemporaneous outflow of people from Britain; many had likely ventured overseas themselves or knew people who had emigrated.