<P> Serialized fiction surged in popularity during Britain 's Victorian era , due to a combination of the rise of literacy , technological advances in printing , and improved economics of distribution . Most Victorian novels first appeared as installments in monthly or weekly periodicals . The wild success of Charles Dickens 's The Pickwick Papers , first published in 1836 , is widely considered to have established the viability and appeal of the serialized format within periodical literature . During that era , the line between `` quality '' and `` commercial '' literature was not distinct . Other famous writers who wrote serial literature for popular magazines were Wilkie Collins , inventor of the detective novel with The Moonstone and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , who created the Sherlock Holmes stories originally for serialization in The Strand magazine . </P>
how and why were serial novels a phenomenon in the nineteenth century
the rise of literacy technological advances in printing improved economics of distribution