All the Year Round

All The Year Round

Cover of third series, January 1891 issue
Author	Editor: Charles Dickens
Original title	All The Year Round, A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens
Country	England
Language	English
Series	Weekly: 1859 – 1895
Genre	Magazine, Social criticism
Publisher	Chapman & Hall
Publication date	1859
Media type	Print (Serial)
Preceded by	Household Words
Followed by	Household Words, new series

All the Year Round was a Victorian periodical, being a British weekly literary magazine founded and owned by Charles Dickens, published between 1859 and 1895 throughout the United Kingdom. Edited by Dickens, it was the direct successor to his previous publication Household Words, abandoned due to differences with his former publisher.

It hosted the serialisation of many prominent novels, including Dickens' own A Tale of Two Cities. After Dickens's death in 1870, it was owned and edited by his eldest son Charles Dickens, Jr., with a quarter share being owned by the editor and journalist William Henry Wills.

In 1859, Charles Dickens was the editor of his magazine Household Words, published by Bradbury and Evans; a petty dispute with them led Dickens to realize that he was at the publisher's whim, and to decide that he would create a new weekly magazine that he would own and control entirely.

In 1859, Dickens founded All the Year Round, taking William Henry Wills with him from Household Words as part owner and sub-editor. As with his previous magazine, the author searched for a title that could be derived from a Shakespearean quotation. He found it on 28 January 1859 (in Othello, act one, scene three, lines 128–129), to be displayed before the title:

'The story of our lives, from year to year.' – Shakespeare.

ALL THE YEAR ROUND.

A weekly journal.

Conducted by Charles Dickens.

The new weekly magazine had its debut issue on Saturday 30 April 1859, featuring the first instalment of Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. The launch was an immediate success.

One month after the launch, Dickens won a lawsuit in the Court of Chancery against his former publisher Bradbury and Evans, giving him back the trade name of his previous journal. On Saturday 28 May 1859, five weeks after the launch of All the Year Round, Dickens terminated Household Words, publishing its last issue with a prospectus for his new journal and the announcement that, "After the appearance of the present concluding Number of Household Words, this publication will merge into the new weekly publication, All the Year Round, and the title, Household Words, will form a part of the title-page of All the Year Round." AYR's full title then acquired a fourth item: " All the Year Round. A Weekly Journal. Conducted by Charles Dickens. With Which Is Incorporated Household Words. "