Alexandre Dumas’s novels, first serialized in periodicals and then issued as books, created a sensation in France and were soon translated into English. By the early 1850s, titles such as The Three Musketeers (1844), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–45), and The Black Tulip (1850) were published in London as yellow-backs: cheaply produced paperback editions of popular novels, identifiable by the color of their covers. Yellow-backs, vying for market share against penny-dreadfuls, were available for a shilling or two in places such as W. H. Smith’s railway bookstalls. They provided inexpensive, compelling page-turners for an avid reading public on rail journeys. This cover for an early yellow-back was designed by Alfred Crowquill (1804–1872), a popular and prolific English writer and illustrator.
Alfred Crowquill (1804–1872), cover design for The Three Musketeers, ca. 1850s. Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.