During the 19th century, throughout the Anglophone world, most
fiction was first published in periodicals. In Australia,
newspapers were not only the main source of periodical fiction, but
the main source of fiction in general. Because of their importance
as fiction publishers, and because they provided Australian readers
with access to stories from around the world -- from Britain,
America and Australia, as well as Austria, Canada, France, Germany,
New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, and beyond -- Australian
newspapers represent an important record of the transnational
circulation and reception of fiction in this period. Investigating
almost 10,000 works of fiction in the world's largest open-access
collection of mass-digitized historical newspapers (the National
Library of Australia's Trove database), A World of Fiction
reconceptualizes how fiction traveled globally, and was received
and understood locally, in the 19th century. Katherine Bode's
innovative approach to the new digital collections that are
transforming research in the humanities is a model of how digital
tools can transform how we understand digital collections and
interpret literatures in the past.