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Our Victorian Magazine Collection:  Cassell's Family Magazine

Home > About Our Victorian Magazines > Cassell's Family Magazine VictorianVoices.net has made all our volumes of Cassell's Family Magazine available on Archive.org. Visit the individual magazine pages for download links, or visit our magazine download page to see all available magazines. Cassell's Family Magazine [CFM] represents one stage in the lengthy evolution of a publication. It began in 1853 as Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper and turned into Cassell's Magazine in 1867. In December 1874 it became Cassell's Family Magazine. In December 1897, it became Cassell's Magazine once again; in 1912, it became Cassell's Magazine of Fiction and remained so until it folded in 1932. Its tone and content evolved (or at least changed) along the way as well. Cassell's Illustrated Paper (of which we offer one volume) focused on a variety of newsworthy, general-interest topics. It took awhile for Cassell's Family Magazine to figure out its "tone," but it soon established itself as a general-interest publication. It clearly sought to appeal to the men of the family as well as the women, though articles that appealed to women's interests (such as fashion, cooking, childcare and home management) predominated. Many authors who contributed to The Girl's Own Paper also wrote for CFM. The article mix typically focused on travel (within Britain and beyond), glimpses of American life, cooking and entertaining, Paris fashions, Victorian life in London and the countryside, and of course short and serialized fiction. Through Cassell's, one can get glimpses of the workings of the London dustman, the ragpicker, and the pavement artist. Though articles and stories often had a moral component, and the magazine has been described as "preachy," its focus was more on home and family rather than on overt proselytizing. In 1895, Max Pemberton became the magazine's editor, and the tone changed dramatically. It was clear that Pemberton hoped to create a rival to The Strand. Articles began to appear in CFM that were nearly identical to pieces published in The Strand in earlier years. Pemberton also clearly wanted to cater to the male reader, filling the magazine with interviews with distinguished (and almost exclusively male) figures - again perhaps in an effort to compete with The Strand's "Illustrated Interviews" column. Articles that appealed primarily to women, such as features on fashion, cooking and the home, disappeared or dwindled to mere afterthoughts. Cassell's Family Magazine collections are complete annuals, running from December through November. Thus, for example, the annual published in 1881 would include the months of December 1880 through November 1881. VictorianVoices.net brings you articles from the complete series of Cassell's Family Magazine from 1875 (the first annual that officially carried the CFM name) through 1896 (the last to be titled a "family" magazine). You'll also find one issue of Cassell's Family Paper, precursor to CFM, and the 1900 Christmas issue of Cassell's Magazine. (Note: These two issues were incomplete and have not been uploaded to Archive.org.) MORE INFORMATION: Cassell's Family Magazine http://victorianfictionresearchguides.org/cassells-family-magazine/ Cassell's Magazine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassell%27s_Magazine

View the Issues On This Site: CFM: 1875 • 1876 1877 • 1878 1879 • 1880 1881 • 1882 1883 • 1884 1885 • 1886 1887 • 1888 1889 • 1890 1891 • 1892 1893 • 1894 1895 • 1896 Cassell's Family Paper 1859-1860 Cassell's, Dec 1900