George Bentley (7 June 1828 – 29 May 1895) was an English publisher who lived and worked in London during the 19th century.

He was born into a family of publishers and printers. Around 1845, he began working with his father in their business, which was struggling financially at the time. Sometimes, his relationship with his father was difficult, and George left the business briefly at least once. After 1857, he grew more confident in his role and helped guide the company’s future. One of his early successes was publishing the work of Wilkie Collins. In the 1860s, George discovered and published several other authors who later became well-known. After his father died in 1871, George officially took over the business.

George also expanded his work by starting a magazine. He used the advantages of publishing stories in monthly parts first and then later releasing them as books.

Life

George Bentley was born on a Saturday morning at seven o'clock in Dorset Square, London, which was then on the western edge of the city. He was the fourth of nine children born to Richard Bentley, a publisher, and Charlotte Botten/Bell. His uncle was Samuel Bentley, a printer and collector of old books. Two of George’s older brothers died before they were old enough to walk. George attended a school run by a minister named John Potticary in Blackheath, where other students included Benjamin Disraeli. Later, George studied at King’s College London and finished his education when he was 17. He then joined his father’s publishing business. In the years that followed, George traveled abroad and was in Rome in 1849 when French soldiers entered the city to stop a rebellion. Later in life, George only traveled occasionally for short vacations to health resorts in the British Isles. He had asthma for his entire life.

George’s father started a literary magazine called Bentley’s Miscellany in 1836. George wrote positive reviews of novels by Wilkie Collins, a writer who was not yet famous. A disagreement arose between George and his father when Richard Bentley felt he was not included in business decisions involving George and Wilkie Collins. Sources suggest that this was not the only time George and Richard had disagreements during George’s early career. As George became more involved in the business, the company became known for its attractive and confident-looking book covers. A later admirer, novelist Michael Sadleir, said no other publisher worked as hard to make books look as colorful and prosperous as Bentley’s.

In January 1866, George’s company bought a magazine called Temple Bar for £2,750 from its editor, George Sala. The magazine had been previously purchased by Sala from its founder, John Maxwell. Temple Bar was briefly edited by novelist Edmund Yates, but Yates left in 1867. After struggling to find a new editor, George Bentley took over the magazine himself. He combined Temple Bar with another magazine, Bentley’s Miscellany, which had been sold to William Harrison Ainsworth years earlier. Ainsworth later sold it back to the Bentleys in 1868. Under George’s leadership, Temple Bar became one of his most valuable projects. Many well-known Victorian novelists contributed to the magazine, including Thomas and Anthony Trollope, Rhoda Broughton, Ellen Wood, Sheridan Le Fanu, Charles Reade, Henry Kingsley, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Gissing, Arthur Conan Doyle, Maarten Maartens, and Henry James. Bentley also introduced readers to translated works by famous writers such as Honoré de Balzac, Alphonse Daudet, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, and Hans Christian Andersen.

Although Bentley’s company was successful with novels and Temple Bar, it also published scholarly works, such as The History of Rome by Theodor Mommsen and The History of Greece by Ernst Curtius. Bentley also joined the Stationers’ Company and became a member of the Royal Geographical Society.

The business thrived by combining novel publishing with serializing novels in Temple Bar. Another key part of the business during the 1870s and 1880s was the three-volume novel, a standard format in the mid-1800s. Bentley worried that the rigid structure of three-volume books limited creativity and wanted to sometimes break the rules. Three-volume books were expensive, giving commercial lending libraries almost a monopoly. In the 1850s, Bentley tried to compete by selling his three-volume novels for 10 shillings, much cheaper than usual. This strategy did not work, so Bentley later invested in a lending library business owned by Charles Mudie. By the 1880s, Bentley and Mudie were both selling cheaper one-volume books to libraries and readers.

The 1860s were a time of success for the business, and the relationship between George and his father, Richard, seemed peaceful. Richard Bentley suffered a broken leg in 1867 and had to retire from the company. Richard died in 1871, and the business was renamed “Richard Bentley and Son.” George was 43 and, by the 1880s, began letting his son, Richard Bentley, handle daily operations. In the mid-1880s, George spent years buying land near Upton Park, Slough, where he had lived since 1860. He and his son purchased 15 plots of land and hired architect George Devey to build a futuristic house called The Mere. The house had modern features like hot and cold running water. Robert Patten described The Mere as a place that helped George escape the tough competition in publishing.

After moving into The Mere in 1887, George ran his business from his new home and became deeply interested in meteorology, a topic his son later studied. George died of angina in May 1895. By then, the publishing business had become more competitive and less profitable. The business was valued at £20,000, including its reputation, but George’s son sold it in 1898 to Macmillans for £8,000. George’s wife outlived him by less than three years. His son, Richard Bentley, lived at The Mere until 1936. Richard married his cousin, Lucy Rosamond Bentley, in 1905. Lucy lived at the house until 1961, when The Mere was sold. Today, the mansion is the headquarters of the National Foundation for Educational Research.

Personal

George Bentley married Anne Williams from Aberystwyth at St. James's, Westminster in 1853. The two began living together on the edge of Regent's Park, near the Bentley family home in Dorset Square. To the west of London, Slough had a direct railway line to London since 1840. In 1860, the Bentleys moved to 2 East Villas at Upton Park, a new housing area in Slough. They lived there until 1887, when they moved to a larger house they built less than a mile away. Meanwhile, the couple had one recorded son, another Richard Bentley, who was born in north London in May 1854.