In October 1802, The Edinburgh Review began publishing in Edinburgh as a quarterly journal mixing literary criticism with politics. It was founded by a circle of young reform-minded writers (often linked to Whig, or liberal, politics) and quickly became a model for the modern “review” magazine. Its early success helped make periodical criticism a central part of Romantic-era literary culture.
Publisher Archibald Constable backed The Edinburgh Review and helped put it into print, making the journal a commercial as well as intellectual project. The partnership between ambitious critics and an innovative publisher shaped how the review would be produced, sold, and financed. This mattered because it tied literary debate to the growing marketplace for print.
By 1803, the journal’s circulation was already in the thousands, showing that a Scottish-based review could reach far beyond Edinburgh. This growing audience increased the power of reviewers to shape reputations and reading habits. It also encouraged rivals to see review-periodicals as politically important platforms.
After the earliest issues, Francis Jeffrey emerged as the key editor who set the journal’s tone and standards. Under his leadership, the review became known for confident judgments and for linking literary value to broader questions about society and reform. Jeffrey’s long tenure also made the journal’s voice unusually consistent over decades.
William Gifford served as the first editor of The Quarterly Review, guiding it through its formative years. His editorship helped establish the journal’s authoritative style and its role as a reliable Tory platform for reviewing books and debating current affairs. Editorial leadership mattered because reviewers were often anonymous, so the editor shaped the overall “voice.”
In early 1809, London publisher John Murray helped found The Quarterly Review as a Tory (conservative) alternative to the Whig-leaning Edinburgh Review. The new journal aimed to challenge Edinburgh’s authority in politics and letters by offering an organized counter-voice. Together, the two reviews helped turn criticism into a high-stakes form of public argument.
The first number of The Quarterly Review was published in London on March 1, 1809, after printing delays. Its launch marked the start of a durable two-party “review culture,” where leading journals competed to define literary merit and national policy. The Quarterly’s price and production scale also signaled that elite criticism could be a major commercial product.
In 1814, Francis Jeffrey’s highly critical review of Wordsworth’s The Excursion—famously opening with “This will never do”—became a symbol of how sharply periodicals could attack Romantic poetry. The episode illustrates the era’s critical culture: reviews were not just summaries, but public verdicts that could frame how a major work was discussed. It also shows how literary taste debates overlapped with politics, class, and ideas about “proper” style.
In 1817, publisher William Blackwood launched what became Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (often called “Maga”) as a combative Tory monthly. While not one of the two quarterlies, it intensified the same partisan literary battles by using satire and aggressive criticism. Its arrival shows how the Edinburgh–Quarterly rivalry helped fuel a wider ecosystem of polemical periodicals.
By 1818, The Edinburgh Review had reached a circulation reported around 13,500, an exceptional figure for a quarterly journal. This scale amplified the impact of its judgments on authors, publishers, and political debate. Its authority was widely recognized as rivaled mainly by The Quarterly Review.
Beginning in 1817, hostile “Cockney School” articles in Blackwood’s targeted writers associated with Leigh Hunt, including John Keats and William Hazlitt. The label spread beyond Blackwood’s when John Wilson Croker used it in The Quarterly Review in 1818 while attacking Keats’s Endymion. This controversy shows how periodicals could coordinate (directly or indirectly) to build political and cultural stereotypes around authors.
In June 1829, Francis Jeffrey ended his long editorship of The Edinburgh Review and was succeeded by Macvey Napier, whose first issue appeared later in 1829. The leadership change marked a transition in the journal’s identity after decades shaped by Jeffrey’s tastes and political instincts. It also signals the close of the 1802–1830 phase when the Edinburgh–Quarterly rivalry most strongly defined British “review” culture in the Romantic period.
The Edinburgh Review and The Quarterly Review: Critical Culture and Polemics (1802–1830)