The Mysteries of London Volume I
George W. M. Reynolds, Foreword by Louis James, Annotations by Dr. Dick Collins
The government feared him. Rival authors like Charles Dickens, whom he outsold, despised him. The literary establishment did its best to write him out of literary history. But when George W.M. Reynolds, journalist, political reformer, Socialist, and novelist, died in 1879, even his critics were forced to acknowledge the truth of his obituary, which declared that he was the most popular writer of his time. And The Mysteries of London, which was published in 1844 in the "penny dreadful" format of weekly installments sold for a penny each, was his masterpiece and greatest success, selling 50,000 copies a week and over a million more when published in volume form.
The Mysteries of London is a sprawling tableau, seeking to depict life as Reynolds saw it in mid-Victorian London and expose what he viewed as gross injustice toward the poor. Some of the notable storylines involve Richard Markham and Eliza Sydney, two virtuous but ingenuous youths inveigled into the fraudulent schemes of rogues; George Montague, a libertine who appears literally out of nowhere and nearly overnight becomes one of the richest and most powerful men in London; Anthony Tidkins, the "Resurrection Man," a ruthless murderer and body-snatcher; and Ellen Monroe, an impoverished girl forced to submit to the worst degradations to earn money to feed her elderly father. The story takes us from royal drawing rooms, offices of cabinet ministers, and chambers of Parliament to the bowels of Newgate prison, the workhouse, and the lowest of taverns and gambling dens as Reynolds unfolds his thrilling plot, which never flags for an instant over the course of nearly 1,200 pages.
This edition, the first in over 100 years, includes the unabridged text of the complete first series of The Mysteries, including its illustrations, more than fifty in all, and features a new foreword by Victorian scholar Louis James and annotations by Dr. Dick Collins.
George W. M. Reynolds, Foreword by Louis James, Annotations by Dr. Dick Collins
The government feared him. Rival authors like Charles Dickens, whom he outsold, despised him. The literary establishment did its best to write him out of literary history. But when George W.M. Reynolds, journalist, political reformer, Socialist, and novelist, died in 1879, even his critics were forced to acknowledge the truth of his obituary, which declared that he was the most popular writer of his time. And The Mysteries of London, which was published in 1844 in the "penny dreadful" format of weekly installments sold for a penny each, was his masterpiece and greatest success, selling 50,000 copies a week and over a million more when published in volume form.
The Mysteries of London is a sprawling tableau, seeking to depict life as Reynolds saw it in mid-Victorian London and expose what he viewed as gross injustice toward the poor. Some of the notable storylines involve Richard Markham and Eliza Sydney, two virtuous but ingenuous youths inveigled into the fraudulent schemes of rogues; George Montague, a libertine who appears literally out of nowhere and nearly overnight becomes one of the richest and most powerful men in London; Anthony Tidkins, the "Resurrection Man," a ruthless murderer and body-snatcher; and Ellen Monroe, an impoverished girl forced to submit to the worst degradations to earn money to feed her elderly father. The story takes us from royal drawing rooms, offices of cabinet ministers, and chambers of Parliament to the bowels of Newgate prison, the workhouse, and the lowest of taverns and gambling dens as Reynolds unfolds his thrilling plot, which never flags for an instant over the course of nearly 1,200 pages.
This edition, the first in over 100 years, includes the unabridged text of the complete first series of The Mysteries, including its illustrations, more than fifty in all, and features a new foreword by Victorian scholar Louis James and annotations by Dr. Dick Collins.
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Trade paper ISBN-13: 978-1939140029 List Price: $39.99 U.S. Pages: 1176 Published: 2012 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
George W. M. Reynolds (1814-1879). George W. M. Reynolds was born in Sandwich, Kent, to wealthy parents, George and Caroline Reynolds, both of whom died by the time he was a teenager. Although his guardian enrolled him in the Royal Military College, Reynolds rebelled and left England for France with his younger brother Edward in tow. In France, Reynolds worked in a Paris bookstore, composed his first novel, The Youthful Imposter (1835), and wed Susannah Pierson at the British embassy. When Reynolds returned to England with his family in 1835, he was bankrupt. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of Reynolds’s financial woes, for he would declare bankruptcy again in 1840 and 1848.
Reynolds was a prolific writer, publishing novels, short stories, and nonfiction articles, some of which were original, some plagiarized. Reynolds’s Pickwick Abroad (1837-38) shamelessly borrowed from Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers (1836-37), as did his Master Timothy’s Bookcase (1841-42), which was based on Dickens’s Master Humphrey’s Clock (1839). In 1844, Reynolds published The Mysteries of London,modeled on Les Mystères de Paris by Eugène Sue. Reynolds’s Mysteries was wildly successful, selling over a million copies within a decade. Reynolds would go on to write over twenty serialized novels, including Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf (1846-47), The Coral Island (1848-49), and The Rye House Plot (1853-54). His oeuvre included historical and gothic fiction, along with tales of adventure that frequently featured violence, gore, and licentious female characters. Reynolds’s fiction primarily targeted a lower- and middle-class readership and was enormously popular.
Reynolds was also a journalist. He worked as an editor for the Monthly Magazine before being fired for plagiarism. Later, as co-founder and editor of the London Journal, Reynolds increased circulation by featuring sensational fiction accompanied by equally sensational woodcuts; however, Reynolds soon had a falling out with the owner, George Stiff, which led him to found his own publication, Reynolds’s Miscellany, in 1846. Reynolds’s Miscellany remained in circulation until 1869 when it merged with Bow Bells.
- Contributed by Alexis Easley & Shannon Scott
Reynolds was a prolific writer, publishing novels, short stories, and nonfiction articles, some of which were original, some plagiarized. Reynolds’s Pickwick Abroad (1837-38) shamelessly borrowed from Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers (1836-37), as did his Master Timothy’s Bookcase (1841-42), which was based on Dickens’s Master Humphrey’s Clock (1839). In 1844, Reynolds published The Mysteries of London,modeled on Les Mystères de Paris by Eugène Sue. Reynolds’s Mysteries was wildly successful, selling over a million copies within a decade. Reynolds would go on to write over twenty serialized novels, including Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf (1846-47), The Coral Island (1848-49), and The Rye House Plot (1853-54). His oeuvre included historical and gothic fiction, along with tales of adventure that frequently featured violence, gore, and licentious female characters. Reynolds’s fiction primarily targeted a lower- and middle-class readership and was enormously popular.
Reynolds was also a journalist. He worked as an editor for the Monthly Magazine before being fired for plagiarism. Later, as co-founder and editor of the London Journal, Reynolds increased circulation by featuring sensational fiction accompanied by equally sensational woodcuts; however, Reynolds soon had a falling out with the owner, George Stiff, which led him to found his own publication, Reynolds’s Miscellany, in 1846. Reynolds’s Miscellany remained in circulation until 1869 when it merged with Bow Bells.
- Contributed by Alexis Easley & Shannon Scott