The Mysteries of London, Vol. I

by George W.M. Reynolds, Louis James (Foreword)

The million-copy bestseller that rocked mid-Victorian England returns to print for the first time in a century!
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.

Genres: Classics, Mystery, Gothic, 19th Century, Victorian, Horror, Fiction

1176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1845

About the author

George William MacArthur Reynolds was a journalist and, as author of "penny dreadful" serials, one of the most popular authors of Victorian England. He was also a leading proponent of the working-class Chartist movement for expanded suffrage and other populist Parliamentary reforms.

During his lifetime, Reynolds greatly outsold Dickens and Thackery, and on his death, he was described by The Bookseller as 'the most popular writer of our times'.

Reviews

[Dorcas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite an adventure and really I've barely started. After avidly reading almost 1200 pages and finishing volume 1, I will start on an equally massive volume 2. (There's also a volume 3 and 4  written by a different author but under the name of George Reynolds, as well as George Reynolds' own sequel called "Mysteries of the court of London" composed of another 20 volumes!)

I loved this and can actually see myself reading the complete works. Serialized in newspapers, the Mysteries of London was written over a period of many years, around the time of Charles Dickens, and you can see similarities in their style. However, make no mistake, the two were far from being friends, Dickens being a bit of a snob and Reynolds being a bit of a... well, criminal.

So when Dickens wrote of the London underworld it was of an outsider looking in. Reynolds wrote from firsthand experience which is frankly fascinating if not a little disconcerting.

By the way, I think I should make clear that this is not a book of mysteries. So don't think you can pick it up, read a mystery, skim over a few chapters and read another, it's not a Sherlock Holmes compendium. The "mystery" spoken of here is the mystery of what goes on in a city the size of London, populated with goodies and baddies of every class of life. The many characters intertwine, crossing over and passing each other at regular intervals. If you skip a chapter or two you will miss important details.

Available on public domain through Gutenberg, I would recommend you just pick it up and read the first three to five chapters. If you're not engrossed maybe it's not for you. Personally, I think this would make an AWESOME BBC miniseries and it could run for years without ever having to resort to fillers.

At the beginning, two brothers part ways while one leaves home to seek his fortune without parental blessing. (Think the prodigal son). They agree to meet back in twelve years and compare fates. What follows is basically a good vs evil plotline but not quite so simple.

Good people do bad things because of poverty and desperation and others sin with impunity because status makes them immune to punishment. Reynolds was a firm believer that poverty created criminals of the respectable lower class, while the upper class were just as criminal but remained gentlemen/ladies.

So here we have every character one could wish for, from the drawing rooms of fine society down to the dungeon lair of the "resurrection man" aka body snatcher.

Awesome, awesome book!
For a fascinating read about George Reynold's London, check out this fabulous little article:
http://www.victorianlondon.org/myster...

[Marquise · Rating 5 out of 5]

A melodramatic and very, very entertaining book! I am not well-disposed towards Victorian literature precisely because of the overwrought melodrama, the overwritten narrative, and the exaggeratedly long digressions that writers of that time overindulge in. But this is no Dickens, thank the old gods.

It's an enormous book, and the cast of characters is huge, and continually growing. Near the end of the book, we're still meeting new characters. And this multiple-plotline style of writing is difficult to keep up with; for a long while, you don't know who the hero or heroine is supposed to be or what the main plot is supposed to be. But fear not! It takes a bit of perseverance until you start to glimpse that this is one enormous "choral symphony" type of novel comprising several threads united by one major, overarching plot: the story of brothers Eugene and Richard Markham, who on a glance seem to be re-enacting Cain and Abel for the Nth time in the history of humanity. It's more complicated than that, though, and I recommend you pay attention to ALL the individual story threads or you'll be trying in vain to surmise what the big mystery is here. I did, and I'm fairly confident I know what happened to Eugene. If the next volume doesn't confirm my suspicion, I'll eat my hat.

I don't know how Reynolds managed to juggle all these plotlines and the large cast of characters without making this into an undecipherable mess. And he's not a typical Victorian scribbler, either. The topics he touches on would have had his contemporaries casting aspersions on his person, and the way he characterises women would have sent them scrambling for their smelling salts. Oh, he does have the expected too-saintly-and-pure female character who's so good and so perfect that she becomes repellent, and the also expected moustache-twirling villain that makes Snidely Whiplash look like an amateur. But, while all the other authors of his time content themselves with these extremes of characterisation, Reynolds includes characters placed in-between these opposite sides of probity and non-probity, often being both at the same time. So, he's got more "grey" people inhabiting his novel; there's good people doing horrible things, which isn't original in itself, but Reynolds is unique (at least to me) in that he shows the entire evolution of how a good person gets corrupted from beginning to end. Not just that: he also shows that while some can and do get redeemed, others will never know redemption once fallen. Ellen Monroe and Lady Cecilia Harborough were good examples of these outcomes.

Speaking of the females, whilst this is evidently going to have Markham as protagonist, it's the women who became my favourites. Ellen is the one I liked best, for how resourceful and smart she is, how much nobility she retains despite the questionable ways of earning her daily bread she has to resort to. And although Eliza is whom I liked the least, even she isn't your typical fainting damsel in distress who whines and cringes awaiting rescue. She alternately faints and wields a dagger in self-defence. The men are in general more inclined to be blackguards here, and their shenanigans are what provide the story with the often sharp twists and turns, with the consequences always hitting Markham one way or another. But it's the male characters who also bring in the comic ingredients, with the idiotic Hussar Captain Dapper and the lisping Sir Cherry Bounce, er, pardon, I meant Thir Chewy Bounth, as the foppish duo who, I suspect, are meant to be Reynolds's satyric take on military and fashionable types in the style of Gilbert & Sullivan's Major-General in Pirates of Penzance. Then there's Richard Markham's old butler, Whittingham, serving as the novel's other comic relief character owing to his unintentionally funny mispronunciation of "difficult" words, e.g. transpirated = transpired, insignification = signification, plentipotent-and-hairy = plenipotentiary, compostor = imposter. It's fun work to try and guess what he means.

Off to see what happens in Volume II now, that one's just as big a book as the first and hopefully as good.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've long been familiar with Reynolds and with The Mysteries of London through my interest in Eugene Sue's Mysteries of Paris, which preceded it by abut a year. Reynolds has been hard to find, and a complete edition of the first series is very welcome. It is, however, not a book to read straight through. It was published as a newspaper serial over many years and needs to be read the same way. This first series is 1000 pages and there were more. There are hundreds of plot lines and many many characters and the whole thing is enormously complicated. Find a thread and read that, hop to something else, poke around. Don't try to comprehend it at one go. If you like this sort of thing it will repay you.

[Tina Rath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous work, first published in 1844 as a serial in penny numbers. It is sprawling, disjointed, ridiculous and quite irresistible. Reynolds was a Socialist and his melodrama is ballasted with examples of the diet allowed in workhouses, and the general treatment of the paupers – what a magnificent army of republican soldiers the able-bodied male paupers would make he reflects, if only they could be organised; the plight of ex-prisoners turned out in the world with no money, no work and no future except going back to their criminal associates and a life of crime; the scandal of horsemeat being passed off on the public as beef and fed to school children and the elderly, of bankers failing …
Along with these grim realities we get the misfortunes of Richard Markham, a young man of unimpeachable morals, handsome and agreeable who never manages to persuade even his most trusted friends that he is not guilty of the most shocking crimes – even when he is accused by a thief caught with the family’s silver the thief’s word is taken over his, and a whole theatre is inspired to riot against him at a single anonymous accusation shouted from the audience. Then there are the villains – the apparently indestructible Resurrection Man who when apparently blown up in his own house returns to harass the unfortunate Richard, the mysterious Mr Greenwood, who when he is not busily ruining the good but bone-headed men financially, abducts, seduces and ruins the ladies sexually – although to be fair one is first set on the downward path when she is persuaded first to allow a statue maker to take casts of her face, then sits for an artist with bared arms and legs, a sculptor with bared breasts (it must be admitted that Reynolds – or possibly his readers – had something amounting to an obsession with ladies’ chests – even the ‘magnificent bust’ of the young Queen Victoria comes in for a commendation) and finally in the altogether for a photographer.
But it is impossible to do justice to this in a review. All I can say is: read for yourselves.

[Tweety · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see why this book made such an impact on Victorian England!Are there any secrets of the London underworldthat the author does not bring too light?

Now I must read volume two to compleat the story.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is what the Victorians were reading - they chose Reynolds over Thackeray and even Dickens. Reynolds borrowed the idea from Eugene Sue (Mysteries of Paris), and went with it. A "Penny Dreadful" serial, it sold like mad. And I can see why. He surprised me. He went places I thought Victorians wouldn't go. Dark places. Slums, poverty, domestic abuse leading to murder, child mutilation for profit, body-snatching, burglary, murder for medical study, the injustice of the laws, the harsh sentences, con men, alcoholism....

Which makes it sound horrific. And yet somehow, it isn't - well, those horrible things are truly horrible, yes, but they actually work to make you want the good to prevail that much more. It gives the action that much more suspense because you want things - anything - to go well for these people.

And there are several very interesting situations to hold a reader - for instance, a woman who agrees to masquerade as a man for years - not knowing exactly why, except that it will be to her profit in the end. There are a lot of characters, but they become quite entwined after a while, and I didn't find it hard to keep them straight - which is a credit to Reynolds.

I'm off to start the next volume, though, before I do forget who's who.

[Leothefox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This behemoth towering soap-opera is this ambitious and un-subtle brain-child of a social reformer, who is equally direct about his purpose. The crushing mass and myriad melodramatic subplots may spoil it for some, but for my part I couldn't help but admire the purpose that drove this and further volumes in “The Mysteries of London”.

The penny dreadful aspires to tell the complete story of the social and legal failings of the metropolis, from the lowest tramp to the queen herself, in the 1830s. One might call it less of a story and more of an ordeal.

“The Mysteries of London” presents us with well-off and naive young Richard Markham, who is separated from his brother, who promises to return on a certain set date. In the interval, Markham winds of up the victim of bad company and is soon on his way to prison for a forgery he didn't commit. At the same time we have Eliza Sydney, who is forced to pose as her dead brother in a scheme to collect and inheritance, and is also soon on the way to prison.

The innocent heroes, and just about everybody else in the story, are frequently made the victim of either of the recurring villains. There's Greenwood, a scoundrel with no conscience who cheats, steals, fornicates, uses, discards, and winds up in Parliament. In the other end of the villain spectrum is The Resurrection Man, who robs graves, murders, steals, and sometimes does jobs for the rich and unscrupulous.

Reynolds both illustrates and explains the abuses of wealth, the corruption of the poor, and the continued hypocrisy of English society. Most of the downtrodden and criminal characters take time to explain their origins, which invariably revolve around being the victims of poverty and the tragedies and iniquities that lead them to crime. Even the satanic Resurrection Man has a sympathetic origin, bringing back the main theme that a predatory class system is the real villain.

Apart from the ever-present social commentary, there is plenty of delightful and grim penny dreadful escape. There's romance, sometimes with royalty, escapes from dens of murderers, elaborate vengeance plots, and more.

We get: a hellish portrait of the mines, of the meat industry, of jam-packed cemeteries, of the workhouses, of Newgate prison, of body-snatching. There are evil hags, corpses a-plenty, plots to blind children to make the better beggars, a Gipsy tribunal, a secret madhouse hidden beneath a cellar, an exploding lair, hidden rooms for fugitives complete with rat-infested corpse, an Italian double-agent. We get the black chamber in the post office, where mail is open (and the narrative is furthered), we get a thief stalking through Buckingham Palace, casinos with suicides, police who are indifferent, malicious, or just incompetent, judges who prize the division of class above all, preachers who instruct criminals not to re-offend, yet give no hope of honest employment, wonderful Whigs and evil Tories, cuddly domestics, drunks, a date-rapist, and piles of old British slang.

Markham is essentially spotless and virtuous, tainted only by the black cloud an unfair society hangs over “freed convicts.” Sometimes his virtue is rewarded, but there's no simple Horatio Alger ending to be found, since the “mysteries” are ever unfolding. He has a doomed romance with the daughter of an Italian count and at one point tries to be a playwright.

Despite stuffy language and gobs of open moralizing, I enjoyed the book for the most part. The only episode I found dragged too badly was the one in which Cecelia sets out to corrupt holy man, Reginald Tracy. A little too much rattle about the wrath of heaven and all. Ellen's slow degradation by employments by the hag in Golden Lane also had some problems. It might be 200 years of detachment talking, but I had to wonder why Ellen had to keep raising her standard of living rather than saving money, especially given the constant theme of her work ending abruptly. Saving might have been a problem too, in those days, since there's a whole plot about an insolvent bank.

For me, just compared to what I normally read, this was a very long book, but I'm glad I read it just the same. It is illuminating that these evils existed and were known of in the 1840s, and that we still have them and swallow the same old lies. People say to Greenwood “the poor need bread” and Greenwood says “Rubbish! I hear bread isn't that good for you, and it spoils the taste of turtle.”

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read volume 1 of _The Mysteries of London_ for research and found Reynolds's work addictive and enjoyable. This story, published in a giant tome by the wonderful Valancourt Books, are a great example of early Victorian popular fiction--the "penny dreadful"--with a salacious narrative that winds through one cheap penny number after another. Reynolds's work outsold Dickens, and, upon reading these, one can certainly see why. There is not the same craft as Dickens, but the ability to string together intriguing characters, suspense, and blistering social satire is unparalleled. If you're interested in Victorian literature and like serial narratives--whether soap operas, telenovelas, or fantasy series--I think you'll find a lot to love here.

[Brittany Bowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many characters that sometimes I have a hard time following who is doing what. But the author does a great job of winding all the subplots together. Also, an interesting read into the Victorian Era.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gotta be honest here. I didn't actually finish reading it. And, TECHNICALLY, I listened to it. ish. One of my favorite authors, when the quarantine started, began reading a chapter a day, and releasing them on YouTube (it's Sarah Eden, if you're interested. She has a Playlist on her YouTube channel for it). She's gotten about halfway through the book, but I just can't take it anymore. The story is completely fascinating, BUT IT'S SO LONG. And more and more people are being added to the plot. I'm having trouble keeping it all straight sometimes.
I gave in and allowed Google to help me finish the book in about 15 minutes. Thanks Google!

If you're into Victorian, or Gothic, books, then this has your name written all over. Reynolds gets sooooo much more honest about the living situations of the poor people of London, at the time, than Dickens did. I'm kind of shocked his work isn't more well known. I'm assuming it's because penny dreadfuls aren't considered great works of art, and a lot of his writing is sensational, but I also think it's important to know what life was really like. In that sense, I think this is a great book.

Also, it's got some laugh out loud moments. Between all the murder and intrigue and corruption, I mean.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found an edited 19th century edition of this book for very little money on ebay so I bought a copy. I have to say that it looses A LOT in the editing process! So many interesting adventures have been cut out! Especially for the women characters. It was enough to give me the idea that it would be worth finding the full version but I really couldn't recommend the edited version. There was cross dressing and women who put their virtue at risk and notorious men and women in mines. I definitely prefer Reynolds' supernatural fiction but I still really liked the characters in this and definitely will read the longer version when I have a chance.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am listening to author Sarah Eden read this penny dreadful on YouTube. It has been a fun way to spend a little time during this COVID-19 quarantine. There are about a year's worth of installments so I doubt I will review each one separately. For now...three stars. That may change as I continue through the different chapters.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew, this has so many twists and turns to keep up with! Really enjoying the read-a-long with author Sarah M. Eden on youtube found here . Such a great idea for the pandemic, to do a virtual read-a-long as we social distance for this pandemic! Eager to see how this story continues in Part 2...

[Cydnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A number of months ago the author Sarah M. Eden started posting videos of her reading this "Penny Dreadful" to help her readers through the Covid-19 quarantine. It has been fun to listen to. Little did we all know that after more than 135 installments.....it continues into Volume 2!!

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy these stories as much as contemporary stories.

[Wanda]

23 MAR 2016 - Project Gutenberg!!

Vol. 1 - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51532

Vol. 2 - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51532

Enjoy!

[Horner Cammons]

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.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really interesting to listen to. I had not heard of penny dreadfuls until author Sarah Eden explained what they were. She then started reading this penny dreadful on youtube videos and would post a few videos each week. This first volume was over 100 chapters. This penny dreadful was written in the Victorian era. It was very dramatic and used flowery language. They were written in installments and you would just pay a penny for each installment. I am sure it was so hard to wait to find out what was going to happen next in the story until the next installment came out. It was hard to keep all of the characters and storylines straight, so Sarah Eden was good about summarizing the plotlines and even giving reminders about how people were connected, so that really helped. After finishing this volume, it was discovered that there was a second volume that continued on with the current story, so we had to keep reading.

[Isca Silurum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well unsurprising that the biggest seller of his day, yet unknown next to Dickens; well by this idiot anyway.

Hopefully kick start a study of the age, to see what is true within the tales.

If actually factual in painting the setting then unforgivable, so different to England of early C21? :-(

Paints a ghastly picture, that said at times a mirror of todays society; written circa 1845.

Onto the next tome; doff my cap to the librivox readers, though chichester rather a poser for those outisde of UK!

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable, one of the more complicated books I have read. Took me half a year to finish this (whew!). I LOVE LOVE LOVE the main character Richard. The first few chapters are AMAZINGLY exciting and immersing. I was reluctant to read this book because I have a bit of an aversion to the scary and macabre, and while it does have that, the rest of it makes up for that. Many characters, many subplots, halfway through vol. 2 and it is just as good, continuing to add lovable characters and plotlines. The surprises are great!

[Chris Nagy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author does his best to tell a tale of how politicians and bureaucrats are the worst people in the world and have created the great divide between the rich and poor. I love him for that, but the narrative which is a published weekly installment in mid-nineteenth-century London gets a bit messy and this rambling story never sees a resolution. There is supposed to be a volume 2.I will look for it.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over-the-top melodrama? Sure, but quite appealing and interesting. It out-Dickens Dickens for coincidence and wild characters, and the writing is deft and capable, not clumsy and dull like so much contemporary writing.

[Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Dickensian than Dickens!

[Mark Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please see my review for Volume 2.

[jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my Bridgeton

[Konstanze Plica]

nur auszüge für die uni gelesen

[CQM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm exhausted...
That was one hell of a ride, or more correctly, one hell of half a ride.
Volume I of The Mysteries of London is a Victorian epic. I'll grant you it's not Dickens but I can well see why Reynolds outsold Dickens. This has it all, rank villainy, murder, fraud, illicit romantic relationships and more heaving bosoms and coincidences than you could shake a stick at.
Despite all the outrageous goings-on Reynolds is remarkably even-handed, presenting us with the blackest villains but then giving them back stories that elicit our sympathies.
The only drawback for me is the hero Richard Markham. His romantic dribblings are the places where the book drags in all its 1000+ pages.
Now, if only Volume II wasn't so damned expensive.

[Moritz Noll · Rating 4 out of 5]

The current state of research in literary studies implies that there are many continuities between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After having picked up "The Mysteries of London" and stumbling over the first ‘cliff-hangers’, everyone will realise that there can be no modern-day ‘binge-watching’ without classical ‘binge-reading’. In fact, if it had not been for this penny dreadful, we may not be able to binge-watch, at all. This book arguably is THE predecessor to and blueprint for all modern (TV) series.....

[Gordon Matassa · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the process of reading. So far it is awesomely engaging. I can see why this was the most popular serialized novel in Victorian England.