Victorian England's Bestselling Author
The Revolutionary Life of G. W. M. Reynolds
Stephen Basdeo ; Mya Driver
- George
- W.M.
- Reynolds
- (1814–79)
- was
- one
- of
- the
- biggest-selling
- novelists
- of
- the
- Victorian
- era.
- He
- was
- the
- author
- of
- over
- 58
- novels
- and
- short
- stories
- and
- his
- “penny
- blood”
- The
- Mysteries
- of
- London,
- serialised
- in
- weekly
- numbers
- between
- 1844
- and
- 1848,
- sold
- over
- a
- million
- copies.
- A
- controversial
- figure
- in
- his
- lifetime,
- Reynolds’s
- Mysteries,
- and
- its
- follow-up
- The
- Mysteries
- of
- the
- Court
- of
- London
- (1849–56),
- contained
- tales
- of
- crime,
- vice,
- and
- highly
- sexualised
- scenes.
- For
- this
- reason
- Charles
- Dickens
- remarked
- that
- Reynolds’s
- name
- was
- one
- “with
- which
- no
- lady’s,
- and
- no
- gentleman’s,
- should
- be
- associated.”
- Yet
- Reynolds
- was
- much
- more
- than
- just
- a
- novelist;
- he
- was
- lauded
- by
- the
- working
- classes
- as
- their
- champion
- and
- campaigned
- for
- universal
- suffrage.
- To
- further
- the
- working
- classes’
- cause,
- he
- established
- two
- newspapers:
- Reynolds’s
- Political
- Instructor
- and
- Reynolds’s
- Weekly
- Newspaper.
- The
- latter
- newspaper,
- as
- Karl
- Marx
- recognized,
- became
- the
- principal
- organ
- of
- radical
- and
- labour
- politics.
- This
- book
- provides
- a
- biography
- of
- Reynolds
- and
- reproduces
- his
- editorials
- from
- Reynolds’s
- Political
- Instructor
- as
- well
- as
- excerpts
- from
- his fiction.
