The Mysteries of Paris and LondonIn this ambitious and exciting work Richard Maxwell uses nineteenth-century urban fiction--particularly the novels of Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens--to define a genre, the novel of urban mysteries. His title comes from the "mystery mania" that captured both sides of the channel with the runaway success of Eugene Sue's Les mysteres de Paris and G. W. M. Reynold's Mysteries of London. Richard Maxwell argues that within these extravagant but fact-obsessed narratives, the archaic form of allegory became a means for understanding modern cities. The city dwellers' drive to interpret linked the great metropolises with the discourses of literature and art (the primary vehicles of allegory). Dominant among allegorical figures were labyrinths, panoramas, crowds, and paperwork, and it was thought that to understand a figure was to understand the city with which it was linked. Novelists such as Hugo and Dickens had a special flair for using such figures to clarify the nature of the city. Maxwell draws from an array of disciplines, ideas, and contexts. His approach to the nature and evolution of the mysteries genre includes examinations of allegorical theory, journalistic practice, the conventions of scientific inquiry, popular psychiatry, illustration, and modernized wonder tales (such as Victorian adaptations of the Arabian Nights). In The Mysteries of Paris and London Maxwell employs a sweeping vision of the nineteenth century and a formidable grasp of both popular culture and high culture to decode the popular mysteries of the era and to reveal man's evolving consciousness of the city. His style is elegant and lucid. It is a book for anyone curious about the fortunes of the novel in thenineteenth century, the cultural history of that period, particularly in France and England, the relations between art and literature, or the power of the written word to produce and present social knowledge. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
Introductory I | 1 |
Figures and Stories | 59 |
Figures and Heroes | 151 |
Figures and Knowledge | 225 |
Writing in the Depths | 289 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
allegory appears associated becomes begins bells called cathedral century chapter character Charles close connection creates crowd culture Curiosity dark death describes Dickens Dickens's dream edited effect especially face fact Fiction figures finds follows Gamp George George Cruikshank hand History House Hugo Hugo's human idea illustration imagine John Jonas kind knowledge labyrinth later less letter living London look Master means mind Misérables mysteries narrative nature never Nights notes Notre-Dame novel novelist object observes Oliver once Paris passage perhaps person possible present produce Quasimodo quoted reader reference relation remains revealed scene secrets seems sense shows singular social society sort story street Studies suggests tale things thought tion translated turn understanding University Press urban Victorian whole writing York
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Mysteries of Paris and London Victorian literature and culture series |
| Author | Richard Maxwell |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Virginia Press, 1992 |
| ISBN | 0813913411, 9780813913414 |
| Length | 415 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |