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The Mysteries of Paris and London Richard Maxwell

The Mysteries of Paris and London By Richard Maxwell

The Mysteries of Paris and London by Richard Maxwell


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Summary

This study uses 19th-century urban fiction - in particular the novels of Hugo and Dickens - to define a genre: the novel of urban mysteries. He argues that within these extravagant but fact-obsessed narratives the archaic form of allegory became a means for understanding modern cities.

The Mysteries of Paris and London Summary

The Mysteries of Paris and London by Richard Maxwell

In this study, Richard Maxwell uses 19th-century urban fiction - in particular the novels of Hugo and 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. He argues that within these extravagant but fact-obsessed narratives the archaic form of allegory became a means for understanding modern cities. 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 were able to use such figures without necessarily mirroring ideology. Drawing from an array of disciplines, ideas and contexts, the book examines allegorical theory from the Renaissance through to the 20th century, journalistic practice, the conventions of scientific inquiry, popular psychiatry, illustration and modernized wonder tales (such as Victorian adaptations of the Arabian Nights). It explores the ability of the written word to produce and present social knowledge.

Additional information

NPB9780813913414
9780813913414
0813913411
The Mysteries of Paris and London by Richard Maxwell
New
Hardback
University of Virginia Press
1992-06-30
416
N/A
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