This book reprints for the first time since the 1850s three short works by George Thompson (1823--c. 1873), one of antebellum America's most successful and prolific authors of sensational fiction. Beginning in the 1840s, he wrote stories for sporting papers like "Life in Boston and New York," edited the humorous New York weekly "The Broadway Belle," and contributed regularly to the sexually explicit "Venus' Miscellany." He also published dozens of novels, most of which were set in Northeastern cities. His writing blends entertainment and social protest, combining commentary on such issues as urbanization, poverty, race, and class with some of the era's most shocking depictions of sex and violence. The three works in this volume offer a rich representative sample of Thompson's writing. The two novels-"Venus in Boston" and "City Crimes"--depict the American city as a place of dark mystery, bawdy humor, and near-universal corruption peopled with con artists and criminals of all kinds. In each novel, a complex narrative structure interweaves multiple stories of exploited labor, abuse of power, seduction, intrigue, and crime. Thompson's autobiography, "My Life," presents the author's life in terms nearly as lively as his fiction. Thompson's zestful, unconventional writings fly in the face of the stereotypical view of Victorian America as strait-laced and sentimental. Ideal for use as a classroom text, this new edition includes a scholarly introduction and an extensive bibliography.
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The introduction to the volume constitutes the most thorough, accessible, and useful account of Thompson's life and work to date. -- Leon Jackson, University of South Carolina, Columbia
From the Publisher
Writings by one of America's earliest and best-selling authors of sensational fiction.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
19th Century American Lit Class,
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This review is from: "Venus in Boston" and Other Tales of Nineteenth-Century City Life (Paperback)
I had to read the second story in this book, City Crimes, for a college class in 19th century American literature focusing on antebellum literature. Although it is not canonical it is important and interesting to know about popular fiction from certain time periods which this provides.
I enjoyed the second story so much that I want to read the rest of the book. Brought up a lot of different class discussions that were very interesting. Not well documented stories, so this is a very good source to learn about an American author that is not studied often. The third section of the book is his autobiographer. Parts of stories can be grotesque in nature, but that is the kind of popular literature at the time. Fun read!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grand Guignol at its best...,
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This review is from: "Venus in Boston" and Other Tales of Nineteenth-Century City Life (Paperback)
These two samples of Nineteenth Century popular fiction make
for lurid and thrilling, if somewhat violent reading. "City Crimes" especially would be a film far more gripping than "Gangs of New York", although not for the faint-hearted. Most of the works of this genre exist only on reels of microfilm and hopefully one day will become more accessible.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
I conceive it to be a prominent fault of most of the tales of fiction that are written and published at the present day, that they are not sufficiently natural-their style is too much exaggerated-and in aiming to produce startling effects, they depart too widely from the range of probability to engage the undivided interest of the enlightened and judicious reader. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jew Mike, New York, Fanny Aubrey, Frank Sydney, Ragged Pete, Sow Nance, Bloody Mike, Fred Archer, State Prison, Chevalier Duvall, Corporal Grimsby, Jack Slack, Miss Alice, Chambers of Love, Pig Pen, Francis Sydney, Timothy Tickels, Brother Pratt, Lord Hawley, New Jersey, Pat Mulligan, Sing Sing, Good God, Josephine Franklin, Sophia Franklin New!
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I conceive it to be a prominent fault of most of the tales of fiction that are written and published at the present day, that they are not sufficiently natural-their style is too much exaggerated-and in aiming to produce startling effects, they depart too widely from the range of probability to engage the undivided interest of the enlightened and judicious reader. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jew Mike, New York, Fanny Aubrey, Frank Sydney, Ragged Pete, Sow Nance, Bloody Mike, Fred Archer, State Prison, Chevalier Duvall, Corporal Grimsby, Jack Slack, Miss Alice, Chambers of Love, Pig Pen, Francis Sydney, Timothy Tickels, Brother Pratt, Lord Hawley, New Jersey, Pat Mulligan, Sing Sing, Good God, Josephine Franklin, Sophia Franklin New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 81
books:
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- Leaves of Grass (Bantam Classics) by Walt Whitman on 4 pages
- The Scarlet Letter (Bantam Classics) by Nathaniel Hawthorne on 4 pages
- God In The Street: New York Writing from The Penny Press to Melville by Hans Bergmann in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
- Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville by David S. Reynolds in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- A World Elsewhere: Place of Style in American Literature (Galaxy Books) by Richard Poirier in Front Matter, and Back Matter
See all 81 books this book cites
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