Introductory materials
The political novel
- “The Queen was the husband, and the Prince the wife” — Reynolds makes Queen Victoria a character in his novel
- “Behold the effects of its infamous Poor-Laws;—contemplate the results of the more atrocious Game-Laws;—mark the consequences of the Corn-Laws.”
- The Black Chamber of the Post Office and spying on citizens
Sensation fiction
- The Many Careers of Ellen Monroe
- George Montague Greenwood, swindler, seducer, rapist, and all-around villain
The Newgate or crime novel
- Professional Beggars in London
- Working as a shill in an auction house
- “Let us begin with the beer” – Adulerating beer, gin, run, wine, and port
- Prostituting girls ten and twelve years old
- G.W.M. Reynolds and Fiction about Crime in India
The novel of social protest
- Reynolds’s Opposition to Capital Punishment
- Reynolds’s Opposition to Imprisonment for Debt
- “Obscene jokes and filthy expressions. . . [at] the very foot of the gallows” — Reynolds on the corrupting effect of public executions
- “That rotatory engine of diabolical torture” – The Tread-Wheel in Coldbath Field’s Prison
- “The greatest possible quantity of corpses into the smallest space” — Reynolds on early Victorian cemeteries
- Food falsely measured, adulterated, and contaminated
Romance novels
- The beautiful women in The Mysteries of London
- The Condemned Man's Nightmares — Bill Bolter the night before his execution
Slum fiction
Verses
- Professional Beggars in London
- Working as a shill in an auction house
- “Let us begin with the beer” – Adulerating beer, gin, run, wine, and port
- Prostituting girls ten and twelve years old
- G.W.M. Reynolds and Fiction about Crime in India
The novel of social protest
- Reynolds’s Opposition to Capital Punishment
- Reynolds’s Opposition to Imprisonment for Debt
- “Obscene jokes and filthy expressions. . . [at] the very foot of the gallows” — Reynolds on the corrupting effect of public executions
- “That rotatory engine of diabolical torture” – The Tread-Wheel in Coldbath Field’s Prison
- “The greatest possible quantity of corpses into the smallest space” — Reynolds on early Victorian cemeteries
- Food falsely measured, adulterated, and contaminated
Romance novels
- The beautiful women in The Mysteries of London
- The Condemned Man's Nightmares — Bill Bolter the night before his execution
Slum fiction
Verses
Last modified 28 September 2021