The Mysteries of Paris and London by Richard Maxwell

The Mysteries of Paris and London by Richard Maxwell

In 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.

Richard Maxwell is a playwright, director, and the artistic director of New York City Players. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, and was a Doris Duke Performing Artist. In 2018, his play Paradiso premiered at Greene Naftali. Also, Maxwell will present a new work, Queens Row, at ICA London and will participate in the Chinati Foundation's artist in residency program in Marfa, Texas, where his work Ads will be shown in the fall. Publications include The Theater Years, published by Greene Naftali and Westreich Wagner (2017), Theater for Beginners (2015), and Plays, 1999-2000 (2004), both published by TC

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780813913414
ISBN 10	0813913411
Title	The Mysteries of Paris and London
Author	Richard Maxwell
Series	Victorian Literature And Culture Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	University of Virginia Press
Year published	1992-05-30
Number of pages	416
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.