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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