"Venus in Boston" and Other Tales of Nineteenth-Century City Life / Edition 1

by George Thompson, David S. Reynolds, Kimberly Gladman Jackson

Overview

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 straitlaced and sentimental. Ideal for use as a classroom text, this new edition includes a scholarly introduction and an extensive bibliography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558493261
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	09/30/2002
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David S. Reynolds is Distinguished Professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY. His many books include Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography, winner of the Bancroft Prize, and Beneath the American Renaissance, winner of the Christian Gauss Award. Kimberly R. Gladman teaches English at New York University.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Introduction	ix
	Note on the Texts	lv
	Venus in Boston: A Romance of City Life
	Introduction	3
Chapter I.	The blind Basket-maker and his family	3
Chapter II.	Innocence in the Grip of Lust	7
Chapter III.	The Rescue	17
Chapter IV.	A night in Ann street	20
Chapter V.	The Chevalier and the Duchess	52
Chapter VI.	The Stolen Package	75
Chapter VII.	Showing the operations of Jew Mike	90
Chapter VIII.	The Chambers of Love	98
	City Crimes: Or Life in New York and Boston
Chapter I.	A Young Gentleman of Wealth and Fashion	107
Chapter II.	The Courtezan's story	112
Chapter III.	Domestic Troubles	119
Chapter IV.	A Fashionable Lady	124
Chapter V.	A Thieves' Crib on the Five Points	128
Chapter VI.	The Dark Vaults	132
Chapter VII.	The false wife	137
Chapter VIII.	The Subterranean Cellar	147
Chapter IX.	The Masquerade Ball	156
Chapter X.	The Amours of Josephine	168
Chapter XI.	The Condemnation to Death	172
Chapter XII.	Showing how the Dead Man escaped	178
Chapter XIII.	The African and his Mistress	186
Chapter XIV.	A Glimpse of the Crimes	192
Chapter XV.	Showing the pranks played	204
Chapter XVI.	Showing the Voluptuous Revellings	212
Chapter XVII.	Illustrating the truth of the proverb	219
Chapter XVIII.	The Dead Man's story	227
Chapter XIX.	Showing how Mrs. Belmont was pursued	232
Chapter XX.	Frank Sydney in the Power of his Enemies	236
Chapter XXI.	Josephine and Mrs. Franklin	239
Chapter XXII.	Showing the Desperate and Bloody Combat	249
Chapter XXIII.	Showing how Sydney was tortured	255
Chapter XXIV.	The Marriage	259
Chapter XXV.	Servants' Frolics	268
Chapter XXVI.	Scene on Boston Common	273
Chapter XXVII.	The Ruined Rector	281
Chapter XXVIII.	The Disguised Husband	286
Chapter XXIX.	Wherein one of the Characters	295
Chapter XXX.	Showing that a man should never marry	304
	Conclusion	309
	My Life: Or the Adventures of Geo. Thompson
	Introduction: In which the author defineth his position	313
Chapter I.	In which I begin to Acquire a Knowledge	315
Chapter II.	In which I become a Printer	325
Chapter III.	In which is enacted a bloody tragedy	331
Chapter IV.	In which I set forth upon my travels	339
Chapter V.	I encountered a lady acquaintance	344
Chapter VI.	In which is introduced a celebrated Comedian	354
Chapter VII.	A deed of blood and horror	359
Chapter VIII.	An Escape, and a Triumph	363
Chapter IX.	An accident	366
Chapter X.	Six weeks in Leverett Street Jail	369
Chapter XI.	"The Uncles and Nephews."	371
	Conclusion: My Parting Bow	377
	Bibliography	379

What People are Saying About This

Leon Jackson

I can think of no antebellum author more deserving of recovery than George Thompson. This is a book that scholars, students, and teachers need to be reading. It will be welcomed by both critics and historians alike as an important and unique peek into the darker recesses of the antebellum underworld. The introduction to the volume constitutes the most thorough, accessible, and useful account of Thompson's life and work to date. The editors carefully reconstruct the author's world and do a remarkable job of bringing his books to life.

Editorial Reviews

"I can think of no antebellum author more deserving of recovery than George Thompson. This is a book that scholars, students, and teachers need to be reading. It will be welcomed by both critics and historians alike as an important and unique peek into the darker recesses of the antebellum underworld. The introduction to the volume constitutes the most thorough, accessible, and useful account of Thompson's life and work to date. The editors carefully reconstruct the author's world and do a remarkable job of bringing his books to life."—Leon Jackson, University of South Carolina, Columbia

From the Publisher

I can think of no antebellum author more deserving of recovery than George Thompson.... This is a book that scholars,students,and teachers need to be reading. It will be welcomed by both critics and historians alike as an important and unique peek into the darker recesses of the antebellum underworld. The introduction to the volume constitutes the most thorough,accessible,and useful account of Thompson's life and work to date. The editors carefully reconstruct the author's world and do a remarkable job of bringing his books to life.

Leon Jackson