G. W. M. Reynolds and His Fiction: The Man Who Outsold Dickens by Stephen Knight (review)

This is such a useful book. G. W. M. Reynolds and his work as fiction writer, journalist, and activist are gaining more and more interest and appreciation, but the scale of the task is huge. The only other book-length study of Reynolds so far, an authoritative essay collection edited by Anne Humpherys and Louis James (G. W. M. Reynolds: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Politics, and the Press [Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008]), could not cover the entire body of Reynolds's fiction as contributors also discussed his extensive journalistic output. As Stephen Knight himself estimates, Reynolds's book-length fiction alone (ignoring the journalism and short stories) makes up "just over twenty million words" (10). This means that "such limited commentary as Reynolds has attracted is often limited to the early and late pages of his enormous major works, and errors in names and plot details are common" (10). Here, then, is a book to help us make some sense of all that storytelling; "familiarization with Reynolds's works" is Knight's "major purpose" (11). In this he succeeds admirably, and this book will no doubt inspire a whole new set of scholars and graduate students to look for new questions and answers in Reynolds's vast fictional output.

Had this book existed when I was writing my own PhD thesis, it would have been a great help. At once scholarly appraisal and reference book, Knight's monograph offers an invaluable orientation and guide to Reynolds's huge volume of words. Knight's formidable amount of reading adds authority to his overview of Reynolds's prolific career in fiction. The chapters divide Reynolds's works by genre more or less chronologically, which gives the reader a sense of Reynolds's interests (although it does necessitate paying attention when the timeline of publication doubles back). Reynolds's fiction covers "at least six different genres and contexts" including "Anglo-French, Contemporary English, European, Fantasy History, Formal History, Near Eastern" (192–93). Knight's important contribution lies in the way he analyses the texts and makes them accessible. Each chapter summarises the plots of the texts under survey—never an easy task, as Reynolds's plots were generally long and complex. These summaries draw out recurrent themes and tropes of plot and character and reveal the development of Reynolds's technique and style. Although Knight does not engage with Charles Dickens in any extensive way (despite the title), the book draws helpful connections between Reynolds's fiction and related themes in his journalism, Susannah Reynolds's work, and work by contemporaries such as Dickens, Wilkie Collins, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Bulwer Lytton. All of this means that scholars in search of new ways into Reynolds's work or new aspects of Victorian novels, journalism, or popular culture will find much that is thought-provoking and illuminating here.

After a helpful biographical introduction that also contains a brief account of Reynolds's contemporary and critical reception, the first chapter addresses Reynolds's early fiction published before The Mysteries of London. The chapter covers Pickwick Abroad (1837–39), Robert Macaire (1840), and Master Timothy's Bookcase (1841–42), among others. The plot summaries show how the work of Dickens as well as Reynolds's knowledge of Paris and French literature influenced his early fiction. Chapter two tackles the first two series of The Mysteries of London (1844–48); helpfully, it also compares them with the two series of this text written by other writers. This comparison draws out what was distinctive about Reynolds's more successful work. Following the multiple plots chronologically, the chapter summarises the trajectories of the major male and female characters, criminals, gentry, aristocrats, and "seductresses," as well as the socio-political commentary. Researchers looking for primary material on any of these topics in popular serial fiction will find these divisions helpful. This chapter also analyses what will be a key theme of Knight's study: the...