Join the Reynolds Society for an evening talk at the Bow Street Police Museum in London on Thursday 20th July 2023! Our very own Mary L. Shannon and Jennifer Conary will be discussing Reynolds, his life in Paris and London, and his brushes with the police. Mary and Jennifer will also be signing copies of … More Writing Up a Storm in Paris and London: Upcoming Reynolds Society Event
By David T. Dixon In July 2022, I shared research that revealed a lasting friendship between George W.M. Reynolds and English Garibaldian Hugh Forbes. Further inquiries into their social circles uncovered important facts about Forbes’s eight years in Paris while adding additional context to Reynolds’s time on the Continent.[1] Numerous scholars cite an 1848 British … More The Prodigal Brother: Edward D. Reynolds
By: David Dixon The early life of G. W. M Reynolds is shrouded in mystery, despite the efforts of a small but dedicated cadre of scholars, researchers, and enthusiasts. A conspicuous dearth of primary sources, including personal papers and family correspondence are one reason why the best-selling English novelist of the Victorian era remains an … More Radical Rakes: The Friendship of G. W. M. Reynolds and Hugh Forbes
Our narrative opens on the 23rd of July, 2019. A stifling heat pervaded the great metropolis, and the streets were swarming with life. Crowds of Londoners, like myriad animated streams, were pouring through the countless avenues and thoroughfares, diverging and then converging – and every constituent marched doggedly with one thing, one person, on their … More ‘Reynolds Re-evalutated’ Evaluated
The useful ‘Post on ‘G.W.M. Reynolds’s The Modern Literature of France (1839) points us to his only known attempt at writing for the stage. The Catacombs of Paris. A Melodrama in Two Acts exists as a manuscript in the theatrical collection of the late Arthur Williams (1844-1915).[i] Comparison with a contemporary letter by Reynolds confirms … More OUT OF THE DARKNESS: G.W.M. REYNOLDS’S PLAY, THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS (1840?)
There is a strong influence of France and of French literature on George Reynolds’s literary output. The obvious example is Reynolds’s The Mysteries of London (1844-48), one precedent for which is Eugène Sue’s Les Mystères de Paris (1842-43). There is also his breakthrough work, Pickwick Abroad (1837-38), which sees a counterfeit Mr. Pickwick trying frogs’ … More The Modern Literature of France (1839)
G. W. M. Reynolds Society 