City mysteries
City mysteries are a 19th-century genre of popular novel, in which characters explore the secret underworlds of cities and reveal corruption and exploitation, depicting violence and deviant sexuality. They were popular in both Europe and the United States. All were inspired by the very successful serial novel The Mysteries of Paris (1842) by Eugène Sue.
Notable examples include:
- Les Vrais Mystères de Paris (1844) by Eugène François Vidocq
- The Mysteries of London (1844) by George W. M. Reynolds
- Quaker City, or the Monks of Monk Hall (1845) by George Lippard
- "Venus in Boston" (1849) by George Thompson
- "City Crimes" (1849) by George Thompson
- "The Mysteries of Lisbon" (1854) by Camilo Castelo Branco
- "The Slums of Petersburg" (1866) by Vsevolod Krestovsky