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Sensational Novels
The sensation novel, also sensation fiction, was a literary genre of fiction that achieved peak popularity in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s.I. Ousby ed., ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'' (1995) p. 844 Its literary forebears included the melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies; it also drew on the Gothic fiction, Gothic, romance (literary fiction), romance, as well as genre fiction, mass market genres. The genre's popularity was conjoined to an expanding book market and growth of a reading public, by-products of the Industrial Revolution. Whereas romance and realism had traditionally been contradictory modes of literature, they were brought together in sensation fiction. The sensation novelists commonly wrote stories that were allegorical and abstract; the abstract nature of the stories gave the authors room to explore scenarios that wrestled with the social anxietiesHughes, Winifred. ''The Maniac in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas German Reed
Thomas German Reed (27 June 1817 – 21 March 1888), known after 1844 as simply German Reed was an English composer, musical director, actor, singer and theatrical manager of the Victorian era. He was best known for creating the German Reed Entertainments, together with his actress wife, a genre of musical plays that made theatre-going respectable at a time when the stage was considered disreputable. While acting as organist and chapel-master at chapels in London, and also as musical director and performer at West End theatres in the 1830s and 1840s, Reed tried his hand at producing opera. He married Priscilla Horton, a noted singer, actress and dancer, in 1844. By 1851, he was managing opera productions at various theatres in London and on tour. In 1855, Reed and his wife began to present and perform in "Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainments", consisting of brief, small-scale, family-friendly comic operas. In the early and mid-Victorian era, the respectable middle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
