Part VI: Time Traveling With R.E. Prindle
G.W.M. Reynolds: Building A
Publishing Empire
by
R.E. Prindle
George W.M.
Reynolds is an interesting story, almost epic actually. No biography is currently extant. His history must be patched together by
certain fragmentary sketches and assembled based on those autobiographical details
from his novels in addition to fragmentary researches and solid facts that
provide hints to interpret the novels.
As to
parentage: His father was George
Reynolds, a naval officer during the Napoleonic wars. His dates: 1762-1822. During those Napoleonic wars in 1802 he was
commissioned a Captain and given command of the Tribune, a 36 gun frigate with
which he was able to capture what researcher Dick Collins says, were several
prizes. The proceeds from those prizes
were distributed in shares to the officers and crew. Collins gives no idea of the richness of
those prizes but we must presume that he received, possibly, ten to twenty
thousand pounds overall and possibly more.
This is important as when his son assumed his inheritance in 1830 it is
possible that he received twelve thousand pounds. Thus, it would likely have come from the
proceeds of these prizes.
Prize money
would have been in addition to his wages and whatever emoluments that might
have amounted to three hundred pounds or more per annum. If Reynolds’ father had invested his prize
money and lived on other earnings it would make his having twelve thousand
pounds not unreasonable. This is
important because the size of GWM’s inheritance is disputed. Dick Collins, for instance, seeks to diminish
it to near nothing. Guy Dicks places it
at seven thousand. Without any other
assurance than the prizes I accept the figure of twelve thousand, if for no
other reason than Reynolds was too affluent in France than for there being
little or no inheritance.
On his
mother’s side, Caroline Frances Dowers, 1789-1830, her father was a Purser
Dowers, Purser is his Christian name, who was the commandant of the Royal Naval
Hospital in Walmer, Kent. Caroline and
George were married in 1813. George W.M.
was born a year later in Sandwich, Kent but that location doesn’t figure in his
writings while Walmer and Deal, two neighboring towns where Dowers and his
guardian Duncan McArthur lived, have prominent places as well as Canterbury with
a nod to Ashford.
GWM had a
brother, Edward, born in 1816 with whom he was associated through life, serving
with the publishing company George created.
Shortly after in 1816 his father was stationed on the island of Guernsey
where GWM spent the next six years.
Guernsey will figure in his novels.
It was probably there, next to France, speaking a French dialect that
his affection for France arose.
In 1822, the
family returned to Kent in Canterbury where his father died soon after. His mother at that time was thirty-three, a
young and probably attractive woman. She
was appointed guardian of her sons. As a
backup guardian a great friend of her husband’s, the surgeon Duncan McArthur of
Walmer, 1772-1850 accepted the responsibility on her death in March of 1830 at
the very young age of forty-two. Thus,
Reynolds was an orphan at fifteen. His
being an orphan is important in his writings. George was eight years old when
his father died, and fifteen when his mother passed. Excluding his two years of
infancy his life had been divided evenly between Guernsey and Kent. Orphaned at eight when is father died and
then left parentless after another eight years his childhood must have had a
profound effect on his psychology.
In 1828 he
had been placed in the Sandhurst Military Academy in Berkshire. Neither Sandhurst nor Berkshire have a
prominent place in his novels. His total
experience in Kent then takes place from 1822 to 1828 and those years were
apparently the most formative years of his life for which he appears to have
had a great affection. He was sent to
school at Ashford, Kent, a relatively large town equidistant from Canterbury
and Walmer-Deal. Whatever happened in
Walmer-Deal then happened between 1822 and 1828 but left an indelible
impression on him.
In those
years George must have associated in Walmer with Duncan McArthur and possibly
his grand-father Purser Dowers. George
is fixated on these years and these towns plus Canterbury. Walmer especially is connected to his
character of the Resurrection Man, Anthony Tidkins, in the First Series of The
Mysteries of London. At that time body
stealers from graveyards, known as resurrection men were supplying corpses to
physicians for dissection in the advancement of science. Dick Collins speculates that Duncan McArthur,
a surgeon, bought bodies. In the novel
Tony Tidkins was born in Walmer and supplied bodies to ‘the surgeon of
Walmer.’ Thus, Duncan McArthur.
This is
quite possible if not probable. Reynolds
seems quite familiar with doctors and their scientific experiments. The Mysteries of London were written in two
series. For some reason Collins thinks
that the Second Series was never written but it is readily available today. It comes in two volumes totaling sixteen
hundred pages. It doesn’t appear to be
well known. However in Volume III, that is, First Series, Vols. I and II and
Second Series, Vols. III and IV, Reynolds describes some offices of ‘the
foremost surgeon in England’, a Dr. Lascelles that he leased from a cadaverous,
hideous criminal Benjamin Bones, also known as Old Death. Old Death was not a resurrection man but
looks like he had been resurrected.
There are
many alter-egos of Reynolds in the
Mysteries and one in Vol. III is the highwayman, Thomas Rainford or Tom Rain as
he was known. He is in Old Death’s
crummy old house in which Dr. Lascelles, the foremost doctor in England rents
rooms. Rainford enters these rooms to
find pickled body parts, lifelike casts of human heads and such. Lascelles is a phrenologist in interest. One, then, is led to ask, did Dr. Duncan
McArthur also have such a collection and was an eight to fourteen year old
G.W.M. Reynolds introduced into such a gruesome environment by his guardian. Where else could he have witnessed such scenes
and attributed them to Walmer. The
influence in the novels is extensive.
At fourteen
then he was entered into the military academy.
What happened between he and his guardian after the mother died while he
was a few months short of sixteen isn’t clear.
It is hard to believe that Reynolds with his literary bent wasn’t
restless in a military environment while being exposed at fourteen to that, to
me, repulsive environment was negative.
It was probably there that he had his first experiences with gambling
and drinking.
He wrangled
his way out of Sandhurst in September of 1830.
One imagines that McArthur and Dowers resisted this but as military men
they probably thought they had to give the young fellow his head. He demanded his inheritance then and there
which he must have received but with great reluctance. Whether his brother also had an inheritance isn’t
clear but as his brother joined George in France he may have brought a fresh
supply of money.
As important
as 1822-28 were to Reynolds development, the years in France from 1831-36 were equally
important. There is no clear account of
what happened in those years, only what may be gleaned from his writings and
some facts Dick Collins has collected.
What is clear
is that the most significant occurrence was that Reynolds was illuminated
almost upon landing in France. Reynolds
says that he became a Liberal at Sandhurst, by which he means, that among the
sons of the aristocracy as an inferior he developed a deep resentment for that
faction of society. In France his illumination codified that resentment into a
program.
Illumination
may be a new concept to many readers but the term and concept arose from the
dissolution of the Medieval Order and the rise of the scientific consciousness
promoted by astronomers and alchemists.
It became apparent to many that the old order was no longer suited to
emerging social exigencies as condensed into the 1789 Revolutionary slogan Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity. Its key components
were the elimination of monarchy, the aristocracy, that is the privileges of
birth, and the rejection of established religion and priestcraft and certain
sexual revisions.
In its evolution
in the sixteenth century it took the form of the Rosicrucian Order and
Rosicrucianism remained the backbone of Illumination down probably to the
present. The Illuminati sect of Rosicrucianism
appropriated the word. Thus Reynolds
appears to have been initiated into the Rosicrucian Order. At least, in his novel the Wehrwolf he has
his hero Wagner leave the Island of the Lotus Eaters in his novel to go to
Sicily in which the venerable head of the Rosicrucian Order existed as a 164
year old man with whom he had a long interview, or, as I read it, he was
initiated or illuminated. This chicanery
was common during the eighteenth century and the formation of Freemasonry that
incorporates all these legends.
Most famous
in the Revolutionary days were Cagliostro, otherwise Joseph Balsamo and the
Count de St. Germain, alchemists and magicians.
Alexander Dumas has a wonderful interpretation of the career of Cagliostro
in his novel Joseph Balsamo. You may be
sure Reynolds read it. Of course, such
men as these were not what they claimed to be but society was credulous and
many took them at their word. After all,
with that great European legend or myth of the Wandering Jew sightings of him were
common as there were many Jewish poseurs.
They wandered and announced themselves and were credited as such. Cagliostro and St. Germain were actually a
significant part of the Revolution.
Another
impostor of sorts was Adam Weishaupt who appropriated illuminism to form the
Illuminati. That group is now passed off
as legendary for whatever reasons the Left has, but they did exist and were a
key part of the Revolution as Jacobins.
Nobody denies the Jacobins.
One must
remember that the revolutionary and Napoleonic years were from 1789 to 1815 and
Reynolds was born in 1814. He was an
ardent follower of Napoleon considering him the greatest man of history. Joseph Balsamo (Cagliostro) and the Comte de
St. Germain were still living legends while Reynolds was in Paris. Dumas was writing amazing stories about
Cagliostro and the Revolutionary period concurrently with Reynolds’ novels. The French writers he would have been
familiar with in the 1830s were all imbrued with the events of 1789-1815. This period was one of most breathtaking
events in the history of Europe.
More or less
as an aside these first fifty years of the nineteenth century were the
formative years from which the succeeding two hundred years have evolved. A work still treasured by the cognoscenti was
published in 1841, Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the
Madness of Crowds containing long essays on John Law and the Mississippi Bubble
as well as that amazing phenomenon The South Sea Bubble. W.H. Ainsworth wrote a wonderful novel
describing the South Sea Bubble. I don’t
think there’s any doubt that Reynolds’ read it as he has numerous examples of
bubble companies and frauds in his pages.
In the early nineteenth century the Frenchman Gustave Le Bon would add
his magnificent psychological study the Crowd:
A Study of the Popular Mind that Freud would incorporate into his Group
Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego thus forming the basis of mind control
today.
In addition
the Regency Period and Reign of George IV were part of his living
memories. When he arrived in France very
late in 1830, the year George IV died, really 1831 the Revolution of 1830 had
just taken place in July 1830- the July Revolution- that removed Charles X and
placed Louis Phillipe on the throne.
Almost from enthronement the Revolution of 1848 was being planned and a
mere eighteen years later took place ending the monarchy in France
permanently. Reynolds himself was
working toward 1848 probably from the day his shoes hit French soil.
Reynolds was
an enthusiastic supporter of the July Revolution and cheered wildly at the
displacement of the aristocracy. In his
estimation it placed the French high above the English who retained both
monarch and aristocracy. He despised the
English nobility. That attitude would
have been a common one of course but, I believe it likely that Reynolds
humiliating experiences at Sandhurst cemented that hatred in his mind.
Sandhurst
would have been full of the sons of the aristocracy who would have demeaned
mere commoners. Nor would he have had
the money to keep up with them.
What drove
him to France isn’t clear but those five years were to be the most influential
of his life. Reconstructing those five
years is not easy although some key events can be dated.
A sixteen
year old striking out on his own in a foreign country with inadequate language
skills is daring while if he had what to a sixteen year old was an enormous sum
of twelve thousand pounds in his pockets sharpers and sponges would have
spotted him immediately.
There is a
passage in Vol. II of The Mysteries Of The Court Of London that might explain
his situation. A sixteen year old orphan girl, the beauteous Carmilla, actually
Rose Foster has been cleaned out of her inheritance by sharpers.
Another home! Alas! Alas! ‘tis much more easily said that done; and the orphan felt that it was so, and her heart, as it were, came up into her throat as she reflected that the only true home which she had ever enjoyed had been swallowed up in the grave of her parents.
O God! robbery is bad, forger is vile, rape is atrocious, and murder is abhorrent; but to ill-treat an orphan, to be merciless toward the poor being from whom death has borne away the fond mother and the doting father, never to send them back again, oh, this is abhorrent also, and the wretch who has no pity for the orphan is capable of robbery and forgery and rape and murder.
There is a
cri de couer, a hysterical wringing of hands.
We can’t reconstruct exactly what happened after Reynolds’ beloved
mother died orphaning him completely. What
his relationship with his new guardian was we don’t know, but, just as Carmilla
was easy prey for the criminals who took advantage of her youth and innocence,
it is more than likely that something similar happened to Reynolds in France.
Thus it
cannot be accidental that his account of his first adventures in France should have
been recreated in his continuation of Dicken’s Pickwick Papers, Pickwick
Abroad. It is a novel full of sharpers and spongers preying on Pickwick who may
have been a variant of the prosperous Reynolds. This novel is an interesting
account of English ex-pats in Paris.
In the
post-Napoleonic years there was such an influx of English people into Paris for
extended stays that the Meurice Hotel was created to accommodate them by
creating as English an atmosphere in France as possible. It would be almost the same as the Jewish and
Italian colonies in New York City c. 1900.
It is in the atmosphere of the Meurice that Reynolds places his version
of Mr. Pickwick for the duration of that famous character’s stay in France.
It is there
that Pickwick is surrounded by sharpers and sponges and plain thieves. One wonders how Reynolds saw himself in that
mélange. Perhaps with his twelve
thousand pounds he is Mr. Pickwick himself though certainly not as a sponge
although one gathers the impression that Reynolds was somewhat addicted to
sharp practices. Perhaps his first year
or two were spent Pickwick fashion.
Quite high living for a sixteen year old. Remember though as Mortimer from Master
Timothy’s Bookcase returns to England Mortimer philosophizes whether a young
man can be a Man of the World. Perhaps
that can be interpreted that he had tried and failed in France.
In these
five years in France of rapid intellectual development at no time could he have
let the grass grow under his feet. He
obviously worked in a vast amount of reading.
One should keep in mind that in 1839 in England he compiled a book, The
Modern Literature Of France, a book of excerpts with prefaces. It is certain that he read and was deeply
influenced by Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame De Paris, or the Hunchback of Notre Dame
in common parlance. The book was
published in the year of his arrival in 1831.
He carried the memory of its pages in mind from that time forward. He read the Marquis de Sades’ Justine, and
Juliette, and the Philosophy of the Boudoir and was deeply influenced by those
books. His rather racy sexual
descriptions probably derive therefrom.
He praises the apparently horror novelist, Frederic Soulie (not
translated into English yet) while making use of his techniques in his own
novels.
Paris must
have been wildly active while he was resident.
Survivors of the 1789 revolution would have been sixty or seventy years
old, filled with stories. Reynolds
endorsed the crimes of the French Revolution.
The Bohemia immortalized by Henry Burger in his 1859 novel would have
been in rapid development thus combining the political, art and literary
scenes. Balzac, Sue and Dumas as well as
lesser light were all writing in the shadow of the Revolution and Napoleonic
years. That Reynolds showed interest in
the art scene is evidenced by his chapter in Mysteries of the Court of
London. Thus his brain was swarming with
images and innumerable scenes copped from the French novelists.
Connected to
all would have been the process of illumination, the formation of Reynold’s
Weltanschauung and his uniting with the Zeitgeist. I have been unable to identify a reference to
the Freemasons but the mystic cult of Rosicrucianism seems to have attracted
his attention, hence illumination.
Reynolds was a very prominent Liberal, touting Liberalism, hence
illumination constantly. A Liberalism
almost current with that of the twenty-first century. He was true blue.
After three
years in France he made his first novel attempt: The Youthful Impostor. I haven’t read that as yet but the title
perhaps indicates his feelings about himself.
He was probably premature in taking on the trappings of The Man of the
World that he so much wanted to be.
He began a
bookstore at about this time while attempting to found an Anglo-French
newspaper. One can only conclude that
they were unsuccessful and left France a year later as a bankrupt. But not before he married Susannah Frances
Pierson at the British Embassy. In
Volume IV of the Mysteries of London Charles Hatfield and Perdita Hardinge were
married at the British Embassy in November.
Was this a reenactment of his and Susannah’s marriage? As he seems a little gushy about the event
his and Susannah’s marriage at the Embassy must have made a significant
impression on him.
In 1836 his
French adventure ended as he went broke, returning to England with wife and new
son in tow. He was only twenty-two and
had lived a lifetime or two in France. The years from 1837-44 seems to have
been a period of struggling to re-orient himself. After all having been under the impression
that he was rich in 1831 to have gone smash in 1836 and then having to find a
way to wealth again must have taken some courage. During 1842-44 he seems to have realized that
his early efforts were getting him nowhere so was searching for a new direction. 1844-48 is an expression of that reorientation
that ended in the Revolution of 1848 and the elimination of the French monarchy
at last.
Even though
only twenty-two in 1836 it would seem that some interest in his abilities
adhered to him from his French journalistic activities because on his return he
found ready employment as the editor of the Monthly Magazine then tottering,
and which he revived.
The English
loved to sojourn in Paris. In the brief
period of peace in 1802 as Venetia Murray records in her An Elegant Madness
when the English rushed to France. Then
after the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the love affair with France
recovered. Indeed, much to Reynolds’ chagrin
the English offered Louis Philippe sanctuary in England after 1848. As mentioned the Meurice Hotel was established
to cater to English tastes.
As magazine editor
in Paris Reynolds published Thackeray’s first appearance in print so it is
probable the he had established some sort of reputation that was honored on his
return. Reynolds then began publication
of Pickwick Abroad in the Monthly’s pages.
While usually considered a plagiarism Reynolds’ explains his position
clearly:
The founder of the ‘Pickwick club’ which now exists no longer had violated the promise he had sometime since made to himself and voluntarily deviated from that tranquil mode of life it was his intention to adopt when his first biographer, ‘Boz’ took leave of him.
So, as
Reynolds apparently saw it, if the first biographer abandon’s a biography a
second biographer may legitimately write a continuation. Remember that the club no longer existed so
it was Mr. Pickwick himself. A fine line
perhaps but Pickwick Abroad is not about the club. Indeed, the grand epic of the Greeks was
written by several hands of which Homer’s was just one. There were several continuations written for
Chretien De Troye’s Grail story. Not
everyone agreed with the notion but Pickwick Abroad was a success giving
Reynolds a literary reputation, of sorts, in England.
None of the
following six efforts leading to 1842 created much of a fuss. During that time,
however, Reynold’s was exploring all of the highways and byways of London and
he may have devoted much of his time during his two missing years to that endeavor
as well as doing extensive reading. He
was certainly well read and aware of scientific, technological and societal
developments. It seems clear to me that
he had read the psychological literature of his time and knew how to apply it
accurately. He apparently visited many
insane asylums in both France and England as the interiors of the various asylums
seem to be accurately portrayed. He was
aware of Dr. Pinel who liberalized the handling of the insane in France. All of this interest in matters combined with
his illumination gives an extraordinary depth to his writing making the most of
intense experiences giving them almost a visual reality.
While
writing Vol IV of the Second Series, the Revolution of 1848 occurred about 40%
of the way through in February of that year.
Reynolds broke off his narrative to celebrate the event and encourage the
Chartists to do the same in England. As
he was in the process of writing about his heroine, Laura Mortimer, he has her
begin her course in illumination as taught by her music teacher beginning with the
Marseillaise and some poems by Victor Hugo.
Hugo was a monster influence on Reynolds. Cross fertilization was apparently
widespread.
Reynolds,
once again taking inspiration from Dickens for the last volume of his early
period, Master Timothy’s Bookcase, he then remained unpublished from 42-44. Looking again to France, Reynolds read the
early installments of the great Eugene Sue’s Mysteries of Paris. Receiving this inspiration his thoughts fell
into place and he began to write the magnificent First Series of The Mysteries
Of London.
At this
point I wish to cautiously introduce a work that appeared simultaneously with
Reynolds and Sue, Paul Feval’s own version of The Mysteries of London. While virtually unknown in the US today Feval
was a magnificent crime writer inking the stories of the Black Coats. Being aFrenchman his take on haunts that both
he and Reynolds were aware are yet quite different but equally as terrifying as
Reynold’s.
The First
Series of Mysteries of London quickly set Reynold’s on his feet and he was in a
position to look forward to building a publishing empire and regaining the dreams
of his youth.
The First
Series ended in 1846 and it was that year that he established his weekly
newspaper the Reynolds Miscellany. The
First Series had been stunningly successful, selling in the tens of thousands
per week so that perhaps giddy with success he thought his name so familiar and
respected the magazine would sell by itself.
On the other hand, it was a dream coming true. The first issue began with his novel Wagner The
Wehrwolf. The story itself may have been
patterned on the success of James Rymer’s Varney the Vampire of recent issue. If so, the story worked, the magazine was a
success and continued to large sales for several years before being folded into
John Dick’s Bow Bells.
At this
time, 1846-48, Reynolds was also getting increasingly involved in the politics
that led up to the February Revolution and the Trafalgar demonstration of that April. This shows in his erratic writing of the Second
Series. While having high points such as
story of Perdita Hardinge the Second Series is a low point in his production. In getting involved in the Miscellany and the
Revolution it is clear that he was taking on too much.
A sea change
took place in his career when he formed an alliance with the printer John Dicks
in 1847. Dicks would remain his printer
for the rest of his career being made a full partner in 1854.
Make no
mistake, Reynolds great success depended on his relationship with Dicks. Without a relationship such as this, carrying
much of the burden, great success is impossible.
He was now
able to free himself from his association with Stiff and Vickers who published The
Mysteries of London. They appear to have
regarded Reynolds’ writing as for hire and kept the copyrights as theirs. This departure
does not appear to have been amicable. Stiff tried to undermine the Reynold’s
Miscellany while Reynold’s believed that his 1848 bankruptcy was engineered by
Stiff in spite. Nevertheless the groundwork
for a remarkable publishing empire was being laid.
Nearly all
the information on Dicks I take from his grandson Guy Dicks’ and his book The
John Dicks Press, self-published in 2005 and reprinted in 2016.
As an
amusing aside if you google Guy Dicks what comes up is a series of articles on
men’s penises. Guy Dicks doesn’t get a
mention.
Guy’s
grandfather John was born four years after Reynolds in 1818. He served a fairly long apprenticeship with
specialty publishers before joining Reynolds.
His most interesting was with the Chinese dictionary compiler Robert
Morrison. He came to Reynolds as an
expert printer and innovative publisher.
He and Reynolds were on the same wavelength although I don’t know whether
Dicks was illuminated or not.
Although
Dicks was an employee of Reynolds until 1864 when he was made a partner in that
year the two men worked working even more expanded the empire. In addition to Reynolds’ novels and the Reynolds
Miscellany they created the Reynolds News paper that survived for well over a
hundred years. As their business grew and as technological innovations improved
publishing methods the firm kept up, changing with the innovations adding huge
steam presses that turned out thousands of impressions an hour.
Between the
two of them they tried to be model employers much in the style of the twentieth
centuries Henry Ford.
Those developments
were in the future, in 1846-7 it is clear that Reynolds was writing weekly
installments in a rush while trying to establish a publishing empire of his
own. His mental energy must have been
enormous and his ability to organize his time phenomenal. Let us never forget that he had a wife and
large and growing family.
While the Second
Series, especially Volume IV, suffers from all this activity, in 1847 he wrote
a complete novel of several thousand words titled Faust: A Romance of the
Secret Tribunals that is well plotted and tightly written. It also displays a
fair amount of historical knowledge and research. This must have been in the
second half of 1847 as in 1846-47 he was turning out Wagner the Wehrwolf which
is interesting and exciting but a lower quality than Faust. At the same he was writing these three novels
there are reference in the Second Series indicating that he was organizing his
thoughts to begin the phenomenal Mysteries of the Court of London.
His mental
capacity was phenomenal, his mind was so compartmentalized that he could be
working on four separate extensive novels while editing the Reynolds Miscellany
during 1846 and part of 1847. His wife
Susannah must have been managing the family finances while bringing up a troop
of noisy children, and also, it might be added attempting novels also. Her novel Gretna Green appeared at this time.
He began his
magnum opus, The Mysteries of the Court of London in 1848 and from then on, he
was on solid ground with Dicks backing him up in the founding and development
of his publishing empire.
While the humiliations Reynolds suffered as a
sixteen year old striking out on his own had been extremely painful to him
providing wretched memories, with the rise of his empire he redeemed those
years and mistakes. When he died he left
an estate of nearly thirty thousand pounds thus putting him up in the class of
those aristocrats he despised so much.
Alls well that ends well, eh GeorgeP
