City mysteries

19th-century genre of popular novel

City mysteries are a 19th-century genre of popular novel, in which characters explore the secret underworlds of cities and uncover corruption and exploitation.

The "mysteries" originated with the wildly successful serial novel The Mysteries of Paris (1842) by Eugène Sue, which had many imitators and lent the genre its name. The novels were usually first serialized in newspapers, and were (like their less-respectable contemporaries the penny dreadfuls) controversial for their frank depiction of violence and sexual deviancy. They were broadly popular in both Europe and the United States, where The Quaker City (1844) held the title of fiction bestseller until unseated by Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Prominent examples include:

Les Vrais Mystères de Paris (1844) by Eugène François Vidocq
Los misterios de Barcelona (1844) by Josep Nicasi Milà de la Roca
Los misterios de Madrid: miscelánea de costumbres buenas y malas con viñetas y láminas á pedir de boca (1844) by Juan Martínez Villergas
The Quaker City, or The Monks of Monk Hall (1845) by George Lippard
Los Misterios del Plata (1846) by Juana Manso
Venus in Boston (1849) by George Thompson
City Crimes (1849) by George Thompson
Life and Adventures of Jack Engle (1852) by Walt Whitman
The Mysteries of Lisbon (1854) by Camilo Castelo Branco
The Slums of Petersburg (1866) by Vsevolod Krestovsky
Les Mystères de Marseille (1867) by Émile Zola
The Mysteries of London (1844) by George W. M. Reynolds
Les Mystères de Londres by Paul Féval
Les Mystères de Lyon (featuring the Nyctalope) by Jean de La Hire
I misteri di Napoli by Francesco Mastriani,
Les Nouveaux Mystères de Paris by Léo Malet,
Die Mysterien von Berlin by August Brass,
Die Geheimnisse von Hamburg by Johann Wilhelm Christern,
De Verborgenheden van Amsterdam by L. van Eikenhorst