Minna Vuohelainen

From “Vulgar” and “Impossible” to “Pre-Eminently Readable”: Richard Marsh's Critical Fortunes, 1893–1915

This paper examines the critical fortunes of Richard Marsh (1857–1915), a best selling author of horror, crime, sensation, comic and romantic fiction. The paper charts the changing tone of reviews of Marshs work as the authors popularity increased, his publication pattern stabilised and his publishers became more respectable. The focus of the paper will be on critical responses to Marshs work in high-cultural reviews such as the Academy and the Athenaeum, which have been sampled as indicative of conservative views. The paper argues that after the publication of Marshs best selling novel The Beetle: A Mystery in 1897, a clear shift is noticeable in reviews of his work from a dismissive attitude towards genre fiction to an appreciation of a recognised name within the niche market for sensational and romantic popular fiction. The paper charts this process of winning critical recognition for genre work, exploring the reasons for Marshs shifting critical fortunes. In the process, it also traces the likely reception of other popular writers of the period.

‘Deeds of Darkness’: Thomas Hardy and Murder

Critics have often sought to place Thomas Hardy’s fiction within a realist generic framework, with a significant emphasis on Hardy’s Wessex settings, visual imagination and equation of sight with knowledge. Yet Hardy’s writings frequently disturb realist generic conventions by introducing elements from popular nineteenth-century genres, particularly sensation fiction and the Gothic. This essay considers how murder as a plot device troubles generic boundaries in the novels Desperate Remedies (1871), Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) and Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891). Set against backgrounds with significant non-realist elements, these texts view murder and its punishment from limited, distorted or averted perspectives that articulate a significant social and cultural critique.

The Concentrationary Universe: Primo Levi’s Spatial Consciousness

“I’ve always thought that bridges are the most beautiful work there is,” remarks Tino Faussone in Primo Levi’s 1978 book The Wrench (La chiave a stella).1 Levi’s rigger-protagonist appreciates bridges because “they’ll never do anybody harm; in fact, they do good, because roads pass over bridges, and without roads we would still be like savages. In other words, bridges are sort of the opposite of boundaries, and boundaries are where wars start.”2 The nomadic Faussone enjoys seeing the world while “going from one construction site to another,” appreciating the diversity of the planet: “the world is beautiful because it’s all different .”3 Typically working at interstitial places such as shorelines, riverbanks, or on an offshore oil rig that is “like an island, but … an island we had made,” Faussone is a “Homo faber” who finds meaning in work performed well. The rigger’s wrench is, for Faussone, also a key to the stars whose dust he finds on top of the tall constructions he has helped to erect.4 A celebration of the “freedom” attainable from “being good at your job and therefore taking pleasure in doing it,” Faussone demonstrates Levi’s argument that freedom means “not having to work under a boss.”5

Distorting the Genre, Defining the Audience, Detecting the Author: Richard Marsh's "For Debt" (1902)

The author examines the turn-of-the-century debate over prison reform by closely analyzing Richard Marsh’s short story “For Debt” (1902). The story presents a powerful critique of imprisonment in a guise acceptable to Marsh’s lower-middle-class readership. By blurring the boundaries of fiction, prison autobiography, and investigative journalism, the story further highlights the entertainment value of these genres in the early 1900s.