G.W.M. Reynolds (1814-1879) surpassed even Charles Dickens as the Victorian era’s best-selling author. Like Dickens, he crafted realistic, epic-length novels depicting the society of his day. Reynolds broke totally new ground, however, with his explicit, unstinting depictions of sex, crime and violence, paving the way for the most daring fiction of the twentieth century. He transplanted the gripping narratives and bloody, suspense-filled ambience of nineteenth-century gothic novels onto the gritty streets of Victorian London, in the process forging something entirely new – the urban gothic suspense novel, or what later writers would call steampunk. Mysteries of London is his masterpiece. A record-shattering best-seller on its first publication, selling a million copies in its first few years, it has never lost its power to grip readers, or to shock them. Lexicos Publishing is proud to present this ground-breaking novel complete and unabridged, for the first time in a single volume. It has been meticulously edited and formatted for Kindle. Part of the Lexicos Critical Editions series, it includes extensive resources aimed at helping both students and the general public get the most out of this important work. This Critical Edition includes textual notes, an author biography, critical commentary, and an extensive, up-to-date guide to further reading. “The most popular writer of our time.” The Bookseller (1879) “A totally original mixture of pornography, sadism, and political radicalism.” Margaret Dalziel, Popular Fiction a Hundred Years Ago