The Mysteries of the Court of London ... With ... illustrations
George W. M. Reynolds's serialized penny-fiction saga of aristocratic vice and London crime, issued by John Dicks in 1849 for a mass weekly readership. The wood engravings stage melodramatic interiors crinolined women confronting men in frock coats, a fainting figure carried by a fireplace, a kneeling supplicant, a courtroom bench of onlookers with heavy hatching, carved mantels, patterned carpets and ornamental frames available as period furnishing and costume reference.
