George Lippard's 'Theatre of Hell': Apocalyptic Melodrama and Working-Class Spectatorship in the Quaker City
In a January, 1842, article for Philadelphia's Democratic paper The Spirit of the Times, the author George Lippard depicts a visit from a "bona fide spirit, with a tail and two horns." The devilish creature bestows upon Lippard's city-reporter alter ego, "Flib," a magic...
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| Published in: | J19 Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 205 - 237 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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Philadelphia
Johns Hopkins University Press
01.10.2017
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| ISSN: | 2166-742X, 2166-7438, 2166-7438 |
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| Abstract | In a January, 1842, article for Philadelphia's Democratic paper The Spirit of the Times, the author George Lippard depicts a visit from a "bona fide spirit, with a tail and two horns." The devilish creature bestows upon Lippard's city-reporter alter ego, "Flib," a magical ring that "renders the wearer invisible" and allows him to observe silently the secret exchanges and exploitations of antebellum Philadelphia. Previous Lippard scholars have acknowledged a link between the author's work and theater, particularly the period's dominant theatrical genre of melodrama. Here, D'Alessandro argues that via central set-pieces throughout Quaker City, Lippard attempts to invoke working-class spectatorial experiences and hence to unite a community of diverse workers within a failing Philadelphia social order. |
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| AbstractList | In a January, 1842, article for Philadelphia's Democratic paper The Spirit of the Times, the author George Lippard depicts a visit from a "bona fide spirit, with a tail and two horns." The devilish creature bestows upon Lippard's city-reporter alter ego, "Flib," a magical ring that "renders the wearer invisible" and allows him to observe silently the secret exchanges and exploitations of antebellum Philadelphia. Previous Lippard scholars have acknowledged a link between the author's work and theater, particularly the period's dominant theatrical genre of melodrama. Here, D'Alessandro argues that via central set-pieces throughout Quaker City, Lippard attempts to invoke working-class spectatorial experiences and hence to unite a community of diverse workers within a failing Philadelphia social order. Flib's first destination is an unnamed theater, where he observes the manager refusing to pay an actress's salary, even as "a flood of tears . . . roll[s] down her worn and wasted features" and she describes her starving child at home.1 Two years later, Lippard graduated from penny-press reporting but continued his efforts to expose social villains in his sensation novel The Quaker City; Or the Monks of Monk Hall (1844-45). Previously reliant on British theatrical models, the United States produced more dramas by American playwrights from 1829 to 1849 than in any equivalent period before 1870.4 By the 1830s, too, ticket prices had been lowered to make theatergoing affordable to all social groups, and the working classes especially. Lippard's Philadelphia: Class Anxieties and the Working-Class Theater From his newspaper writings in the early 1840s to his death in 1853, Lippard became an increasingly vocal advocate for the American working class.13 He began his journalism career shortly after the Panic of 1837, an economic crash that decimated the artisan system and resulted in a lopsided distribution of urban wealth.14 Writing from 1842 to 1843 for the local papers Spirit of the Times and Citizen Soldier, Lippard most often targeted crooked bank directors after the post-Panic bank failures left many ordinary citizens penniless.15 One of Lippard's early pieces depicts a mechanic shuffling through his suddenly valueless bank notes, while another article portrays bank directors secretly plotting to deny the poor and evict widows.16 As David Reynolds notes, Lippard became increasingly attuned to worker issues as his career progressed. Not only did he offer narratives that exposed the dreadful conditions of factory work or the terrors of starvation but he also sought to change literary approaches to these subjects.20 Though Lippard "consistently envisioned himself as writing for the mass audience," according to Erickson, the author's actual readership remains under debate.21 Michael Denning suggests that readers of city-mystery fiction like Lippard's were "the working people of the city,"22 but subsequent studies by Isabelle Lehuu and Barbara Sicherman suggest that a wider readership existed for penny papers, sensation fiction, and associated genres.23 While Quaker City's best-selling numbers nearly ensured that a diverse group of citizens read the novel, periodical reviews indicate that Lippard at least reached his intended working-class audience among others. |
| Author | D'Alessandro, Michael |
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| Copyright | C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists Copyright University of Pennsylvania Press Fall 2017 |
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| DOI | 10.1353/jnc.2017.0013 |
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| Snippet | In a January, 1842, article for Philadelphia's Democratic paper The Spirit of the Times, the author George Lippard depicts a visit from a "bona fide spirit,... Flib's first destination is an unnamed theater, where he observes the manager refusing to pay an actress's salary, even as "a flood of tears . . . roll[s] down... |
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| SubjectTerms | American literature Armed forces Children Cities Culture Death & dying Fiction History Labor unions Lippard, George (1822-1854) Literary criticism Manual workers Melodramas Monks Novels Occupations Self concept Social classes Social order Spectatorship Theater Working class Writers |
| Title | George Lippard's 'Theatre of Hell': Apocalyptic Melodrama and Working-Class Spectatorship in the Quaker City |
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