ABSTRACT
The Seamstress's Virginia Mordaunt of Reynolds' female lower-class heroines had aristocratic blood, but she was illegitimate: the women may marry into the nobility, but the full social-rise fantasy of these novels is firmly male. Reynolds starts his novel with Virginia Mordaunt – a surname also found in both of The Mysteries – pale, slender, and attractive, living in an attic. In addition to his Mysteries, through the 1840s Reynolds wrote five relatively lightweight historical fantasies and romances, but as he moved into the 1850s the social and political element of his work was not forgotten. The following 1850s novels will show Reynolds senses an interest among the audience in stories of the aristocracy, especially about mysterious origins, but also showing the malpractice of most established aristocrats. Moving away from the personal and political engagements of Reynolds' usual pattern, Mary Price introduces a new, generalized, wide-ranging as well as personalized narrative.
