The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall. A Romance of Philadelphia Life, Mystery, and Crime

1844-45 Lippard, George (1822-54). The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall. A Romance of Philadelphia Life, Mystery, and Crime. Philadelphia, PA: G.B. Zieber & Co. Issued in ten parts with four in 1844 and six in 1845. Rpt. as The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall. A Romance of Philadelphia Life, Mystery, and Crime. With Illustrations, and the Author’s Portrait and Autograph. Philadelphia, PA: Leary, Stuart, & Co., [1876], with the author’s “Preface to this Edition” (1-2). Rpt. as The Monks of Monk Hall. New York: Odyssey Press 1970 with an “Introduction by Leslie Fiedler (vii-xxxii). Rpt. ed. David S. Reynolds (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995 with an “Introduction” by Reynolds (vii-xliv). PSt

Mostly a sensational novel as reflected in the title, that, in the “Preface to this Edition,” the author says describes “all the phases of a corrupt social system, as manifested in the city of Philadelphia. There is a brief dystopia, “The Last Says of the Quaker City” (372-93), and a brief eutopia, “The Temple of Ravoni” (525-37). On these utopian dimensions, see Nathaniel Williams, “George Lippard’s Fragile Utopian Future and 1840s American Economic Turmoil.” Utopian Studies 24.2 (2013): 166-83.