Until Harriet Beecher Stow’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin turned the United States on its head and on the precipice of civil war, the most popular novel in America was George Lippard’s The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall (1845). The Quaker City deals with the dark underbelly of Philadelphia’s elitist society, painting a sardonic picture of the city of brotherly love.
The Quaker City hails from the tradition of city mysteries, or, works of fiction that feature a plot of intrigue set in a city. Oftentimes, these city mysteries were motivated by the idea that fiction can uncover the secrets of the elite, and they call the working man to be outraged by the status quo. More contemporary genres that have similar motivations include the progressive muckraking journalism of the early 1900s and, on another extreme, fabulated internet conspiracy theories or “fake news.”
In his day, Lippard was viewed as a very progressive individual and could have been considered a feminist by nineteenth-century standards. While writing The Quaker City, Lippard undoubtedly had political motivations, exhibited in his harsh characterization of elites and his sympathy for the young women who are victimized by them. Of course, Lippard’s popular serial novel garnered much attention from not only progressive supporters and avid fans, but vocal critics, too.
Mainstream media outlets like the New York Herald published their disgust with The Quaker City, saying that the novel and Lippard alike were “destitute of merit, but singularly full of malice” (1844). The Herald continued by expressing disdain for the entire city mysteries genre and how it caters to the working class.
However, some reviewers applauded the audacity of Lippard for investigating the immoral behavior of politicians and financiers. The Philadelphia Home Journal even praised The Quaker City as a novel that “will live in the records of our literature, as the first American novel describing life and men, and manners, not only as they appear, but as they are” (1846). Despite not being intended as a timeless novel, The Quaker City undoubtedly holds a place of reverence in American identity as it vocalized the grievances of the working majority against the elite few.