Cristina Delano

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Decimonónica

Volume

12

Issue

2

Publisher

Decimonónica

Publication Date

2015

First Page

1

Last Page

13

Abstract

The nineteenth-century mystery novel was among the first narrative genres to capture the modern urban experience. The foundational text of this genre, Eugène Sue’s Les Mystères de Paris (1841-1843), portrayed Paris’s criminal underworld to the titillation of middle class readers.1 Sue wrote his novel at a moment of intense urban growth and change, and his novel served to “shape the popular imagination as to what the city was and might become” (Harvey 25). Sue’s novel sparked a “manía misterial” (Milá de la Roca iii) throughout Europe and the Americas.2 In Spain alone there were misterios about Madrid, Barcelona, Cádiz, Córdoba, and Seville. In Madrid, the city mystery trend coincided with a crucial moment in the development of the urban imaginary of the capital city. Madrid was suffering from an image problem. By the 1830s, Spain had lost the majority of its colonies in the Americas, and Madrid appeared to be politically and culturally stagnated (Juliá 322). The city’s appearance and infrastructure did little to evoke the capital of an empire. As Richard Ford described in his 1844 Handbook for Travellers to Spain, Madrid was “disagreeable and unhealthy” (III: 1075). The fledgling liberal government tried to solve Madrid’s physical deficiencies while also creating a capital that would be a symbol of the modern nation. Before the construction of a “new” Madrid in the 1860s, the first half of the century saw urban reform movements (most notably the desamortización de Mendizábal in 1836) that forced a negotiation of historical memory and the new social and political order.3 These reforms not only changed the urban topography but also rewrote the narrative of the city.

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