Already known as a writer with a social conscience, Charles Reade published It Is Never Too Late to Mend specifically to stimulate public interest in social revolution. He proved successful, spurring his reading public to lead a movement to reform… Read More ›
Described by some critics as gruesome and by others as grim, H. G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau depends on the mad scientist characterization that would continue to be popular into the 20th century. Intent on transmitting a moral… Read More ›
H. G. Wells often used his science fiction tales to teach a moral lesson. In The Invisible Man, he warns against the abuse of scientific capability and the misuse of power it encourages. The protagonist, Griffin, was driven to find… Read More ›
Susan Ferrier allowed six years to pass between the release of her well-liked novel of manners, Marriage, and Inheritance, another anonymously published story that focused on the romantic choices of young women. She had worked on the novel at Morningside… Read More ›
In his third novel, Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face, Charles Kingsley seemingly departed from his previous focus on his own era to produce a historical romance. However, as the title indicates, he still dealt with contemporary issues…. Read More ›
As indicated by its subtitle, Hurrish: A Study was intended by Emily Lawless to reflect as much about Ireland’s general masses as about any one person. Thus, her characters serve as basic types or symbols. They scratch out a living… Read More ›
Anna Marie Porter’s novel of the French Revolutionary War, The Hungarian Brothers, proved her most popular romance. It either delighted or repulsed readers in later centuries, depending on their fondness for the genre. One contemporary review of the novel read,… Read More ›
When Tobias Smollett published the last of his novels, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, he used the familiar epistolary novel form first made famous by Samuel Richardson. Five of his flat, predictable characters wrote letters that differed in their points… Read More ›
The first three volumes of Thomas Holcroft’s Hugh Trevor appeared in 1794. In October of that year, before he could add the final three volumes to his novel, Holcroft went to Newgate Prison on a charge of high treason due… Read More ›
When Samuel Richardson began The History of Sir Charles Grandison, he had no plan other than to present a moral tale to counter the bawdy tone and content of Henry Fielding’s wildly popular The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling… Read More ›
William Makepeace Thackeray published his second novel, The History of Pendennis, as a serial between November 1848 and December 1850. It ran at the same time as Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, a novel to which it is often compared. The… Read More ›
William Makepeace Thackeray achieved his goal of making history familiar to his readers in The History of Henry Esmond. He established a model for historical fiction, using true occurrences as the basis of his novel in a way never done… Read More ›
Robert Smith Surtees became the most popular of the “squire novelists” with his series featuring the inexpert fox-hunting enthusiast and London grocer John Jorrocks. Made famous first in Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities and later in its sequel, Handley Cross (1843),… Read More ›
Later to become famous for his thesis novels, Benjamin Disraeli used the popularity of silver-fork fiction to produce a romance in Henrietta Temple. While the plot did emphasize the pressures placed on individuals by society to marry well, that is… Read More ›
Anthony Trollope first began work on He Knew He Was Right at the end of 1867, following in that same year the publication of The Last Chronicle of Barset, the final entry in the series that had won him fame… Read More ›
Supposedly, Charlotte M. Yonge was challenged by a friend to write a story about a hero with a flaw requiring reform who does not triumph through strength or talent, but rather proves his heroism through forbearance and forgiveness. She accepted… Read More ›
The second series in Sir Walter Scott’s Tales of My Landlord was to consist of one short tale and one novel, The Heart of Midlothian. The final product consisted only of the novel and was issued in four volumes, for… Read More ›
Thomas Love Peacock published his first novel, Headlong Hall, anonymously, reflecting in it his dislike of progress and all of its “new-fangled” ideas. In what would become a regular approach for Peacock, Headlong Hall presents a satiric discussion in Platonic… Read More ›
Upon beginning Charles Reade’s sequel to his novel Love Me Little, Love Me Long (1850), a reader might believe the book is purely romance. Mrs. Dodd and her children, Edward and Julia, keep one another company in the absence of… Read More ›
Samuel Lover was best known as a miniaturist painter and a dramatist, often performing his own written sketches and stories. Handy Andy remains his best-known novel, probably his only work to have remained palatable to later audiences. Lover writes ironically… Read More ›
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