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GRANT ALLEN
Novelist
and Miscellaneous Writer
Born Alwington,
An
Annotated Bibliography of His Fiction & Poetry
Last revised:
I am grateful for help from many other people,
and seek eagerly more details and corrections. There is a section on unresolved problems at the end. Contact
me at peter.morton AT flinders.edu.au
All printed bibliographies of Allen's creative
work are unsatisfactory. Even the New Cambridge Bibliography of English
Literature is slightly inaccurate and incomplete in its entries for fiction.
The bibliographies in the three volumes of the Dictionary of Literary
Biography (Gale) which have articles on GA also have omissions and some
minor errors. All of these ignore GA's many uncollected stories for the
periodicals. The bibliography of GA's fiction by Phil Stephensen-Payne and
Virgil Utter (Galactic Central Publications, 1999) is
incomplete.
The Library of Congress,
the University of Toronto Library and the University of California libraries
seem to hold the fullest collections of GA's fiction.
All items are signed 'Grant Allen', and novels were published in one volume, unless stated otherwise.
Abbreviations:
CIHM=Canadian Institute for
Historical Microreproductions, Ottawa
Penn=Rare Books and
Manuscripts, the Pennsylvania State University Libraries
CW=The Chatto &
Windus Archives, University of Reading Library
"I
wasn't born a novelist, I was only made one. Philosophy and science were the
first loves of my youth. I dropped into romance as many men drop into drink, or
opium-eating, or other bad practices, not of native perversity, but by pure
force of circumstances. . . . The education of an English novelist consists
entirely in learning to subordinate all his own ideas and tastes and opinions to
the wishes and beliefs of the inexorable British matron. . . . I had a ten
years' hard struggle for bread, into the details of which I don't care to enter.
It left me broken in health and spirit, with all the vitality and vivacity
crushed out of me. I suppose the object of this series of papers is to warn off
ingenuous and aspiring youth from the hardest worked and worst paid of the
professions. If so, I would say earnestly to the ingenuous and aspiring – 'Brain
for brain, in no market can you sell your abilities to such poor advantage.
Don't take to literature if you've capital enough in hand to buy a good broom,
and energy enough to annex a vacant crossing'." -- My First Book
(1892).
1869
Two Portraits
1. Oxford University Magazine and Review, 1 (Nov 1869), 12-13.
Unsigned.
2. Forecast and Fulfillment. The Lower Slopes
(1894).
1870
Mr Josiah P. Doolittle's
Electioneering Experiences. A Communication from a Sister University
Attributed by Clodd, GA. Doolittle, a con-man, late of Hitchcocksburg
University, outwits a corrupt election committee. Full of vulgar Americanisms,
this first fictional effort mocks American pretensions and corruptions, and
their lack of culture generally.
1. Oxford University Magazine and
Review, 2 (Jan 1870), 145-153. Unsigned.
In Bushey Park
1. Oxford University Magazine and Review, 2 (Jan 1870), 144.
Unsigned.
2. The Lower Slopes (1894).
1874
Only an Insect
1. "Only an Insect." Canadian Monthly and National Review, 6
(Dec 1874), 521.
2. The Mystery of Pain. By Professor Grant Allen.
Popular Science Monthly, 11 (Sep 1877), 634.
3.
Ladhope Leaves. A Spring Garland for 1887. Edinburgh: T. & A.
Constable, 1887.
4. The Lower Slopes (1894).
5. A Treasury of Canadian Verse, ed.
Theodore H. Rand. Toronto/London: William Briggs/Dent, 1900, pp. 3-6.
This is
preceded by a 4-stanza section from 'Day-Dreams' by his father J.A. Allen.
6. The Academy and Literature, 82 (30 Mar 1912
[supplement]), 8.
1875
To Herbert
Spencer
Fulsome
poetic eulogy which GA composed while teaching in Jamaica and sent to Spencer,
followed by request to help him, GA, get an article published in England. See
primary materials.
1. Popular Science Monthly, 7 (Sep
1875), 628. GA claimed the poem was probably sent to the editor (his American
promoter) by Spencer himself.
2.
Canadian Monthly and National Review, 8 (Oct 1875), 320-1.
3.
The Lower Slopes (1894).
Vive
la Commune
1. Canadian Monthly and National Review, 8 (Aug 1875),
98-9.
1878
JULY 1878
Our Scientific Observations on a Ghost
GA's first fiction.
A ghost appears to a pair of medical students, and they apply a range of
scientific tests, with inconclusive results. There is no plot, and it betrays
its origins as an article in the long narrative sections. Chatto & Windus
owned the Belgravia, which had
already published numerous articles by GA. The first of a total of 23 short
stories in this magazine.
1. By J. Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia: A
London Magazine, 36 (July 1878), 45-59.
2. New York Times,
8 Sep 1878, 4. Unsigned.
3. Strange Stories (1884).
4.
Our Observations on a Ghost by J. Arbuthnot Wilson (Grant Allen). Ill. by
Audrey [sic] Beardsley . . . Limited to 50 copies. Elancourt, France:
Le Visage Vert, June 1986. [Poor quality pamphlet facsimile of the
Belgravia edition.]
5. Observations scientifiques sur un
fantome effectuees par nos soins, par Grant Allen. [Introduced by Xavier
Legrand-Ferronniere. Translation into French by Anne-Sylvie Homassel.]
L'Animal (Metz, France), 5 (Summer 1998), 40-55.
SEPTEMBER 1878
The Empress of Andorra
A tedious story of how the tiny
Andorra asserts it is the last remnant of the Holy Roman Empire, and appoints an
actress as its Empress.
1. By J. Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia: A
London Magazine, 36 (Sep 1878), 335-351.
2. Strange Stories (1884).
DECEMBER 1878
My New Year's Eve among the Mummies
Weird experiences
inside a pyramid, with a 'rational' explanation. When it reprinted this and
several other stories c.1893, Pearson's
Magazine paid L35 for stories 'equal to one vol.'.
1. By J.
Arbuthnot Wilson.
2. Strange Stories (1884).
3.
Pearson's Weekly, 177 (
4. The Desire of the
Eyes and Other Stories.
5. Jour de l'an chez les
momies. [Translation into French by B. d'Etroyat. Illustrated by Lalau.]
Lecture pour Tous [Paris] (Jan 1910), 377-384.
6. Jour de l'an
chez les momies. Jour de l'an chez les momies & autres contes surnaturels
et de merveilleux scientifique.
7. Le Jour de l'an chez les momies. [Translated
into French by B. d'Etroyat.] La Malediction des momies, ed. Claude
Aziza.
8. The Mummy: Stories of the Living Corpse.
Edited by Peter Haining.
9. http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/programs/arts/english/gaslight/newmummy.htm
[Copy text not stated. Accessed Jan 2001.]
1879
DECEMBER 1879
Lucretia*
An adventure in Quebec; a very young English
traveller falls in with a bewitching French-Canadian, and fears her motives are
robbery or murder – worse, she turns out to be married. A good skit on English
social prejudices.
1. By J.Arbuthnot
Wilson.
2. By J. Arbuthnot Wilson.
3. The Beckoning
Hand (1887).
4. Romance, 4:3 (Jan 1892),
259-277.
1880
JULY 1880
My Circular Tour
A
landscape painter at
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson.
2. Ivan Greet's Masterpiece (1893).
OCTOBER 1880
A Ballade of
Evolution
1. St James's Gazette, 1 (
2. The Evolutionist at Large (1881).
3. Ballades and Rondeaus, Chants Royal,
Sestinas, Villanelles, &c: Selected, with Chapter on the Various Forms, by
Gleeson White.
4.
The Lower Slopes (1894).
5. The Golden Book
Magazine, 4 (Dec 1926), 762.
6. Everyman's Book of
Victorian Verse. Edited by J. R. Watson.
NOVEMBER 1880
Ram Das of
An Indian's reminiscences of the Mutiny –
from a mutineer's point of view.
1. By J.Arbuthnot
Wilson.
2.
Strange Stories (1884).
DECEMBER
1880
The Chinese Play at the
Haymarket
A young theatrical manager
who has tried everything to woo the public taste finally wins gold with an
imitation Chinese melodrama: a comic tale.
1. By J. Arbuthnot Wilson.
2. New York Times,
3. By J. Arbuthnot Wilson.
4. Ivan Greet's
Masterpiece (1893).
1881
AUGUST 1881
The Senior Proctor's Wooing: A
Tale of Two Continents
A stuffy
1.
By J.Arbuthnot Wilson.
2.
By J. Arbuthnot Wilson. Holiday Stories from Belgravia. With Numerous
Illustrations. London: Chatto & Windus, [1882]. Holiday Number 1881.
85-101.
3. Strange Stories (1884).
DECEMBER 1881
Pausodyne
A man revives in Victorian London after taking a
potion in the previous century.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson.
Belgravia Christmas Annual (1881), 24-38.
2. Strange
Stories (1884).
3. The Desire of the Eyes and Other
Stories. New York: Fenno, 1895.
4. Beyond Time and Space.
Edited by August Derleth. New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1950; Berkley,
1958.
1882
MAY 1882
Caribbean Twelve Per Cents
A lively tale of fraud and a revolutionary uprising on
a Spanish-American island.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia: A
London Magazine, 47 (May 1882), 344-358.
JULY 1882
An
Episode in High Life
1. By
J.Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia Holiday Number, 1882, 59-76.
2. Strange Stories (1884).
3. The Desire
of the Eyes and Other Stories. New York: Fenno, 1895.
An Ideal
Jelly-fish
1. Popular Science Monthly, 21 (July 1882),
426.
'A jelly-fish swam in a tropical sea…'
2. The First
Idealist. The Lower Slopes (1894).
3. The First
Idealist. Athenaeum, 103 (24 Mar 1894), 367.
4. The First
Idealist. The Golden Book Magazine, 2 (Aug 1925),
211-212.
DECEMBER 1882
Mr Chung
A
Chinese envoy in London becomes too westernised and is recalled to certain
death: he goes back from a sense of duty. One of GA's 'clash of the races'
stories.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson.
Belgravia Christmas Annual (1882), 67-80.
2. Strange
Stories (1884).
3. Our Chinese Friend. Pearson's Weekly,
173 (11 Nov 1893), 258-259.
4. The Desire of the Eyes and Other
Stories. New York: Fenno, 1895.
1883
JULY 1883
Isaline and I
A young lawyer on holiday in Switzerland is
rescued from the Aiguille by his love rival; later they all establish a
vineyard.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson.
Belgravia Holiday Number Summer (1883), 49-63.
2.
New York Times, 2 Sep 1883, 3. Unsigned..
3. The Beckoning
Hand (1887).
AUGUST 1883
The Backslider
Member of a fundamentalist and fanatical religious
sect 'reverts' to ordinary life. This was GA's first fiction for the
Cornhill, now under the editorship of James Payn (1830-98) from Jan 83,
who had decided to make it a magazine of stories and, as he boasted, readable
from cover to cover. He wrote nine stories for the Cornhill, all of them
more polished than others. Paul Owen, the Gideonite, is sent to Oxford where he
reads Spencer, which causes him to abandon his 'sixteenth century' religion and
his sect. Conan Doyle was accepted here for the first time in July, and was paid
₤30. The circulation of the Cornhill
under Stephen had been dropping badly, to around 12,000 when he left; Payn cut
the price in half to sixpence. The Cornhill had previously offered monthly
instalments of 2 novels by prominent novelists, eg Collins, Eliot, Gaskell,
Hardy.
Unlike Doyle, who resented it, GA did not seem to care that his work
was anonymous.
MS. 19pp. Penn.
1. Cornhill
Magazine, 1 (Aug 1883), 191-213. Unsigned.
2. Strange Stories
(1884).
3. A Bride from the Desert (c1896).
4.
Twelve Tales with a Headpiece, a Tailpiece, and an Intermezzo (1899).
5. The Backslider. London/ New York : Lewis, Scribner, 1901.
SEPTEMBER 1883
The Reverend
John Creedy
An African missionary atavistically reverts to savagery when
he returns to his homeland, but finally 'redeems' himself. This story raised
much comment at the time.
MS. 14pp. Penn.
1. Cornhill
Magazine, 1 (Sep 1883), 225-242. Unsigned.
2. New York
Times, 16 Sep 1883, 3. Unsigned.
3. Strange Stories
(1884).
4. Can the Leopard Change His Spots? Pearson's
Weekly, 170 (21 Oct 1893), 210-211.
5. The Desire of the Eyes
and Other Stories. New York: Fenno, 1895.
6. Twelve Tales with
a Headpiece, a Tailpiece, and an Intermezzo (1899).
7. Reverend
John Creedy. The Backslider (1901).
8. The Masterpiece
Library of Short Stories . . . Edited by J.A. Hammerton. Vol 8: English.
London: Educational Book, [1923].
NOVEMBER
1883
The Foundering of the 'Fortuna'
A respectable
banker and grain merchant sinks a scow to claim the insurance, drowning two men
he had tricked in addition.
1. By J. Arbuthnot Wilson. Longman's
Magazine, 3 (Nov 1883), 94-108.
2. Strange Stories (1884).
3. Silver and Grain. Pearson's Weekly, 171 (28 Oct 1893),
226-227.
4. The Desire of the Eyes and Other Stories. New York:
Fenno, 1895.
5. Le Naufrage de la 'Fortuna'. [Translation into French
by B. d'Etroyat. Illustrated by Biron-Roger.] Lecture pour Tous [Paris]
(15 June 1914), 1579-1585.
DECEMBER
1883
My Uncle's Will
A young man, Payne, is put under pressure by his
uncle's demand to add his name to his own: thus, Aiken-Payne.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson.Belgravia
Christmas Annual (1883), 10-20.
2. New York Times,
6 Jan 1884, 9. Unsigned.
3. The Beckoning Hand (1887).
1884
Philistia
Of this, his first novel, GA
wrote to his friend Robertson: 'I put my whole soul into it…. I didn't write
hastily, I satisfied utterly my own critical faculty, and I can't do any
better'. The central action concerns the three Le Breton brothers – Ernest, the
high-minded socialist; Herbert, the cynic and cad; and the saintly, religious
Ronald – as they leave Oxford and make their way in the mundane Philistine
world. Other characters include Lady Hilda Tregellis, a bold and bored young
aristocrat eager to marry someone 'different', and Arthur Berkeley, a composer
of comic operas and the first in a long line of Allen's self-sacrificing heroes
who love from afar. The novel is stuffed with ideas and there are considerable
autobiographical elements, especially, one guesses, in the scenes where Ernest,
dreadfully poor and burdened with a family, works at journalism while trying to
keep his socialistic soul undefiled. Some of the resulting confrontations,
described in GA's best sardonic mode, almost bear comparison with Waugh's
Scoop. On the whole, though, the novel is damaged by its 'smart' and
implausible dialogue – the characters lecture each for whole paragraphs at a
time – and by the childish sentimentality of the love relationships. Another
serious weakness arises from the fact that GA was obliged by the publisher to
substitute a highly inappropriate happy ending. After Philistia failed to
make much of a mark, GA resolved to take the downward path into middlebrow,
sensational fiction and claimed he wrote nothing else with the same commitment,
until The Woman Who Did.
He received L250 'for serial rights (Gents Mag) & full copyright. See
Letter Book 29 Oct 1883'. [CW]. The GM was owned by Bradbury Evans and Co.
from 1877 to 1905, and Chatto & Windus 1905-1907; these were linked somehow.
Directed at a middle to upper class public of fair education.
In Nov 1886
Chatto mentioned a 3/6 edition, but nothing is known of this.
MS:
Autograph manuscript. 288pp. Lacking chapters xv-xvii inclusive, pp.126-141.
Page proof of chapter 10 (10pp) attached with a very few ink corrections. Penn.
1. By Cecil Power. Serialized Gentleman's Magazine, 256
(Jan 1884, 1-24; Feb, 105-130; Mar, 209-239; Apr, 313-339; May, 417-442; June,
521-546; 257: July 1884, 1-26; Aug, 105-137; Sep, 209-232; Oct, 313-338; Nov,
417-439; Dec, 521-548).
2. By Cecil Power. 3 vols.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1884.
3. By Cecil Power. New
York: Harper, 1884. Franklin Square Library, #430.
4. By Cecil
Power. New York: Munro, 1884. Seaside Library Pocket Edition, #336.
5. By Cecil Power. New York: G Munro, 1885. Seaside Library
Ordinary Edition, #1932.
6. A New Edition. London: Chatto
& Windus, 1895. Reprinted 1901.
7. Ottawa: CIHM, 1999. Four
microfiches of the Chatto & Windus, 1895 ed. Copy in the National Library of
Canada. Series #95280.
Strange
Stories
These were published in November or December. GA's original proposed title
for this collection was 'Nightmares'. Has an Introduction in which GA speaks of
himself as 'by trade a psychologist and scientific journeyman.' 'Though these
stories do not profess to be anything more than mere short sensational tales, I
have yet endeavoured to give most of them some slight tinge of scientific or
psychological import or meaning'. It reprints 16 stories: 'The Reverend John
Creedy' [Cornhill], 'Dr Greatrex's Engagement' [Cornhill], 'Mr
Chung' [Belgravia], 'The Curate of Churnside' [Cornhill], 'An
Episode in High Life' [Belgravia], 'My New Year's Eve among the Mummies'
[Belgravia], 'The Foundering of the "Fortuna"' [Longman's], 'The
Backslider' [Cornhill], 'The Mysterious Occurrence in Piccadilly'
[Belgravia], 'Carvalho' [Belgravia], 'Pausodyne'
[Belgravia], 'The Empress of Andorra' [Belgravia], 'The Senior
Proctor's Wooing' [Belgravia], 'The Child of the Phalanstery'
[Belgravia], 'Our Scientific Observations on a Ghost' [Belgravia],
'Ram Das of Cawnpore' [Belgravia]. All were published (originally) either
anonymously or under the pseudonym J. Arbuthnot Wilson. Reviews were generally
approving, comparing him to Poe. He received L100 'in full payment for the
Copyright and all interest in a book of stories . . .' [CW].
1.
With a Frontispiece by George du Maurier. London: Chatto & Windus,
1884. Reprinted 1886, 1892, 1899, 1908.
2. Sällsamma
historier. [Translation into Swedish.] Stockholm : Adolf Bonnier,1889, 1895.
Adolf Bonniers romanbibliotek.
3. Ottawa: CIHM, 1981. Five microfiches
of the Chatto & Windus, 1884 ed. Copy in the University of British Columbia
Library.. Series #05072.
Periodical
contributions in 1884; by month where known
MARCH 1884
Carvalho
A man of
mixed blood is permitted to marry an English girl - his ancestry doesn't show.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia: A London Magazine, 53
(Mar 1884), 34-52.
2. Strange Stories (1884).
3.
The Desire of the Eyes and Other Stories. New York: Fenno, 1895.
MAY 1884
The Mysterious
Occurrence in Piccadilly
Ingenious story explaining away an apparently
phantasmic appearance. May be based on GA's knowledge of the work of the Society
for Psychical Research on apparitions.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia: A London
Magazine 53 (May 1884), 344-54.
2. Strange Stories (1884).
3. The Desire of the Eyes and Other Stories. New York: Fenno,
1895.
JUNE 1884
Dr Greatrex's
Engagement
A young doctor finds himself pulling facial grimaces, and
fears insanity. He has made a 'grand discovery' about 'Energy' and fears it is
just another symptom of delusional mania. The grimaces prove to be just a
nervous twitch, easily curable by the cutting of a 'ganglion'; the discovery is
hailed as a work of genius. The 'Energy' paper sounds very much like GA's own
absurd production Force and Energy: is the story an exercise in wish
fulfilment?
MS. 19pp. Penn
1. Cornhill Magazine, 2
(June 1884), 561-583. Unsigned.
2. New York Times, 15 June
1884, 11. Unsigned.
3. Strange Stories (1884).
4.
A Bride from the Desert (c1896).
JULY 1884
Hugh Portledown's Return from
Normandy*
Bright tale of young lawyer who falls for a French governess
on board a cross-channel steamer.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia. Holiday
Number, 1884, 19-31.
AUGUST 1884
The Child of the Phalanstery*
Futuristic-utopian story of a
baby's being sacrificed on eugenic/selectionist grounds for being slightly
disabled.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia: A London
Magazine, 54 (Aug 1884), 163-76.
2. New York Times, 24 Aug
1884, 10. Unsigned.
3. Strange Stories (1884).
4.
Twelve Tales with a Headpiece, a Tailpiece, and an Intermezzo (1899).
5. The Backslider (1901).
SEPTEMBER 1884
The Curate of
Churnside
One of GA's best 'psychopath' stories, about a murderous young
clergyman who knifes his uncle, forges his will and gets away with it. In the
introduction to Strange Stories GA wrote of this: 'I tried to present a
psychical analysis of a temperament not uncommon among the cultured class of the
Renaissance.' [He is obviously thinking of Browning's 'My Last Duchess' &
'The Bishop Orders His Tomb']. 'The union of high intellectual and aesthetic
culture with a total want of moral sensibility'.
MS. 34pp. Penn.
1. Cornhill Magazine, 3 (Sep 1884), 225-258. Unsigned.
2. Strange Stories (1884).
3. The Desire of the
Eyes and Other Stories
. New York: Fenno,
1895.
4. Twelve Tales with a Headpiece, a Tailpiece, and an
Intermezzo (1899).
5. Murder Without Tears. Edited by Will
Cuppy. New York: Sheridan House, [1946].
OCTOBER 1884
John Cann's
Treasure
Cecil Mitford, a Colonial Office clerk, tracks down a pirate's
letter in his grave in Spanish Town, Jamaica; he locates the treasure, but the
find proves trivial; he is rescued from resulting insanity by the love of a good
woman.
MS. 24pp. Penn.
1. Cornhill Magazine, 3 (Oct
1884), 337-366. Unsigned.
2. The Beckoning Hand (1887).
3. Twelve Tales with a Headpiece, a Tailpiece, and an
Intermezzo (1899).
4. The Backslider (1901).
DECEMBER 1884
Olga Davidoff's Husband
A beautiful young Russian marries a Tartar Buriat who turns out to be a
brigand. She betrays him; in revenge he pursues her to England and chops her
hand off.
1. By J.Arbuthnot Wilson. Belgravia. Christmas
Annual, 1884, 1-17.
2. The Beckoning Hand (1887).
3. Pearson's Weekly, 176 (2 Dec 1893), 306-307.
1885
Babylon
The Babylon of the title is the
English/American artists' colony in late Victorian Rome. Here there come
together, eventually, two artistic geniuses – one a landscape painter, the other
a sculptor – from very different humble backgrounds. Hiram Winthrop, a bashful
lad and lover of nature, is raised on a hogs-and-corn farm in New York state, in
a family of narrow-minded fundamentalists. Meanwhile Colin Churchill is growing
up in much more attractive rural Dorset, modelling figures in clay from the
river for his sweetheart Minna and astonishing the vicar with his innate grasp
of plastic form. Hiram is rescued by Lothrop Audouin, a rich, refined Boston
intellectual, a confirmed bachelor who has fled industrial America for a
solitary but comfortable life on the shores of Lake Ontario. He altruistically
puts Hiram through school and college. Meanwhile Colin works at wood-carving and
then puts himself under the tutelage of Cicolari, a stone sculptor, where his
genius rapidly expands. After some difficulties both Colin and Hiram are drawn
to Rome; Colin quickly makes a name, but Hiram is apprenticed to a unsympathetic
historical painter, and has a harder time. There are various love interests too,
including a sinister Italian model, Cecca, who tries to poison Minna. GA clearly
moved down-market with this story, but it is full of lively incident and as an
account of the mysterious upwelling of artistic genius in totally unpropitious
places, it is memorable and effective. There is a study of Ruskin, under the
name of John Truman, who raises Hiram to stardom. Critics pointed to a close
resemblance to the plot of James' Roderick Hudson.
Chatto paid L300
for the full copyright.
MS: Autograph manuscript. 299pp. Lacking
chapters 15-17 inclusive, pp.98-120. Page proofs for chapter 22 (24pp) attached
with a very few corrections in ink. Penn.
1. By Cecil
Power. Serialized Belgravia, 55 (1884/5): 360-384, 484-512; 56
(1885): 108-128, 235-56, 361-384, 482-508; 57 (1885): 105-128, 228-255, 358-383,
481-508; 58 (1885/6): 106-28, 232-256.
2. By Cecil
Power. 3 vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1885.
3.
By Grant Allen (Cecil Power). With Twelve Illustrations by P.
MacNab. 3 vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1885.
4. By Cecil
Power. New York: Harper, 1885. Harper's Franklin Square Library, #494.
5. By Cecil Power. New York: D. Appleton, 1885. Reprinted
1887.
6. By Cecil Power. New York: Munro, [1885]. Seaside
Library Pocket Edition, #610.
7. New York: Lupton, 1892. Souvenir
Series, #7.
8. A New Edition. London: Chatto & Windus,
1893.
9. New York: Lupton, 1899. Elite Series. Reprinted 1899.
10. Cheap Edition. London: Chatto &
Windus, 1906. [Pub. Mar 1/-]
11. Ottawa : CIHM, 1980. 1+4+4+4
microfiches of the Chatto & Windus, 1885 ed. (as by Grant Allen) in the
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto Library. Series
#05005-08.
12. Ontario. Ottawa: CIHM, 1986. 1+4+4+4 microfiches of
the Chatto & Windus, 1885 ed. (as by Cecil Power) in the Douglas Library,
Queen's University. Series #56067-70.
Periodical
contributions in 1885; by month where known
FEBRUARY
1885
The Search Party's Find
The doctor-narrator joins an arctic
expedition, together with a Harry Lemarchant, a villain who tells bloodcurdling
stories about 'dispersing' Aborigines in Queensland: 'the black man has got to
go to the wall; the white man, with his superior moral and intellectual nature,
has got to push him there.' The latter is poisoned with a dose of arsenic which
he meant for the narrator.
1. By J. Arbuthnot Wilson. Longman's
Magazine, 5 (Feb 1885), 390-403.
2. The Beckoning Hand
(1887).
3. An Arctic Expedition. Pearson's Weekly, 172 (4
Nov 1893), 242-243.
MARCH 1885
The Two Carnegies
A pair of identical twins are like two clocks,
with Ernest 14 days in advance of Harold. They quarrel over a woman they both
want to marry, and both eventually die of the same disease. 'Twins, you know,
are almost exactly alike in all things, and in the absolute coincidence of their
constitutions, you can see the inexorable march of disease, and the inexorable
unfolding of the predetermined life-history far better than in any other
conceivable case' 131.
MS. 24pp.
1. Cornhill Magazine,
4 (Mar 1885), 292-324. Unsigned.
2. The Beckoning Hand (1887).
APRIL 1885
Professor
Milliter's Dilemma
Cyril Milliter is both an anatomist and a preacher in
a fundamentalist sect. By accident, to his horror he discovers a bird-lizard in
a layer of oolite. He hides the discovery, but when the truth comes out he
finds, to his surprise, that neither his wife nor congregation are specially
concerned about the new revelation. Obviously the character is drawn (in part)
from Philip Gosse. 'He can hardly resist a quiet smile himself, nowadays, when
he remembers how he once kept that harmless piece of pictured stone wrapt up
carefully in a folded handkerchief in his laboratory cupboard for some weeks
together, as though it had been a highly dangerous and very explosive lump of
moral dynamite, calculated to effect at once feel swoop the complete religious
and ehtical disintegration of the entire divine universe' 277.
1.
2. The Beckoning Hand (1887).
JULY 1885
In Strict
Confidence
Harry Pallant, in love with his wife, is appalled to get a
'problem letter' from her in his work as an agony aunt, saying she loves another
man. He attempts to drown himself, but fails. It turns out that his wife had
merely copied out the letter on behalf of a friend with a marital problem.
1.
2. The
Beckoning Hand (1887).
DECEMBER
1885
The Beckoning Hand
Horrid atavism in the
Will you kindly let me know if you are willing to
write the story & what your views as to remuneration are.
I think this
offer – should you accept it – lead to a demand from newspapers for your
contributions & probably to this same newspaper taking a long story by you
at some future time. (Watt). The paper paid L30 for it.
5 Apr 86. I am sorry I did not succeed in getting anything for 'The
Beckoning Hand' either in the States or
1.
2. Cesarine: African Charms and West
Indian Poisons.
3.
4. The Beckoning Hand (1887).
5. Pearson's Weekly, 174 (
6. Terror by
Gaslight: More Victorian Tales of Terror. Edited by Hugh Lamb.
7. Reign of Terror.
Edited by Michel Parry.
1886
For
Maimie's Sake. A Tale of Love and Dynamite
This peculiar
novel's peculiar heroine is Maimie Llewellyn, a blonde 'child of nature' very
like the heroine of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes forty years later. He
upbringing was in the hands of an eccentric sea captain father, who is an
admirer of Reason and Tom Paine. Her charms are such that every man (and woman)
she meets is ravished by her. Adrian Pym, an Oxford tutor, Jocelyn Cipriani, a
painter, and his wife Hetty, and Sydney Chevenix, an explosives chemist, are all
'in love' with her and do their best to protect her from her own devastating
naivety. Marrying Chevenix, Maimie soon gets bored and accidentally on purpose
shoots him with an experimental pistol in favour of Adrian Pym. But her husband
survives to spend the rest of his life in another identity while keeping a
hidden watch over his wife and her love (while earning a living from scribbling
articles) – simply because he still finds her a loveable innocent. Finally
The motivation in this novel is fairly
preposterous; but one guesses that this novel dramatises and reworks some
passage in GA's own marital relations; his own letters show he invested a good
deal of himself in it. The sickly and slightly resentful uxoriousness of the
male characters is notable. Once again, GA's unwillingness to confront darker
issues (including lesbianism, perhaps) makes rather vacuous a novel that could
have been a much more ambitious 'sex-problem' novel of its day. One character
says that 'if you look through all history you'll find invariably it is for the
lightest women, the emptiest women, the shallowest women, the unworthiest women,
that men have always in all times done and dared the utterly unspeakable'. This
throws some doubt on GA's idea of women as eugenic (moral) gatekeepers – what is
the role of such women as Maimie?
Chatto was quite bowled over with the
novel. 'Allow me to congratulate you on the very powerful and startling story
you have written in For Maimie's
Sake. I found the interest so absorbing that after once committing to read
the MS you so kindly sent I could not lay it aside until I finished every line
of it. It is so entirely different from the ordinary serial and three volume
story that I am inclined to advise you to make the experiment of departing from
these conventional methods of publication, and allow us to issue it at once in
one volume complete at six shillings, we undertaking all costs of production and
advertising and paying you a royalty of one shilling (13 copies as 12) on every
copy sold. The copyright in this case remaining your own . . . .' [CW,
Chatto
apparently intended to bring out a cheap edition in paper for 2/- in the spring
of 1889, and offered L30 for the copyright instead of royalties. [CW,
MS: Autograph manuscript with
revisions and corrections. 270pp. Lacking p.57.
Serialization. None known.
1.
2.
For Maimies Sake [sic].New
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. A New
Edition.
9.
10.
11.
In
All Shades. A Novel
Set mostly in
There is
also a study of a Dr W. Clarkson Whitaker, a mulatto returning to
In All Shades was in MS form by
Watt secured L75 for the remaining copyright from
C&W on
The first intimation I had was seeing their [ ?] in the
December pages of their Journal and I
immediately wrote to them pointing out that they had arranged [ ?] not to
publish till 1887, and to give me clear notice of the commencement. The only
reply I have received is that they have set you four sets of proofs 'we presumed
for transmission abroad'. I am rather afraid they have spoilt the chance of
disposing of the story in the colonies but I will try my best.'
5 Jan 86. [He
informs GA that 'by commencing publication of your story In All Shades without informing me of
their intention to do so, rendered it I fear impossible to get anything for it
in
'11 Jan 86. Dear Mr Grant Allen, As I informed you, a few days
ago I made a claim on Messrs Chambers for L100 because of their neglect to
inform me that they were going to publish your story this month instead of in
1887. In common courtesy they were bound to give me timely notice of their
intention.
As they have been troubling you with copies of their letters to
me, I need not put you to further annoyances than ask you kindly to read the
copy of letter enclosed which I have written today to Messrs Chambers, in reply
to their of the 9th inst.
I should be glad to know that I have
your approval in what I have done.'
MS not located.
1.
Serialized Chambers's Journal 5th Series, 3 (2 Jan 1886-24 Sep 1886):
1-6; 21-22; 36-39; 51-53; 66-70; 83-86; 99-102; 131-134; 147-149; 163-166;
179-181; 195-199; 211-215; 227-229; 244-248; 261-263; 276-280; 291-293; 308-310;
323-326; 340-342; 357-358; 371-373; 387-389; 404-405; 420-423; 436-438; 451-454;
466-470; 484-485; 499-501; 516-519; 531-534; 547-550; 563-564; 584-587; 599-601;
611-613.
2. 3 vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1886. Reprinted
1887.
3. A New Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1887. The
Piccadilly novels. Reprinted 1888, 1890, 1892, 1899, 1904, 1912.
4.
Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally, 1888. Globe Library.
5. London:
Chatto & Windus, 1918.
6. New York: Street & Smith, [nd].
7. New York & London: Street & Smith, [nd].
8. New
York: Hurst, [nd].
9. Ottawa: CIHM, 1980. 1+4+4+4 microfiches of the
copy of the Chatto & Windus, 1886 ed. Copy in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book
Library, University of Toronto Library. Series #05041-44.
10. Ottawa:
CIHM, 1981. Four microfiches of the copy of the Rand, McNally, 1888 in the
National Library of Canada. Series #26239.
11. Ottawa : CIHM, 1982.
Four microfiches of the Chatto & Windus, 1887 ed. Copy in the University of
British Columbia Library. Series #17941.
Kalee's
Shrine
Olga
Trevelyan, born in India, is taken as a baby by her nursemaid and secretly
dedicated as a Thug to the blood-thirsty god Kali. A sign of this is that she
does not close her eyes while sleeping. Years later, on holiday on the East
Anglian coast, she is admired by Alan Tennant, an oculist, who realises there is
something wrong when she laughs wildly and horribly at the sight of a shipwreck;
nevertheless, they are soon engaged. While Alan is away on a boating trip, Olga
is hypnotised at a fashionable party and, egged on by an old Anglo-Indian
colonel, she makes towards her friend with a sinister looped handkerchief.
Neither woman is brought out of their trances properly but they go off to bed
with the dubious support of a dose of hashish prescribed by a meddling doctor.
In the night Olga does her best to strangle her friend. Alan, whose boat is
called the Indian Princess, nearly drowns; fortunately, he returns in
time to administer some resuscitation, cut a small nerve to restore Olga's
eyelid functions and generally put everything right. A very silly pot-boiler.
The role played by his co-author Cotes is not at all clear.
MS not
located.
Serialization. None known.
1. By Grant Allen
and May Cotes. Bristol: JW Arrowsmith/ London: Simkin, Marshall, 1886.
Arrowsmith's Bristol Library, #11.
2. By Grant Allen and May
Cotes. New York: New Amsterdam Book, [nd]. Arrowsmith's Bristol Library,
#11.
3. By Grant Allen and May Cotes. New York: New Amsterdam
Book, 1897. Vagabond Library. 'Authorized edition for the United States'.
3. The Indian Mystery; or, Kalee's Shrine. New York: New
Amsterdam Book, 1902.
4. Ottawa : CIHM, 1981. Three microfiches of
the Simkin, Marshall, 1886 ed. Copy in Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library,
University of Toronto Library. Series #05048.
5. Ottawa : CIHM, 1986.
Three microfiches of the New Amsterdam Book, 1897 ed. Copy in the Douglas
Library, Queen's University. Series #58404.
Periodical
contributions in 1886; by month where known
JANUARY
1886
The Third Time
Edie Meredith marries a handsome Irish-Australian;
after some mysterious absences, he is revealed to be a drunkard, and decently
shoots himself.
1. By J. Arbuthnot Wilson. Longman's Magazine,
7 (Jan 1886), 294-308.
2. Pearson's Weekly, 175 (25 Nov 1893),
290-291.
3. The Beckoning Hand (1887).
FEBRUARY 1886
Harry's
Inheritance
Harry Woolrych, bastard son of a wastrel suicide and a
Eurasian mother, is stealing money from his soldier uncle, Sir Thomas Woolrych,
a military man of the old school. Thanks to the old soldier's good advice, he
abjures gambling and theft and eventually makes good as a doctor, proving
(unusually for GA) that 'heredity' isn't everything.
28 Nov 85. Dear Mr
Grant Allen Mr Comyns Carr has accepted your short story 'Harry's Inheritance',
but says he can only pay at the rate of 35/ a page of The English Illustrated Magazine. Are
you willing to accept this honorarium? I shall now try the Graphic with the other.
30 Jan 86.
Watt received 15 guineas from the EIM
for this, which he passed on less commission. [Berg]
1. English
Illustrated Magazine, 3 (Feb 1886), 323-332.
2. Living
Age, 168 (13 Mar 1886), 650-659.
3. The Beckoning Hand
(1887).
The Gold Wulfric
A numismatic long short story with an
ingenious plot: the hero is accused of stealing a rare Wulfric from the British
Museum.
MS. 29pp. Penn
1. Cornhill
Magazine, 6 (Feb 1886), 154-183. Unsigned.
2. Lippincott's
Monthly Magazine, 37 (Feb 1886), 191-217.
3. Eclectic Magazine
of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, 43 (Apr 1886), 476-492.
Unsigned.
4. The Beckoning Hand (1887).
DECEMBER 1886
Mr Pierrepont's
Repentance
Another numismatic story, in which a vicar is tempted to steal
an aureus from a philistine small-town mayor.
1. Belgravia: A London Magazine, 61 (Dec 1886), 183-204.
1887
The
Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories
Contains a Preface and 13 stories: 'The
Beckoning Hand' [unlocated but in the Sheffield Independent according to Watt
letter book], 'Lucretia' [Belgravia], 'The Third Time'
[Longman's], 'The Gold Wulfric' [Cornhill], 'My Uncle's Will'
[Belgravia], 'The Two Carnegies' [Cornhill], 'Olga Davidoff's
Husband' [Belgravia], 'John Cann's Treasure' [Cornhill], 'Isaline
and I' [Belgravia], 'Professor Milliter's Dilemma' [Belgravia],
'In Strict Confidence' [Belgravia], 'The Search Party's Find'
[Longman's], 'Harry's Inheritance' [English Illustrated Magazine].
In the Preface GA says the title story 'is practically new, having only been
published before as the Christmas supplement of a provincial newspaper.' 'Should
I succeed in attaining the pious ambition of the Fat Boy, and 'making your flesh
creep', then, as somebody once remarked before, 'this work will not have been
written in vain.' C&W paid L75 for the remaining copyright to the
collection. [CW].
1. With a frontispiece by Townley Green.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1887.
2. A New Edition. London:
Chatto & Windus, 1888. Reprinted 1892.
3. Ottawa: CIHM, 1980.
Five microfiches of the Chatto & Windus, 1887 ed. Copy in the Thomas Fisher
Rare Book Library, University of Toronto Library. Series #05009.
A
Terrible Inheritance
Young doctor Harry Prior specialises in
poisons and has discovered an antidote for curare. To his horror he discovers he
is the son of a notorious poisoner, Lichfield, who has died in gaol. In an
attempt to clear his name and free himself from his fears of inheriting a
propensity to poison, he looks closely into the case and discovers evidence
which seems to implicate Sir Arthur Woolrych, a crusty old soldier and father of
his beloved, instead of his own father. Fortunately, a Dr Withers returns from
the States with a confession that he was responsible for accidentally poisoning
the victim himself. Prior is freed from his 'inheritance' and also from the fate
of marrying a poisoner's daughter. A thin long short story of 57pp. GA obviously
needed to work on the notorious SPCK treadmill as late as 1887.
MS
not located
1. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
[1887]. Penny Library of Fiction.
2. En underlig arv.
[Translation into Danish]. Kristiania: C. Schibsteds bogtrykkeri, 1891.
'Aftenpostens' foljeton.'
3. New York/Boston: Thomas Y. Crowell,
[nd].
4. Terrible Inheritance. London/Brighton/New York: E.
& J B Young, [nd]. Penny Library of Fiction.
5. Ottawa: CIHM,
1980. One microfiche of the copy of the Crowell ed. Copy in Thomas Fisher Rare
Book Library, University of Toronto Library. Series #05077.
6.
Ottawa. Ottawa: CIHM, 1987. One microfiche of the copy of the E & J B Young
ed. Copy in the Douglas Library, Queen's University. Series #64362.
Periodical
contributions in 1887; by month where known
FEBRUARY
1887
Claude Tyack's Ordeal
Two love rivals
meet in the Civil War; despite having been vilely insulted, Tyack saves the
narrator from execution as a spy.
1. Longman's Magazine, 9 (Feb
1887), 386-398.
2. Ivan Greet's Masterpiece (1893).
Leonard
Arundel's Recovery
The blind son of a painter recovers his sight and finds his betrothed has
violently red hair; fortunately it goes white after an illness.
1. Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 74 (Feb 1887), 356-364.
A
Social Difficulty
Iris, daughter of a Bishop, is forced to break her
understanding with Captain Burbury, when he is under suspicion of fraud. But the
Bishop, coming home early in the morning to a newly rented house, is caught
trying all the doors in the street with his key, thereby learning to trust
people more.
MS. 19pp. Penn.
1. Cornhill Magazine,
8 (Feb 1887), 171-188. Unsigned.
2. New York Daily Tribune, 13
Feb 1887, 11. Unsigned.
3. New York Times, 13 Feb 1887, 10.
Unsigned.
4. Ivan Greet's Masterpiece (1893).
1888
Dr.
Palliser's Patient.
Dr Palliser, a physician living in Paris,
brings Bernascon, an executed murderer back to life with a wonderful drug.
Unfortunately, he turns out to be the husband of the woman Palliser loves. A
padded short story. One of the very rare excursions of the PMG into
fiction. Mullen charged Chatto's L7.10.00 for the copyright in 1893.
MS. Not located
1. Serialized Pall Mall Gazette, 48
(20 Aug 1888), 11-12; 21 Aug, 11-12; 22 Aug, 11-12; 23 Aug, 11-12; 24 Aug,
11-12; 25 Aug, 11-12; 27 Aug, 11-12; 28 Aug, 11.
2. London/Melbourne:
Samuel Mullen, 1889.
3. A New Edition. London: Chatto &
Windus, 1890. Reprinted 1893.
[No CIHM microfiche was prepared.]
The
Devil's Die. A Novel
A long and rambling
novel which combines two of GA's favourite topics: a study of a highly
intelligent sociopath, and the romance of the clash of races. There are three
central male characters: Dr Mohammed Ali, an Indian doctor; his English friend
Harry Chichele, a bacteriologist and toxicologist; and Ivan Royle, an decent
artist. All three are in love with Olwen Tregellas, a Cornish beauty. Chichele
is a brilliant, charming but cold-blooded researcher with a dark streak of
sadism in his ancestry; nevertheless, he marries Olwen despite the forebodings
of Dr Ali. These are borne out when Chichele murders a woman of the slums, a
patient in the Middlesex Hospital, to prove a pet theory of his. (He kills her
by the ingenious means of putting his own hand, secretly chilled in an ice-bag,
on to the small of her back; the chill is quickly fatal!) Ali suspects the crime
but can prove nothing. While they are all on holiday in Cannes, Chichele falls
under the spell of Seeta Mayne, a fascinating and sexually ambiguous romantic
novelist and another of GA's athletes of the tongue. Back in London, Chichele's
infatuation grows into a mania, and he almost succeeds in murdering his wife
with cholera germs; she recovers, but he takes the infection himself and dies.
Meanwhile Ivan Royle has gone off to the wilds of Nevada on a artistic
commission. The saintly Ali, who knows the truth about his dead friend, pursues
Royle in order to bring him back for the widowed and now mentally unstable
Olwen. (He cannot, of course, as a "black man", think of marrying her himself.)
After some bizarre adventures, including very nearly dying of thirst in the
desert and surviving a shipwreck, they do return to a happy ending. There are
several other plot complications, but the main interest in the novel is the GA's
ironical and effective analysis of racial intolerance. Superficially at least,
Dr Ali is treated as a gentleman in England; on a visit to New York, however, he
is booted out of his hotel's dining room on the first day.
Chatto was gloomy
about this novel, and offered no prospect of serialisation. 'I have all along
been promising myself the pleasure of being able to offer you some substantial
increase in the amount of our offer for a new novel by you; but the most
sanguine interpretation of the results of In All Shades (which has something in
common with The Devil's Die, except
that I think In All Shades is likely
to please the more cultivated audience, and therefore to have better reviews)
showing as they do only a scant return for the outlay on it, perforce limits the
amount of the advance in the present case to 10L, making the amount of our offer
for the remaining rights in The Devil's
Die L85. I hope that this slow progress will not be more disappointing to
than it is to myself and that if you favour us with the publication of The Devil's Die upon these terms it may
afford a more satisfactory return for your next. . . [CW, 18 Nov 1887].
Watt
secured L85 for the copyright and all interest from C&W on 10 April 1888.
[CW].
MS not located.
1. Serialized People, 31 Jul
1887, 3; 7 Aug 1887, 3; 14 Aug 1887, 3; 21 Aug 1887, 3; 28 Aug 1887, 3; 4 Sep
1887, 3; 11 Sep 1887, 2-3; 18 Sep 1887, 3; 25 Sep 1887, 3; 2 Oct 1887, 3; 9 Oct
1887, 3; 16 Oct 1887, 3; 23 Oct 1887, 3; 30 Oct 1887, 3; 6 Nov 1887, 3; 13 Nov
1887, 3; 20 Nov 1887, 3; 27 Nov 1887, 3; 4 Dec 1887, 3; 11 Dec 1887, 3; 18 Dec
1887, 3; 25 Dec 1887, 3; 1 Jan 1888, 3; 8 Jan 1888, 3; 15 Jan 1888, 3; 22 Jan
1888, 3.
2. Serialized Leader: A Weekly Journal of News, Politics,
Literature, Science, Agriculture, and Sport [Melbourne], 17 Sep 1887, 33; 24
Sep, 33-4; 1 Oct, 33; 8 Oct, 34; 15 Oct, 34-5; 22 Oct, 34-5; 29 Oct
(Supplement), 2; 5 Nov, 33; 12 Nov, 33-4; 19 Nov, 33-4; 26 Nov, 33; 3 Dec, 34-5;
10 Dec, 34; 17 Dec, 33; 24 Dec (Christmas Supplement), 10-11; 31 Dec, 33-4; 7
Jan 1888, 33; 14 Jan, 33; 21 Jan, 33-4; 28 Jan, 33-4; 4 Feb, 34; 11 Feb, 33-4;
18 Feb, 34; 25 Feb, 33-4; 3 Mar, 33-5; 10 Mar, 34-5, 17 Mar, 35; 24 Mar, 35-6;
31 Mar, 34; 7 Apr, 34; 14 Apr, 34; 21 Apr, 34; 28 Apr, 34; 5 May 34-5; 12 May,
35-6; 19 May, 35-6; 26 May, 34-5; 2 Jun, 34-5; 9 Jun, 35-6; 16 Jun, 34-5.
3. 3 vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1888.
4. A New Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1890. Reprinted
1901.
5. New York: FF Lovell, [1888]. Household Library.
6. New York: Denison, 1888.
7. Philadelphia: Crawford,
[189-?].
8. New York: Hurst, [nd]. Arlington Edition.
9.
New York: Seashore Library, 1891.
10. New York: Royal Publications,
[nd].
11. New York: FM Lupton, [1893]. Souvenir series #87.
12. Ottawa : CIHM, 1980. Three microfiches of the Lupton, 1893 ed.
Copy in the National Library of Canada. Series #05022.
This
Mortal Coil. A Novel
Written mid-1887.
George Gissing
confided in his Diary on 3 June 1893: 'Got from lib. Grant Allen's
This Mortal Coil. The time I waste in reading trash such as this.' Too
harsh a judgement; GA at least deserves credit for cramming so many
extraordinary incidents between one pair of covers. This is a long psychological
thriller, with two central male, and two female, characters. Hugh Massinger is a
minor poet and a dark, handsome Byronic cad with a line in cynical and
fantastical (and tiresome) talk. (In all but appearance, he is transparently
based on Andrew Lang, as Lang knew.) His friend (at first) and then his mortal
enemy, is Warren Relf, a stalwart, honourable yachtsman and marine artist. Both
go down to the country house of Whitestrand, Suffolk, amid the salt marshes,
which is owned by the Meysey family: Relf to cruise about and paint, Massinger
to stay with his distant cousin Elsie Challoner. Elsie is a poor orphan, but has
invested in a good Girton education and is acting as a tutor and friend to the
young Winifred Meysey, sole heiress to the estate. Massinger and Elsie are in
love, but Massinger quickly and treacherously proposes marriage to Winifred
instead, for hard cash. When he has to reveal this to Elsie, she falls into the
flood waters in a half-suicidal attempt. Massinger tries to rescue her, then,
failing, fakes her disappearance with an elaborate series of forged letters.
(Why does he need to do this? There is nothing obvious to connect him with E's
disappearance, apparently.) Meanwhile, by an amazing coincidence, Relf has found
her floating and half-dead in the water, and hauls her aboard his boat. When
they piece together the truth of Massinger's duplicity, Elsie, heartbroken, is
taken off abroad to San Remo by Relf's mother and sister. Massinger is quite
convinced Elsie is dead, and even when Relf confronts him at their club, the
truth, incredibly, still doesn't emerge that she is alive. Massinger and
Winifred marry, but it soon turns sour; the intimate portrait of their failing
marriage is rather well done and the best thing in the book. Eventually Winifred
dies of TB on the Riviera (GA surely recycles his first wife's death here); Relf
accidentally kills Massinger on a train after the latter breaks the bank at
Monte Carlo; but he escapes to marry Elsie when by a remarkable twist of fate
the entire train derails and plunges, with Massinger's body, into the depths of
the Mediterranean. Never was a novel better named.
Watt secured L100 from
Chatto 'in full payment for the copyright and all interest' on 8 Oct 1888. Watt
asked for a speedy cheque as 'Mr Grant Allen tells me he is leaving England this
week'. Another note from Watt makes it clear this was the 'remaining copyright'
[CW].
2 Aug 87 I have pleasure to send you by parcel post today 3 copies of
the original MS of the first 11 chapters of your novel This Mortal Coil. [GA sent ch.21-32
before 9 Sept. Watt then arranged to have this typewritten – this as early as
1887. GA sent the last section on 6 October].
20 Sep 87. …I shall supply the
Australian paper with this portion [This
Mortal Coil] … By the by, do you wish me to sell this book to Chatto, as I
did your other?
27 Oct 87: Watt received L300 from Chambers for This Mortal Coil plus another L70 for
the Australian serial use [Watt]
12 Jun 88 … 'I have seen Mr Chatto today
about your book TMC: He makes offer of L100 for all the remaining copyright
which is an advance on what he gave for a former one. Are you willing that I
should accept this sum?' [Watt]
MS not located
1.
Serialized Chambers's Journal, 5th Series, 5 (7 Jan 1888-13 Oct 1888):
1-6; 20-25; 35-40; 52-56; 67-70; 82-85; 99-101; 116-120; 131-134; 147-150;
163-166; 179-182; 196-198; 212-213; 228-231; 242-246; 259-263; 276-278; 290-293;
308-310; 324-327; 339-341; 354-358; 371-377; 387-390; 403-406; 419-423; 435-439;
451-455; 466-471; 483-487; 499-502; 515-519; 531-534; 547-552; 563-565; 579-581;
595-599; 611-613; 626-631; 643-645.
2. Serialized Australasian
[Melbourne], 44 (31 Mar 1888, 685-7; 7 Apr, 742-3; 14 Apr, 798-9; 21 Apr, 854;
28 Apr, 916-7; 5 May, 966-7; 12 May, 1022-3; 19 May, 1078; 26 May, 1134; 2 Jun,
1190-1; 9 Jun 1246-7; 16 Jun, 1302; 23 Jun, 1358-9; 30 Jun, 1414-5); 45 (7 Jul
1888, 14; 14 Jul, 70; 21 Jul, 126; 28 Jul, 182; 4 Aug, 237; 11 Aug, 302-3; 18
Aug, 358; 25 Aug, 414; 1 Sep, 470; 8 Sep, 526; 15 Sep, 582; 22 Sep, 638; 29 Sep,
694-5.
3. 3 vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1888.
4.
New York: D. Appleton, 1889. Appleton's Town and Country Library, 18. [Hardback
and paperback editions].
5. Chicago: Henneberry, [nd].
6.
A New Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1889. Reprinted 1890, 1892,
1895.
7. Chicago: Weeks [nd]. Marguerite Series, #69.
8. New
York: Weeks, 1895. Enterprise Series.
9. Chicago: G.M. Hill, 1898.
10. Ottawa: CIHM, 1980. 1+4+4+4 microfiches of the Chatto &
Windus, 1888 ed. Copy in Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
Library. Series #05078-81.
11. Ottawa: CIHM, 1982. Five microfiches
of the Chatto & Windus, 1895 ed. Copy in the Hamilton Public Library. Series
#26901.
12. Ottawa: CIHM, 1983.Five microfiches of the Hill, 1898 ed.
Copy in the University of Victoria Library. Series #18113.
13. Ottawa
: CIHM, 1984. Four microfiches of the Appleton, 1889 ed. Copy in the Douglas
Library, Queen's University. Series #27572.
The
White Man's Foot
A teenagers'
adventure story (written for GA's son) set on a volcano in Hawaii: savage
religious cults, human sacrifice, rescue of a dusky maiden by bold British
sailors, etc. Contains a preface from GA to his son. The serial version
appeared in a girls' magazine first published in Oct 1887 edited by Mrs L.T.
Meade (first with two others, later alone.) Its age range was 18-25 and it
preserved a high tone. A curious choice, since as a reviewer said, 'a safe
present for a boy at the stage when his dreams of being a pirate are sobering
into a moralized aspiration towards the navy.'
MS not located.
1. Serialized Atalanta, 1 (April 1888), 361-369; (May 1888),
421-427; (June 1888), 481-486; (July 1888), 539-549; (Aug 1888), 600-609; (Sep
1888), 660-669.
2. With seventeen illustrations by J.
Finnemore. London: Hatchards, 1888
3. Valkoisen miehen
jalka. [Translation into Finnish by Saimi Jarnefelt]. Helsinki: Otava, 1899.
4.Ottawa: CIHM, 1980. Three microfiches of the Hatchards, 1888 ed.
Copy in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto Library.
Series #05093.
DECEMBER 1888
My Christmas Eve at Marzin
GA's last fiction for the
Belgravia. A story of retribution in Hungary, in which a murderous count
is apparently haunted by a dead vassal -- again, there is a rational
explanation.
This is the one
referred to by Chatto, and may explain why GA wrote no more for it: 'The cheque
for your article in the Belgravia
Annual (which I regret the bad times with both magazines made so small,
2/2/0 only ) was sent . . [CW, 31 Jan 1889].
1. Belgravia Christmas Annual (1888), 1-10.
The Sultan's
Sister
At Muscat, Harry rents a cottage and spies on the Sultan's sister;
when they attempt to elope she is caught. But she is saved from a sack and the
sea by the narrator, an old diplomatic hand. Almost certainly reprinted in this
radical paper from some more accessible but unlocated first
publication.
1. Weekly Dispatch (23 Dec 1888),
11.
1889
The
Tents of Shem. A Novel
This novel, set mostly in Algeria, is one
of GA's most successful conventional novels. It has a complex plot turning on
legal matters, whereby Iris Knyvett, yet another of GA's Girton girls (this one,
surprisingly, is neither a sexless waif nor a fierce virago; in fact quite
normal except for her formidable academic ability) and her half-English,
half-Algerian cousin Meriem eventually come into their huge inheritance despite
rascally attempts to prevent them. There is plenty of colourful Algerian detail
and it is striking how well GA captures the French-colonial atmosphere and
sentiments which would lead to the ferocious war against the colons half
a century later – and, indeed, to the country's present miseries. GA's first
serial, and first publication, in the Graphic, probably marking his
acceptance as a thoroughly saleable middlebrow novelist. The ed. was Arthur
Locker to 1891; then T.H. Joyce. Chatto wrote especially to congratulate him on
this. 'The enclosed open letter has been sent me by the editor of the Graphic to be forward to you which I do
with much pleasure. The timely interest which I take in your success as a
novelist must be my excuse for venturing to rejoice over this application to
you. The Graphic does not pay high
prices – about L400 or L450 I imagine is their maximum for the serial use of a
three volume novel, but I consider that there is a compensating value in the prestige gained by the publication of a
novel in their columns and of this the management are aware and do not fail to
avail themselves'. [CW, 28 Feb 1888]
Watt secured another L120 'in full
payment for the Copyright reserving only first serial publication in the Graphic & foreign book rights' [CW].
MS: Holograph draft. Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of
Toronto.
1. Serialized Graphic: An Illustrated Weekly
Newspaper, 39 (5 Jan 1889, 17-19; 12 Jan, 45-47; 19 Jan, 69-71; 26 Jan
93-95; 2 Feb, 121-3; 9 Feb, 145-7; 16 Feb, 169-170; 23 Feb, 193-4; 2 Mar 221-2;
9 Mar, 251-3; 16 Mar, 285-7; 25 Mar, 309-310; 30 Mar, 337-339; 6 Apr, 369-371;
13 Apr, 397-8; 20 Apr, 425-6; 27 Apr, 449-50; 4 May, 477-478; 11 May, 505-6; 18
May, 537-8; 25 May, 569-70; 1 Jun, 601-2; 8 Jun, 625-6; 15 Jun, 657-8; 22 Jun,
677-8; 29 Jun, 713-4.
2. Serialized Sydney Mail (Illustrated
Supplement), 5 Jan 1889, 19-20; 12 Jan, 71-2; 19 Jan, 126-8; 26 Jan, 178-80; 2
Feb, 230-1; 9 Feb, 282-3; 16 Feb, 334-6; 23 Feb, 386-7; 2 Mar, 438-9; 9 Mar,
490-1; 16 Mar, 542-4; 23 Mar, 594-6; 30 Mar, 646-7; 6 Apr, 698-9; 13 Apr, 750-2;
20 Apr, 802-4; 27 Apr, 859-60; 4 May, 914-5; 11 May, 970-1; 18 May, 1026-7; 25
May, 1082-3; 1 Jun, 1138-9; 8 Jun, 1194-5; 15 Jun, 1250-2; 22 Jun 1306-7; 29 Jun
1363-4.
3. 3 vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1889 [June].
4. Chicago: Rand, McNally, 1889. Globe Library, 103.
5.
Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, [1889].
6. New York: Munro, 1889.
Seaside Library Pocket Edition, #1221.
7. New York: Ogilvie, 1889.
8. Liverpool: 'World's Best' Library, [189-?].
9. A New
Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1891. Reprinted 1893, 1894, 1898.
10. Toronto: William Bryce, Publisher, [nd].
11. New York:
Burt, [189-?]. Harvard Edition.
12. A New Edition with a
Frontispiece by E.F. Brewtnall. London: Chatto & Windus, 1890. Reprinted
1901.
13. London: Caxton Publishing, [nd; after 1893]. Caxton Library
of Modern Authors.
14. New York: International Book, [nd]. Columbus
Series.
15. Popular
Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1903. Edwardian Novels volume 7,
#3.
16. Ottawa : CIHM, 1982.1+3+4+4 microfiches of the Chatto &
Windus, 1889 ed. Copy in Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
Library. Series #05073-6.
17. Ottawa : CIHM, 1984. Four microfiches
of the Donohue & Henneberry, 1889 ed. Copy in the Vancouver Public Library.
Series #14005.
18. Ottawa: CIHM, 1987. Four microfiches of the
'World's Best' Library, [189-?] ed. Copy in the Douglas Library, Queen's
University. Series #64983.
The
Jaws of Death.
A Novel
A longish short story. Howard Freke, an Englishmen, is exiled to Cooper's
Pike, Nevada, by his family after failing to become a doctor. He makes good by
finding natural gas under a property he owns. Able at last to marry his
sweetheart he sends for her and arranges to meet her when she lands at San
Francisco. But while passing the time there waiting for her, he visits the
waxworks and falls victim to a fiendish Chinese psychopath, Li Sing, who is in
charge of the Chamber of Horrors. His day job is to give exhibitions of a
guillotine at work on a waxwork; drugging Freke, he almost manages to cut his
head off, but is thwarted just in time. A real potboiler.
MS not
located.
Serialization. None known.
1. London: Simpkin,
Marshall, [1889].
2. London: Jarrold, 1896. Daffodil Library of
Shorter Novels. Reprinted 1898 [possibly in the Day Dawn Novel Series], 1909
[revised].
3. New York: New Amsterdam Book, 1896. Holland Library,
#2. Reprinted 1897.
4. I dödsfara. [Translation into Swedish.]
Stockholm: Nordiska Förlaget, 1912.
5. Ottawa : CIHM, 1980. Two
microfiches of the Jarrold, 1896 ed. Copy in the Dana Porter Arts Library,
University of Waterloo. Series #05047.
A
Living Apparition
A story set at Biskra, Algeria, where the
Pennington family are wintering. When her lover is lost in the desert, Ethel
Pennington spots him in a dawn mirage, far away near the oasis of Beni-Souafa. A
relief party recovers him and he and Ethel are married 'at the pretty little
English consular church, near the Bab Azoun gate'.
MS not
located
1. London/New York: Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge/E & JB Young, 1889. Penny Library of Fiction.
DECEMBER 1889
His First Crime
Felix
Caird and his family are starving; in desperation he steals a bag which proves
to contain body parts. By an unlikely coincidence he runs up against the bag
owner and murderer, and sees justice done.
1. Manchester Weekly
Times Supplement, 21 Dec 1889,
1-2.
2. Weekly Scotsman, 21 Dec 1889, 4.
3.
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 28 Dec 1889, 4.
The Mayfield
Mystery
A bank clerk wants to marry his boss's daughter. The banker is
murdered; suspicion falls on the lover, but it turns out that his rival has used
a phonograph recording of an argument with the banker to make him look
guilty.
1. Tinsley's Magazine, 43 (Dec 1889),
723-760.
1890
What's
Bred in the Bone. L1000 prize novel
The prize-winner from 20,000 entries in
one of the richest literary awards ever offered, according to Peter Keating. Its
convoluted and colourful plot turns on questions of heredity and atavism: the
ancestry of the Waring twin brothers, and Home Counties-bred Elma Clifford. The
latter comes on her mother's side from a line of gypsy snake dancers, and she
displays a periodic urge to dance wildly with a feather boa in her bedroom. A
murderous judge, multiple mistaken identities and scenes of tribal life in South
Africa decorate this extraordinary confection, which is certainly a testament to
GA's versatility and cold-blooded grasp of the popular market.
MS:
Autograph manuscript with revisions and corrections. 325pp. Penn.
1.
Serialized Tit-Bits, 19 (20 Dec 1890), 176-176B; 27 Dec, 192A-192B; 3 Jan
1891, 208A-208B; 10 Jan, 224A-II; 17 Jan, 240A-II; 24 Jan, 256A-II; 31 Jan,
272A-II; 7 Feb, 288A-II; 14 Feb, 304A-II; 21 Feb, 320A-II; 28 Feb, 336A-II; 7
Mar, 352A-II; 14 Mar, 368A-II; 21 Mar, 384A-II; 28 Mar, 400A-II; 4 Apr, 416A-II;
20 (11 Apr 1891), 16A-II; 18 Apr, 32A-II; 25 Apr, 48A-II; 2 May, 64A-II; 9 May,
80A-II; 16 May, 96A-II; 23 May, 112A.
2. London: 'Tit-Bits' Offices,
1891. [At least the "Eighth thousand" was reached in 1891].
3.
Chicago & New York: Rand, McNally, 1891. Globe Library
4. New
York: Munro, 1891. Seaside Library Ordinary Edition, #1870.
5. New
York: Munro, 1891. Seaside Library Pocket Edition, #1870.
6. Boston:
Tucker, 1891. Tucker's Library, vol. 1, #1.
7. New York: Dearborn,
1892
8. New York: H.M. Caldwell, [nd].
9. New York:
International Book, [nd].
10. Chicago & New York: Rand, McNally,
[nd].
11. Hvad i Kodet er
baaret [Translation into
Danish.] Oversat af P. Jerndorff-Jessen. (Martins Halvkrone Udgave). (192S.).
10. John Martin. 1893.
12. Chicago: M.A. Donohue &
Henneberry, [1895].
13. New York: Knight & Brown, 1898.
14. New York: Illustrated Library of Famous Books #263, 1898
15. London: George Newnes, 1894, 1900, 1913, 1915, 1918. Newnes'
Sevenpenny Series.
16. London: George Newnes, [nd]. Illustrated by
A.S. Hartrick. Sixpenny Novels Illustrated.
17. New York: Street &
Smith, [19--?]. Select Fiction Library.
18. New York: Fenno, 1902.
Select Series, #82.
19. Aettareinkennio. [Translation into
Icelandic]. Winnipeg : Prentsmioja Heimskringlu, 1911, 1939. Series Sogusafn
Heimskringlu.
20. What's Bred in the Bone Comes out in the
Flesh. Silent film, Master Studio, 1916. Screenplay and director Sidney
Morgan.
21. London: Newnes Trench Library, 1917.
22.
Ottawa: CIHM, 1981. Three microfiches of the Knight & Brown, 1898 ed. Copy
in National Library of Canada. Series #26242.
23. Ottawa : CIHM,
1982. Three microfiches of the Donohue & Henneberry, [1895] ed. Copy in the
University of British Columbia Library. Series #17942.
24. Ottawa :
CIHM, 1983. Five microfiches of the 'Tit-Bits' Offices, 1891 ed. Copy in the
Trent University Library, Peterborough. Series #05092.
The
Great Taboo
As GA says in his
preface, this novel draws heavily on the anthropology of Frazer's 'admirable and
epoch-making' The Golden Bough and the writings of Andrew Lang on myth
and ritual.. Washed overboard from an Australian liner, Felix Thurstan
and Muriel Ellis make it to a Polynesian cannibal isle, where they are promoted
to the status of gods of Rain and Clouds respectively. Their reign will be
short, however; they will be killed and eaten after some months. Fortunately
they learn the exact process by which the reigning supreme god, Tu-Kila-Kila, is
replaced from the babble of an ancient parrot once owned by a sailor castaway,
and with this knowledge Felix steals the golden bough from the sacred grove and
kills the incumbent in single combat. Felix and Muriel introduce a new humane
regime and, before escaping on a passing ship, promise to send colonial
officials to continue their work of enlightenment. GA does a good job of
dramatising the network of taboos and the resulting endless fears and suspicions
prevailing in these societies and the novel is certainly a page-turner; but some
aspects of his plot are wildly implausible. An ambitious idea which GA is just
not capable of pulling off entirely.
How much the serialisation brought
isn't clear, but Chatto wrote on 16 June 1890 'The market for collections of
short stories is not an improving one, and I would therefore advise you to let
your new tale A Cannibal God reappear
in book form by itself. I shall be glad to make the venture with in a popular
form and will give L80 for the remaining rights, which is more than I could see
my way to give for a collection of short stories even (paradoxical as it may
appear) were this story to form one of them. ... Watt obtained this L80 on 16
Oct 90 [CW].
MS not located.
Serialization. A note between
Watt and C&W says 'serially published in Short Cuts under the title of A Cannibal God.' [Untraced so far – help
welcome].
1. London: Chatto & Windus, 1890.
2.
Second Edition [a 'yellowback']. London: Chatto & Windus,
1891. Reprinted 1892.
3. New York: A.L. Burt, 1890.
4. New
York: Harper, 1891. Harper's Franklin Square Library, #691.
5. New
York: G Munro, 1891. Seaside Library Pocket Edition, #1783.
6. New
York: Springfield, 1891. Advance Library, #2.
7. New York: National
Publishing, [nd]. The Red Letter Series of Select Fiction. Issued weekly. No.79,
Jan.3.
8. Ottawa: CIHM, 1981. Four microfiches of the Chatto &
Windus, 1890 ed. Copy in the University of British Columbia Library. Series
#05039.
9. Ottawa: CIHM, 1982. Four microfiches of the Chatto &
Windus, 1891 ed. Copy in the D.B. Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario.
Series #27755.
10. Ottawa : CIHM, 1983.Three microfiches of the Burt,
1890 ed. Copy in the University of Victoria Library. Series #18108.
Wednesday
the Tenth. A Tale of the South Pacific
A
boys' adventure story: Julian Braithwaite, commander of the 'Albatross', goes to
the aid of a missionary family who are to be sacrificed. They are delayed by a
breakdown, but still make it when they realise the island is on the other side
of the date-line, so they have a day in hand.
MS not located.
Serialization. None
known.
1. Boston: D. Lothrop, 1890. Reprinted [1898].
2.
The Cruise of the Albatross, or When was Wednesday the Tenth? A story of the
South Pacific. Illustrated by Bridgman. Boston: Lothrop, [1898]. [The
text in fact contains no illustrations].
3. Ottawa: CIHM, 1980. Two
microfiches of the Lothrop, [1898] ed. (The Cruise of the Albatross) in
the National Library of Canada. Series #05020.
4. Ottawa: CIHM, 1980.
Two microfiches of the Lothrop, [1890] ed. Copy in the National Library of
Canada. Series #05091.
The
Sole Trustee
Noel Maynard
gambles not only his own inheritance on a speculative Canadian oil well, but
defrauds his sister of hers also. In all he raises twenty thousand pounds,
pouring it all into the venture. At first all goes well; oil is struck and
production starts. Then the reservoir collapses. Meanwhile his sister wants to
marry an artist who is suffering from cataracts and is slowly going blind.
Maynard faces up to his responsibilities and goes to Canada, eventually
retrieving the situation and making a modest income. One of the three novellas
GA wrote for the SPCK in 32pp. each. The exact required length of the tales was
specified in the advertisements for this series.
MS not located
1. London: Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, [1890]. Penny Library of Fiction.
2.
Hägrande miljoner. [Translation into Swedish.] Stockholm: Nordiska
Förlaget, 1912.
[No CIHM microfiche available]
Periodical
contributions in 1890; by month where known
André Canivet's Curse
Hot-headed French revolutionary
falls foul of a Parisian industrialist over a wall built along a Provencal road.
1. Short Stories: André Canivet's Curse [et al.]. London: The
'Clarion' Newspaper, [c.1890]. Dawn-O'-Day Library, No.
1.
AUGUST 1890
Old
Margaret
A letter from GA
to Watt dated 12 Dec [1889] refers to this story. GA was paid his standard rate
at this time: 2 gns per 1000w. The proofs in the NYPL are headed: "Series of
Short Stories. 4th Instalment. Not to be published before August 9,
1890." It was apparently written for the Herald and was
copyrighted 1890 to the 'Author's Alliance'. No UK publication known.
1.
The Sunday Herald [Boston, MA], 10 Aug 1890, 23.
My One Gorilla.
A naturalist in
Africa secures a rare orchid in the jungle but has it taken from him and eaten
by a gorilla.
1. Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 10 Aug
1890.
1891
Dumaresq's
Daughter. A Novel
Apparently written as early as 1888; it
was sold to Chambers's that October;
it was probably delayed to avoid overwhelming the market with GA's fictions.
Written with a bit more psychological penetration than many of GA's fictions,
the central character is Haviland Dumaresq, a philosopher and originator of a
grandiose Encyclopaedic Philosophy. Dumaresq is aging, embittered by his
relative failure and early years of poverty, and an opium addict. He is
obviously based on GA's hero and mentor, Herbert Spencer. But even Dumaresq is
forced to engage with the Philistine world when planning the future of his
beloved daughter Psyche. She is in love with a successful, shy painter, Austen
Linnell, who has inherited a fortune from his father's American patent medicine
company but is ashamed of it. (Perhaps GA got this idea from 'John Oliver
Hobbes', ie Pearl Craigie, whose father supposedly made a fortune from liver
pills.) He lets no one know he is rich. Dumaresq, fearing his daughter will
marry a penniless painter, forces her to promise not to encourage him for three
years. Feeling jilted, Linnell leaves for Khartoum on a crazy adventure with a
journalist. He is present at the death of General Gordon; and assumed to be
dead. (The description of the siege and massacre in 1885 is well done.) In
England Psyche starts to suffer from episodes of psychosomatic blindness. The
scene shifts to Algeria, where Dumaresq takes Psyche for the winter, hoping she
will forget Linnell. Thanks to the kindness of an American, Cyrus Vanrenen, a
young Cincinnati pork-packer and his cheerful sisters Corona and Sirena (all
amusingly treated as naïve, good-hearted Americans abroad), Psyche and Linnell
are eventually reunited. There are several other plot complications and a range
of minor characters including an unsympathetic treatment of a highly educated
young woman, Ida Mansel, given to saying things like 'War's an outlet for our
surplus population. It replaces the plagues of the Middle Ages. There are plenty
more soldiers where those came from'. But later it is said of her cuttingly that
'even Girton had not wholly extinguished her feminine instincts'.
11 Oct 88: 'Dear Mr Grant Allen, I have
pleasure to inform you that I have received today from Messrs Chambers their
cheque for L300 for Dumaresq's
Daughter. In accordance with your instructions I have paid to your Bank
L260.2.6 this being the balance after deducting enclosed for typewriting and my
commission.' [Watt]
Chatto must have thought GA's novels were looking up
again, for he wrote 'I am very pleased to be able to say that we shall be able
to pay you for the remaining rights in the next novel after first serial
publication an advance of L60 upon the price paid for The Tents of Shem so that we shall be
pleased to pay you at any time that suit your convenience L180 for the new story
and we trust that we may be [able?] to make another advance in the price of the
succeeding stories'. [CW, 15 May 1890]. Further, Chatto asked and got L40 for
the US rights from Harper in Aug 1891. [CW]
Melchiori writes not unreasonably
of this novel: 'If Grant Allen was receiving even eight shillings a page for
this particular piece of nonsense, he was grossly overpaid. In 1890 he had
published four novels and in 1891, the year of Dumaresq's Daughter, three more, and the
strain undoubtedly was beginning to tell'. She points to the several careless
inconsistencies and contradictions in plot details. (The Downward Path, p.20)
MS
not located.
1. Serialized Chambers's Journal, 5th Series, 8
(3 Jan1891-10 Oct 1891): 1-7; 18-21; 35-39; 52-55; 67-70; 83-86; 98-101;
115-117; 131-135; 148-151; 163-165; 178-182; 195-197; 211-213; 227-229; 243-245;
259-262; 275-277; 292-294; 307-309; 323-324; 339-341; 355-358; 370-384; 387-389;
402-407; 419-421; 435-437; 451-453; 467-470; 483-486; 499-501; 514-516; 531-533;
546-549; 564-566; 578-581; 595-596; 612-613; 633-635; 649-651.
2. 3
vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1891.
3. New York: Harper, 1891.
Harper's Franklin Square Library, #710.
4. New York: Munro, 1891.
Seaside Library Ordinary Edition, #1908.
5. A New Edition.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1892. Reprinted 1893, 1915.
6.
London/Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, 1908. Series Collins' 7d. net modern
fiction; #89. Reprinted 1912.
7. Ottawa : CIHM, 1980. 1+4+3+4
microfiches of the copy of the Chatto & Windus, 1891 ed. Copy in Thomas
Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto Library. Series #05027-05030.
8.Ottawa: CIHM, 1981. Five microfiches of the Collins, 1908 ed. Copy
in the National Library of Canada. Series #26238.
9. Ottawa:
CIHM,1982. Four microfiches of the Chatto & Windus, 1892 ed. Copy in the
University of British Columbia Library. Series #17938.
10. Ottawa :
CIHM, 1983. Four microfiches of the Chatto & Windus, 1893 ed. Copy in the
University of Saskachewan Library. Series #17939.
The
Duchess of Powysland
A high-society
story showing GA's ability to handle a complicated if unlikely plot. The central
action involves the shrewd and beautiful Linda Figgins, a lodging-house
landlady, whose brother Cecil is an engineer of genius. The two of them make a
fortune in America from Cecil's inventions. Linda then becomes a Duchess by
marrying the dissolute, half-crazy Bertie Montgomery, Duke of Powysland. The
Duke, depressed by gambling debts and suspicion of his wife, kills himself with
morphine, laying the blame in pure spite on his wife. A courtroom drama follows,
and Linda is released due to the efforts of her lawyer-lover, Douglas Harrison.
There are two sub-plots, one involving Arthur Roper, an early version of the
Raffles type of gentleman burglar and his accomplice, Elizabeth Pomeroy, and the
other the love-affairs of Sabine Venables (sister of the Duke). Her philistine
father marries a shrinking, neurotic creature called Woodbine Weatherly, an
over-educated 'new woman' who dies in childbirth. Of this event the narrator
comments: 'The higher education of women, that fashionable Moloch and Juggernaut
of our time, slays its annual holocaust so regularly nowadays that nobody is
astonished when one more Girton girl, unequal to her self-imposed task of
defying with impunity all the laws of nature, breaks down and dies in her first
futile attempt to fulfill the natural functions of motherhood' (Ch. 19).
Hereditarian ideas figure largely.
The Watt Papers (Chapel Hill) have a note
from GA showing he got L283.10.00 (ie L300 less commission) for the UK serial
rights from the People. Chatto wrote
on 22 Feb 1892 'I enclose cheque for L190 for the remaining rights in The Duchess of Powysland which I am
sorry to say I have been able to make only L10 more that for Dumaresq's Daughter. I had set my hopes
on being able to make a more appreciable advance. . .' [CW] A further memo by
Andrew Chatto dated 'Sep 12.91' says: 'Arranged with Mr Grant Allen (at Dorking)
that we would take the remaining rights in the Duchess of Powysland now running in the
People for L180 – the price we would
increase if the success of Dumaresq's
Daughter warrants. I have to ask Mr Watt if he has a typewritten copy of The Duchess – if not to send GA the
slips from The People.'
[CW]
MS not located
1. Serialized
People, 24 May 1891, 3; 31 May, 3; 7 Jun, 3; 14 Jun, 3; 21 Jun, 3; 28
Jun, 2; 5 Jul, 3; 12 Jul, 3; 19 Jul, 3; 26 Jul, 3; 2 Aug, 3; 9 Aug, 3; 16 Aug,
3; 23 Aug, 3; 30 Aug, 3; 6 Sep, 3; 13 Sep, 3; 20 Sep, 3; 27 Sep, 3; 4 Oct, 3; 11
Oct, 3; 18 Oct, 3; 25 Oct, 3; 1 Nov, 3; 6 Nov, 3; 15 Nov, 3.
2.
Serialized Liverpool Weekly Courier 24 May-15 Oct 1891. [Page nos. not
determined.]
3. Serialized Yorkshire Weekly Post 23 May-14 Nov
1891. [Page nos. not determined.]
4. New York: United States Book,
[1891]. According to CW, the US Book Co. paid $250 as an advance on royalties of
10%. The agreement was that if a pirated edition appeared 'and the sale of the
edition issued by the parties of the first part thus interfered with' the
payment would be a complete payment without further royalties.
5. 3
vols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1892.
6. New York:
National, 1892. The Red Letter Series No. 180.
7. New York: Munro, 1892. Seaside Library.
8. Boston: B R Tucker, 1892. Tucker's Library v.1, 8.
9.
A New Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1893. Reprinted 1894.
10. Ottawa: CIHM, 1980. 1+3+4+4 microfiches of the Chatto &
Windus, 1892 ed. Copy in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of
Toronto Library. Series #05023-6.
Recalled
to Life
Una
Callingham, rendered amnesic from the shock of being present at her father's
murder, slowly recovers the (fairly incredible) truth about her past. Quite
ingenious plotting, but heavily padded and quite unmemorable otherwise.
MS not located.
Serialization. None known
1.
Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith; London: Simkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co,
[1891]. Arrowsmith's Three-and-Sixpenny Series.
2. New York: H. Holt,
1891. Leisure hour series. [Issued in hardback and paperback.]
3.
Återkallad till livet. Oversattning fran engelska originalet av E.
Lilljebjorn. [Translation into Swedish.] Stockholm: Nordiska Förlaget,
[1911].
4. Elämään palautunut. [Translation into Finnish.]
Helsinki: Ahjo, 1920.
5. Ottawa : CIHM, 1983. Two microfiches of the
Holt, 1891 ed. Copy in the University of Victoria Library. Series #18111.
6.
Ottawa : CIHM, 1980. Three microfiches of the Arrowsmith/Simkin, Marshall,
Hamilton, Kent, [1891] ed. Copy in the Douglas Library, Queen's University.
Series #05062.
Periodical
contributions in 1891; by month where known
JANUARY
1891
A Deadly Dilemma
GA was quickly into the Strand, which
started in Jan 1891, ed. George Newnes. It lasted until 1950, when it fell into
the arms of Men Only.
1. Strand, 1 (Jan 1891), 14-21.
2. W.E. Norris, A Deplorable Affair. New York: Tate, [c1892],
pp. [139]-163.
MARCH 1891
Jerry Stokes
1. Strand, 1 (Mar 1891), 299-307.
2. Washington Post, 3 May 1891,
15.
3. The Reluctant Hangman. The Reluctant Hangman and Other
Stories of Crime; Those Being the Two Criminous Tales from Ivan Greet's
Masterpiece, etc. With the original illustrations from the Strand Magazine,
by Alfred Pearse & Sidney Paget. Edited by Tom & Enid Schantz.
Boulder, Colo: Aspen Press, 1973.
3. http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/programs/arts/english/gaslight/jerrysto.htm
[Copy text not stated. Accessed Jan 2001.]
APRIL 1891
Selwyn Utterton's Nemesis
Murderous doctor is haunted by the apparition of the feet of his dead wife;
a rational explanation in terms of 'disease spots' on the retina is provided.
1. Black and White, 25 Apr 1891, 374-377.
2.
Romance, 4:3 (Apr 1892), 466-480.
3. Strange Happenings: Being
Stories by H. D. Lowry, W. Clark Russell, W. E. Norris, Grant Allen, etc.
London: Methuen, 1901.
MAY 1891
General Passavant's Will
Three grand-daughters conspire to defeat the
provisions of a will defining whom they may not marry.
1.
Black and White, 30 May 1891, 550-553.
2. The General's
Will by Grant Allen. And Other Stories. [On spine: 'General Passevant's will
by Grant Allen']. London: Richard Butterworth, [1892?].
3. Stories
from "Black and White". London: Chapman & Hall, 1893.
4.
To Please His Wife by Thomas Hardy. A Memorial Swim by W. Clark Russell. The
Ghost of the Past by Mrs E Lynn Linton; and Other Tales. 2 vols. London:
Croome, [1893? Said to be a pirated edition of #3.]
5. London: R.E. King, 1903.
The
Briefless Barrister
Thorold Ashby dies on a Pacific island leaving a will
that is apparently unsigned. Will Protheroe, a young barrister, is able to show
that it was signed with plant juice that turns invisible until activated. Will
marries the heiress. GA's first piece for the ILN, probably because C. K.
Shorter had become ed. (1891-1900). A note in the Watt Papers (Chapel Hill) from
Shorter shows payment was three guineas a column.
1. Illustrated
London News, 98 (9 May 1891), 609-612.
JUNE
1891
Melissa's Tour
A stuffy English couple escort an
American, Melissa Easterbrook (her first name is treated as comical), across the
Atlantic, suspecting she has designs on their son. However, she wins them all
over with her naive enthusiasms.
1. Longman's Magazine, 18
(June 1891), 150-163.
2. New York Times, 21 June 1891, 18.
3. Washington Post, 28 June, 1891,
15.
4. Living Age, 190 (18 July 1891), 168-175.
5.
Ivan Greet's Masterpiece (1893).
6. Stories by English
Authors: the Sea. New York: Charles Scribners', 1895.
Karen: a
Canadian Romance
A Mennonite community, of Russian 'fanatics' select
couples for marriage by lot; Karen's lover flees and becomes rich as an
engineer. Meanwhile, his Karen and her lot-selected husband have also risen in
the world: she is a famous soprano. The husband is lost in a shipwreck, and all
works out well.
1. Graphic: An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper,
43 (Summer Number, [29 June] 1891, 6-7.
2. Ivan Greet's
Masterpiece (1893).
AUGUST 1891
The Prisoner of Assiout
A Coptic Egyptian tells how he outwitted
a Sheikh in a quarrel over a woman.
1. Strand, 2 (Aug 1891),
176-183.
2. A Prisoner of the
Assiout. Romance: Being the Tales of the New York Story Club, 4:1 (Nov
1891), 25-35.
3. The Omnibus of Adventure.
Edited by John R. Colter. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1930.
OCTOBER 1891
The Abbe's Repentance
Ivy Stanbury, staying at a hotel in Antibes, meets a handsome, cultured
young priest; badly tempted, he kills himself while fooling himself that he is
avoiding 'deliberate' suicide.
1. Contemporary Review, 60 (Oct
1891), 568-581.
2. New York Times, 25 October 1891, 18.
3. Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science and Art,
54 (Nov 1891), 674-682.
4. Ivan Greet's Masterpiece (1893).
5. Twelve Tales with a Headpiece, a Tailpiece, and an
Intermezzo (1899).