English literature of the second half

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Stoker, Bram (1847-1912), British writer, born in Dublin, Ireland, and educated at the University of Dublin. After ten years as a civil servant and a literary and dramatic critic, he left Ireland in 1876 to become secretary and business manager for English actor Sir Henry Irving, joining him in the management of the Lyceum Theatre, London. He remained associated with Irving until the actor's death in 1905. Stoker wrote many books. His classic novel of horror, Dracula (1897), introduced the character of the vampire Count Dracula of Transylvania. Dracula has inspired numerous films, sequels, and retellings.

Burnett, Frances Eliza Hodgson (1849-1924), American novelist, born in Manchester, England. She immigrated to the United States at the close of the American Civil War. She was the author of the well-known children's books Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) and The Secret Garden. The latter, which she considered her best novel, is still popular today.

Haggard, Sir Henry Rider (1856-1925), English novelist, colonial administrator, and agriculturist, born in Norfolk. At the age of 19 he went to South Africa and later served in the Transvaal as a master of the high court. Returning to England, Haggard devoted most of his time to agriculture, on his estate in Norfolk, and to writing novels.

His King Solomon's Mines (1885) was an immediate success; its story, suggested by the ruins at Zimbabwe, dealt with the adventures of an English explorer among remote tribes. The characters who appeared in the book were featured in several others, including She, Allan Quatermain (1887), and Ayesha, or the Return of She. In addition to writing more than 40 novels, Haggard was an adviser to the British government on agriculture.

Nesbit, E(dith) (1858-1924), British writer, who is best known for children's books such as The Story of the Treasure Seekers and The Railway Children, both of which are stories about sets of brothers and sisters and their adventures. Nesbit was born in London and educated at various schools in England, France, and Germany. Nesbit's family finally settled in England when she was 13 years of age. By the time she was 15 years of age, magazines had begun to accept her poetry for publication.

Nesbit and George Bernard Shaw were founding members of the socialist, educational Fabian Society. Nesbit took up writing as a career in order to support an unconventional household, which included her husband's illegitimate children, but despite her prolific publishing, the family's finances were often unstable.

Many of Nesbit's books for children, which are classics, describe a fantastic dimension, where the protagonists, for example, travel through time, or conduct various experiments with magic talismans, as in Five Children and It and The Enchanted Castle. Nesbit's interest in socialism is reflected in some of her children's fiction. In The Story of the Amulet, for example, versions of past and future societies are juxtaposed and compared with that of the time the novel was written, implicitly providing critical comment on the shortcomings of the present society. The most memorable feature of Nesbit's writing for children, however, is the humor she achieves as a result of adopting a child's perspective toward adult behavior and the adult world.

Jerome, Jerome Klapka (1859-1927), English novelist and playwright. Born in the borough of Walsall, Jerome was financially supporting himself by the age of 14, as his family had little money. After clerking, teaching, and acting, he turned his attention to writing and editing. Two books, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow and Three Men in a Boat ( 1889 ), represent his greatest success as a novelist. Reminiscent of Mark Twain's travel writings, these works combine wit and anecdote with common sense and compelling description. Jerome had his greatest success in the theater with a play that mingles realistic and supernatural elements.

Grahame, Kenneth (1859-1932), English author. He retired after the publication of his most successful work, The Wind in the Willows (1908), a fantasy about Mole, Rat, and other animals in the English countryside that appeals to both adults and children.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (1859-1930), British physician, novelist, and detective-story writer, creator of the unforgettable master sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh and educated at Stonyhurst College and the University of Edinburgh. He practiced medicine till he was 31. A Study in Scarlet, the first of 60 stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, appeared in 1887. The characterization of Holmes, his ability of ingenious deductive reasoning, was based on one of the author's own university professors. Equally brilliant creations are those of Holmes's foils: his friend Dr. Watson, the good-natured if bumbling narrator of the stories, and the master criminal Professor Moriarty. Conan Doyle was so immediately successful in his literary career that approximately five years later he abandoned his medical practice to devote his entire time to writing.

The Holmes stories were serialized in 1891. They made Conan Doyle internationally famous and served to popularize the detective-story genre. A Holmes cult arose and still flourishes, notably through clubs of devotees such as the Baker Street Irregulars. Conan Doyle's literary versatility brought him almost equal fame for his historical romances.

Conan Doyle served in the Boer War as a physician, and on his return to England wrote The Great Boer War and The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct, justifying England's participation. For these works he was knighted in 1902. During World War I he wrote History of the British Campaign in France and Flanders as a tribute to British bravery. An advocate of spiritualism since the late 1880s, his lectures and writings on the subject increased markedly after the death of his eldest son in the war. His autobiography, Memories and Adventures, was published in 1924.

Barrie, Sir James Matthew (1860-1937), Scottish dramatist and novelist, whose works, both theatrical and non-theatrical, stress his personal ironic view of life as a romantic adventure. He settled in London and wrote for the St. James's Gazette and many other periodicals. His early volumes contained sketches of Scottish village life. The Little Minister (1891), a romantic novel of love and adventure, was followed by several other books.

Barrie's plays were a great success. 1904 saw the first performance of Barrie's now world-famous fairy-tale play, Peter Pan. In this fantasy, Barrie dealt with his two favorite themes, the retention of childish innocence and what he conceived to be the feminine instinct for motherhood.

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