Walter Besant, 1836-1901
Biographical note
Novelist and historian of London, born at Portsmouth and educated at King’s College, London, and Cambridge, was for a few years a professor at Mauritius, but a breakdown in health compelled him to resign, and he returned to England and took the duties of Secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund, which he held 1868–85. He published in 1868 Studies in French Poetry.
Three years later he began his collaboration with James Rice. Among their joint productions are Ready-money Mortiboy (1872), and the Golden Butterfly (1876), both, especially the latter, very successful. This connection was brought to an end by the death of Rice in 1882. Thereafter Besant continued to write voluminously at his own hand, his leading novels being All in a Garden Fair, Dorothy Forster (his own favourite), Children of Gibeon, and All Sorts and Conditions of Men. The two latter belonged to a series in which he endeavoured to arouse the public conscience to a sense of the sadness of life among the poorest classes in cities. In this crusade Besant had considerable success, the establishment of The People’s Palace in the East of London being one result. In addition to his work in fiction Besant wrote largely on the history and topography of London. His plans in this field were left unfinished: among his books on this subject is London in the 18th Century.
Other works among novels are My Little Girl, With Harp and Crown, This Son of Vulcan, The Monks of Thelema, By Celia’s Arbour, and The Chaplain of the Fleet, all with Rice; and The Ivory Gate, Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, The Master Craftsman, The Fourth Generation, etc., alone. London under the Stuarts, London under the Tudors are historical.
Works
Fiction
- Ready-money Mortiboy : a matter-of-fact story. With James Rice. 3 vols [1872]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - My Little Girl. With James Rice. 3 vols [1873]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - With Harp and Crown. With James Rice. 3 vols [1875]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - This Son of Vulcan. With James Rice. [1876]
- The Golden Butterfly. With James Rice. 3 vols [1876]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - The Case of Mr Lucraft [1886]
- The Case of Mr. Lucraft and other tales. With James Rice. 2 vols [1876]
- By Celia’s Arbour: a tale of Portsmouth town. With James Rice. 3 vols [1878]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - The Monks of Thelema. With James Rice. 3 vols [1878]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - 'Twas in Trafalgar's bay, and other stories
. With James Rice. [1879]
'Twas in Trafalgar's bay -- Shepherds all and maidens fair -- Such a good man -- Le chien d'or - The seamy side, a story. With James Rice. [1880]
- The Chaplain of the Fleet. With James Rice 3 vols [1881]
- The Ten Years' Tenant and other stories. With James Rice. 3 vols. [1881]
v.1 v.2 v.3
The ten years' tenant -- Sweet Nelly -- Over the sea with a sailor - The Revolt of Man [1882]
- All Sorts and Conditions of Men : an impossible story / illustrated by Frederick Barnard [1882]
- All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys and a girl [London: Chatto & Windus, 1883]
- The Captains' Room etc. 3 vols. [1883]
v.1 v.2 v.3
The Captains' Room -- Let nothing you dismay -- They were married -- The Humbling of the Memblings -- The Murder of Nick Vedder - Dorothy Forster [1884]
- Uncle Jack ; etc [1885/1894]
Uncle Jack -- Julia -- Sir Jocelyn's Cap (with Walter Herries Pollock) -- A Glorous Fortune -- In luck at last - In Luck at Last
- Children of Gibeon [1886]
- The World Went Very Well Then / illustrated by Amédée Forestier. 3 vols [1887]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - The inner house / [1888]
- Herr Paulus; his rise, his greatness and his fall. 3 vols [1888]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - To call her mine : etc.
[1889]
To call her mine -- Katharine Regina -- 'Self or bearer' - Katharine Regina / []
- The Bell of St. Paul's. [1889]
- For faith and freedom; a novel / [1889]
- The Holy Rose, etc. / [1896]
The Holy Rose -- The Last Mass -- Even with this -- Camilla's last string - Armorel of Lyonesse : a romance of to-day [1890]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - Blind Love. By Wilkie Collins, completed and with preface by W. Besant. 3 vols [1890]
- St. Katherine's by the Tower. 3 vols [1891]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - Verbena Camellia Stephanotis, etc /
[1892]
Verbena Camellia Stephanotis -- The Doubts of Dives -- The Demoniac -- The Doll's House--And After - The Rebel Queen. 3 vols [1893]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - The Ivory Gate [1893]
- Beyond the dreams of avarice [1895]
- In Deacon's Orders, and other stories [1895]
- The Master Craftsman. 2 vols [1896]
v.1 v.2 - The City of Refuge. 3 vols [1896]
v.1 v.2 v.3 - A fountain sealed. A novel [1897]
- The changeling, a novel / [1898]
- Alfred. 3rd ed [1899]
- The orange girl / [1899]
- The Alabaster Box [1900]
- For Britain's Soldiers. By W.L. Alden, Sir W. Besant etc., with preface by C.J.C. Hyne [1900]
- The Fourth Generation [1900]
- The Lady of Lynn / [1901]
- A Five Years' Tryst and other stories [1902]
- No other way [1902]
Collected editions (fiction)
Plays
General non-fiction
[excluding items on London]
- 'Bourbon' journal, August [1863]
- Studies in Early French Poetry [1868]
- Jerusalem, the city of Herod and Saladin / with Edward Henry Palmer, [1871]
- The French humorists from the twelfth to the nineteenth century [1874]
- Constantinople : a sketch of its history from its foundation to its conquest by the Turks in 1453 / with William Jackson Brodribb [1879]
- Gaspard de Coligny (Marquis de Chatillon) Admiral of France, Colonel of French Infantry, Governor of Picardy, Ile de France, Paris, and Havre [1879]
- Sir Richard Whittington, Lord Mayor of London. With James Rice. The New Plutarch [1881]
- The life and achievements of Edward Henry Palmer, late Lord Almoner's professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge and fellow of Saint John's college; / with George Frederick Nicholl [1883]
- "The Amusements of the People", Contemporary Review 45 [1884: 342-53]
- The Art of Fiction: A Lecture Delivered at the Royal Institution [1884]
- William Tuckwell, Art and hand work for the people, being three papers read before the Social Science Congress, Sept [1884]. By W.T., C. G. Leland, and W. Besant. Manchester, 1885.
- The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies [1888]
- Fifty years ago / [1888]
- Captain Cook. English Men of Action [1890]
- "The People’s Palace", Contemporary Review 51 [1887: 226-33].
- The Queen’s Reign and its commemoration [1897]
- The Pen and the Book [1899]
- The story of King Alfred [1901]
- Autobiography of Sir Walter Besant, with a prefatory note by S. Squire Sprigge [1902]
- As we are and as we may be [1903]
- Essays and Historiettes [1903]
- The pen and the book / [1899]
- The Queen's reign and its commemoration : a literary and pictorial review of the period; the story of the Victorian transformation, 1837-1897 / [1897]
- Rabelais / [1879]
- Readings in Rabelais [1883]
- The rise of the empire / []
- London [1892]
- South London / [1899]
- East London / [1901]
The Fascination of London (series)
- Chelsea / G. E. Mitton; edited by Walter Besant
- Hackney and Stoke Newington / Mitton, G. E. (Geraldine Edith), [1908]
- Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney / John Cunningham Geikie and G. E. Mitton; edited by Walter Besant
- Hampstead and Marylebone / G. E. Mitton; edited by Walter Besant
- The History of London / Walter Besant
- Holborn and Bloomsbury / G. E. Mitton and Walter Besant [1903]
- The Kensington District / G. E. Mitton; edited by Walter Besant
- Mayfair, Belgravia, and Bayswater / G. E. Mitton; edited by Walter Besant
- Shoreditch and the East End / with others [1908]
- The Strand District / G. E. Mitton and Walter Besant [1903]
- Westminster / G. E. Mitton, Walter Besant and A. Murray, Smith [1895]
- The Thames [1903]
The Survey of London
- Early London : Prehistoric, Roman, Saxon and Norman [1908]
- Mediaeval London : Historical and Social [1906]
- Mediaeval London : Ecclesiastical [1906]
- London in the Time of the Tudors [1904]
- London in the Time of the Stuarts [1903]
- London in the Eighteenth Century [1925]
- London in the Nineteenth Century [1909]
- London City [1910]
- North of the Thames [1911]
- South of the Thames [1912]
