Lucas Malet 1852 – 1931
(pseudonym for Mary St Leger Harrison/ née Kingsley)
Novelist.
4 June 1852 – 27 October 1931
Education
Home educated.
1870s Studied at the Slade School of Fine Art.
Some Key Achievements and Interests
1885 Published Colonel Enderby’s Wife which dealt with a failed marriage.
1891 Published The Wages of Sin dealing with a cross-class and pre-marital relationship drawing positive and negative responses from the public and reviewers.
1901 The History of Sir Richard Calmady dealing with physical deformity complex relationships, again provoking conflicting responses.
1902 Converted to Catholicism and revised her earlier writings in line with her changed views. Her writing, however, continued to be controversial.
Continued to write with commercial success.
Issues
Adopted a pseudonym to separate herself from her literary family.
Had a short-loved unhappy marriage which ended in separation.
Her writing treated controversial issues such as adultery and illicit sex breaking the taboos of ‘genteel’ English fiction.
Needed to write for much of her life to provide an income for herself. Died in penury.
Received critical acclaim during her lifetime but became little known after her death.
Connection to Bloomsbury
Slade School of Art
Female Networks
Emma Marshall, Gabrielle Vallings, Vernon Lee.
Works
1882 Mrs. Lorimer, a Sketch in Black and White.
1885 Colonel Enderby’s Wife.
1888 A Counsel of Perfection.
1890 The Wages of Sin.
1900 The Gateless Barrier.
1901 The History of Sir Richard Calmady.
1906 The Far Horizon.
1911 Adrian Savage.
1919 Deadham Hard.
1923 The Survivors.
1924 The Dogs of Want.
1932 The Private Life of Mr. Justice Syme.
Further Reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Malet