John Halifax, Gentleman

The Authoress


Dinah Maria Craik (born Dinah Maria Mulock, also often credited as Miss Mulock or Mrs. Craik) (20 April 1826 - 12 October 1887) was an English novelist and poet. She was born at Stoke-on-Trent and brought up in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. After the death of her mother in 1845, she settled in London about 1846. She was determined to obtain a livelihood by her pen, and, beginning with fiction for children, advanced steadily until placed in the front rank of the women novelists of her day. She is best known for the novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1856). She followed this with A Life for a Life (1859), which she considered to be the best of her novels; others were The Ogilvies (1849), Olive (1850), The Head of the Family (1851), Agatha's Husband (1853), Hannah (1871), and Young Mrs. Jardine (1879). She married George Lillie Craik, a partner with Alexander Macmillan in the publishing house of Macmillan & Company, in 1864. They adopted a foundling baby girl, Dorothy, in 1869. At Shortlands, near Bromley, Kent, while in a period of preparation for Dorothy's wedding, she died of heart failure on 12 October 1887, aged 61.


Synopsis

The story is very simple—the mere history of a rising man, of one who lifted himself up by power of will, from the lowest rank to the proud level and title of "Gentleman." John Halifax is based loosely around the life of John Dobell, a wine merchant from Cheltenham.


Contemporary Reviews


Spectator, 1856 — In John Halifax the author has made a considerable advance upon her previous works. The great source of interest is an improved and masterly execution employed upon more substantial matter. Every character is consistently conceived and very truthfully delineated. The incidents, the scenes, the 'still life,' are painted with a power that sustains the attention of the reader.


Athenaeum, 1856 — The story is interesting. The attachment between John Halifax and his wife is beautifully painted, as are the pictures of their domestic life and the growing up of the children, and the conclusion of the book is beautiful and touching.


Messenger, 1856 —All the power put forth in the previous novels of the author of these volumes, and much more, appears to have been concentrated upon as genuine a subject as was ever made the topic of romantic consideration.


The Gentleman's Magazine, 1856 — We have not for a long time read a better novel than this. Miss Mulock has here brought out two or three of the most charming characters with which fiction has ever presented us. We do not care to do battle for the perfect probability of every trait and touch. The result is so elevating and altogether attractive, that we never were less disposed to be exacting.