Hall Caine
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE (14 May 1853 – 31 August 1931), usually known as Hall Caine, was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his contemporaries. Many of his novels were also made into films. His novels were primarily romances, involving love triangles, but also addressed some of the more serious political and social issues of the day.
In 1897 came the most successful novel yet, The Christian. It was the first novel in Britain to sell over a million copies although once again it attracted much adverse publicity. As with most of his novels, it was first published in serial form, this time in the Windsor Magazine and then, dramatised by the author, produced as a play. The theme of the novel was the problems encountered by a young woman trying to live an independent life; it was the first time that Caine had taken up the Woman Question. The play was first performed at the Knickerbocker Theatre in New York in October 1898, and it was also a great success. Caine followed it by a lucrative lecture tour. However when The Christian was first produced in England at the Duke of York's Theatre in October 1899, its reception was only lukewarm.
