Clara Vaughan

Last updated

Clara Vaughan
Clara Vaughan by R D Blackmore - 1889 book cover.jpg
Cover of 1889 Edition of Clara Vaughan
Author R. D. Blackmore
LanguageEnglish
GenreSensation novel
Publisher Macmillan & Co.
Publication date
1864
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint

Clara Vaughan is a sensation novel by R. D. Blackmore, who was later to achieve lasting fame for another romantic novel, Lorna Doone . Clara Vaughan, his first novel, was written in 1853 and published anonymously in 1864. [1] It remains in print.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Setting

Clara Vaughan, which takes place in the mid-19th century, is the story of the eponymous heroine, an only child whose father is mysteriously murdered when she is a young girl. As a young woman, she sets out to uncover the identity of her father's killer, and for this reason the novel is often classed among the first detective novels in English. In addition to this overarching theme, there are several sub-plots involving family secrets, romances, and questions of familial inheritance.

Publication

The novel was first published in 1864. It was still in print in various editions into the early 20th century and remains in print to this day. [2] It was generally well received by the public, although some reviewers at the time ascribed it to Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Others criticised the author for lack of knowledge of the law.

Revision

Blackmore chose to revise the novel fully for a new edition with his authorship acknowledged in 1872. There he states in a preface that he removed "many things offensive to maturer taste and judgement". [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Elizabeth Braddon</span> English popular novelist (1835–1915)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret, which has also been dramatised and filmed several times.

Webster's Dictionary is any of the US English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by Noah Webster (1758–1843), a US lexicographer, as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's name in his honor. "Webster's" has since become a genericized trademark in the United States for US English dictionaries, and is widely used in dictionary titles.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1864.

In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise...

<i>Lorna Doone</i> 1869 novel by R. D. Blackmore

Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by R. D. Blackmore, first published in three volumes in London in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor. In 2003, the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merriam-Webster</span> American publisher and dictionary

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is an American company that publishes reference books and is mostly known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States.

<i>Noli Me Tángere</i> (novel) Novel by José Rizal

Noli Me Tángere is a novel by Filipino writer and activist José Rizal and was published during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. It explores inequities in law and practice in terms of the treatment by the ruling government and the Spanish Catholic friars of the resident peoples in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. D. Blackmore</span> English novelist

Richard Doddridge Blackmore, known as R. D. Blackmore, was one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the nineteenth century. He won acclaim for vivid descriptions and personification of the countryside, sharing with Thomas Hardy a Western England background and a strong sense of regional setting in his works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Emerson Worcester</span> American lexicographer

Joseph Emerson Worcester was an American lexicographer who was the chief competitor to Noah Webster of Webster's Dictionary in the mid-nineteenth-century. Their rivalry became known as the "dictionary wars". Worcester's dictionaries focused on traditional pronunciation and spelling, unlike Noah Webster's attempts to Americanize words. Worcester was respected by American writers and his dictionary maintained a strong hold on the American marketplace until a later, posthumous version of Webster's book appeared in 1864. After Worcester's death in 1865, their war ended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Susanna Cummins</span> American novelist (1827–1866)

Maria Susanna Cummins was an American novelist. She authored the novel The Lamplighter (1854).

<i>The Notting Hill Mystery</i> 1862 English detective novel

The Notting Hill Mystery (1862–1863) is an English-language detective novel written under the pseudonym Charles Felix, with illustrations by George du Maurier. The author's identity was never revealed, but several critics have suggested posthumously Charles Warren Adams (1833–1903), a lawyer known to have written other novels under pseudonyms. It is seen as one of the first detective novels in the English language, if not the first.

<i>The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes</i> 1765 childrens story

The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is a children's story published by John Newbery in London in 1765. The story popularized the phrase "goody two-shoes" as a descriptor for an excessively virtuous person or do-gooder. Historian V.M. Braganza refers to it as one of the first works of Children's literature, perhaps the earliest children's novel in English. It was influential to subsequent authors, revolutionary in the development of its literary genre, and popular, noted for its female heroine in a realist setting.

<i>Cripps the Carrier</i> 1876 novel by R. D. Blackmore

Cripps the Carrier: a woodland tale, is a novel by Richard Doddridge Blackmore, author of Lorna Doone. It was first published in 1876 and is set in and around the village of Beckley in the rural area of Headington just outside Oxford to the east and the road to London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Jordan</span> American novelist

Elizabeth Garver Jordan was an American journalist, author, editor, and suffragist, now remembered primarily for having edited the first two novels of Sinclair Lewis, and for her relationship with Henry James, especially for recruiting him to participate in the round-robin novel The Whole Family. She was editor of Harper's Bazaar from 1900 to 1913.

<i>Cradock Nowell</i> 1866 novel by R. D. Blackmore

Cradock Nowell: a tale of the New Forest is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1866. Set in the New Forest and in London, it follows the fortunes of Cradock Nowell who is thrown out of his family home by his father following the suspicious death of Cradock's twin brother Clayton. It was Blackmore's second novel, and the novel he wrote prior to his most famous work Lorna Doone.

<i>The Maid of Sker</i> Three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore

The Maid of Sker is a three-volume novel that was written by R. D. Blackmore and published in 1872. The novel is set in the late 18th century and is about an elderly fisherman who unravels the mysterious origins of a foundling child who is washed ashore on the coast of Glamorganshire, South Wales. It was published subsequent to Blackmore's Lorna Doone, although he had begun writing The Maid of Sker 25 years earlier. Blackmore considered The Maid of Sker to be his best novel.

<i>Springhaven</i> 1887 novel by R. D. Blackmore

Springhaven: a tale of the Great War is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1887. It is set in Sussex, England, during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, and revolves around the plots of the villainous Captain Caryl Carne who attempts to aid a French invasion.

<i>Christowell</i> 1882 novel by R. D. Blackmore

Christowell: a Dartmoor tale is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1882. It is set in the fictional village of Christowell on the eastern edge of Dartmoor.

<i>Erema</i> 1877 novel by R. D. Blackmore

Erema; or, my father's sin is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1877. The novel is narrated by a teenage girl called Erema whose father escaped from England having been charged with a murder he did not commit. Erema has grown up in exile with her father, and the story begins in California in the 1850s.

<i>Dariel</i> 1897 novel by R. D. Blackmore

Dariel: a romance of Surrey is a novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1897. It is an adventure story set initially in Surrey before the action moves to the Caucasian mountains. The story is narrated by George Cranleigh, a farmer who falls in love with Dariel, the daughter of a Caucasian prince. Dariel was the last of Blackmore's novels, published just over two years before his death.

<i>Perlycross</i> 1894 novel by R. D. Blackmore

Perlycross: a tale of the western hills is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1894. The story is set in eastern Devon around 1830.

References

  1. "Blackmore" entry in Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia Of Literature (1995), Merriam-Webster.
  2. Current editions.
  3. Clara Vaughan (1889 edition) at the Internet Archive.