- Reade, Charles
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born June 8, 1814, near Ipsden, Oxfordshire, Eng.died April 11, 1884, LondonEnglish novelist and dramatist.Though trained in law and an administrator at Oxford University, he put much of his time and resources into writing and staging his melodramatic plays. His novels expose, with passionate indignation, the social injustices of his times. He is best remembered for the historical romance The Cloister and the Hearth (1861). His other novels include It Is Never Too Late to Mend (1856), attacking prison conditions; Hard Cash (1863), on the abuse of mental patients; and Put Yourself in His Place (1870), about terrorism by trade unionists.
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▪ British author and producerborn June 8, 1814, near Ipsden, Oxfordshire, Eng.died April 11, 1884, LondonEnglish author whose novels attack, with passionate indignation and laborious research, the social injustices of his times. He is also remembered for his historical novel The Cloister and the Hearth (1861), which relates the adventures of the father of Desiderius Erasmus as he wavers between religious celibacy and human love.Reade became a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1835 but treated the position as a sinecure. In 1843 he was called to the bar but never practiced law, and several years later he became a dealer in violins. Finally, in 1849 he embarked on a long career as a dramatist, theatre manager, and novelist. Laura Seymour, an actress, lived with him from 1856 until her death in 1879.Reade's novels reveal his concern with social issues. It Is Never Too Late to Mend (1856) attacked conditions in prisons, and Hard Cash (1863) exposed the ill-treatment of mental patients, especially in private asylums; Put Yourself in His Place (1870) dealt with the coercive activities of trade unionists. Foul Play (1868), written with Dion Boucicault (Boucicault, Dion), revealed the frauds of “coffin ships” (unseaworthy and overloaded ships, often heavily insured by unscrupulous owners) and helped to sway public opinion in favour of the safety measures proposed later by Samuel Plimsoll; like many of Reade's fictions, it had a dual identity as novel and play. The historical novel Griffith Gaunt (1866) was widely attacked for its sexual frankness. In an effort to increase the realism in his novels, Reade loaded—or, as his critics complained, overloaded—them with carefully researched detail.Additional ReadingMalcolm Elwin, Charles Reade (1931, reprinted 1969); Wayne Burns, Charles Reade: A Study in Victorian Authorship (1961).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
