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Hall Caine Correspondences

Word count: 40,218

Ophélie Malcolm

Student number: 01502906

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Marysa Demoor

A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literature (Dutch - English).

Academic year: 2019 – 2020

Malcolm Ophélie 1

Abstract

Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine (14 May 1853 – 31 August 1931) was a much celebrated and popular

British author in his days. His works were widely sold and his readership reached overseas in America

and Australia. Large sales figures imply large audiences, and this inevitably generates influence. In the

Victorian era, influence through literature was considered dangerous if it did not align with the moral

expectations of society. Most literary works were under scrutiny for their (im)moral content and some

were even censored. While Hall Caine aimed to educate his audience and raise awareness about the

social injustices in the Victorian society, some of his works were deemed immoral by critics.

I will have a closer look at what the periodical press tells us about Hall Caine. If Caine is not

well-known today, the contrary is true for his own age when he was a widely read author. A considerable

amount of articles appeared about him, as well as reviews of his novels. He was a celebrity who

simultaneously experienced admiration as well as continuous scrutiny. In this dissertation I will try to

find out why the notability of a celebrated author like Hall Caine has diminished overtime. I will focus

on the role of criticism and reviewing in the periodical press and how this affected Hall Caine’s

popularity.

My central focus is the body of letters that accompany this work. The correspondences are all

letters addressed to Hall Caine. The content of the letters deals with a large range of topics, ranging from

film rights to costume prices for plays. But quite strikingly, most of the letters deal with reviewing in

some way.

I will delineate what literary genre Hall Caine’s work belongs to. It is necessary to know his

conception of literature in order to understand what is to be expected from his works, and whether his

critics took this into account. His literary output can be defined as melodramatic romances. Important

to note is Hall Caine’s affinity with idealism. We will have a closer look at his essay “The New

Watchwords of Fiction”, in which he praises idealism over realism. Recent studies, however, tend to

consider Caine’s work as a merge of idealism and realism. Given his journalistic background, he often

integrated his observations in his literature, an approach that ties in with realism.

Malcolm Ophélie 2

In many ways, Hall Caine was a versatile artist. Some of his works were adapted into three

different media: book, film, drama.

The reviews and articles on the subject of Caine exposed to what extent the purpose of his

writing was misunderstood and how he reacted to the negative reactions. The fact that he wrote popular

fiction and had a broad audience was frowned upon by his critics. They thought Caine wrote sensational

novels to boost financial gains. Most articles and critics tended to address the same inadequacies in

Caine’s works. Very often critics argued that his novels were highly immoral, while Caine contested

that his novels were meant to expose the immoralities of society and awaken higher morals in his readers.

We will see how this criticism in the reviews did not align with the commentary Caine received in his

correspondences.

Malcolm Ophélie 3

Acknowledgements

The transcription of the letters was an enriching experience. Not only did I learn a lot about Hall Caine

throughout the process, I could also delve into his professional and personal letters. I would hereby like

to thank professor Marysa Demoor for giving me this opportunity. The body of correspondences belongs

to her private collection. For a long time these correspondences had been waiting to be analysed and

transcribed and it was an honour to be the first person who could work on this collection. I am also very

grateful to the University of Ghent for providing acces to online periodical archives. Finally, I would

like to thank my parents and my brother who have read my work and have communicated their feedback.

Malcolm Ophélie 4 
Table of Contents 
Abstract ..............................................................................................................................................1 
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................3 
List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................7 
List of Abbreviations ..........................................................................................................................9 
List of Symbols...................................................................................................................................9 
PART I : Hall Caine and his image in the periodical press ................................................................. 10 
Introduction: What Hall Caine is today and what he used to be ...................................................... 11 
Methodology................................................................................................................................. 15 
State of the art ............................................................................................................................... 17 
The author in Victorian society.................................................................................................. 17 
Hall Caine’s Topicality ............................................................................................................. 20 
Hall Caine and Idealism ............................................................................................................ 21 
Hall Caine’s hybridity ............................................................................................................... 25 
Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 28 
Hall Caine concerning the war ................................................................................................... 31 
Hall Caine’s Manx literature ..................................................................................................... 34 
Hall Caine’s The Christian ........................................................................................................ 39 
Hall Caine’s The Woman Thou Gavest Me ................................................................................. 44 
Hall Caine’s response to criticism.............................................................................................. 50 
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 58 
PART II : Editorial Notes.................................................................................................................. 60 
Introduction of the letters and the structure of this work ................................................................ 61 
Structure of each letter .................................................................................................................. 62 
Spelling and grammar issues ......................................................................................................... 63 
Abbreviations and symbols ........................................................................................................... 64 
PART III : Correspondences ............................................................................................................. 65 
Charles Bang, employee Heinemann Ltd. ...................................................................................... 66 
31 January 1923 : second serial rights of The Prodigal Son........................................................ 66 
30 January 1923 : enclosed letter of William Lees to Charles Bang, ........................................... 68 
Sir Arthur Beverley Baxter, journalist (1891 – 1964) ..................................................................... 69 
2 January 1923 : request for a serial story .................................................................................. 69 
Ralph David Blumenfeld, editor (1864 – 1948) ............................................................................. 70 
27 December 1918 : Hall Caine’s Woodrow Wilson article ....................................................... 70 
Mary Chandler, wife of Hall Caine (1863 – 1932) ......................................................................... 72 

Malcolm Ophélie 5 
27 June 1916 : The Deemster film ............................................................................................. 72 
Albert Curtis Brown, literary agent (1866 – 1945) ......................................................................... 76 
27 September 1924 : erroneous payment by Pearson’s Weekly .................................................. 76 
26 September 1924 : enclosed letter from A.M. Head to Curtis Brown ...................................... 79 
Reginald Golding Bright, drama critic (1875 – 1941) .................................................................... 80 
4 November 1918 : Australian rights The Woman Thou Gavest Me ............................................ 80 
8 November 1918 : World’s film rights of The Woman Thou Gavest Me .................................... 84 
1 January 1919 : Darby and Joan film matter ............................................................................ 86 
Date unknown : a review of The Manxman ................................................................................ 87 
Sewell Haggard, editor of Nash’s Magazine (1879 – 1928)............................................................ 94 
30 May 1919 : overseas publications ......................................................................................... 94 
Sir William F. Jury, head of the Film Division of the British Ministry of Information .................... 96 
12 December 1918 : Victory and Peace ..................................................................................... 96 
John Merry Lesage, journalist and newspaper editor (1837 – 1926) ............................................... 98 
11 July 1918 : France’s Day ...................................................................................................... 98 
Marie Kaye Wouldes Löhr, actress (1890–1975) ......................................................................... 100 
20 November 1918 : concerning a matinee .............................................................................. 100 
Arthur Milner, employee J.B. Lippincott Company ..................................................................... 102 
4 August 1921 : publication of The Master of Man .................................................................. 102 
8 August 1921 : enclosed letter from Sydney S. Pawling to Hall Caine .................................... 103 
Maurice O’Byrne ........................................................................................................................ 105 
28 September 1913 : concerning Christian conventions ........................................................... 105 
Sydney Southgate Pawling, librarian, publisher and cricketer (1862 – 1922) ................................ 110 
Date unknown : Louis Couperus’ The Book of Small Souls ...................................................... 110 
28 June 1918 : concerning a receipt and Gordon Ralph Hall Caine .......................................... 113 
27 June 1918 : enclosed receipt ............................................................................................... 114 
9 September 1919 : the omission of the raid scene ................................................................... 114 
Charles Reade, novelist and playwright (1814–1884) .................................................................. 116 
3 June [1873] .......................................................................................................................... 116 
24 June 1873 ........................................................................................................................... 118 
8 April .................................................................................................................................... 119 
9 April .................................................................................................................................... 120 
28 April [1876] ....................................................................................................................... 120 
19 December ........................................................................................................................... 121 
V.R.D. ........................................................................................................................................ 122 
Date unknown ......................................................................................................................... 122 

Malcolm Ophélie 6 
Sir William Watson, author and poet (1858-1935) ....................................................................... 123 
12 April 1882 : Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s death ........................................................................ 123 
H. Watt, literary agent ................................................................................................................. 125 
30 January 1919 : film rights of The Prodigal Son ................................................................... 125 
Theodore Watts-Dunton, author and poet (1832 – 1914) .............................................................. 127 
10 February 1890 : a review .................................................................................................... 127 
Alfred Wilson Barrett, author (1870 – 1945) ............................................................................... 129 
9 August 1913 : concerning a book and Mrs. Bouty ................................................................. 129 
Wilson Barrett, actor and playwright (1846 – 1904) .................................................................... 131 
27 March 1890 : Ben-my-chree ............................................................................................... 131 
Pearkes Withers, author of Cassell and Co Ltd. Publishers .......................................................... 135 
9 February 1923 : symposium La Garçonne ............................................................................ 135 
Works Cited.................................................................................................................................... 137 
 
 
 
  

Malcolm Ophélie 7 
List of Figures 
Figure 1: Hall Caine in the 1870s. ..................................................................................................... 10 
Figure 2: Mr. and Mrs. Hall Caine at Greeba Castle, postcard, printed between 1903 and 1959. ........ 13 
Figure 3: Greeba Castle, postcard, printed between 1903 and 1959. ................................................... 14 
Figure 4: To My Country, by Hall Caine, appeared in The Air-Co Rag on 1 April 1918. ................... 32 
Figure 5: CAINE, Hall. The Master of Man, The Story of a Sin. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 
1921. ................................................................................................................................................ 35 
Figure 6: Parody on Caine's excessive travelling, appeared in Punch in 1902. .................................... 44 
Figure 7: Ad for the American film The Woman Thou Gavest Me (1919) with Katherine MacDonald, 
Jack Holt, Milton Sills, and Fritzi Brunette, on pages 456 and 457 of the April 26, 1919 Moving 
Picture World. .................................................................................................................................. 47 
Figure 8: Sydney Southgate Pawling by Charles Hawkins. ................................................................ 50 
Figure 9: Ogden's 'Guinea Gold' cigarette card, published circa 1894-1907........................................ 55 
Figure 10: Charles van Enger (cameraman), Maurice Tourneur (director) and Sir Hall Caine, c. 1923 - 
taken from the Kevin Brownlow Collection 2007. ............................................................................. 60 
Figure 11: Abbreviations and symbols overview. .............................................................................. 64 
Figure 12: Mrs. Hall Caine, 1902. ..................................................................................................... 65 
Figure 13: Hall Caine SS (+1937)Picture taken from Wreck Site. ...................................................... 80 
Figure 14: Picture taken from "'For the Love of the Art': The life and work of Percy Nash, film 
producer and director of the silent era." Film History: An International Journal, vol. 19 no. 3, 2007, p. 
292-301. ........................................................................................................................................... 82 
Figure 15: View of Fort Anne Hotel from a 1920's postcard. ............................................................. 84 
Figure 16: cover of Nash's magazine, November 1918. ..................................................................... 94 
Figure 17: British poster advertising a fundraiser for the French Red Cross during the celebration of 
France's Day on 14 July. Image taken from Temple University Libraries. .......................................... 98 
Figure 18: Hall Caine's article on France's Day, 12 July 1918. ........................................................... 99 
Figure 19: An advertisement for the play Nurse Benson, starring Marie Löhr, United Kingdom, 1918, 
National Library of Medicine. ......................................................................................................... 100 
Figure 20: Image taken from Maria Luddy's Prostitution an Irish Society, 1800-1940. ..................... 109 
Figure 21: Excerpt taken from The Dart: A Journal of Sense and Satire, 13 Aug 1897, p.7. ............. 110 
Figure 22: Louis Couperus' The Book of Small Souls, original Dutch version. ................................ 111 
Figure 23: Charles Reade, by Charles Mercier, given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1929.
 ....................................................................................................................................................... 116 
Figure 24: Sir William Watson, oil painting by R.G. Eves; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
 ....................................................................................................................................................... 123 
Figure 25: The Pines, 11 Putney Hill ............................................................................................... 127 

Malcolm Ophélie 8

Figure 26: A corner in The Pines, 11 Putney Hill............................................................................. 128

Figure 27: An original programme for the Ben-my-Chree on 17 May 1888. .................................... 131

Figure 28: Article with poem on Russian influenza, appeared in Moonshine, 18 January 1890. ........ 134

Figure 29: Sir Hall Caine and Mr Derwent Hall Caine, late nineteenth century - early twentieth

century............................................................................................................................................ 137

Malcolm Ophélie 9

List of Abbreviations

ALS : autographed letter, signed

TLS : Typed letter, signed

Photocopy : Photocopy of letter

List of Symbols

[vertically] : Following segment is written vertically in original letter

[Handwritten text] : Following word is handwritten in original, typed letter

◊ : illegible letter

◊ : illegible letter, crossed out

Λ : illegible word

Λ : illegible word, crossed out

0 : scribble

0 : scribble, blotted out

* … * : Sequence that has been added interlineally by the writer

Malcolm Ophélie 10

PART I : Hall Caine and his image in the periodical press

Figure 1: Hall Caine in the 1870s.

Malcolm Ophélie 11

Introduction: What Hall Caine is today and what he used to be

“I can hardly recall a time when I did not write”

(Hall Caine, My Story 35)

Acclaimed by many, criticised by plenty. Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine was a common name on the

best-selling authors’ list in his days. The English periodical press commented daily on him, and his fame

reached overseas to Australia and America. His loyal audience followed him to his public lectures, his

plays, and later even his films. The gates of his grand mansion, Greeba castle, where he spent most of

his time – if not travelling around the globe – were packed with crowds who were trying to catch the

slightest glimpse of the celebrity author. The curse of fame, however, gave way to criticism and his

popularity diminished substantially after his death, which, curiously enough, was not the case for

contemporary authors such as Joseph Conrad and Bram Stoker. Apparently, less than a decade after

Caine’s death, his name was not included in George Sampson's Concise History of English Literature

(MacWilliams, “The Novelistic Melodramas” 427). MacWilliams suggests this was due to Caine’s

homogeneity of theme, plot, and character (428).

In this dissertation I will try to find out why the notability of a celebrated author like Hall Caine

has diminished after his death. I will focus on the role of criticism and reviewing in the periodical press

and how this affected Hall Caine’s popularity and his personality.

Let me begin with a brief introduction to Hall Caine’s life, and discuss the milestones that have

defined him. Born from Manx and Cumbrian parents on 14 May 1853, he learned to read and write in

the schools of the Isle of Man and Liverpool. Little did he know he was familiarising with what would

become his modus vivendi. While pursuing architecture studies, he was preoccupied with his writings

for building trade journals, which already hinted at his passion for writing. Quite evidently, Caine had

never been a practicing architect, and took up a career as a journalist instead. He debuted as leading

writer of the Liverpool Mercury. In the meantime, he gave lectures on literature. In the transition from

1878 to 1879, Caine gave three lectures on Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s work, the content of which he

Malcolm Ophélie 12

combined and published in Colburn’s New Monthly Magazine. Caine sent a copy of the magazine to

Rossetti, which signalled the start of a lifelong friendship.

It was Rossetti who advised Caine to move to London, which he eventually did. It was only

after Rossetti’s death in 1882 that Caine actively began his writing career. He started by publishing his

non-fictional works Sonnets of Three Centuries (1882), Recollections of Rossetti (1882) and Life of

Coleridge (1887). His first novel came out in 1885 and was titled The Shadow of a Crime, but it was his

1887 novel The Deemster that established his reputation. His following works included The Bondman

(1890), The Scapegoat (1891), The Manxman (1894), The Christian (1897), The Eternal city (1901) and

My Story (1908), some of which were later dramatised. Hall Caine was a dominating figure in the world

of literature. He was a novelist, dramatist, journalist and screenplay writer. Throughout his life, Caine

had acquaintances amongst many notable authors, who became his friends, including Bram Stoker,

Henry Irving, and the entire Rossetti family.

Very often, people were intimidated by Caine at first glance, given his stern look which made

him seem arrogant. But in fact he was an empathic and loyal friend who deemed friendship very

important. He did not hesitate to leave his work aside and help a friend in need. In this way he assisted

Bram Stoker with his writing. Even George Bernard Shaw, who had written a critique on Caine and who

had said “who is Hall Caine?”, was astonished by Caine’s patience and kindness when they met in

person afterwards (Allen 737).

Caine always dwelled in intellectual circles. When he lived in the Clement’s Inn rooms with his

friend Eric Robertson, Caine claimed that this was a solitary period in his life. Vivien Allen proves,

however, that this was not the case. In fact, she says that the whole of intellectual London gathered in

their rooms (153). Caine and his friends lived a carefree life during this period, being invited to dinner

or having dinner delivered at the door by two young girls, aged around thirteen years old.

These girls, one of which was Mary Chandler, would later become their wives. Robertson

married Mary’s friend, and Mary was to become Caine’s wife, but only in 1886. Before meeting Mary,

Hall Caine never intended to get married, especially not a girl sixteen years his junior. As Allen (154)

explains, child brides were not unusual in Victorian times. The age of consent was thirteen. Caine was

familiar with men who married younger girls, and those marriages turned out to be unsuccessful in

Malcolm Ophélie 13

nearly every case. But one of the main reasons why Caine was reluctant to marry the thirteen year old

Mary was the political campaign that gained importance around 1882 to raise the age of consent to

sixteen. Caine had publicly supported this movement (Allen 155).

It was Mary’s stepfather, Ward, who urged Hall Caine to marry her. At one point Ward dropped

Mary off at Caine’s residence and left Caine with no other option than taking her in. Caine thought it

better that she stayed with him rather than leaving a young girl by herself in the streets of London. He

decided to provide Mary with an education by sending her to a private school, and he intended to

postpone marriage until she was mature enough. Nevertheless, their first child, Gordon Ralph, was born

out of wedlock in 1884. Mary and Caine had one other son,

Derwent Hall Caine. In 1912, Derwent had an illegitimate

daughter, Elin, and she was brought up by Caine and Mary as

their own child.

Hall Caine’s involvement in a political campaign to raise

the age of consent is only a glimpse of what Caine did for society,

and especially for womens’ rights. Although he was a Victorian

novelist, he was a modern thinker. He saw a world under

transition and felt the need to provide clarity on the changing

society. He advocated political change, and contributed to the

Woman Question in many ways, for instance with his so-called

“divorce novel” The Woman Thou Gavest Me (1913). He was also

a Christian socialist, which was reflected in some of his novels.

Hall Caine believed in the word of God above religious authority.

He believed, for instance, that only God had the right to make marriage sacred, and not humankind or

organised religion (MacWilliams, Reconsidering Hall Caine 100). Furthermore he was the founder of

the Liverpool Shakespeare Society in 1878 and he was also a member of the Ruskin Society. His career

as a journalist influenced a great deal of his writing. Whether he was working on the street or present in

court rooms, he observed what was happening around him and gathered information which afterwards

appeared suitable for his writings. Sometimes however, he crossed the line and integrated confidential

Figure 2: Mr. and Mrs. Hall Caine at Greeba Castle,

postcard, printed between 1903 and 1959.

Malcolm Ophélie 14

information disclosed by friends or acquaintances into his novels. The most striking instance is an

exhumation scene in his novel The Prodigal Son (1904), which seemed to allude to a passage in the life

of his close friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Rossetti actually exhumed the body of his wife, Lizzie Siddal,

in order to retrieve the poems he had interlaced in her hair when she was buried.

Despite the fact that Hall Caine was very much involved in the social and cultural issues of his

day, his literature tended to stagnate in terms of style. His works were often criticised for being overly

melodramatic and clinging too much to the Victorian aesthetic, while society and the readers’ needs

were evolving. Even though his style remained traditional, this does not imply that his writing was

monotonous, on the contrary. His work proves his hybridity as an author: he started his career by writing

for the mere thrill of sensation. Overtime, this grew into a more didactic aim. Hall Caine’s affinity with

the Victorian style went hand in hand with his admiration for idealism. In a society drifting away from

idealism and increasingly adopting the new theory of realism, originating in France, Hall Caine strongly

defended idealism in his essay “The New Watchwords of Fiction”. Ironically, Caine was sometimes

categorised as a realist as well, given the fact that his inspiration derived from observation. The

convergence of Caine’s melodramatic style, his connection with idealism, some of his inspiration

coming from confidential information and his continuous presence in the press led critics to despise him.

Figure 3: Greeba Castle, postcard, printed between 1903 and 1959.

Malcolm Ophélie 15

Methodology

I will have a closer look at what the periodical press tells us about Hall Caine. Unlike today, he used to

be the most read author of his time, which meant that a considerable amount of articles appeared

commenting about him, as well as reviews on his novels. He was a controversial celebrity who

simultaneously experienced scrutiny and admiration. Additionally, Hall Caine was a journalist himself,

which enabled him to inform newspapers when he was working on a new novel or if he was going

abroad for research and inspiration.

Besides Vivien Allen’s (1997) thorough biography of Hall Caine, and some papers discussing

the content of his novels, the academic research concerning Hall Caine is not as elaborate as that of

some of his contemporaries, which makes the study of his correspondences and works all the more

exciting, and the analysis of his appearance in the press worthwhile.

Another reason why I proceed with an analysis of Caine in the periodical press is because it

played an important role in Caine’s life. As I will mention later, Hall Caine’s success did not matter to

him as long as the reviews of his works were unfavourable. His correspondences to fellow authors and

his publishers establish his perfectionism and how he tried to avoid criticism at all costs. The reactions

to his works – which were not always positive – intensely occupied his mind. Of course, the increasing

importance of the press equally motivates the analysis of Hall Caine in this new medium. During Hall

Caine’s era, that is to say, the second half of the nineteenth century, the periodical press underwent a

significant technological evolution.

I proceeded with my analysis by complementing the currently available papers and biographies

on Hall Caine with articles about him and his work that appeared in the periodical press. But of course,

I kept into account the body of letters that accompany this work. The correspondences are all letters

addressed to Hall Caine. At first glance it was only a subset of Hall Caine’s correspondences and the

content of the letters dealt with a large scope of topics, ranging from film rights to costume prices for

plays. Most of the letters Caine received dealt with reviewing in some way. There are, for instance,

letters that relate to Caine’s The Woman Thou Gavest Me, a story which caused much controversy and

was widely reviewed in the press.

Malcolm Ophélie 16

Even more explicitly connected with reviewing and criticism was the letter of Reginald Golding

Bright, in which he enclosed a thorough and praising review of The Manxman. Furthermore there are

the correspondences between Hall Caine and Maurice O’Byrne, Wilson Barrett, Pearkes Withers,

Theodore Watts-Dunton and Sydney S. Pawling that all involved reviews and will be discussed below.

With this analysis I will attempt to find out how Hall Caine was perceived by his audience and

his critics. In doing so, I also learn how friends and fellow-authors advised him throughout his career

and remained loyal to him during the backlashes of criticism. The reviews and articles on the subject of

Caine show the extent to which his writing was understood or misunderstood. The emphasis on criticism

also enabled to connect the pieces of the puzzle as to why his success has diminished after his death.

Quite surprisingly, this focus on the response to Caine’s literary work sheds light on his self-

consciousness and his personality in general.

Malcolm Ophélie 17

State of the art

The author in Victorian society

First of all, it is worthwhile to focus on the position of authors in the Victorian era. One of the

reasons of Caine’s success – and most of his contemporaries – was the emerging popularity of literature

during the transition between the nineteenth and the twentieth century. The novel as a commercial

product enjoyed a “rise to a position of market dominance during the nineteenth century” (Hammond

41). A convergence of factors contributed to this boom: the printing technology progressed, urbanisation

emerged in England and other European countries, and the growing population and surging literacy rates

meant an increased readership. This rising popularity lead to an increasing awareness of the power such

a medium could hold. In The literature of the Victorian Era, Hugh Walker explains how liberty of

thought was uncommon in the nineteenth century. Newspapers, authors and publishers risked

prosecution when they dared to express “unpopular thoughts” (Walker 10). Novels were said to “keep

employees from their work, and its contents were thought to encourage any number of vices from theft

to divorce” (Richard D. Altick qtd. In Hammond 42). This comment ties in with the main criticism Caine

had endured with his novel The Woman Thou Gavest Me. With this novel, Caine wanted to dispell the

taboo around divorce.

Not only literature enjoyed success, but also the periodical press. The periodical press enabled

citizens to expand their knowledge and get in touch with culture, entertainment and current affairs. This

medium confronted the reader with conflicting opinions and it invited them to formulate a point of view

of their own, which was nonetheless hugely influenced by the paper, in most cases. At some point, the

government imposed taxes on knowledge in order to prevent radical press from spreading.

For authors, the most relevant part of a magazine or journal besides advertising, was the

reviewing section. A simple mention in a journal of the newest novel could make or break an author.

Whether or not an author decided to grant importance to the criticism, the reviews impacted the sales

figures. In her “Reading in Review: The Victorian Book Review in the New Media Moment”, Miller

explains the importance of reviewing in the Victorian era:

Malcolm Ophélie 18

The massive unwieldiness of nineteenth-century literature was, in short, a burden also faced by

nineteenth-century readers, and the book review emerged as a means of navigating this

sublimity of print material through selective processing. It was not the only way of navigating

the print log-jam, of course; specialist periodicals and other print innovations of the period might

likewise be read as technologies for information management. But the literary review clearly

spoke to a fantasy of rendering nineteenth-century literature in its totality at the limited scale of

the individual reader. (Miller 629)

The proliferation of reading material necessitated guidance as to what novel would suit the reader best.

Miller’s statement proves how the Victorian reader would first consult the review section in a periodical

before they would engage in a new book. Hall Caine’s novels were widely sold, and his name was very

familiar in the cultural and literary world. So obviously, when one of his new works appeared – be it a

novel, a play, a lecture or a film – it was discussed in the press.

In light of this emergent bewilderment in the literary scene, MacWilliams (Reconsidering Hall

Caine 183) mentions the critics’ attempt from the 1880’s onwards to define and standardise good fiction.

Concerning Hall Caine criticism, this meant that the reviews revolved more around the qualities of good

or bad fiction than they did about Caine’s work specifically (MacWilliams 182). Reviewers regarded

themselves as the ‘guardians of taste’, at the expense of popular authors. Caine, being a popular and

best-selling author, was a pre-eminent target in the discussion of popular versus quality art.

The selection process was not limited to reviewing, there was another way to dismiss newly

written books: censorship. Indeed, some novels were not deemed respectable or morally appropriate

enough to be published and sold. Despite the fact that Hall Caine wrote his novels for moralistic

purposes, some of them did not pass the censor. His The Woman Thou Gavest Me, for instance, was long

banned from the libraries. Hammond draws attention to the effect these selection processes have on the

establishment of the literary canon: “Victorian publishers, booksellers and libraries, increasingly

organised along patriarchal/capitalist lines, helped through their editorial, selection, censorship and

advertising procedures to create the mostly male-authored canon of ‘classic’ novels that emerged in the

1880s” (Hammond 42).

Malcolm Ophélie 19

In his The English Common Reader: a social history of the mass reading public, 1800-1900,

Altick explains how the growth of the periodical press enabled systematic reviewing, literary essays,

and criticism to emerge in the public sphere: “In the late thirties literary essays and criticisms began to

appear in the Gentleman's Magazine, and by the fifties notices of current books were a regular feature

of the magazine. Thus interest in books was more widely diffused than ever before; newspapers,

magazines, and reviews brought literary topics to the attention of tens of thousands whose fathers had

been indifferent to such matters” (Altick 47). The way in which the periodicals were adapted to the

needs of the reading public, naturally augmented the attention for periodicals and, more importantly,

literary topics (Altick 318). The affordable price made periodicals and newspapers more attractive to

the mass audience than the literary alternative, books. Altick adds that the format was particularly

appealing to people who considered reading an entire book as too ambitious. But what really made

audiences purchase periodicals was the topicality of the press. In the midst of evolving technologies,

science and gossip, the need grew to keep up with the world. Needless to say, the periodical was an

exclusive medium that met the readers’ needs.

Malcolm Ophélie 20

Hall Caine’s Topicality

David MacWilliams’ “The Novelistic Melodramas of Hall Caine: Seventy Years On” focuses

on the thematical content of Hall Caine’s novels and the writing style he applied. A striking thought in

MacWilliams’ analysis is that even though Caine’s work might seem too melodramatic for the

contemporary reader, it reflects the average taste of the nineteenth century audience. Given Caine’s

popularity, his novels are emblematic to what the mass audience enjoyed. MacWilliams concludes the

following: “Over seventy years after his death, his work, surely in small doses, is worth revisitation

because in it literary scholars of the Transition period and scholars of the history of popular culture will

find a most rewarding touchstone to the popular literary tastes of Caine's day” (426). Hammond agrees

with MacWilliams that an analysis of Caine’s work is worthwhile for historians of melodrama. Caine,

being an author in a progressing society, was an influential figure in the artistic world of his days. The

articles Hall Caine wrote during his journalistic career, and the articles that appeared about him indicated

how he was concerned with his time. Caine had a genuine interest in the developments of society and

used his fiction as a tool to ‘improve’ the public opinion. In this way, his novel The Woman Thou Gavest

Me touched upon the Woman Question, which was of huge interest in the Victorian era. The ‘Woman

Question’ was, according to Allen, not just a matter of the suffrage:

It covered the whole field of the woman’s position in society: equality (or inequality) with men

both sexual and intellectual, marriage, prostitution, equal opportunities in business, the

professions and the arts. There was much solemn debate on whether or not women should expect

to be completely fulfilled by marriage and child-rearing and whether or not they had any right

to enter the world of men. By the 1890s the New Woman, complete with bicycle, had arrived

on the scene but the ‘Woman Question’ had not been settled. (Allen, 254)

Malcolm Ophélie 21

Hall Caine and Idealism

“Fiction is not nature, it is not character, it is not imagined history; it is fallacy, poetic fallacy,

pathetic fallacy, a lie if you like, a beautiful lie, a lie that is at once false and true – false to fact, true to

faith”

(Caine, “The New Watchwords” 485)

If we want to know Hall Caine’s conception of good literature, it is worthwhile to mention his

essay “The New Watchwords of Fiction”. It is an important statement Hall Caine had written in defence

of idealism, during the increasing emergence of realism in the English literary scene. The essay appeared

on 1 January 1890 in the Contemporary Review. While reading the essay, it becomes clear that Hall

Caine disagreed with the “little circle of influential writers for the Press”, who claim that – in literature

– every tendency towards romanticism is a step back, a decline. Realism, according to the literary

scholars, was newer and purer, and therefore considered more desirable. Caine maintained that this

perspective would wipe out “the making of good literature, the appreciation of good literature, and the

moral effects of good literature wherever it gains credence and support” (479). Caine was aware of

literature’s influence on moral behaviour. He argued that only good literature could empower higher

moral effects. He further pointed to the narrow-mindedness of the ‘realism’ and ‘idealism’ opposition

and he argued that ‘realism’ did not exist, or at least, was not attainable in literature. In an attempt to

paint the world as it is, the realist writer cannot do any justice to the world. Moreover, the people and

settings portrayed in realist fiction are not what right-minded people want to look deeper into.

According to Caine, seeing evil in the world is inherent to human nature. Only the eye of

imagination can see how evil is balanced with good. Without imagination our view of the world would

be tremendously gloomy: “If the physical eye in its pride goes abroad to believe only what it can see, it

comes home either blurred with tears,… or shining with ridicule” (480). There is no chance for salvation

in the latter case. It can only bring about the real pitfall of realism: cynicism, which is the deadliest

enemy that good literature ever had or can have, according to Caine. Not only is cynicism more

dangerous and powerful than imagination, but it also prompts people to unvirtuous behaviour. Whereas

Malcolm Ophélie 22

cynicism and imagination are binary opposites to Caine, imagination and enthusiasm are

complementary. This enthusiasm is the main impetus of the good on Earth. Caine explained how French

fiction lacked enthusiasm: “We see how surely it has been so with French fiction, which, for twenty

years past, has been the least imaginative fiction produced in Europe. It has no salt of enthusiasm in it,

and so it rots and stinks. It is cynical, and so it does the world no good” (Caine, 481).

The idealist, Caine explained, has the same starting point as the realist. Both start from daily life

scenes. The difference lies in the fact that the idealist beliefs that there is more to the world than what

the bare eye can perceive. In fact, Caine argued that fiction and thus imagination can bring humanity

closer to reality. More than pure reality, it makes the reader empathise with the protagonist in historical

circumstances. A similar feeling emerges when reading Dickens’s novels. In his Oliver Twist, for

instance, Dickens exposed the gruesome reality of working class people in the Victorian era through

fiction. An accurate historical account would not have done as much justice to reality as Dickens’s

fictional world. As a matter of fact, Caine described Dickens as a “great idealist” (482) in his essay.

According to Dickens, a writer should allow himself to be led by his creative forces, but these forces

need to be controlled so that the novel does not become too obscure. The purpose is that the author can

reach large audiences, and provide clarity on topical issues (Childers, 410). Like Caine, Dickens

considered literature as a tool to change the public opinion and raise awareness about social and political

affairs. In fact, Dickens had been criticised for similar matters as Caine.

Caine illustrated the difference between the realist and the idealist as following: when seeing a

wealthy, but villainous man, the realist would wonder wistfully “If this is true, what is God doing?”.

The idealist, on the other hand, would look further than what the eye can perceive and seek the deeper

truth behind the surface. Abundant wealth would then appear to come with a moral degradation so pitiful

that the reader cries “Not that, not that at any price” (Caine, 481). Caine continued to suggest that the

idealist paints the world as he perceives it, and instructs his audience. Again, Caine’s moral and didactic

interests emerge. This idealism is closely connected to romanticism. Caine then expressed an idea that

ties in with many defenders of idealism: “To condemn all forms of romance, as the Zola manifesto tried

to do, to banish from fiction all incidents that are out of the common, all effects that are startling and

“sensational,” all light and colour that are not found in every-day life, is to confound the function of the

Malcolm Ophélie 23

novelist with that of the historian” (Caine, 482). A more recent study of Childers draws upon the inability

to depict history as it occurred, and illustrates this with an account of Carlyle, a devoted historian who

acknowledged the deficits of pure history: “for a critic like Carlyle, fiction’s attempt to compete

descriptively with history could lead only to failure” (Childers, 407).

Hall Caine felt that literature is and must remain an imaginative art, which should not be bound

to the limits of reality. The aim of the novelist is to observe the world more profoundly and shed light

on the great mysteries of human life in order to find a solution. Caine drew upon a storyline that recalls

the ‘overused’ plot he was criticised for: Two good men who love the same woman. One man ought to

be rejected, which is the central conflict of the novel that needs to be resolved. Caine suggested that the

realist, seeing the world exactly as it is, would have the rejected man kill the other man, or the woman,

or both. This, Caine said, paints the world worse than it is. The idealist would strive for heroism, a virtue

that inspires more and depicts the world he lives in as more picturesque.

Caine also quoted Goethe’s statement on the beauty of idealism: “Art because it is not Nature”

(484). He further added: “Fiction is not nature, it is not character, it is not imagined history; it is fallacy,

poetic fallacy, pathetic fallacy, a lie if you like, a beautiful lie, a lie that is at once false and true – false

to fact, true to faith” (Caine, 485). By saying that fiction is not nature, Caine confirmed that fiction and

pure reality are not the same thing. Neither is fiction sheer imagination. It is rather a hybrid phenomenon,

that is as close to reality as it is to imagination. For Caine, the proof that idealism is the excellent formula

for a good novel, lies in the fact that English literature is more acclaimed than any other literature in the

world. He maintained that the English fiction of the previous thirty years was notable to many up to his

day, despite the abundance of criticism concerning its degeneracy. What English literature needed, in

Caine’s opinion, is liberty. Not the limits of realism, but the liberty of romanticism. The reader should

rediscover the age of Elizabethan England through the eyes of romanticism, with passion. Caine further

elaborated on the criticism that had been dominating literary production of the previous years, and which

had affected his writing as well. The English literary critics had been telling audiences that strong

emotions were a sign of ignorance, and that it was the duty of educators to help people control and

conceal their strong feelings. This, of course, nullified the main purpose of literature, which Caine gladly

reasserted. He then argued that “no such plea ever had a hearing in the days when English literature was

Malcolm Ophélie 24

at its best” (486). Caine’s emphasis on fiction’s didactic purpose resurfaced when he argued that “justice

is the only end for a work of imaginative art, whatever may be the frequent end of life” (486). It is justice

that gives art the right to exist, and this poetic justice, as Caine described it, is the essence of

romanticism. Regardless of what critics said, Hall Caine strongly believed that romanticism was by no

means a degeneracy. England was still following the stream of romanticism, despite the emergence of

realism. Caine said how the defenders of realism would slowly but surely, more than they suspected,

return to romanticism. He named this return “the new Romanticism”. In line with Caine’s attention for

topicality, he argued that romance is “the cry of the time”. He concluded his essay by stating that the

new watchwords of fiction were idealism and romanticism.

It is clear that Hall Caine considered himself an idealist, or at least, he would have liked his

work to be associated with idealism. Recent studies argue, however, that Caine’s work could be

interpreted as a merge of “the ‘art’ connotations attached to realism with the spiritual, action-centred,

ultra-English and ultimately populist appeal of a romance form derived from Walter Scott” (Hammond,

39). MacWilliams agrees that Caine was a very keen observer of his surroundings, and a considerable

amount of his material derives from real events. Caine did not completely dismiss realism in his

argumentation. He was aware of the fact that there was such a thing as a ‘bad’, or an ‘imperfect’ ideal,

which was vague and superficial. Caine acknowledged that human nature has a fascination for fact:

rather than reading what an author fancies, we want to read what the author knows. “This craving for

the real,” as he further suggested, “is good and healthy, but it ought in no means to be set in opposition

to the craving for the ideal” (484). Reality, for a novelist, should be his starting point, not the final

product. This idea is well-represented in his work. Caine’s involvement in political and social initiatives,

his journalistic career, and his Manx upbringing, formed a great part of his inspiration.

Some events in his stories are derived from personal events, to the dismay of his acquaintances,

such as the exhumation scene in The Prodigal Son. Caine also interviewed some Manx fishermen in

view of writing his Manx novels, but these fishermen complained afterwards that Caine had quoted parts

of the conversations literally, without asking permission first. He even plagiarised a newspaper article

of his sister’s wedding to depict a wedding scene in The Christian (MacWilliams 34-35).

Malcolm Ophélie 25

Hall Caine’s hybridity

There has been a clear evolution in Hall Caine’s writing, which is further emphasised in Philip

Waller’s Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918. When writing his first

novel, The Shadow of a Crime, he “only wanted to write a thrilling tale”. But Hall Caine acknowledged

that he later sought to write for “a spiritual interest, a problem of life” (Hall Caine qtd. in Waller 740).

Some of his critics would argue the same. Whereas Caine used to write more sensational stories, he

increasingly shifted to stories with a rather didactic aim. The message Hall Caine tried to convey with

these new novels was that the audiences should keep their soul alive in order to find salvation. Another

idea of Caine was that justice would always prevail in the end. The way in which Caine defended his

work can be linked to religion. Hall Caine deemed the Bible as a vital source to establish his didactic

purpose.

In “The Novelistic Melodrama’s of Hall Caine: Seventy Years On”, MacWilliams also interprets

Hall Caine’s evolution in writing, or, at least, an episode of it: “The Bondman reveals many of the

characteristics of Caine's later fiction, both good and bad” (MacWilliams 428). This novel was set in

Iceland, as Caine sought to create an Icelandic saga, a genre which enjoyed a considerable popularity

thanks to William Morris’s translations and renderings of the epics (428). MacWilliams further adds

that “Caine imitated some of the narrative conventions of the Icelandic epic in his prose, such as

alliteration, repetition, and natural speech rhythms, all aspects of his mature style, though not always

executed successfully” (428). Thus, not only was Caine’s literature led by moralistic purposes, he also

changed his writing style according to the new experiences he acquired abroad.

Mary Hammond had already indicated that Hall Caine’s genre can be defined as hybrid, since

his works encompass both realism and romanticism. The fact that he was simultaneously a novelist,

critic, playwright and screenwriter characterised him as a versatile all-rounder in terms of style. His

works could be either ‘popular’, or innovative, and even morally dangerous (Hammond 40). As

mentioned earlier, Hammond stated that the 1880s were characterised by a male-authored canon. Thus,

fiction in the late nineteenth century was ruled by a male authorship. The masculinity of a novel defined

it as a qualitative, ‘literary’ work. On the other end of the spectrum, there was the ‘popular’ fiction,

Malcolm Ophélie 26

which was considered more feminine. This prevailing opposition categorised the popular novel in such

a way that its content, author and even its readership were held low in esteem. With this in mind it is

worthwhile to assess Hall Caine’s position on the spectrum. Full of despise, Joseph Conrad compared

Hall Caine to the best-selling Marie Corelli (Hammond 42), which again adds to Caine’s hybrid persona

in the press. According to Hammond, it was Caine’s public display, vanity and popularity that led his

critics to categorise him as a popular, feminine novelist.

In terms of audience, Hall Caine’s works attracted people of different social backgrounds. His

melodramatic genre mainly attracted the lower-class audiences. Nevertheless, highly priced theatre

tickets were sold and some people even hired messenger boys to stand in line for the ticket sale, which

proves that wealthy people enjoyed Caine’s plays as much as the more ambitious ‘artistic’ plays.

Another artistic medium emerged at the start of the twentieth century which seemed to embody Hall

Caine’s position as an artist: the cinema. The main criticism the cinema received parallels that of Hall

Caine’s oeuvre. The cinema was for the early twentieth century masses a cheap alternative for the

theatre, but it soon became the preferred entertainment. However, the moral and physical effect of this

emerging artform on the audiences was questioned. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, novels

were considered both a pleasure and a threat to morality. Thus, in the emergence of cinema, a similar

fear for immorality was to be expected. Caine was used to work with a medium that was contested for

being too thought-provoking, and the idea of filmmaking did not scare him away. Supporters of the

cinema maintained that it kept the lower classes off the streets and out of the pubs (Hammond 50).

Another presumed benefit from the artform was that the cinema could be an excellent educational tool,

a benefit that lends itself to Hall Caine’s didactic ambitions. For Caine, the emergence of cinema enabled

him to start from a clean slate. As Hammond noticed: “The film industry seemed to find it expedient to

ignore both Caine’s entire history with various censors and his ambiguous position in the art/market

dichotomy” (54).

Malcolm Ophélie 27

MacWilliams’ Reconsidering Hall Caine: A Popular Novelist a Century Later, indicates how

Hall Caine’s literary works, besides being classified as romances, could also be divided into two

different categories that were prevalent during his days: the regionalist and the reformist novels. But the

categorization is not strictly divided into “regional” and “reformist”, since Caine used to borrow

conventions from any number of genres and subgenres (MacWilliams, Reconsidering Hall Caine 16).

Besides, Caine’s works display a growing interest for socialism and other political issues. This evolution

was not uncommon in the transition from the Victorian to the Edwardian era. Many of Caine’s

contemporaries experienced the same change, such as H.G. Wells, Rider Haggard, and Robert Louis

Stevenson. As MacWilliams (16) indicates, these authors “all earned their initial fame as romance

writers, but all three wrote “more serious” novels in the realist or social realist genres”, but “Caine is

distinctive in that his novels remained romances no matter the topic”.

While analysing Caine’s multi-faceted authorship, it is worthwhile to reconsider his essay “The

New Watchwords of Fiction”, in which he loathed realists for depicting reality in such a detailed way

that it alienates the reader. Even though his statements and his overall stance towards realism were clear,

recent studies categorise him as both a romanticist and a realist. Caine is a strong defender of idealism,

but, as MacWilliams states, Caine is:

Encroaching upon territory normally reserved for the realist: the here and now. Caine’s critical

reception clearly suffered because he set his romances in realistic, that is, recognizable, settings,

and so his audience expected to read novels that adhered to realistic conventions: historical

accuracy in setting and costume; attention to observable, physical detail; fully realised (and

often, working class) characters; and plot lines that were recognizable as quotidian.

(MacWilliams, Reconsidering Hall Caine 25)

His novels were based on facts, which he elevated to a more fictional world in order to achieve his

didactic purpose. Not everyone agreed to Caine’s adherence to reality, but MacWilliams’ statement

proves that in some aspects, Caine can be considered a realist.

Malcolm Ophélie 28

Analysis

Vivien Allen discusses a correspondence between Hall Caine and Edward Dowden, equally

Shakespeare enthusiast and a member of the Christian Socialists (Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian

Romancer 57). Hall Caine had sent Dowden a piece of writing he had been working on, to which

Dowden then replied in a most praising way. Hall Caine was pleasantly surprised by Dowden’s feedback

and he wrote that when he began to write he had been “blamed and ridiculed on the one hand and praised

and flattered on the other with equal vehemence and intensity” (qtd. In Allen 57), a description which

Allen aptly predicts would be his lot for the rest of his career. Caine explained to Dowden how he

enjoyed writing without restrictions, in his own vivid and colourful style. He loathed the idea of

changing a rich and charming word into a plain one. Nevertheless, he attempted to mitigate his

unrestrained writing. In Caine’s letter to Dowden on 2 May 1878, it became clear that Caine did buckle

under the criticism, which, as he wrote, hurt him physically (Allen, 58). In this way, Allen provides a

further insight into Caine’s personality. In his correspondences to Dowden, Caine explained how he was

quite self-conscious, and he even talked about a “torturing nervous temperament” (qtd. In Allen, 58). At

the beginning of his literary career, when he gave lectures, he was always nervous days before his

performance, but once on stage he felt at ease and could perform flawlessly. This demonstrates Caine’s

literary and performative skills, but also his inevitable self-doubting and obsessive perfectionism. Allen

argues that this shyness paradoxically caused him to appear arrogant and stern, which complicated his

professional and social networking.

This image of an insecure Hall Caine is different to what we read in the periodical press, where

Caine is repeatedly depicted as a hypocrite who is greedy for money. This image is equally different

from the information we gather from Caine’s correspondences, in which Caine seems to be a respected

artist. The managing editor of the Sunday Express, Sir Arthur Beverley Baxter, for instance, wrote Caine

with the view of having a serial story written by him in the newspaper: “It is a long time since the

“Sunday Express” has run any serial story and I don’t want to reintroduce this feature unless we can get

something really worth while. For that reason I naturally turn to someone like yourself”. The last

sentence demonstrates the respect Caine received from an eminent editor like Beverley Baxter.

Malcolm Ophélie 29

Maurice O’Byrne, whose correspondence will be discussed further, also attested to Caine’s

authority. He commenced his letter with the following phrase: “I was glad to get your letter and to know

you did not think me rather impertinent!”. Some letters give the impression that Caine was a kind-

hearted man, such as Alfred Wilson Barrett’s letter: “How very like you to reply with double kindness

to my bothering. I shall always remember the very kind compliment you have paid me while at the same

time, I am sure, making mrs Bouty enormously grateful, and I wish though I daren’t do it, that I could

also treasure the book”. Just like in George Bernard Shaw’s account, Caine appears to be a generous

man. Nevertheless, the amount of letters that contain apologies – concerning publication issues, payment

issues and film right problems – do represent Caine as an intimidating figure.

The criticism Hall Caine received in the periodical press did not adhere to the respectable image

we observe when reading his correspondences. In this section, I will analyse reviews that appeared about

Hall Caine and his work. These reviews and articles concern Hall Caine’s nationalistic stance, his Manx

novels and two of his more controversial novels, The Woman Thou Gavest Me and The Christian.

Commentary about Hall Caine’s reused and implausible plotlines were recurring points of criticism, as

we will see in a review in the Nation. Some reviewers discussed the factual mistakes that were present

in Caine’s works.

Most of the articles I will discuss had something to do with the information present in the body

of correspondences. Some letters discussed The Woman Thou Gavest Me, mostly concerning the film

rights. The letter of Reginald Golding Bright thoroughly reviews The Manxman. This novel was notable

to many in Caine’s days and regarded as one of his better ones. Maurice O’Byrne’s correspondence

indicates how Caine was looking for expert advice in order to avoid making factual mistakes. O’Byrne

gave information about liturgy and Christianity probably with regard to Caine’s The Christian.

The reviews clarify to what extent Hall Caine was affected by criticism and how he sought to

reassert his reputation. He was very aware of the criticism and either reacted strongly against it, or he

let the criticism influence his work. This he did by asking feedback to his friends or by performing public

readings before publishing his works. He also edited the original material between book and serialised

version. The advice Caine received from fellow-artists and experts as well as their opinions on reviews

and criticism is visible throughout the correspondences and will be discussed alongside the reviews.

Malcolm Ophélie 30

Other correspondences, that I will not discuss alongside the articles, also showed how Caine

granted importance to reviewing. Some of his acquaintances asked Caine to read certain reviews or write

some himself. Pearkes Withers, author of Cassell and Co Ltd. Publishers, asked Hall Caine whether he

could review La Garçonne, a Victor Margueritte novel that had the author expelled from the French

Legion of Honour. This letter also displays Caine’s popularity, as Withers wrote: “The expressions of

opinion are to be confined entirely to well-known British authors”. On another occasion, Sydney S.

Pawling, co-director of Heinemann, expressed his enthusiasm for a review of Couperus’ The Book of

Small Souls in the Westminster Gazette. Pawling asked Caine whether he agreed with the reviewer’s

(and Pawling’s) statement that the book establishes Couperus’ craftsmanship. So even when Caine’s

work was not being reviewed, Caine’s correspondents continued to discuss the topic of reviewing with

him. Hall Caine’s correspondents valued his opinion, even though the press abounded with criticism of

his writing.

Malcolm Ophélie 31

Hall Caine concerning the war

I will start the analysis of the reviews of Hall Caine’s work with a piece of criticism that was

aimed directly at Caine. It is an open letter that appeared in The New Crusader on 28 June 1918. The

author of the letter was Theodora Wilson Wilson, and she wrote in regard of Hall Caine’s newest film,

Victory and Peace. In her letter, she did not mention the title, but she indicated that the film dealt with

the Great War and that the negatives of the newly finished film were destroyed by a fire, which was the

case for Victory and Peace. The storyline was written by Hall Caine himself and the film was directed

by Herbert Brenon. The idea of having the film made came from Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the

United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. In order to keep the nation informed, a National War Aims

Committee was set up in 1917, under Lloyd George’s governance. He subsequently requested Hall Caine

to create a screenplay that would serve the Committee’s purpose of diffusing knowledge on the War, a

request that delighted Caine (Allen 366). Even though Brenon and Caine had re-filmed Victory and

Peace within just four months after the fire of June 1918, the film had never been released after all

(Slide). The reason lies in the fact that the Great War was over. As Lloyd George’s intention with Victory

and Peace was to inform the English people on the war, the need for the film was gone after the

armistice.

This film matter was also the subject of the correspondence between William F. Jury and Hall

Caine on 12 December 1918. Film producer William F. Jury, wrote the following to Caine: “Personally

I feel in view of the fact that the production was intended solely for the objects of the War, and such

objects having now passed, it is extremely doubtful if any good would be gained by attempting to effect

– which would be a matter of great difficulty – the distribution of the Film”. In his A Special

Relationship: Britain Comes to Hollywood and Hollywood Comes to Britain, Anthony Slide adds

another reason why the film did not make it to the big screen: “It has been strongly suggested that the

British government was embarrassed by the production’s anti-German theme and ordered its

destruction”. Theodora Wilson Wilson’s review of the film echoes this perception.

Malcolm Ophélie 32

In her open letter, Theodora Wilson Wilson responded to the fire drama and she saw this as an

opportunity to convince Hall Caine into changing the focus of his film, since it was still supposed to be

re-filmed at that moment. She criticised Caine with being narrow-

minded: “a true artist has no country save the world. Will you, in

short, change your film, and prove yourself a prophet of to-day by

standing by the side of the Prophets of all the Ages…”. It seems

as if Caine was making a film with a nationalistic stance, which

is why Theodora Wilson Wilson was urging him to focus on the

doom lived by everyone, including the Germans. She said that

“we piled their [i.e. German] bodies to the sky”. She saw the

world as one entity. A couple of months before, Caine had written

an encouraging article for the British in the Sunday Pictorial,

which appeared in other periodicals as well. This article, titled

“To my Country” appeared during the last year of the war. Hall

Caine gave an account on how the British, although discouraged, should stay strong and not despair.

Quite strikingly, he did so by claiming how the Germans were doing worse, and were being punished

even more: “Remember that for every British soldier taken prisoner to-day ten German soldiers are

being left dead on the battlefield”. This clearly represents how nationalistic Hall Caine was. This attitude

was, however, not uncommon for authors during the First World War.

Nevertheless, Caine did respect the war efforts of other nations. An article he had written as a

tribute to the Canadian soldiers in Britain testifies to his compassion. The journalist of the Canadian

Daily Record complimented Hall Caine on his article that appeared in the Daily Telegraph, in 1919.

Hall Caine was introduced as “the famous English writer”, and his article was “a magnificent tribute to

the Canadian troops” (3). Hall Caine explained how the Canadian soldiers in Britain had risked their

lives for humanity on a daily basis during war. Once the war was over, the repatriation of the Canadian

soldiers did not proceed smoothly. In the aftermath of the war, transportation facilities were not yet

restored, which caused considerable delays.

Figure 4: To My Country, by Hall Caine,

appeared in The Air-Co Rag on 1 April 1918.

Malcolm Ophélie 33

As Caine explained in his article, the Canadian soldiers had to be patient. Since they did not

have any occupation left after the war, the waiting seemed endless and some Canadians lost their

discipline. The Canadian troops were charged with lawlessness and indiscipline, which Hall Caine

sought to correct in his article. He wrote that when the war was over, the Canadian troops “were doomed

to do nothing, or what seemed to them to be even less than nothing”. He further justified the increasingly

undesirable behaviour of the troops by saying “what wonder if their restlessness sometimes expressed

itself in rebellion?” (3). Caine argued that this flawed behaviour was inherent to human nature. Everyone

would have lost their temper in such a situation and Caine invited the British to be more empathetic.

Besides, the Canadian troops were extremely impatient because their families were waiting for them at

home. Caine concluded his tribute by assuring the Canadians that “the British Press and public, as a

whole, are profoundly conscious of the Empire’s debt to Canada, and have taken the recent unfortunate

incidents at no more than their proper values” (4). Caine was known for being respectful towards soldiers

and war heroes in general. He had always contributed to the war effort, as shown in the open letter

discussed above.

Malcolm Ophélie 34

Hall Caine’s Manx literature

“Humanity is one and the same everywhere, and nothing I had known of our tiny Manx race was

out of harmony with what I saw in races great and small at the farthest corners of the earth”

(Hall Caine, My Story 7)

Caine’s Manx novels, which included The Deemster, The Bondman, The Manxman and Captain

Davie’s Honeymoon (1893) were highly acclaimed. It was a genre that pleased both the Isle of Man

citizens and non-Manx readers. Caine’s publisher, William Heinemann, expected Caine to write a novel

every year, but inspiration was lacking and Caine focused mainly on his history lectures. The lectures

revolved around the history of the Isle of Man, which Heinemann then published in The Little Manx

Nation (1891). Caine had written the history as it occurred, or at least as he saw it. But he also received

a lot of information on Manx legends and ballads from Thomas Edward Brown, to whom The Little

Manx Nation was dedicated afterwards. In the process, however, he remarked that women had not had

a central role in the entire Manx history. This, Vivien Allen states, is odd considering the fact that women

were given the vote in the Isle of Man in 1882 (Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian Romancer, 212). A

book review that appeared in The Academy in 1891 explained that “the content of this pleasant little

volume consists of the three lectures delivered by Mr. Hall Caine at the Royal Institution”. In the review,

Caine is praised for his excellent style, which – for once – did not seem melodramatic and tiresome. It

becomes clear that Hall Caine had aptly adapted his literary style to a historical account. The reviewer

added that the story was very interesting for Manxmen, but also for people who were less acquainted

with the island. He further drew attention to the difference in delivery between the lectures and the story

in book form. Apparently, Hall Caine’s tone in speaking was even more exuberant than in writing. The

reviewer said that if his speech were for print only, Caine would have toned down some passages.

Malcolm Ophélie 35

During the Great War, Hall Caine did not want to write fiction anymore until the war was over.

Instead, he worked on newspaper articles and the film release of The Deemster, and a couple of plays.

In 1919, he was working on a post-war novel, The Master of Man, which was published by Heinemann

in 1921. In the meantime, he was preoccupied with his films. His film adaptation of Darby and Joan

was not much of a success in the theatres, according to Allen. Caine also worked on The Woman Thou

Gavest Me, of which the adaptation was more complicated due to technical issues and contracting issues,

but the acclaim was favourable.

The Master of Man: The Story of a Sin was a great financial success. It sold easily and was to

be translated in multiple languages. His inspiration for the novel, Allen (380) explains, came from a

petition Hall Caine received in 1908. The petition dealt with the case of Daisy Lord, a 21-year old

woman who gave birth in solitude and murdered her new-born child so that it would not endure the same

fate she did. She was tried for murder and sentenced to death. The writer

of the petition argued that the woman had suffered enough “for what is

the fault of our sex” (qtd. In Allen 380). Despite the good sales figures,

the reviews of the novel remained mixed, and The Master of Man was

not amongst the best-sellers for weeks. Whereas the style and tone

recalled his famous novels The Christian and The Manxman, the

success was not comparable. Allen explains that Caine preserved the

Victorian character, and omitted the war in his novel, while his

contemporaries did grant attention to the war in their post-war novels,

and they did change their style in accordance with the new reality. In fact, “melodrama and preaching

were out of fashion” at this time (Allen 381). Hall Caine wanted his story to end in tragedy, since that

was the novel’s genre, and having the culprit punished was the only way justice would prevail. His

friends, however, to whom Caine turned for advice, urged him to give the story a happy ending (Allen,

381). This is not exactly what Caine wanted, and it shows in his writing, which appears less determined.

Caine reported this would be his last novel

In fact, his last novel was The Woman of Knockaloe: A Parable, published in 1923.

Figure 5: CAINE, Hall. The Master of

Man, The Story of a Sin.

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.,

1921.

Malcolm Ophélie 36

There are more instances where Caine received advice from friends and colleagues. In a

correspondence between Hall Caine and theatrical agent Wilson Barrett, the latter said he altered a scene

in a play, because he dreaded too much gloom. Wilson Barrett argued that the audiences were more

attracted to cheerful plays, instead of gloomy ones. The result proved itself favourable for Wilson

Barrett, since his adaptation gained more popularity than Hall Caine’s original. The fact that Caine stuck

to the Victorian era in his writing did not detract from the fact that he was present and involved in the

ongoing events of his time. “In 1921, he was raising funds for the relief of the terrible famine in Russia

after the Revolution” (Allen 387). And, of course, Caine’s Manx novels contained considerably more

realism than his other romances. Although they are fictional stories (except for The Little Manx Nation),

most critics came to the conclusion that Caine had skilfully depicted the Isle of Man and its inhabitants.

According to Allen, Hall Caine quickly became “astonishingly popular and famous”, producing

up to fifteen novels. “The Manxman (1894) was an immediate success, and is probably Caine's best-

known book”. Being dramatised multiple times and eventually filmed by the London Film Company in

1916, and in 1929 by Alfred Hitchcock, this novel set the tone for most of Caine’s works. It is the most

worthwhile novel to consider when analysing Hall Caine’s body of work, since it is emblematic of his

oeuvre. Like most of Caine’s novels, it is a romance with a melodramatic tone. The plot involves

friendship, dedication and a love triangle. According to Allen, the many elements that are typical of

Caine’s work are much more balanced out in The Manxman. The melodrama does not involve

implausible scenes or peripeteia, as pointed out by MacWilliams for Caine’s other novels. In addition,

the novel familiarises the reader with the Isle of Man.

The reviewer in The Contemporary Review, T.E. Brown, was clearly a supporter of Hall Caine

and his work. Together with Caine, T.E. Brown contributed to the Manx literature. Brown said that

before Caine, the Manx island had been neglected and dismissed. When at last someone talked about

the Isle of Man, it was to poke fun at its constitution, which allegedly showed remains of a Scandinavian

political system. But Hall Caine had revitalised the Island he held so dear. T.E. Brown praised Caine for

his unceasing faith in humanity, and said that Hall Caine “has revealed the Manx people to themselves,

if to no one else – to themselves specially, and by divination almost prophetic” (The Contemporary

Review 643).

Malcolm Ophélie 37

Brown further displayed how Caine was the best person to depict the Manx. He was familiar

with the accent and did not hesitate to incorporate it in his works, he included all the particularities of

Manx characters and anecdotes. The Isle of Man, according to Brown, was Caine’s source of

imagination. Interestingly, while Caine displayed himself as a defender of idealism, Brown argued that

Caine had discovered realism in The Manxman. Caine was not, however, the English Zola. Contrary to

Zola’s relationship with the French, Caine loved his Manxmen. T.E. Brown actually noted how Caine

merged realism with romanticism: besides writing with immense passion, Caine used a most powerful

psychological microscope. Hall Caine challenged his reader to step away from the stereotypical coarse

image the English have of the Manx, and discover the underlying complexity and passion of these

people. Brown also congratulated Caine on his use of humour. It was a very refined kind of humour, a

humour of relief in a novel where “the gray and the gay interchange” (648). Brown even dismantled

previous criticism towards the novel. Apparently, Caine had been accused of imitating Hawthorne’s The

Scarlett Letter. Brown agreed that both novels end in the same manner: with a confession. But the

psychological treatment could not be compared.

In his correspondence with Hall Caine, drama critic Reginald Golding Bright wrote a review on

The Manxman. Not only was he praising Hall Caine’s craft, he also reprimanded Andrew Lang, one of

Hall Caine’s most fervent and influential critics. Interestingly, Golding Bright discussed multiple faults

in the novel that were easy to overcome, according to him. Allen also commented on these minor

mistakes, the majority of which were factual mistakes. Golding Bright was in admiration of Caine’s

linguistic skills: “The story is not one which need tax the ingenuity of the reader to any great extent, but

it is put forth in words both terrible in their intensity and moving in their pathos”. Golding Bright seemed

very thrilled about this Manx novel and trusted it would be widely read, and he expressed how “it is

impossible in a review like this to do full justice to author and characters”.

Malcolm Ophélie 38

The Spectator discussed The Bondman in their section “Current Literature”. The Bondman

actually embodies Hall Caine’s persona. As a travel enthusiast, he partly set the story in the Isle of Man,

and partly abroad. The foreign setting is Iceland, but in the preface Hall Caine warned his reader that

the settings were not to be taken too literally, because they did not fully depict reality. Instead of

providing an exact depiction of Iceland and the Isle of Man, Caine rather presented “substantially the

true features” of these places. Then the review proceeded with the novel’s synopsis, which again

revolved around a problematic relationship between a disloyal man and a good-hearted woman. The two

sons of the man, both from another woman, fall in love with the same girl. The reviewer gave a quite

favourable presentation of this novel. According to him, there was great strength in the development of

the plot. There were, however, minor inadequacies similar to what MacWilliams suggested in his

analysis of Caine’s work. Even for his contemporaries, Caine’s tragic tone was exaggerated.

Nevertheless, the article concluded on a positive note: “on the whole, we may congratulate Mr. Caine

on having written a tale that is truly powerful in conception and execution, and enforces a lofty moral”

(The Spectator, 666).

Malcolm Ophélie 39

Hall Caine’s The Christian

The Christian is another of Hall Caine’s much celebrated novels that received a considerable

amount of criticism. The main source of criticism of this novel lies in the fact that Caine had not

thoroughly effectuated his fact-checking. Whereas he used to travel around the globe to gather

information for his stories, The Christian did not seem to reflect this according to his critics and friends.

The Christian started as a serial, which appeared in January 1897. It gave way to many responses

from Caine’s acquaintances and readers. Vivien Allen describes how most correspondences came from

supporters, enthusiastic about Caine’s “extravagant terms” (253). Of course, not all of the comments

were as praising and some correspondents even took to point out mistakes in the novel. Allen explains

how some mistakes were corrected before the story was published as a book. But some of his errors

were too deep-rooted to adjust. In fact, the critics concluded that they were reading a story that could

not possibly have taken place in reality. Allen goes a step further by suggesting there would be nothing

left of the story if Caine were to omit the fundamental flaws. Nevertheless, the mistakes did not seem to

hamper the success of the story and the adoration for the characters. As usual, Caine took the criticism

seriously and asked his critics what could possibly be corrected before the book version were to be

published.

A correspondence between Hall Caine and Maurice O’Byrne shows how Caine was kept

informed on religious matters. Maurice O’Byrne had written a lengthy letter that seemed to have been

enquired for by Caine. O’Byrne described and defined multiple conventions of the Church, nuns, and

litanies. Given the fact that Caine, in anticipation of criticism, did not hesitate to ask advice and

informative questions, it is quite possible that O’Byrne had written Caine so that he would have his facts

right in his work. The opening of the letter seems to confirm this: “Dear Mr. Hall Caine, I was glad to

get your letter and to know you did not think me rather impertinent! In answer to your first question– so

“to the litany and ora pro nobis” being always sung together”. Yes! They are if it is a litany of the Saints

or the Blessed Virgin” (Maurice O’Byrne).

Malcolm Ophélie 40

Hall Caine’s involvement with the Woman Question is visible through the character of Glory

Quayle in his novel The Christian. She is a young woman who strives for a career. This ambition, Allen

claims, is more pronounced in the play than it is in the novel (254). Therefore, the play was regarded as

an important mirror of society. It displayed the difficult position of the woman in society, and it clarified

that the Woman Question was the man’s question as well, as stated by Sofia Bevan, who is an eminent

feminist in the nineteenth century (Allen 255). With this statement, Bevan implied that the future of the

human race depends on the harmony between men and women. Hall Caine had also asserted that when

women are unhappy in their marriage, this ultimately affects the husband in a negative way.

In America, The Christian had an excellent reception. Despite some critics arguing that the

Church was depicted in a bad light, Caine received an appreciative letter from the Bishop of New York,

which Caine decided to preserve in case the Church were to denounce him. Outside of America,

however, the reviews of his novel were mixed. Allen (256) states that Caine had been furious over an

unfavourable review written by W.T. Stead. Feeling hurt and upset, he wanted to react to the negative

reactions. Heinemann urged Caine to calm down and not bother about the criticism. But Caine was

unable to remain untroubled. While Heinemann implored Caine not to enter the lion’s den, Caine was

determined to summon the press and he even contemplated to file a lawsuit about the matter. Again, this

shows Caine’s difficulty in handling criticism.

In a society that was transitioning from a fin-de-siècle era to the twentieth century, melodramatic

romanticism gave way to modernism. In a 1897 article of Hall Caine’s The Christian, the reviewer of

Poet Lore suggested that “perhaps it would not be stretching the point too far to call it fin-de-siècle

Romanticism, in which fore-end century melodrama appears in a slight veneer of latter-end century

sociology” (602). The article further explained how Hall Caine tended to limit the characterisation in

his novels to flat characters, a recurring comment on Caine’s work. Caine rather portrayed primitive

emotions, and dismissed any form of external influence. The article suggested that Caine’s characters

were mostly “untroubled by social problems, occupied alone with working out their own salvation

through the simple leadings of nature, and moreover in a society with but a few very definite ideals as

to the proper modes of action” (607). Nevertheless, the author of the article praised Caine’s masterly

unfolding of the main character, Pete, in the end. The fact that Caine’s characters are preoccupied with

Malcolm Ophélie 41

their own salvation, adds to Waller’s notion that Caine was very much interested in the search for

salvation and the didactic role of literature in this quest.

The Christian also shows Caine’s ability to adapt, or as the article states, there are “familiar

properties of the modern novel, a reformer and a new woman…” (607). Given the fact that Caine was

extremely conscious of the situation of women in the nineteenth century, it is not surprising that he

would include a New Woman in one of his novels. The author of the article then talked about the girl in

the story, Glory, and how she married John Storm. She was a very passionate and artistic girl and put

all of her ambitions aside to marry John. It had not occurred to any of the characters, as the author of the

article suggested, that Glory could pursue her career, regardless of her marriage. The article further

focused on the representation of the Church in The Christian. The Church was represented as an utterly

corrupt entity and the clergymen in the novel were all depicted as hypocrites.

On 3 September 1898, an article reported on a public discussion between Hall Caine and

Archdeacon Sinclair concerning The Christian. Archdeacon Sinclair commented on the depiction of

Hall Caine’s Archdeacon Wealthy in the novel, saying how implausible such an archdeacon would be

in reality: “No such worldly and vulgar-minded archdeacon as Archdeacon Wealthy existed or could

exist in London” (Archdeacon Sinclair, qtd. In The Academy 224). Hall Caine never intended to upset

Archdeacon Sinclair. In fact, it was a London newspaper that declared how Archdeacon Wealthy was a

representation of Archdeacon Sinclair. Hall Caine had done everything he could to prevent this

statement going public. Archdeacon Sinclair denounced the novel for its unfavourable depiction of the

London Church. The Church was represented as an incompetent, global entity, contrasted with the

enlightened protagonist, John Storm.

Here below follows an exhaustive list of reviews written by other papers on The Christian. The

Chronicle wrote that the novel “suffers not a little from unreality, though much of it is written with a

power which places it above anything its author has hitherto accomplished”, which was a regular

comment on Caine’s work. Not all of the reviews were as enthusiastic, however. The Daily News blamed

Caine for writing in an overly theatrical manner, with The Christian surpassing all his previous failures

in this direction. The Daily News talked about Caine’s “sham satire, faked pathos, cheap morality” and

“caricatured Christianity”.

Malcolm Ophélie 42

On a more light-hearted note, the Academy wrote an article about Hall Caine, who had come all

the way from the Isle of Man to America for the premiere of The Christian on stage. The article quoted

another article that appeared in an Albany paper, which described Hall Caine’s physical appearance,

rather than the play. He was sitting in a box at the left side of the stage, his hair was long and his beard

was ginger. Throughout the prologue, Caine appeared quite nervous in his manner. This is quite

characteristic of Caine. He was a perfectionist who was unceasingly hard on himself. In the end, the

audience demonstrated their enthusiasm with a warm round of applause, to which Caine cordially

responded. The article confirmed that Caine was admired by his audience.

In a later article that appeared in The Academy on 3 August 1901, E. J. Newell argued that the

novel should be widely read. He read The Christian as the “protest of a manly soul against religious

humbug, against the fashionable compromise which pretends to be Christianity, but which is little better

than civilised heathenism” (99). Newell said that such a protest should be well received. He understood

Hall Caine’s purpose since his position towards the Church was well-known. As Caine was a fervent

Christian Socialist, he advocated against any authority that abused religion for influence and oppression.

Newell saw the artistic power and truth of the book, and reacted against the many critics. According to

him, the only possible source for criticism would result in confusion and would be a mistake.

Interestingly, he undermined the fact that critics would ascribe the opinions of the main

character, John Storm, to Hall Caine himself. Newell dismissed this possibility by saying that “John

Storm is merely an intensely passionate and sincere man, driven to madness by the hypocrisy and

falseness of all around him… If others of us looked upon life after the same manner, it might make us

mad also” (99). This ties in with Hall Caine’s own opinion about the Canadian troops matter, where he

justified the Canadian’s loss of discipline and explained it would occur to anyone of human nature.

Instead of judging someone’s behaviour, one has to be empathic and understand what could have caused

such undesirable conduct.

Malcolm Ophélie 43

Clearly, Newell and Hall Caine were on the same page when it comes to criticism. The conduct

of a character has to be understood in light of the circumstances. The reader is invited to think critically

and not draw upon assumptions. Caine’s works can be seen as sociological studies that shed light on

truths that are mostly swept under the rug, so to say. On this note, Newell ends his article with an

anecdote of something he saw in what he described as “a very fashionable church”. In a nutshell, a well-

attired lady arrived late to church and urged two crippled people to free the seat that she claimed was

hers. By mentioning this, Newell used Hall Caine’s literary device to reveal how respected entities do

not necessarily promise generosity and goodness.

Malcolm Ophélie 44

Hall Caine’s The Woman Thou Gavest Me

The Woman Thou Gavest Me was, at the time the story was published, a thought-provoking

novel, to say the least. The novel was written to promote the possibility of divorce. In the Victorian era,

divorce was hugely contested by the public opinion and periodicals. Caine, however, argued that

sometimes divorce was not an act of unloyalty or immorality, but rather a necessity, a last resort to

peace. But this underlying idea was dismissed for being too provocative. The protagonist Mary O'Neill

was forced into marriage with an utterly disloyal man, who humiliated her publicly and abused her in

private. While most critics renounced the novel for its sensational content, Hall Caine’s purpose was to

lay bare the reality of abhorrent marriages and to increase awareness of divorce as a viable option.

Nevertheless, Caine was far from being the only one to appreciate the female voice in literature. Some

reviewers could see past the unconventional scenes and acknowledged Caine’s pioneering role in the

matter of divorce. In sum, this is one of Caine’s most widely reviewed works. It had been acclaimed,

reviled and even censored by the English Circulating Libraries' Association.

A review of The Woman Thou Gavest Me in The Academy of 9

August 1913 criticised Hall Caine’s old-fashioned style: “The author is a

past-matter in the art of old-fashioned melodrama” (177). Apparently,

Caine was too melodramatic for the Edwardian audience. The author of the

article said that as a reader, you are continuously hesitating to read through

the end, which is a similar statement to that of Caine’s most fervent critic,

Andrew Lang, about Caine’s novel The Christian. The reviewer also

mentioned the eventfulness of the storyline: “incident follows incident, with

seldom a pause between” (177). The main character, the newly wedded

Mary O’Neill travels a lot with her husband. Caine set his story in different

locations such as Rome, Paris, London and Monte Carlo. The author of the

article did not criticise this, on the contrary, he said that there was no lack of scenery. Other critics,

however, disapproved of Caine’s name-dropping of places. Caine travelled often to draw inspiration for

Figure 6: Parody on Caine's excessive travelling,

appeared in Punch in 1902.

Malcolm Ophélie 45

his novels, but critics saw his visits to other countries as an act of self-advertising. The succession of

events without a pause is equally a typical storyline of Caine’s that has been criticised.

The novel’s subject matter was unprecedented for its time. Despite her catholic upbringing and

her obedient nature, Mary O’Neill has a strong will of her own. She refuses her manipulative and disloyal

husband the marital rights to which he feels entitled to. According to the reviewer, this is a remarkable

situation. Knowing Caine’s faith in women’s independence, it is as if he tried to prove to his female

audience that they can break away from marriage. The consequences of Mary’s strong will, however,

uncover the drawbacks of her decisions, and will eventually be the source of her troubled life-course.

The story’s ending does not herald virtue’s victory. It ends with Mary clinging on to religion,

while being deceived by her husband once more. Having discovered this dishonesty through the press,

she abandons her virtuous behaviour at once and falls in the arms of her childhood friend and romance,

Martin. Out of atonement, however, she decides to withdraw herself from Martin. Eventually, Martin

proceeds to live a successful life, whereas Mary, divorced and pregnant, embodies the image of the

fallen woman. This ending contrasts with Caine’s own attitude towards women. Mary pursues her

intuition and appears to act independently, but her actions do not have the desired result. Perhaps Caine

wanted to awaken his audience’s thoughts on divorce and unhappy marriages, while keeping into

account the possible reaction of the reader. The reason why Mary O’Neill’s strong personality results in

her status as a fallen woman, could be a deliberate choice of Caine, in order to have the plot still

correspond to the contemporary attitudes.

MacWilliams points out another instance in The Woman Thou Gavest Me where Caine

anticipated the critics’ responses. This occured during the wedding night scene, in which Mary writes

down an intimate account. Caine, aware of the reactions such a passage could entail, let his protagonist

explain how difficult it had been to put her thoughts on paper. In doing so, the reader knew that Mary

herself was aware of the objections the passage would evoke (MacWilliams, Reconsidering Hall Caine

132).

Malcolm Ophélie 46

Besides Caine’s awareness of the woman’s position, there is another indication of Caine’s

progressive mentality: the character Martin Conrad, who is an Antarctic explorer. The reviewer,

pleasantly surprised, called this “a fashionable calling just now, and so up-to-date Mr. Hall Caine

ingeniously finds it a niche in his story” (177). Here, the reviewer praised Caine for his attention to

topicality. The reviewer finalised his account by saying that the novel had potential to become really

successful, “but it is far from being one of Mr. Hall Caine’s best” (178).

Another review on The Woman Thou Gavest Me that appeared in the Nation focused on the style

that has been exploited in the novel. Not only did the review discuss Hall Caine’s newest novel, it also

commented on Sudermann’s Das Hohe Lied, and more specifically the English translation the Song of

Songs, a realist piece. It is quite interesting that the reviewer, who remains unknown, discussed both

Song of Songs and The Woman Thou Gavest Me. Both novels deal with a woman who seeks her place

in a relationship but fails, and subsequently goes back to a man that did not regard her as his priority.

However, the novels deviate from one another in terms of style: the Song of Songs belongs to the realist

tradition whereas The Woman Thou Gavest Me belongs to the romantic tradition.

The reviewer experienced the Song of Songs as being too dry, too stern, and he imagined the

German original to be more romantic in language. So perhaps, as he argued, a lot of the romance had

been lost in translation. He further described realism as “the style of writing in England, but also in

France, during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a style still extensively employed, is, while

energetic and clever, lacking in beauty and nobility” (586). This craving for more beauty, to the prejudice

of realism echoes Caine’s argumentation in his “The New Watchwords of Fiction”. The reviewer

expressed how Sudermann has “the weakness of the realist – unreality”. While trying to be too real, and

observing and analysing the characters too much, Sudermann slowly but surely pulls the reader away

from a state of immersion. The reader who is distracted by the overly detailed depictions of the

characters, loses empathy for them. Sympathising with characters, the reviewer argued, would have been

easier if more had been left to the imagination. The abundance of details also harms the longevity of the

novel. Details limit the novel in time and place. What is familiar to a German, will not resonate with an

Englishman, and common concepts from the 1913s will not speak to the mind of the reader of fifty years

later.

Malcolm Ophélie 47

Then, the reviewer described Hall Caine’s The Woman Thou Gavest Me, a novel which is The

Song of Songs’s binary opposition, in his opinion. Whereas Sudermann’s novel is utterly dry, Caine’s

novel is overly pompous. The reviewer mentioned how the core of each plotline is similar, but the spirit

is completely different. The first chapters, the article suggested, were pretty quiet and therefore amongst

the best parts of the book. The reader empathises with the heroine, Mary O’Neill, through the depiction

of her as a child. But then the style completely changes, and the reviewer compared this style to that of

a “shilling shocker” of “sixty years ago”. So perhaps not only realistic novels tend to be restricted in

time. In addition, the reviewer was astonished by the multiple changes of style in one single novel. The

style ranges from melodrama, to a more quiet and simple narration, and then it draws to poetry and

pathos. The last part of the novel reminded the reviewer of Dickens’s sentimentality, which makes sense,

considering Caine’s great admiration for Dickens.

In terms of characters, the reviewer criticised Caine for his overused types, which is nothing

new in Caine criticism. Furthermore, the credibility of the plot is being scrutinised. In the novel, Mary

O’Neill goes to great lengths to provide her child with necessary medications, while she could merely

have gone to the hospital at once, according to the reviewer. If there is one thing that more or less seemed

to have pleased the reviewer, it was the reader’s need for creative imagination, because a wicked society

is being depicted which most likely does not exist in real life. What ultimately drew the attention of the

reviewer was that the novel was to be translated in fourteen languages, which would cause multiple

countries to have a distorted

image of the British according to

him. The reviewer then tempered

this fear by suggesting that the

readers of such a novel merely

read for leisure and will not be

influenced by its content.

Figure 7: Ad for the American film The Woman Thou Gavest Me (1919) with

Katherine MacDonald, Jack Holt, Milton Sills, and Fritzi Brunette, on pages 456

and 457 of the April 26, 1919 Moving Picture World.

Malcolm Ophélie 48

On 1 December 1913, The Woman Thou Gavest Me was reviewed in Maclean’s magazine. The

title already hints at the tone of the article: “Best Selling Book of the Month: Hall Caine’s Remarkable

Novel”. The reviewer, Findlay I. Weaver described the novel as “the exponent of higher morality”, and

reminded the reader of the criticism Caine had endured throughout his career, and especially regarding

this novel. Interestingly, he discussed how the ban was imposed on The Woman Thou Gavest Me in

America and England and Hall Caine’s trial that followed it. Hall Caine fought back and threatened to

boycott the Circulating Libraries’ Association. The outcome was favourable for Caine and the ban

against his book was lifted. According to the North Western Courier of 7 November 1913, the ban meant

that the book was still sold in libraries, but the novel was not advertised the same way as the other books

were. The lift of this ban finally enabled the book to be advertised.

Weaver explained Hall Caine’s observation that praise and criticism went hand in hand. Caine

mentioned other celebrated authors that endured the same precarious fame such as Charlotte Brontë with

her Jane Eyre, Tolstoy with Anna Karenina, Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles and many more. All of

these novels had also been banned or censored in the past. Caine was aware of the moral duty of

librarians and custodians to censor books that were too questionable for the reader public, but at the

same time, this power could lead to the expulsion of a novel.

Further in the article, Weaver words the moral message of the novel as a plea for a higher

reverence for women and an enlightened understanding of marriage (134). According to the reviewer,

this message could have been delivered in a more temperate way. Caine depicted scenes that were very

likely to raise questions on morality. To Caine, Weaver clarified, these extreme depictions did reflect

reality, and it was the duty of the reader to accept this confrontation. Only when we can see the world

in light of the truth, can we correct its evils.

Malcolm Ophélie 49

Weaver said that Caine understood why his novel might have been considered immoral: “it

presents so strong a revolt against present-day conditions”. But Caine described his point of view, saying

that the scenes that have been criticised for being too immoral actually present the highest moral

viewpoint. This notion of a higher viewpoint is present in other contemporary novels as well. In Mark

Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, for instance, the scene where Huck helps the slave Jim is completely

contradictory of the white Southern society Huck lives in. Helping a slave was considered a crime, and

Huck, aware of committing a sin, was frightened while doing so. Nevertheless, he did help the slave,

which makes him all the more respectable to the reader who understands that Huck is prepared to risk

his life in order to help a slave. Huck’s ‘sinful’ action is deemed a lawful one.

Mary O’Neill’s situation reflects a similar idea. She refused to consummate her marriage

because she was not in love with her husband and she wanted to give this right to the man she did love.

Such a decision might have seemed immoral to the contemporary reader, but Hall Caine actually

challenged his reader to observe the situation from a different moral perspective. In doing so, the reader

will understand Mary O’Neill fears, and will respect her for breaking conventions for the sake of both

parties. At least this is what Caine wanted the audience to experience. Besides, the book exposes divorce

not as the easy way out of a relationship, but as the “necessary evil”, as Caine described it. Weaver

argued that Caine “has a serious conception of the literary calling” (134). While admitting that most

novels were meant to entertain the reader and depict beautiful images of courtly love, Hall Caine

maintained that these kind of novels do not instruct the reader on vital questions of social life. Literature

is an important medium that has far-reaching effects, and this has to be used for the best purposes.

Malcolm Ophélie 50

Hall Caine’s response to criticism

“The moral seems to be that it is folly to contradict anything. The more reason there is to

contradict an erroneous statement the less wisdom there is in contradicting it”

(Hall Caine, “Erroneous reports concerning Hall Caine”)

The day after the above-mentioned article on The Woman Thou Gavest Me appeared, on 2

December 1913, Hall Caine had written an interesting article for the Daily Mail as a direct response to

the criticism on this novel. Hall Caine sought to clarify and reassert his motives for writing such a

thought-provoking novel. He addressed the way in which his books had been dismissed by critics almost

immediately:

When my book was published at the beginning of August it was declared to be an immorality.

As a consequence the subject I set out to deal with has been obscured, and I have wasted two

months in contending with a number of people who have raised a side issue – the group of book-

distributors who have censored my book, and thereby restricted the circulation of it by means

of a trade combine, which I believe to be illegal, and know to be immoral; the group of malicious

critics who have rejoiced in an opportunity of saying that I have prostituted my talents in the

writing of an indelicate story for the sake of large profits; the group of unclean-minded persons

who (sometimes in lewd language) have put interpretations upon my scenes which could never

have occurred to myself. (Hall Caine, The Daily Mail)

In this opening, Caine mentioned the different kinds of people who

have caused the obscurity of his novel. He was fed up with critics

censoring or banishing his novels, people thinking that his sole motive

for writing was monetary gain, and critics wrongly interpreting his

novel’s intentions. Hall Caine further substantiated that enlightened

people agreed with him and found nothing but sincerity in his aim.

Occasionally, Caine’s acquaintances assured him that his novels were

not as provocative as the critics claimed.

Figure 8: Sydney Southgate Pawling by

Charles Hawkins.

Malcolm Ophélie 51

In a correspondence of 9 September 1919, Sydney S. Pawling wrote Caine concerning the

omission of a particular scene. Apparently, English author and journalist Richard Whiteing suggested

to omit a raid scene in Caine’s The Woman of Knockaloe. Pawling disagreed with Whiteing: “It is, of

course, invaluable to have Richard Whiteing’s opinion on the subject, but, curiously enough both Evans

and I independently came to the conclusion that the scene he advises you to cut is a very vital one and

shows the intention of your theme; although you do it quite frankly there is nothing that even a prude

could object to”. Eventually, the scene was kept, but it contained gruesome depictions indeed.

In this Daily Mail article, Caine questioned whether it was worthwhile to write a response in the

first place: “Perhaps I might leave matters at this, trusting to my work to justify itself in the long run”.

But he grew too “impatient of the prolonged misinterpretation of foolish people, with heads like a bell

and tongues like its clapper”, that he considered it necessary to say what his book was really about.

Knowing that Caine was very protective of his work, and considering the long succession of criticism

he had received up to his final days, it is not a surprise that he wrote this article. He could not accept the

bad comments, and grew so defensive that in some cases he even reacted badly to criticism (Allen, 270).

In this article, Hall Caine uncovered his opinion on womanhood. He made the reader aware of

the fact that women were very limited in civil and personal rights, which was what Caine was trying to

convey through his novel. He also drew attention to the law’s fallacies. While critics claimed that there

had been a vast number of attempts to improve and protect the material position of women, Hall Caine

maintained that women were still not free: “But in all essentials of free choice in the government of her

life, the bestowal of her love, the possession of her children, and even the control of her own person, the

world has from the first denied freedom to woman, and down to this day it denies it”. He then explained

how the title The Woman Thou Gavest Me alluded to the Scriptures of the Bible. The Bible, when

interpreted literally, suggests that the woman came out of man, and therefore belonged to him. Caine

did not agree with this interpretation, and he regarded it as a symbolical rendering of a man’s conception

of woman’s origin and moral functions. The title suggests that the woman is given to the man. Never in

history had a woman taken a husband, said Caine. This biblical understanding was a man’s earliest

conception of woman’s place, and use in the world, whereupon Caine asked if the world has altered it

very materially during the thousands of years since.

Malcolm Ophélie 52

Caine’s answer to this question was negative. Civilisation and law had only ratified and

authorised this initial conception, according to him. Interestingly, Caine did not only mention the

relationship between a woman and her husband, but also between a woman and her father. By right of

law, a father has to “give away” his daughter into marriage. Her free will is unaccounted for in this

matter, Caine said. It leads to a woman entering a marriage with a man whom she does not love, which

is a part of the female subjection Hall Caine intended to expose with this novel.

Caine further distinguished two types of fatherhood: the human parent and the collective (or

social) parent, which is the world. A woman in the nineteenth and twentieth century had a submissive

private role at home, and a submissive social role in the world. Caine pleaded for the human parent to

educate his daughter, to enlighten her enough so that she can make decisions independently. The social

parent, in turn, has to provide the woman with fair economic opportunities. Caine wanted women to be

able to exploit their talents, have their own income, and practise a profession they genuinely enjoy.

Although this was not an uncommon outlook, it was a provocative one. Whereas some papers

strongly agreed with Caine, and promoted the need for women’s rights, others remained more cautious.

Reviews concerning The Woman Thou Gavest Me were polarised: in light of the divorce rights matter

the tone of the review reflected the writer’s own beliefs on divorce. Thus, a more conservative reviewer

would not be keen on Caine’s divorce novel, while a defender of divorce rights would highly praise the

novel. Keeping this polarisation in mind, the negative reviews did not necessarily reflect a negative

attitude towards Caine’s novel, but rather an unwillingness to let go of marital conventions. Hall Caine,

who was himself a devout Christian and conservative, exposed the necessity of divorce under extreme

circumstances. MacWilliams (110) similarly concluded that critics attacked Caine considerably more in

reviews of The Christian and The Woman Thou Gavest Me. His explanation is that these novels used

the first-person narrative by a woman, which provoked misogynist reviewers that represented a majority.

Malcolm Ophélie 53

Hall Caine fought back against the criticism and used his background as a theatre critic and a

journalist to restore his reputation. Besides, he was not alone in this struggle for recognition. Other

English authors such as Thomas Hardy had contributed to a debate of which the specifics appeared in

the New Review. Caine’s part in the debate had too often been ignored, to Hammond’s disappointment

(43). Although criticised, Hall Caine’s dramatic scenarios were crucial for the theatre experience. Some

reviewers even praised the spectacular staging effects that Caine and Wilson Barrett brought together.

It is not difficult to imagine that props such as a trained flock of sheep caught the attention of the

audience. While watching these plays, the audience goes through all emotional stages and is caught up

in the spectacle. So Hall Caine’s dramatic performances could be considered innovative for his time.

Hammond suggests that Caine’s novels seemed “tailor-made for adaptation to the popular theatre”

because of their “vast rural sweeps, dramatic weatherscapes and Biblical themes” (48).

Hall Caine also started to anticipate criticism by rewriting his stories. Of course, the rewriting

was a natural necessity, given the translation between the three different disciplines: literature, drama

and film. However, correspondences of Hall Caine and his publishers, friends and other colleagues have

proven to what extent Caine started to change his storylines to improve the reception of his writing. For

example, Hall Caine worked on The Prodigal Son’s drama, the serial and the novel simultaneously, and

the plot is significantly re-worked for the separate versions (Hammond, 50). For the dramatic adaptation,

Caine even provided four different endings, one of which had to be chosen by the theatre manager.

Hammond suggests that Caine’s purpose was to accommodate the audience’s expectations and most

likely avoid censorship issues.

The Academy published an article that dealt with books that were being reprinted during the last

few months preceding the article. Four books were listed, including Hall Caine’s Cobwebs of Criticism

(1883). Cobwebs of Criticism: a Review of the First Reviewers of the Lake, Satanic, And Cockney

Schools is one of Caine’s non-fictional works, in which he lists the works of early nineteenth-century

poets alongside the criticism their poems received in the press. The opening of his work is a citation of

Erasmus, which clearly reflects Caine’s dissatisfaction with criticism: “For it is not, I ask, very unfair,

when every trade and profession is allowed its own sport and travesty, not to extend the same permission

to literature?” (Erasmus qtd. In Cobwebs of Criticism).

Malcolm Ophélie 54

In this work, Caine also drew attention to the poets’ reaction to criticism and the mechanism of

censure. The reviewer commented on Caine’s revised introduction. It becomes clear further in the article

that Caine had received criticism when his work, as the author says, “has been noticed at all” (779).

Caine had reworked his introduction and added that he was “not an author with a grievance”, whereupon

the journalist questioned the purpose of rewriting the introduction at all. The reviewer interpreted the

rewriting of the introduction as a direct response to the chain of criticism, which Caine then disclaimed

by saying he had no grievance. On behalf of The Academy, the journalist concluded his article stating

that Caine’s “tangle of incoherencies” only deserves silence as criticism. The fact that Caine had decided

to rewrite his introduction following the negative reviews, shows to what extent Hall Caine sought to

mitigate further comments.

In a correspondence between Hall Caine and Theodore Watts-Dunton, the latter wrote about a

review that was not quite what Caine had hoped for. Apparently, the review under discussion seemed to

be a rather friendly one to Watts-Dunton. To Caine, however, the review was not as praising as he hoped

for, nor did it grant much importance to Caine’s work. This correspondence exposes Caine’s

disappointment even when the reviews were positive. So perhaps the reviewer of The Academy was not

quite wrong when he questioned Caine’s statement that he is “not an author with grievance”.

In 1901, The Academy mentioned Signor Ugo Ojetti’s review on Caine’s The Eternal City,

which appeared in the Daily News. Hall Caine’s response to Signor Ugo Ojetti’s complaint demonstrates

Caine’s increasing defensiveness. In an attempt to rectify his work, Hall Caine took the argument further.

Signor Ugo Ojetti was an outstanding Italian writer, journalist and founder of journals Pègaso and Pan.

As the article suggests, “[Ugo Ojetti’s] knowledge and point of view give his judgement more than

ordinary weight” (252). So his review was undoubtedly taken very seriously. Ugo Ojetti praised Hall

Caine for his “many qualities of emotion and conviction”. His appreciation, however, ends on this note,

because he proceeded to comment on Caine’s anachronisms and historical inaccuracies. The novel itself

can be seen as a sociological study, with Rome the Eternal city as background. In the end, “an ideal

republic is born, whose creed is the brotherhood of God and the brotherhood of man” (C.D. Warner et

al.). Perhaps Hall Caine did not mean to write a historically correct account of Rome, and he used the

city merely as a background considering his admiration for Italy and foreign settings in general.

Malcolm Ophélie 55

The article clarified that Ugo Ojetti was rather dissatisfied with the way in which the Italian

government was depicted: “The Italian Government appears in The Eternal City more corrupt than that

of Turkey; spies and delators – the masters of public affairs; Deputies reduced to such baseness that after

the Speech of the Throne they rush to the public lottery;…” (253).

The Academy proceeded with Hall Caine’s rather sharp response to Ugo Ojetti’s comments.

Caine said that if he had wanted to depict the Italian government in a bad light, he could have done even

more so, while adhering closer to the truth. Although this was not the response the Italian representative

had hoped for, it does give an idea of Caine’s character. He did not shy away to counter criticism and

he stood to his ground with strong argumentations.

Not only was Hall Caine criticised, he was also a target

for mockery. Caine sought to reassert his reputation in a letter

that was published in The Academy in 1899. Apparently, a

number of erroneous, and seemingly satirical statements were

spread in papers about Hall Caine’s plans. In his letter, Hall

Caine commented on the question whether he had any new

information regarding his novel The Drunkard. Obviously, this

rumour upset Hall Caine, who had no intention to write such a

novel. Caine did not plan to correct this rumour, since he

considered this a waste of time and effort. Knowing Caine,

however, he reacted to the rumour anyway, as he took the

opportunity to expose the long chain of falsehoods that had been published about him. He explained

how he had been accused of suggesting that women were inferior to men, while that was the exact

opposite of his thinking. On another occasion, someone reported on Caine’s obvious self-advertising

because he agreed to an interview. He concluded his letter with the following insight: “The moral seems

to be that it is folly to contradict anything. The more reason there is to contradict an erroneous statement

the less wisdom there is in contradicting it”.

Figure 9: Ogden's 'Guinea Gold' cigarette

card, published circa 1894-1907

Malcolm Ophélie 56

One thing Hall Caine did correct in his career, was the controversy around his friend Rossetti’s

exhumation. A book review in The New Statesman discussed Hall Caine’s Recollections of Rossetti,

which is a biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Hall Caine himself was aware that he could only give

an account of the last part of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s life and he even suggested that the biography

could possibly be completed by someone who had been close to Rossetti during his younger years. The

reviewer then explained how Caine had already alluded to some parts of Rossetti’s life in his 1904 novel

The Prodigal Son. The review pardons Caine by stating that in the biography, Caine clarified how

Rossetti had been pressed upon by his friends to retrieve the manuscripts out of his wife’s grave. Caine

argued that Rossetti could repeat every line of verse he had ever written by heart, which proved that the

exhumation was not necessary for Rossetti, and he was not to be blamed.

I would like to end this analysis with a captivating letter of C. Fred Kenyon in defence of Hall

Caine, and the freedom of literature in general. The letter was published in The Academy on 27 July

1901. C. Fred Kenyon praised Hall Caine in this published letter and expressed his disagreement with

the negative statements that appeared on Caine’s The Christian in the Quarterly. Kenyon explained how

Hall Caine was critically acclaimed by high quality English papers, and many acknowledged

intellectuals like John Ruskin, Wilkie Collins and T.E. Brown had praised Caine’s works as well. The

Quarterly Review critic, however, maintained that these literary representatives were utterly wrong.

Kenyon asserted that Hall Caine “has a sense of style, excellent spelling, and correct grammar”. He

acknowledged that many inferior writers attained an immense popularity, but that did not imply that

every popular author was inferior. This is an interesting statement, given the fact that Caine’s work was

often dismissed by his critics on the grounds that he was a ‘popular’ author. Then, Kenyon makes a valid

point by asking the following question: “was there ever a time when the critics accepted large

circulations without demur?” (79). It is a fact that critics very often attacked widely circulating books,

which does not mean that the books are therefore any less good. As Huyssen explains, the gendering of

mass culture as feminine and inferior had a primary place in the late nineteenth century. Only recently

has this rhetoric lost its power (After the Great Divide 62). Kenyon further illustrates his idea with

Dickens, who had been quite familiar to criticism as well, and despite that, he was canonised. According

to Kenyon, the same was true for Caine.

Malcolm Ophélie 57

Although Hall Caine’s fiction was widely sold and categorised as ‘popular’, his actual prestige

as an author was much debated throughout his life and his notoriety had already declined substantially

before his death in 1931 (MacWilliams, Reconsidering Hall Caine 1). This decline was due to Caine’s

categorisation as a ‘feminine’ novelist rather than an elite novelist in a society where misogynist critics

standardised qualitative fiction. In 2001, MacWilliams argued how Caine’s work was worth revisitation.

Twenty years later, however, Hall Caine’s works had not been further discussed by literary historians.

When Hall Caine’s name does occur in publications, it concerns his relation to other artists such as Bram

Stoker or Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In 2019, for instance, Jonathan Rowe examined the relationship

between Henry Irving and Bram Stoker in the Western Daily Press of Bristol. In one sentence, he

illustrated the close friendship between Irving and Stoker by citing Hall Caine: “Bram Stoker died on

12 April 1912. His friend, novelist Hall Caine, to whom Stoker had dedicated Dracula, wrote of the

relationship between Stoker and Irving as "the strongest love that man may feel for man."” (Rowe 22).

A 1998 review of Katherine J. Mayberry establishes Caine’s presence in Carolyn Hares-Stryker's An

Anthology of Pre-Raphaelite Writings. Mayberry interpreted this Pre-Raphaelite circle as “a rich choir

of conversations and personalities, always dominated by the "deep, full baritone" of Gabriel Rossetti's

voice” (Mayberry 460). Hall Caine is mentioned in this anthology in terms of his relationship to Rossetti

and his Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Malcolm Ophélie 58

Conclusion

This selection of articles has proven that there are recurring ideas concerning Hall Caine’s

works. In most reviews, critics as well as supporters of Caine noted that the majority of Caine’s romances

revolve around a similar plot: that of a love triangle between two men and one woman. Whereas the

critics argued that this was an overused storyline, Caine’s supporters nuanced this by stating how Caine’s

artistic craft and linguistic skills in a sense justified this recurrence. Hall Caine’s melodramatic style has

also been a common source for criticism, which, again, was part and parcel of Caine’s geniality,

according to his supporters. Caine was repeatedly reprimanded for the inaccuracies that appeared in his

novels. While Caine’s romances were fiction, and it was widely known that he did not intend to write

realist stories, some inaccuracies were unacceptable to his critics. People who genuinely appreciated

Caine’s writing overlooked these faults. The reactions to Caine’s oeuvre were mitigated.

While Hall Caine still enjoyed a successful career and his novels were widely sold and read, his

critics grew fed up with his accomplishments and wealth. Critics depicted Caine as being a hypocrite,

solely writing for money. What Caine was trying to channel through his works, was the need for

guidance in a changing and modernising society. Caine was an author who was very conscious of the

era he lived in, and wanted to propagate his opinion on societal matters. Perhaps this explains why his

novels had more tendency towards ‘popular’ fiction, and not ‘literary’ fiction. He wanted to expand his

audience, not merely for financial reasons, but also for didactic reasons. The more people read his books,

the more minds he would influence. This persuasive purpose is something Caine did not hesitate to

assert. When the bad reports were dominant, Caine wrote about his work and defined his intentions.

The way in which Caine responded to the criticism in the press was an attest to Caine’s pride

and self-consciousness. He was very aware of the criticism and wished to be a respected author. Thus,

he asked advice to fellow authors and tried to rewrite his stories when he had the opportunity. Although

his editing originated from the necessity to adapt his works into different formats – lectures, books,

theatre and films – the rewriting was mostly triggered by criticism, as seen in Caine’s introduction of

Cobwebs of Criticism, or in the wedding night scene of The Woman Thou Gavest Me.

Malcolm Ophélie 59

Hall Caine’s correspondences displayed this willingness to change his stories and to adapt it to

the reader’s expectations. Some correspondents reassured Caine that the message behind his works were

clear. Others alluded to factual mistakes Caine had made and sought to draw Caine’s attention to the

(in)credibility of his stories. Caine would then enquire for more information with experts, but his

inadequacies remained a fundamental source of criticism. In some letters it is clear that Caine’s

adaptations had different endings, depending on the publisher’s or theatre manager’s taste. Author and

playwright Wilson Barrett, for instance, wrote how he decided to alter a scene in one of Caine’s plays

to make the plot more cheerful. What this proves of Caine as an artist is that he let his audience and

acquaintances influence his works, and not the other way around, as he would have wanted it.

One thing is clear: after Hall Caine’s death, his critics did not hesitate to omit him from the

press, a place he commonly occupied during his life. Indeed, his controversial works and his own

publications and reactions to criticism in the press, contributed to his public presence. These same

reasons, however, caused his contemporaries to despise and neglect him.

Fortunately for Caine, his supporters defended him earnestly. There is a significant incongruity

between the representation of Hall Caine in the periodical press and his image in the correspondences.

While Caine’s critics do not seek to spare him, his correspondents address him in a most respectful way.

While reading the letters, the image we obtain of Hall Caine is a pleasant one. Even though we have no

access to his response, we imagine the stern-looking, friendly man – perhaps attired in his “outlandish

garb”, as his critics would boast – reading the letters attentively at the desk upon which he created his

illustrious novels.

Malcolm Ophélie 60

PART II : Editorial Notes

Figure 10: Charles van Enger (cameraman), Maurice Tourneur (director) and Sir Hall Caine, c. 1923 - taken from the Kevin Brownlow Collection 2007.

Malcolm Ophélie 61

Introduction of the letters and the structure of this work

The correspondences included in this work all belong to a private repository. All of them are letters that

were destined to Hall Caine, with few exceptions. Amongst the letters that mentioned the date, the

earliest letter dates from 24 January 1873, which is a letter of Charles Reade. The last letter came from

Albert Curtis Brown and was sent on 27 September 1924. The correspondents include publishing houses,

family members, fellow-authors, close friends and other acquaintances of Hall Caine. The topics range

from film rights to serial rights. Publishing houses of periodicals reached out to Hall Caine to enquire if

they could use an existent story of Hall Caine, or, whether Hall Caine could write a new story that would

then be published in serials. The correspondence of Beverley Baxter, managing editor of the Sunday

Express, is an example of the former case. While reading the letters, it also became obvious that Hall

Caine was held in high esteem by his correspondents.

The addressee is Hall Caine in nearly every letter, thus the correspondences will be structured

alphabetically, according to the sender’s surnames. Sometimes the same correspondent had sent multiple

letters to Hall Caine. Therefore, the letters per correspondent will be organised chronologically. One

exception to the chronological order is when a letter had been enclosed by a correspondent. The enclosed

letter will appear after the correspondent’s own letter, just like Hall Caine would have read it.

Malcolm Ophélie 62

Structure of each letter

Before the transcription of each letter, I provide an introduction including information about the sender,

as well as their relationship to Hall Caine. The context in which the letter was written will also be

indicated, so that the bigger picture as to why, when and how the letter was written is clear.

After the introduction follows the heading of the letter, which is organised in the following way:

❖ full name of correspondent

❖ full date of letter’s composition [square brackets when an element in the date had been added

or estimated afterwards]

❖ recipient’s address

❖ sender’s name

❖ sender’s address

❖ form of source text

As stated before, the correspondent is Hall Caine in most of the letters. For the date of the letter’s

composition, square brackets are used to indicate if an element in the date had been added or estimated

afterwards. In order to stay as close as possible to the appearance of the original letters, the destined and

the sender’s address are written in the same way as the sender has written it down. So sometimes, the

same address will appear to be written in different ways. For instance, the address of the Daily Telegraph

offices is “Fleet Street, London” in multiple correspondences. But in the correspondences with

Blumenfeld, the address of the Daily Telegraph is written as “St Bride, London”. I write it down as

such. The different possible forms of source texts are mentioned in the section “Abbreviations and

symbols”. After the heading of the letter follows the transcription.

Malcolm Ophélie 63

Spelling and grammar issues

In terms of spelling and grammar, I also stay as close as possible to the original letters. Even when in

some instances there seem to be spelling or punctuation mistakes, I leave it as such and indicate what

the sender could have meant, or a correction in the footnotes. In this way, the reader sees the letter as

the addressee saw it. Mary Alice Hall Caine has, for instance, erroneously written “pasily” instead of

“parsley”, a mistake which is easily made when in haste. Thus, instead of correcting it directly in the

transcription, I add a footnote with the correction. There is, however, one occasion in which I transcribe

the letter in the conventional spelling, because in the original letter there is no clear distinction between

capital letters and lowercase letters. The sender, Mary Alice Hall Caine, seems to have sporadically

written some words with a capital letter, not because she was mistaken, but because this was her way of

writing. Therefore, I only wrote the capital letter when it had significance, i.e. for proper names, titles,

and at the beginning of a sentence. In a typed letter of Reginald Golding Bright, he wrote the title The

Woman Thou Gavest Me entirely in capital letters, which I have maintained in the transcription.

Concerning the corrections that have been applied by the senders themselves, I attempt to show

how the correction has been made. Thus, a word or sentence that has been crossed out and corrected

interlineally, will be crossed out and corrected in the transcription as well. The symbol with which I

indicate interlineal additions is mentioned in the section “Abbreviation and Symbols”. I wanted to

provide the reader with as much as possible insight in the original letter. The reader does not see the

final, corrected intention of the sender. When a word has been underlined, I underline it as well in the

transcription. In the correspondence with Reginald Golding Bright, he quotes an excerpt from The

Manxman and underlines the words “you” and “I”: If you won’t speak, I will.

Sometimes, the punctuation of the letters seemed erratic. Most of the letters were written in

haste, or written in a peculiar handwriting. What seemed like a full stop could have been a comma, or a

dash of a ‘t’ earlier in the sentence. This, I have attempted to copy as correctly as possible, but I cannot

assure that the punctuation is completely as the sender of the letters have meant it.

Malcolm Ophélie 64

Abbreviations and symbols

Abbreviation/symbol

Meaning

Extra information

[vertically]

Following segment

is written vertically

in original letter

Due to a lack of space, some lines can be written down

vertically (i.e. across the page). In the transcription, however,

I write it down horizontally. by using [vertically], I mention

that the following sentence has been written vertically in the

original letter.

◊

illegible letter

◊

illegible letter,

crossed out

illegible word

illegible word,

crossed out

scribble

scribble, blotted out

* … *

Sequence that has

been added

interlineally by the

writer

Assume it handwritten when this occurs in typed text. So I

will not specify it is handwritten text.

[Handwritten text]

Following word is

handwritten in

original, typed letter

The note of [handwritten text] only deals with the first word

that follows it. Not the rest. Still, it might be unclear where

the handwritten part ends. So just assume inserted parts in *

… * are always handwritten, since it is impossible to add

words interlineally by any other means than handwriting.

When longer parts occur in handwriting that are not added

interlineally, I mention it in the footnotes. Sometimes, there

are punctuation marks added by hand. When this occurs, I

mention it in the footnotes to keep the readability.

ALS

autographed letter,

signed

Form of source text

TLS

Typed letter, signed

Form of source text

Photocopy

Photocopy of letter

Form of source text. Typed text in every case.

Figure 11: Abbreviations and symbols overview.

Malcolm Ophélie 65

PART III : Correspondences

Figure 12: Mrs. Hall Caine, 1902.

Malcolm Ophélie 66

Charles Bang, employee Heinemann Ltd.

31 January 1923 : second serial rights of The Prodigal Son

The heading of the letter indicates that Charles Bang is writing in name of William Heinemann, Ltd

Publishers. This is a London-based publishing company, founded by William Heinemann. According to

Fritschner, “the first book published by the firm was Hall Caine's The Bondman (1890), which had been

rejected by Cassell

. This book had great popular success and put Heinemann on the road to fortune”.

In the letter, Bang mentions a letter he received from Edward Hulton and Co., a private publishing

company based in London. Bang has provided Hall Caine with a copy of the letter from Hulton and Co.

The sender is William Lees, employee at Edward Hulton and Co. He has written Charles Bang

concerning a problem with the second serial rights

of Caine’s The Progidal Son. Caine was “perturbed”

with Lees’ decision to omit the novel as a serial in the Hulton & Co. papers. The reason why Lees did

not incorporate the serial is because the first publication of the novel was much earlier. Due to a

miscommunication, Caine interpreted this omission as his story being “turned down” by the publishing

company. In his letter, Lees is seeking to reassert his intention.

Founder of publishing firm Cassell & Co

Second Serial (Reprint) Rights: A license of Second Serial Rights gives the publication the right to publish the

story, article or poem after the piece has already been published by another periodical. Second Serial Rights are

nonexclusive; the author may license the piece to more than one publication. (White)

Malcolm Ophélie 67

Transcription

Hall Caine

31 January 1923

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

Charles Bang

20-21 Bedford Street, London

TLS

Dear Sir Hall Caine,

I have just received a letter from Hulton and Company in reply to my letter of the 26th instant. I

enclose you a copy of same.

I am off to the Continent to-night so please excuse this brevity.

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text] Bang

P.S. Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of your “MASTER OF MAN” which I have

presented to Mr. Comfield, who is one of the chief men at Messrs.

Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent

& Co, Ltd., 17, Ave Maria Lane, E.C.4.

Would you be so kind as to dedicate this copy to him. His name is W. Comfield, of the before mentioned

address.

[handwritten text] He has done a lot for your books.

Enc.

Used as the plural of ‘Mr’ before a list of names and before names of business companies (OALD 975)

Enclosed

Malcolm Ophélie 68

30 January 1923 : enclosed letter of William Lees to Charles Bang,

Transcription

Charles Bang

30 January 1923

Address unknown

William Lees

47, Shoe Lane, London

Photocopy

Dear Mr. Bang,

I am very sorry that Sir Hall Caine was perturbed by my letter in connection with the second

serial rights in the “The Progidal Son.” Probably you did not explain to him the exact circumstances,

which were these.

I got into touch with you about taking the second serial rights in the story “The Woman Thou

Gavest Me”, but the negotiations fell through. In conversation on the telephone you mentioned that “The

Prodigal Son” was being released as a film, and I asked you to let me see a copy of the book, so that I

could re-read it. Before doing so, however, I decided that it was so long since this book was first

published that I did not care to run it again as a serial in one of our papers. This was a very different

matter from “turning down” a story by Sir Hall Caine. In his work, indeed, I am so much interested that

I should very much like to have the offer of the first serial rights in his next story. I told you this some

time ago,

Yours faithfully,

William Lees.

Malcolm Ophélie 69

Sir Arthur Beverley Baxter, journalist (1891 – 1964)

2 January 1923 : request for a serial story

Sir Arthur Beverley Baxter is a Canadian-born journalist. In 1922 he became managing editor of the

Sunday Express, moving in 1924 to the same position at the Daily Express (Thompson). Baxter writes

to Hall Caine because he thinks the Sunday Express is in need for a new serial story. He says he could

only think of someone like Hall Caine to take on the task. The fact that a prominent editor like Baxter

expresses recognition, indicates Caine’s prestige as an author. Perhaps Caine dismissed this offer, since

there is no record in the Sunday Express archives that mentions Hall Caine.

Transcription

Hall Caine

2 January 1923

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

Sir Arthur Baxter

8, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London

TLS

Dear Sir Hall,

Have you made arrangements yet for the serial publication of your next novel? It is a long time

since the “Sunday Express” has run any serial story and I don’t want to reintroduce this feature unless

we can get something really worth while. For that reason I naturally turn to someone like yourself. I

would be so glad if you would be good enough to let me know if you have anything on hand, or will

have shortly.

With every good wish for the New Year, I remain, yours faithfully,

[handwritten text] A. Beverley Baxter

MANAGING EDITOR.

Malcolm Ophélie 70

Ralph David Blumenfeld, editor (1864 – 1948)

27 December 1918 : Hall Caine’s Woodrow Wilson article

Ralph David Blumenfeld was born in Wisconsin, USA. He was born from German parents. His father,

David Blumenfeld, founded Der Weltbürger, one of the first German-language newspapers in the

Midwest (Morris). Blumenfeld was further known as the editor of The Daily Express.

Blumenfeld mentions a “Wilson article”. In fact, many articles occurred concerning Woodrow

Wilson’s visit to the UK in December 1918. A peace conference took place at Buckingham Palace and

in Downing Street, and the letter suggests that Hall Caine has written an article about this. His article,

however, was too long according to the Newspaper Proprietors Association, and had to be cut down.

Blumenfeld has sent the entire article, as Hall Caine has written it, to Nash Magazine. The shortened

version was sent to the Daily Telegraph.

Transcription

Hall Caine

27 December 1918

Fort Anne, Douglas

R.D. Blumenfeld

St Bride, London

TLS

Dear Sir Hall Caine,

I am exceedingly sorry about the Wilson article. I was anxious to use it, but I was confronted

with a mountain of difficulties. When Lord Beaverbrook rang me up and asked me about it I told him I

could run a column and booked accordingly.

Malcolm Ophélie 71

It was not until late yesterday afternoon that I had your message saying that you could not do it

under 2.000 words, and then it was too late to warn you because you were putting it on the wires

, and

I assumed by that time you had already done so. The telegraph service, as you know, is hopelessly

dislocated.

My main difficulties are these: We are not permitted under agreement with the Newspaper

Proprietors Association, owing to the paper shortage, to produce more than a ten-page paper. I found on

measuring up that the bare election returns would take 21/2 pages, to say nothing of tabulated matter and

introduction, which practically devours 3 pages. Then there is Wilson’s big speech at the Guildhall,

cables and other essentials of news which must be carried. The result was that I had to proceed to a

slaughter of the innocents, ruthless and without reservation or evasion. You are *a* journalist

[handwritten text] and enough to know what this means – the

first number with all the big strawberries

swept from the top of the basket.

I could have done a column of your article, but I did not want to cut it down “on my own”

Hence my telegram to you.

I sent the original copy to Nash’s and the flimsy to the “Daily Telegraph” as requested, and beg

once more to express my sincere regrets.

Yours faithfully,

[handwritten text] R.D. Blumenfeld

P.S. I even threw out 10 columns of advertising from the make-up this morning.

Telegram (OALD)

Hyphen and letter “t” are handwritten

Quotation marks are handwritten

Malcolm Ophélie 72

Mary Chandler, wife of Hall Caine (1863 – 1932)

27 June 1916 : The Deemster film

In this letter we read how Mary Alice, wife of Hall Caine, has ordered clothing that will presumably

serve as costumes for a play or film. Mary Alice emphasizes how much labour the costume cleaning and

making has been. Her occupation now is to list the necessary clothing and estimating the cost of it all.

The letter indicates for whom the costumes are destined: the Bishop’s sons. In addition to this, there are

soldier coats mentioned and riding boots. Most of the clothes received attributes such as “old”, “very

old” or even “shabby”.

The costumes have undoubtedly been used for the film adaptation of Hall Caine’s novel The

Deemster. The motion picture was first screened in the Broadway Theatre and it immediately received

critical acclaim. The New York Times reported praising words, including the following: “The popularity

of the works of Hall Caine was attested yesterday by audiences which established new records for the

Broadway Theatre” (New York Times, April 16, 1917). According to this newspaper, Hall Caine’s

literary production is destined to be converted into film, given the dramatic nature of his stories. In this

way, the article concludes that “Mr. Caine's stories abound in action swift and often melodramatic, and

of such is the kingdom of the cinema.” The same New York Times issue mentioned the fact that Hall

Caine’s son, Derwent Hall Caine, was a cast member in the motion picture. This explains why Mary

Alice talks about informing Derwent about the costumes in this letter to her husband.

In her biography of Hall Caine, Vivien Allen made clear how often Caine used to be away from

home. In most cases, he was not necessarily far away, for instance when he stayed over at Bram Stoker’s

house to work on his writing. Most of the time, Mary did not only suffer solitude, but illness as well.

Given the fact that she had a lively personality and loved social events, this solitary marriage did at times

upset her to the point that she did not shy away to express her misery in her letters. Mary aspired to live

in the city, in London. But this was not quite evident, since Caine needed to stay at Greeba castle for

work affairs. Mary had to wait until 1914 before she could live in the city. At last she had her London

house, which was situated in Heath Brow.

Malcolm Ophélie 73

Mary loved to be involved in Caine’s writing and work ever since she lived with him. When he

worked on The Master of Man, he had not shown her any of his writing, to her disappointment. In fact,

he had not shown anyone yet what he had been writing. This possibly had to do with the content of the

story. Despite being fiction, The Master of Man contained hidden references to Caine’s personal life,

including recollections of when he met Mary and helped her to obtain an education, and eventually had

a child with her out of wedlock.

Transcription

Hall Caine

27 June 1916

Greeba Castle Crosby, Isle of Man

Lady Mary Alice [Caine]

Heath Brow, Hampstead Heath

ALS

My darling, I have at last sent off all the Bishops Son’s clothes this morning. I enclose the list of things

I sent, you will see I have marked & valued them as low as possible for the customs. The whole

household were working on the clothes cleaning & mending everything

[vertically] & it took us the whole day.

they really are not bad now they are cleaned & mended. & of course the style & period could not be

bought in America. The agent tells me the cost for sending the two baskets will cost be about £ 3.12.0.

I thought they were worth sending. I insured the lot for £ 20 … I wrote to Derwent saying, the costumes

would need lace frills & hats, & shoes. I sent old pairs *of shoes* to show the style. I sent him the list

of the clothes in baskets, also keys. The agent took one of the lists to the War Office this morning & if

he can get them passed they will go off by Saturday’s boat. 0 the two baskets are being sent to Liverpool

today. I don’t mind all the trouble I have had if it will help that boy to start work. Ralph said over the

phone last night he was very busy. Had got a big order from the government about three thousand pounds

worth of work. Both factories are working at top speed. I trust you are working well, & keeping all right.

Malcolm Ophélie 74

I missed you dreadfully at night, I should be afraid to cross until after the war. So I shall have to wait

until you return. I sent Elin a little sunshade

, was she pleased with it?

With all my love & kisses

Mary.

P.s. Tell Lou the plants & gooseberries mint & pasiley

arrived all right. I received 3 telegrams from

you yesterday.

[Attachment: typed text]

The Bishops Sons wardrobe.

Number one basket

Containing: -

5 print dresses, very old … 2/- each

5 choir-boys white cotton shirts … 9d. each

3 cotton smocks … 9d. each

2 old bodices … 1/-

4 pairs of shoes, very old … 2/- lot.

Dan’s clothes

1 smock …

1 belt

2 prs

. knickers 8/- lot.

1 stocking cap very old & worn

13 old waiscoats … 13/- lot.

15 prs. Knickers, very old … 2/- each

9 prs. Soldiers trousers … (old and shabby) 2/6 each

2 odd prs. trousers (old and shabby) 1/- each

Since a fair complexion was desirable during the Victorian era, parasols, more specifically defined as

sunshades, were used to protect the skin from the sun. At the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign the parasols

were quite plain, but by about 1850 tassels and frills grew in popularity and the sunshade had become an item

of fashion. (Fleming)

Has to be “parsley”.

pairs

Malcolm Ophélie 75

9 soldiers’ coats … 5/- each

Total : £ 5. 19. 6.

No. 2 Basket, value: £ 7. 12. 6.

Total : £ 13. 12. 0.

Number two basket

Containing: -

11 old English coats … 5/- each

9 old English coats (very old) … 3/- each

Dan’s cloak & cord … 10/-

1 old pr. trousers … 2/6

2 soldiers’ hats (very old) … 1/6 each

1 old fur coat & cap … 15/-

1 pr. riding boots (old) 10/-

1 old overcoat … 5/-

1 bishop’s silk knickers (very old) 5/-

2 property swords … 20/-

£ 7. 12. 6.

No. 1 Basket (value): £ 5. 19. 6.

Total: £ 13. 12. 0.

Malcolm Ophélie 76

Albert Curtis Brown, literary agent (1866 – 1945)

27 September 1924 : erroneous payment by Pearson’s Weekly

Albert Curtis Brown was born in 1866 in upstate New York. In 1888, he moved to England in order to

manage the International Publishing Bureau. In London, he started his own literary agency in 1905.

Slowly but surely, war approached and Brown established the U.S. branch of Curtis Brown Ltd. in New

York City to market US rights in works by Curtis Brown’s British clients. His clients included D.H.

Lawrence, C.S. Lewis, Daphne du Maurier, A.A. Milne and Winston Churchill. The agency also had a

mandate to cultivate American authors, and added key figures to its venerable list including W.H.

Auden, Theodore Dreiser, Ayn Rand and Ogden Nash. Separate offices of Curtis Brown later existed in

New York, London, Toronto and Sydney, each operating as an independent company.

(Curtisbrown.com)

Curtis Brown sent a letter to Hall Caine concerning a payment to Caine that did not go as planned

due to a misunderstanding. He enclosed a letter he received from Miss Head, the acting editor of Nash’s

Magazine. The content of both letters suggests that Pearson’s Weekly wanted to have Hall Caine’s The

Master of Man serialised. Hall Caine was supposed to gain £600 from this serialization. When making

the arrangement, however, it appeared that Pearson’s Weekly intended to pay £500, which was then

made official in the contract, and was subsequently irreversible given the limitation clause

. This meant

that Hall Caine would only receive £500, which he was entitled to, and not the £600 he had agreed to.

The editor of Pearson’s Weekly felt quite distressed after hearing about the mistake, since he had already

printed a considerable amount of circulars. In her letter, Miss Head explained that the editor of Pearson’s

Weekly should not feel guilty in this matter. The main cause was the fact that Miss Head herself did not

understand the details of the contract-making and she left the matter to her colleague. Besides, Curtis

Brown was in America when the arrangement was made, which enabled such a misunderstanding.

A limitation clause covers what a party will owe to the other if they don't hold up their end of the agreement.

This consequence is also called a liability.

Malcolm Ophélie 77

Miss Head then suggested a compromise implying that Hall Caine will immediately receive his

first half of the payment, which was £250. Curtis Brown enquired whether Hall Caine would be willing

to accept this offer.

The journal Pearson's Weekly was founded in 1890 by Cyril Arthur Pearson. In 1884, he debuted

in the publishing business when he won a general knowledge quiz in Sir George Newnes' journal Tit-

Bits. The prize was a clerkship at the Tit-Bits London office at a salary of £100 a year, which is valued

at approximately £6,618.47 in 2017. By the following year he had pushed himself into the position of

manager (McKernan). After almost six years of working with Newnes, Pearson increasingly felt the

need to found his own journal, which he eventually did with his Pearson’s Weekly in 1890. As stated by

McKernan, Pearson's Weekly initially struggled financially, until Pearson hit upon the key to his fortune,

the ‘Missing Word’ competition, launched in December 1891. The required shilling postal order for

each entry made Pearson a wealthy man.

Malcolm Ophélie 78

Transcription

Hall Caine

27 September 1924

Heath End House, Hampstead Heath

Curtis Brown

6, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London

TLS

Dear Sir Hall Caine:

I enclose letter received from Miss Head, the acting editor of “Nash’s”, following a personal interview.

It seems the price paid by “Pearson’s Weekly” was £500 instead of £600, and that the arrangement was

that half should be paid *down* on completion of the arrangement, and the other half on the beginning

of publication on November 1st. The arrangement was made while I was in America, and quite evidently

in ignorance of the limitation clause in the contract. I hope you will feel that the suggestion that the other

£250 should be paid over to you is satisfactory in the circumstances, as the editor of “Pearson’s Weekly”

is much distressed and disturbed, as it seems he had printed some two million circulars

already. I have

informed him of Miss Head’s letter, and he is, of course, hoping and praying that you will accept it.

This outcome *also* relieves the situation with Newman Flower, who would probably not wish

to buy if there were danger of litigation over it. He is away until Monday, but I have asked his secretary

to let him know at once that “Pearson’s Weekly” paid £750 for “THE CHRISTIAN”.

If this letter has to be forwarded to Greeba Castle, perhaps you will be willing to wire me, as to

your views, so that I may put the Pearson man out of misery promptly. It has been an anxious and

troubled week, and I confess I shall be glad on my own account if the suggested settlement is satisfactory

to you.

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text] Curtis Brown

A printed letter, notice or advertisement that is sent to a large number of people at the same time. (OALD

264)

Malcolm Ophélie 79

26 September 1924 : enclosed letter from A.M. Head to Curtis Brown

Transcription

Curtis Brown

26 September 1924

Address unknown

A.M. Head

153 Queen Victoria St.

Photocopy

Dear Mr. Curtis Brown,

I am very sorry for this trouble that has arisen concerning the proposed serialization of “THE

MASTER OF MAN” in Pearson’s Weekly. Mr. McPeake handled this matter entirely himself, and it

has been extremely difficult for me to familiarize myself with all the details of it at a minute’s notice. I

do feel very strongly, however, that Pearson’s Weekly should not be made to suffer for it as they are

entirely innocent in the matter. If, as seems the case, we are at fault, do you think Sir Hall Caine would

be willing to settle it by accepting the £250 that still remains unpaid on account of this story.

Mr. McPeake was always strictly just in all business matters, and I believe this is the solution

he would suggest.

Yours very truly,

A.M. HEAD (Signed)

Malcolm Ophélie 80

Reginald Golding Bright, drama critic (1875 – 1941)

4 November 1918 : Australian rights The Woman Thou Gavest Me

The envelope of the letter suggests that the sender was Miss Elisabeth Marbury, theatrical agent of the

American Play Company. Marbury represented many contemporary high-brow authors and playwrights

including Hall Caine. The letter was, however, written by Reginald Golding Bright, another theatrical

agent of the company. The American Play Company had offices in New York, London and Paris, and

Reginald Golding Bright was the representative in London. He was a theatre critic and was well

acquainted with other authors such as Bernard Shaw and Somerset Maugham. As far as the content of

the letter is concerned, theatrical agent Golding Bright writes Hall Caine to inform that he has drafted

the agreement for the Australian film rights of the novel The Woman Thou gavest Me, better known as

his controversy-provoking novel.

There is a stamp visible on the envelope that says “with war bonds”. According to the Oxford

Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, a bond is “an agreement by a government or a

company to pay you interest on the money you have lent”. Thus, war bonds are debt securities issued

by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war. In this way,

everyone could participate in war and prevent inflation. Kimble

(24) says in his Mobilizing the Home Front: War Bonds and

Domestic Propaganda, that besides being sold at banks, war

bonds were also sold at post offices, which explains the presence

of such a stamp on a letter.

In the letter, Golding Bright discussed the Australian

rights for the novel The Woman Thou Gavest Me. The connection

between Hall Caine and Australia lies in the first film of Hall Caine, The Christian, which was produced

in Australia. Other films were also adapted in Australia, for instance Pete, a movie adaptation of his

novel The Manxman. Hall Caine was a much celebrated author worldwide, and especially in England,

Figure 13: Hall Caine SS (+1937)Picture taken

from Wreck Site.

Malcolm Ophélie 81

America and, of course, Australia. There is even a vessel named after him, an Australian cargo ship

called SS Hall Caine.

Interestingly, Australian newspaper The Mail mentioned the publication of The Woman Thou

Gavest Me in Australian Woman’s Weekly, 1912:

The sole Australian rights in this new Hall Caine story [i.e. The woman Thou Gavest Me] have

been secured by the proprietors of the “Australian Woman's Weekly” at enormous cost, and it

will be noted that not only is this the first time the Australian public has been given an

opportunity of reading one of this eminent novelist's fascinating stories before its appearance in

book form, but it is the first time a Hall Caine story has been presented to the readers of a penny

journal in any part of the world. The first instalment of this thrilling novel, which will be

illustrated by Mr. Frank Craig, R.I., will appear in the “Australian Woman's Weekly” on

November 21. (The Mail, 3)

One year later, the controversy the novel provoked became visible in an article by G. K. Chesterton in

The North Western Courier. The article explained how libraries were allegedly censoring the novel.

Chesterton asserted that this censorship did not involve a prohibition of the book. The libraries merely

refused to advertise The Woman Thou Gavest Me the same way non-censored novels were advertised.

Chesterton further discussed what it is that makes people like him “hate” books like The Woman Thou

Gavest Me:

I cannot stand Mr. Hall Caine for a moment when he writes this particular sort of book. His

earliest stories were real stories; stories that happened to positive people in a positive place. But

when he left the Isle of Man he ceased to be Man. The universe narrowed him … He talked not

only about what he did not understand, but about what nobody could expect him to understand,

such as the Roman view of marriage, or, the political tradition of Italy. But It is not this that I,

personally, detest in such books as The Woman Thou Gavest Me. What I detest in them is the

unconscious but unfathomable modern contempt for women. These modern romances always

represent the woman not only as a slave, but as a sleepy slave: a somnambulist. She seems to

get- into every situation by accident; and everybody else is to blame. She loses her love in a

trance; she marries some manifest blackguard in a trance; she elopes (generally with some

Malcolm Ophélie 82

equally manifest blackguard) also in a trance. She is never anything but a victim of

circumstances. Hardly any of the women I have known, old or young, have been of this sort.

Most of them have had much more self-control and self-respect than I have.

(Chesterton, G. K., 5)

Again, this was not the kind of commentary Hall Caine would have

wanted to read. Not necessarily because the overall tone is negative, but

because the critic did not grasp Hall Caine’s underlying message. The

critic interpreted the protagonist as a passive figure, while Caine treated

Mary O’Neill as virtue incarnate, who by opting for divorce, deliberately

broke conventions to regain happiness and self-respect.

Furthermore, Golding Bright mentioned how Derwent Hall

Caine, actor and son of Hall Caine, was to be playing two pieces in

Australia. In the 1919 film version of The Woman Thou Gavest Me,

Derwent was not part of the cast. He did, nevertheless, star in Darby and

Joan, a film which is also mentioned in Golding Bright’s letter. Darby

and Joan was one of the many screenplays Hall Caine has written. It was

a silent film, released in 1920 and set on the Isle of Man.

Figure 14: Picture taken from "'For the Love

of the Art': The life and work of Percy Nash,

film producer and director of the silent era."

Film History: An International Journal, vol. 19

no. 3, 2007, p. 292-301.

Malcolm Ophélie 83

Transcription

Hall Caine

4 November 1918

Greeba Castle, Douglas, Isle of Man

Reginald Golding Bright

20, Green Street, Leicester Square, London, W.C.

TLS

My dear Hall Caine,

I have drafted the agreement for the Australian rights of “THE WOMAN THOU GAVEST

ME”, and shall send them to you tomorrow. I think you will find they cover every possible contingency.

I am not sure how the other contingency,

of which Mr. Thring advises me, namely that

Derwent should play the two pieces in Australia, is to be covered, as apparently the terms of this

arrangement are to be established between Derwent and the Management. Don’t you think a letter would

be the best way of covering this?

Have you any news about “DARBY AND JOAN” film matter? I feel sure we could do some

good business through *with it if you could Λ Λ * Mr. Warren.

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text] R. Golding Bright

Comma has been added by hand.

Malcolm Ophélie 84

8 November 1918 : World’s film rights of The Woman Thou Gavest Me

On the envelope of the letter we see what appears to be a probatio pennae. Someone has repetitively

written down the names “Hall Caine” and “Elin”. There are even a few illegible letters scribbled down

here and there. What seem to be the original names written on the envelope are “Fort Anne Hotel” and

“Douglas”. There is also a stamp visible that says “with war bonds”. The address “Greeba Castle,

Douglas” has been crossed out and changed into “Fort Anne Hotel, Douglas”, which is the final

destination. The latter destination is not what is mentioned on the letter itself, which still says “Greeba

Castle”. This implies that the address was changed after the envelope was closed. Fort Anne Hotel was

built around 1796-1798 by Thomas Whaley and his mistress Maria Courtenay. It only became a hotel

in the early 1840s. Caine was staying at the Fort Anne Hotel because work was being done at Greeba

castle (Allen, 388).

Figure 15: View of Fort Anne Hotel from a 1920's postcard.

Malcolm Ophélie 85

Transcription

Hall Caine

7 November 1918

Fort Anne Hotel, Douglas, Isle of Man

Reginald Golding Bright

20, Green Street, Leicester Square, London, W.C.

TLS

My dear Hall Caine,

I have an enquiry for the World’s film rights of “THE WOMAN THOU GAVEST ME”. Will

you kindly let me know whether they are available, and if so, what your terms would be.

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text] R. Golding Bright

Malcolm Ophélie 86

1 January 1919 : Darby and Joan film matter

In the following letter, it becomes clear that there has been an issue with the film matter of Darby and

Joan. Hall Caine has presumably informed Golding Bright about an unpleasant experience and the latter

suggests that the best option is to not have the film released at all. Apparently, the people in charge of

the film are to blame for this outcome. The film has nonetheless been released in September 1920.

Additionally, Golding Bright mentions he did not get an offer for The Prodigal Son or The Woman film

rights. The Prodigal Son is another Hall Caine novel that has been adapted into film. “The Woman”

probably refers to The Woman Thou Gavest Me, because The Woman of Knockaloe, another novel of

Hall Caine, was only published in 1923, and the letter under discussion dates from 1919. The Prime

Minister, a 1916 play of Caine, is also mentioned.

Transcription

Hall Caine

1 January 1919

Fort Anne Hotel, Douglas, Isle of Man

Reginald Golding Bright

20, Green Street, Leicester Square, London, W.C.

TLS

My dear Hall Caine,

Many thanks for your letter. I am sorry you should have had such an unpleasant experience over

the film matter, but I always anticipated something of the kind in view of the people who were in charge

of it. I think from everybody’s point of view the best thing that could happen would be that it should not

be released at all, and I gather from your letter that there is a possibility of this happening.

I have not yet any definite offer either for “THE PRODIGAL SON” or “THE WOMAN” film

rights, but as soon as I get anything definite I shall let you know.

Malcolm Ophélie 87

I note what you say about the liberties that have been taken with “THE PRIME MINISTER” on

tour, and I am writing to Porteous on the subject.

With kindest regards,

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text] R. Golding Bright

Date unknown : a review of The Manxman

This correspondence, contains no envelope, nor an exordium. There is, however, a final salutation. The

sender is Reginald Golding Bright, and the addressee is presumably a literary magazine of some sort,

since the content of the letter reveals itself to be a literary review. Whether or not the review has been

published, remains unknown. The letter is probably written before 1912, since poet and literary critic

Andrew Lang, who died in 1912 is mentioned as being still an active literary critic. Golding Bright has

numbered all of the pages of the letter.

Golding Bright is commenting on the novel The Manxman. The Manxman is considered to be

Hall Caine’s masterpiece. Interestingly, it is his first novel located on the Isle of Man, advised by Dante

Gabriel Rossetti. On 21 March 1908, The Australian Star mentioned the following, regarding the novel’s

setting: “The "Manxman," by the way, was originally moulded to fit characters on the Island, but was

written round Polish Jews. The author, however, discovered that, he could not hope to scintillate over

Russian writers, so he turned it into a tale of Manxland.” This means that Caine retrieved inspiration for

his novel from the Jewish matters, but he did not feel competent enough to thoroughly write in light of

this subject.

Malcolm Ophélie 88

Transcription

Correspondent unknown

Date unknown

Destined address unknown

Reginald Golding Bright

8, Regent’s Park Terrace

ALS

“The Manxman”

Mr Hall Caine’s powers as a novelist, would seem to be limitless. “The Bondman” was hailed as a

masterpiece, but it was superseded by “The Deemster”, which in turn gave way to “The Scapegoat”, and

now, at the fag-end of the season, “The Manxman” arrives. There may be two opinions about the

comparative merits of mr. Caine’s previous works, but there can be “no possible shadow or manner of

doubt whatever” as to the place which this, his latest novel, must occupy – it is ‘facile princeps’. In very

truth, mr. Caine has 0 written a brilliant, and withal highly interesting, romance, – a romance which will

be read and re-read with keen attention by many a thousand, and which should be the means of handing

down its author’s name as one of the most brilliant finest novelists of our time.

There are faults however, even in such a masterpiece as this, but they are faults easy to overcome and

of but small importance when surrounded by the great mass of good work which hems them in. the two

great blemishes are firstly, the continual treatment of the novel as if it had been a play, the result of

which is is a striving after effects, which does much to mar the highly artistic level of the whole; and

secondly the constant introduction of ‘comic relief’, which draws off the interest from the main

personages just as a crisis is reached, and done no doubt with the laudable intention of not harming our

souls too much at a time. To some people such a cause may be agre e able, but I must confer that it only

jars on me. These errors were very much ‘en evidence’ in “The Deemster”, and are with us once more

in “The Manxman”, though in a smaller degree.

Malcolm Ophélie 89

The story is not one which need tax the ingenuity of the reader to any great extent, but it is put forth in

words both terrible in their intensity and moving in their pathos. Philip Christian

is the descendant of

an old Manx family which for six generations has held the high office of Deemster in its midst, though

the post is not and never can be hereditary. Once only, has the line of succession been broken, and that

was when Philip’s father stooping to the love of a fisherman’s daughter, made an honest woman of his

sweetheart, married her and was promptly disinherited. The result of such a wedding might be foreseen,

the man accustomed to different surroundings begins almost to loathe his lawful wife, whilst the woman

slummed by the husband’s relations, reviles the man who has left all for her sake. A child is born to

them, but little Philip proves only to be a source of constant bickering and strife twixt the pain, and the

broken-hearted man sinks into an early grave from his sheer grief, whilst his wife drinks herself to death.

But though the father has failed in the great battle of life, he has hoped that his son may win regain the

position he has lost, and it is around this struggle for greatness, that the author has worked out his story.

Philip has an illegitimate cousin, one Pete Quilliam

, who being but an ignorant fellow himself worships

the very ground which Philip treads on, and loves him with the constancy of a dog. And it is this simple

man, this faithful friend whom Philip wrongs and dishonours! Pete loves the daughter of a neighbouring

publican, a canting methodist; but being unable to win his consent to the match, he goes to Kimberley

to make his fortune, and leaves Philip as his Dooiney molla

, literally , “the “man-praiser”, 0 whose

office is to guard over the affianced bride and to see that no harm befalls her. Unconsciously Philip &

Kate drift into the whirlpool of love, which both do their best to hide from the other, until the news

arrives that Pete is dead, and then the great wave of passionate, resistless love which has been polluting

Philip Christian is besides Pete Quilliam one of the two main characters in The Manxman.

Pete Quilliam is one of the main characters

Dooiney molla is a dialect Manx term, which is integrated in Joseph Wright’s The English dialect dictionary,

being the complete vocabulary of all dialect words still in use, or known to have been in use during the last two

hundred years. In fact, this dictionary illustrates the use of “Dooiney molla” by an excerpt from Hall Caine’s The

Manxman:

They call him the Dooiney Molla – literally the manpraiser. His primary function is that of an informal,

unmercenary, purely friendly and philanthropic matchmaker introduced by the young man to

persuade the parents of the young woman that he is a splendid fellow with substantial possessions or

magnificent prospects, and entirely fit to marry her. But he has a secondary function less frequent

though scarcely less familiar, and it is that of lover by proxy, or intended husband by deputy, with

duties of moral guardianship over the girl while the man himself is off at the herrings, CAINE Manxman

(1894) pt. 1. Vii. (Wright 123)

Malcolm Ophélie 90

their hearts in secret, bursts forth and they fall, as many have done before. The passage which details

the fall is one of the best in the whole book and deserves to be quoted in full; Philip has striven to break

off the connexion before it assumes a sinful turn,

“Listen! I’m leaving Ramsey

for good – don’t intend to practise in the northern courts any longer –

settling in Douglas – best work lies there, you see – worst of it is – we shan’t meet again soon – not very

soon, you know, not for years, perhaps – “

“Philip, you must not go!” she cried.

“I’m sorry, Kate, very sorry. Shall always remember so tenderly – not to say fondly – the happy boy

and girl days together.”

He could hear her bosom heaving under her loose red bodice

. She took hold of his arm and dragged at

it.

“Won’t you spare me? Will you shame me to death? Must I tell you? If you won’t speak, I will. You

cannot leave me, Philip, because – because – what do I care? – because I love you!”

“Don’t say that, Kate!”

“I love you, Philip – I love you – I love you!”

“Would to God I had never been born!”

“But I will show you how sweet it is to be alive. Take me, take me – I am yours!”

Her upturned face seemed to flash. He staggered like one seized with giddiness. “Though apart, we shall

remember each other, Kate.”

“I don’t want to remember. I want to have you with me.”

“Our hearts will always be together”

“Come to me then, Philip, come to me!”

“The purest part of our hearts – our souls – “

“But I want you! Will you drive a girl to shame herself again? I want you, Philip! I want your eyes that

I may see them every day;

Location

Clothing

Malcolm Ophélie 91

and your hair, that I may feel it with my hands; and your lips – can I help it? – yes, and your lips, that I

may kiss and kiss them!”

“Kate! Kate! Turn your eyes away. Don’t look at me like that!”

He was fighting for her life. It was to be now or never.

“If you won’t come to me, I’ll go to you!” she cried; and then, she sprang upon him, and all grew

confused, the berries of the nightshade whipped his forehead, and the moon and the stars went out. “My

love! My darling! My girl!”

“You won’t go now?” she sobbed.

“God forgive me, I cannot.”

“kiss me. I feel your heart beating. You are mine – mine – mine! Say you won’t go now!”

“God forgive us both!”

“Kiss me again, Philip! Don’t despise me that I love you better than myself!”

She was weeping, she was laughing, her heart was throbbing up to her throat. At the next moment she

had broken from his embrace and was gone.

“Kate! Kate!”

Her voice came from the tholtan

“Philip!”.

So ends a scene which 0 has probably never been equalled in its brilliancy of depicting the human

passions, swayed and tossed by wayward men and women.

Complications soon arise however, for Pete is not dead but alive and coming post e -haste to claim his

bride. At this juncture too, the Deemstership falls vacant, and Philip is first favourite for the place. Both

are in the throes of agony and remorse, Philip is unwilling to share his father’s fate in marrying beneath

him, whilst at the same time anxious that Kate should remain away from Pete, without giving him any

reason for her strange conduct. But ‘l’homme propose, mais Dieu dispose’

, and Kate is forced into this

Manx English word. A ruined or dilapidated cottage or barn. (OED)

Biblical expression, meaning that men can only imagine what they would like to happen, but it is God who

ultimately decides fate.

Malcolm Ophélie 92

loveless marriage, whilst Philip in due course becomes Deemster. A child is born to the married couple,

which Kate realises in an instant is the offspring of Philip! Spite of the

loving protection and care which the uncultured Pete lavishes upon her, she still longs for the love of

the intellectual Philip, and unable to stand the atmosphere of hypocrisy in which she is living, flies to

her lover, and leaves the child to console her husband. Philip keeps her secretly in his home whilst Pete

like another Ham Peggotty

, Λ strives to keep her name free from stain by inventing a story of a visit

to an imaginary uncle in England and to carry out the fiction to the bitter end, writes letters to himself

from his wife, but his plot is discovered, and he is fain to admit that Λ she has gone away, whither he

knows not.

Meantime Kate has fared but little better; when away from her husband, she realises that she is a drag

upon the future career of Philip, and heroically leaves him and goes away. She returns however, on

hearing of her child’s illness and is discovered by Pete at the cradle-ride. Believing her to be dead, he

speaks of her as buried and “gone from this home for ever”, and she thinking that he has cast her off for

ever, attempts suicide, and is brought before the Deemster, Philip to be judged

: he does not recognize

her, as her head is bent and low, and he consults her thus:

“When a woman is so unhappy as to try to take her life, it sometimes occurs, only too sadly, that another

is partly to blame for the condition that tempts her to the crime.”

The Deemster’s voice was as soft as a caress.

“If there is such a one in this case, we ought to learn it. He ought to stand by your side. It is only right;

it is only just. Is there anyone here who knows you?”

The prisoner was now crying piteously.

“Ah! We mean no harm to anyone. It is in the nature of woman, however low she may sink, however

deep her misfortunes, to shield her dearest enemy. That is the brave impulse among women, and all

good men respect it. But the law has its duty, and in this instance it is one of mercy.”

The woman moaned audibly.

Ham Peggotty: character in Dickens’ novel David Copperfield.

Maybe explain why she is judged, on the ground of what

Malcolm Ophélie 93

“Don’t be afraid, my poor girl. Nobody shall harm you here. Take courage and look around. Is there

anybody in court who can speak for you – who can tell us how you came to the place where you are

now standing?”

The woman let fall her hands, raised her head, and looked up at the Deemster, face to face and eye to

eye.

“Yes”, she said, “there is one.”

Philip is so overcome by this scene that he faints in court and is carried to Pete’s house. In his delirium,

he blurts t the whole secret out, but Pete seeing matters from a higher standpoint than most people would

under similar circumstances, gives Philip charge of the child, obtains a divorce Λ from his wife, and so

enables them to marry her lover, and then goes away to Kimberley once more.

Philip however has determined on his course of action. He is appointed Governor of the Island, but

renounces both that and his Deemstership before a world gathered to do him honour, and confesses his

sin. Then releasing Kate who has been held in custody till now, he goes forth with her to fight the whole

world, to strive and let us hope, to conquer.

Truly, a noble ending to a great and noble book. It is impossible in a review like this to do full justice to

author and characters, but in spite of Philip’s sin, his weakness and his betrayal of his friend, it is imposs

impossible to deny him our sympathy, whilst even to Kate, who has wrecked three lives in her passion,

a certain amount of pity must be given. As for Pete, a species of Ham Peggotty

, true friend, loving

husband, and too-generous foe, our tears very heart-strings must be wrung by his bitter experiences and

his attempts to pass them off lightly.

If Mr. Andrew Lang

is still under the impression that there are no books in England worth certifying,

let him try “The Manxman”, and I am sure he will admit his mistake.

Reginald Golding-Bright

8, Regent’s Park Terrace,

N-W.

Character in Charles Dickens’s 1850 novel David Copperfield. Ham Peggotty is a virtuous sailor. He is known

for his good nature, which is why Golding Bright compares him with Pete from The Manxman.

Andrew Lang published an ‘infinitely droll parody on Hall Caine’ in Punch. (Waller 759)

Malcolm Ophélie 94

Sewell Haggard, editor of Nash’s Magazine (1879 – 1928)

30 May 1919 : overseas publications

Sewell Haggard was an American-born editor, who worked for Nash’s

Magazine. In his letter, he was trying to convince Hall Caine to start a contract

with publishing house Nash’s Magazine and publisher National Magazine Co

Ltd, 1917. It is clear that the publishing house was hopeful to work with Hall

Caine since he received attractive promises regarding overseas publications.

Haggard’s opening sentence seemed to indicate that Hall Caine himself

disagreed, regarding the book contract.

Transcription

Hall Caine

30 May 1919

Heath Brow, Hampstead

Sewell Haggard

69, Fleet Street, London

TLS

My Dear Sir Hall Caine,

I can appreciate your position in regard to the book contract but I would not be fulfilling my

duty to my organization if I did not again remind you of our enormous advantages in the way of

advertising facilities over any other book organization in America. To me it seems perfectly clear that

we could an would sell more of your book than any one else because we have the facilities for making

it known and accessible to more buyers than any other publishing house.

In book sales in America the surface has only been scratched because no firm has been able to

afford the cost of advertising and distribution necessary to realize the full possibilities. It is obvious that

Figure 16: cover of Nash's

magazine, November 1918.

Malcolm Ophélie 95

we have the best of it in this and, now that we have started in with orders for “full speed ahead”, there

is a big reward for you and somehow I feel that I know you are going to come in with us.

May I come and have a further talk with you on Friday? Any hour will be convenient for me.

Very sincerely yours,

[handwritten text] Sewell Haggard

Malcolm Ophélie 96

Sir William F. Jury, head of the Film Division of the British Ministry of Information

12 December 1918 : Victory and Peace

The envelope has a stamp that says “Jury’s Imperial Pictures”. Sir William Jury was head of the Film

Division of the British Ministry of Information (Nelson Current, 379). Jury seemed to be hesitant

towards the production of a certain film. His argument was that the film dealt with the war, while the

war was over and therefore the film had lost its value and purpose. Although the film in particular is not

mentioned, there are indications that it concerns the film Victory and Peace, starring Marie Löhr.

The first indication is the fact that Jury had written his letter on 12 December 1918, which was

the same year the film was produced. Furthermore, the fact that the film discussed in the letter dealt with

the War can only apply to Victory and Peace. More importantly, Jury’s argument as to why the film

should not be released reflects the main reason why Victory and Peace was never screened: the film

should not be released after war, which makes sense since the purpose of the film was to inform its

audience on the ongoing events.

Transcription

Hall Caine

12 December 1918

Heath Brow, Hampstead Heath, N.W.

W.F. Jury

19, 20 & 21, Tower Street, Upper St. Martin’s Lane, London

TLS

Dear Sir Hall Caine,

I have been expecting to hear further from you supplementing your letter of the 5th inst., as promised at

our interview on Monday afternoon. Personally I feel in view of the fact that the production was intended

solely for the objects of the War, and such objects having now passed, it is extremely doubtful if any

Malcolm Ophélie 97

good would be gained by attempting to effect – which would be a matter of great difficulty – the

distribution of the Film.

However, perhaps you would be good enough to let me have your further views at your earliest

convenience so that I may take some decisive step in the matter.

My kindest regards,

Yours faithfully,

[handwritten text] WF Jury

Malcolm Ophélie 98

John Merry Lesage, journalist and newspaper editor (1837 – 1926)

11 July 1918 : France’s Day

On 11 July 1918, Great-Britain was preparing for France’s Day, “the

day where we [the British] cherish in our hearts a keen sense of

gratitude and admiration towards our great Ally [France]”, as to The

Daily Telegraph (July 13th, 1918). John M. Lesage, managing-editor of

The Daily Telegraph, has written to Hall Caine on the subject of an

article the latter has written for the reputable newspaper. In the letter,

Lesage recommended that the article should be published the following

day, since the content of it was most appropriate for the festivities of

France’s Day. In his Patriotism and Propaganda in First World War

Britain: The National War Aims Committee and Civilian Morale,

David Monger defines France’s Day as “a centrally promoted NWAC

event organised to ‘let our gallant Allies [the French] see that our

people [the British] are not unmindful of the debt we owe to the French people’ and to reciprocate

France’s celebration of St George’s Day” (147). In this way, Britain provided a varied programme to

honour France: from putting up the French flag on all of the public buildings to playing the Marseillaise

at places of public entertainment.

The article discussed in the letter has indeed been published the following day on 12 July 1918,

when the celebration of France’s Day took place in London. The relevance for the publication of Hall

Caine’s article on this specific day becomes clear. The title itself is “France’s Day”. Hall Caine has

written a tribute to France. He was saying how France preserved her liveliness despite the damage caused

by the War.

Figure 17: British poster advertising a

fundraiser for the French Red Cross

during the celebration of France's Day on

14 July. Image taken from Temple

University Libraries.

Malcolm Ophélie 99

Transcription

Hall Caine

11 July 1918, Thursday, 2.30 p.m.

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

John M. Lesage

Fleet Street, London, E.C. 4.

TLS

My dear Sir Hall Caine,

I have just received your letter dated the 9th inst.

As the celebration of France’s Day in London is fixed for Friday, we thought it

would be more appropriate to publish your article that morning. We have already

made record of the interesting fact that the MS

of your tribute was sold by Mr

George Robey for £450.

Yours faithfully,

[handwritten text] John M. Lesage

9th of the current month. Abbreviation used for dating of correspondences.

Manuscript

Figure 18: Hall Caine's article on

France's Day, 12 July 1918.

Malcolm Ophélie 100

Marie Kaye Wouldes Löhr, actress (1890–1975)

20 November 1918 : concerning a matinee

The envelope of this letter indicates that it was sent to Fort Anne

Hotel, where Hall Caine resided in November 1918, as seen in

Caine’s correspondences with Golding Bright. The sender of

this letter is Marie Kaye Wouldes Löhr (1890–1975). She was

an actress born in Sydney on 28 July 1890. Her father, Lewis J.

Löhr, was treasurer of the opera house of Melbourne. Marie

Löhr’s mother, Kate Bishop, was an English born actress who

had acted on the London stage for twenty years and had been a

member of the original cast of Our Boys at the Vaudeville

Theatre in 1875. Growing up in this theatrical environment,

Marie Löhr naturally evolved into an actress in theatre and film.

In January 1918, she and her husband took on the management

of the Globe Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. She appeared in

several successful productions at the theatre, including Nurse Benson by R. C. Carton (Baker). Marie

Löhr has worked together with Hall Caine. She played in the film Victory and Peace, written by Hall

Caine and directed by Herbert Brenon.

Figure 19: An advertisement for the play

Nurse Benson, starring Marie Löhr, United

Kingdom, 1918, National Library of Medicine.

Malcolm Ophélie 101

Transcription

Hall Caine

20 November 1918

Fort Anne, Douglas

Marie Löhr

Globe Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, W.I.

TLS

Dear Sir Hall Caine,

A thousand thanks for your most charming wire. It was indeed kind of you to think of me, and

I am glad to tell you that the matinee

has been a real success, and we shall be able to send a nice big

cheque £o

the Fund.

Yours very sincerely.

[handwritten text] Marie Löhr

An afternoon performance of a play (OALD)

Has to be “to”.

Malcolm Ophélie 102

Arthur Milner, employee J.B. Lippincott Company

4 August 1921 : publication of The Master of Man

Arthur Milner worked for J.B. Lippincott Company and he expressed his disapproval to Hall Caine after

hearing that the publication of The Master of Man was going to be postponed. In the letter we also learn

that the reason for the postponement had not been clarified, as Milner asked for explanations. When

Hall Caine received this letter, he sent it to Sydney S. Pawling, so that he could read Milner’s point of

view on the matter. Sydney S. Pawling then answered Hall Caine by saying he was writing a letter to

Milner and sought to temper his feelings. The real reason of the postponement was still not mentioned

in Pawling’s letter, but it could have had something to do with the Canadian market of which Pawling

claimed he had not said a word.

Transcription

Hall Caine

4 August 1921

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

Arthur Milner

Durham House, 16 John Street, Adelphi

TLS

Dear Sir Hall,

I have just returned from a few days holiday and found a most distressing letter from Mr. Joseph

Lippincott awaiting me. He tells me that in accordance with a cable request from Mr. Pawling to

postpone publication of “The Master of Man” from August 1st to August 15th, or later, we decided to

issue, on August 29th. We had not up to the time of the letter being written to me, learned the reason

which has necessitated the postponement, and I can get no information whatever from Bedford Street. I

did not want to trouble you in the matter but thought it right to let you know that this unnecessary

Malcolm Ophélie 103

postponement of publication will most seriously interfere with the sales of “The Master of Man” in

America. Our plans had progressed to the point where it was not an easy matter to change it. Window

displays were arranged for all over the country, reviews timed, etc., and best of all we had, on August 1

the whole field to ourselves, there being no new work of fiction of any consequence ready before the

middle of August. You will see from this that a lot of the money spent on advertising will be absolutely

thrown away.

Will you kindly let me know what has caused this disastrous postponement at the last moment.

An explanation, more than “urgent reasons”, should have been given in Mr. Pawling’s cable message,

If this were not a big book, it would make little or no difference but the quantities involved are so great

that the retailers with any excuse are only too anxious to play for safety and cut down their original

orders especially as competition after the middle of August is going to be tremendous in fiction this

year,

With kindest regards,

Yours very sincerely,

[handwritten text] Arthur Milner

8 August 1921 : enclosed letter from Sydney S. Pawling to Hall Caine

Transcription

Hall Caine

8 August 1921

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

Sydney S. Pawling

20-21 Bedford Street, W.C.2.

TLS

My dear Caine,

Malcolm Ophélie 104

I am writing to Mr. Milner and now return his letter to you. On paper, his case looks serious,

but I came to the firm conclusion when I talked with him about the matter, that he was exaggerating the

case. Of course, I did not give the slightest hint about the Canadian market. He, and the Lippincotts are

more particularly upset because the cardinal and fundamental mistake was theirs. Surely, if they had felt

so strongly, they could have cabled pointing out the great difficulties and disadvantages to themselves,

and both you and I would have been prepared most carefully to reconsider the question of date. But so

little importance did they attach to the matter – judging by their cable – that they themselves suggested

even a further delay than we had asked for. What I told Milner at our interview last week was that the

difference in the date of publication when THE WOMAN THOU GAVEST ME was published made

no difference at all; in fact, as I pointed out to him, it is quite possible that the first reviews which

appeared in England, and which were sent to them, helped the book over there; and we were following

the same method in this case. They cannot possibly dispute any question of payment to you; they could

not do it morally or legally because they accepted the small delay asked for without demur. I will do my

best to smoothe Milner’s feelings and will also write personally to young Lippincott. When I was in

Philadelphia, I got the impression that they had great timidity and I am inclined to think that they raise

their own “bogeys”

. Their customers in America know that they have a certain big seller, which they

can sell from their shelves with no trouble, and I cannot possibly believe that any of their orders will be

reduced.

The other matters in your letter are being carefully watched and attended to, and I very strongly

agree with your view that we should concentrate on calling the public’s attention to the book as a great

story, and switch away from the definite moral appeal, [handwritten text]

either in the press or in other

advertisements.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text] Sydney S. Pawling

A thing that causes fear, often without reason (OALD, 160)

From “either” to “advertisments”

Malcolm Ophélie 105

Maurice O’Byrne

28 September 1913 : concerning Christian conventions

On the envelope, Greeba Castle has been crossed out and the address has been replaced by 62 Avenue

Rd., Regent's Park London. So when the letter was written, in September 1913, Hall Caine resided at

this address. There is other evidence that proves the presence of Hall Caine in Regent’s Park London

during this time, namely a correspondence between Hall Caine and Lloyd George. His dear friend, Dante

Gabriel Rossetti used to live nearby in a Tudor House at 16, Cheyne Walk, in Chelsea. He was the one

who advised Hall Caine to move to London.

In the letter, O’Byrne answered Caine’s questions and provided more information about

religious traditions. Caine probably needed this information with a view to using it in a new novel or

script. The content of the letter reveals that the novel under discussion is most likely The Christian. It is

clear that Maurice O’Byrne knew a lot about liturgy and religion, which was why Hall Caine has asked

him some questions concerning the litanies. O’Byrne sent the letter from Monkstown, Dublin. In his

letter, there are a few references to Ireland, such as Kingstown.

Transcription

Hall Caine

28 September 1913

62 Avenue Rd., Regent's Park, London

Maurice O’Byrne

Woodville, Monkstown

ALS

Malcolm Ophélie 106

Dear Mr. Hall Caine

I was glad to get your letter and to know you did not think me rather impertinent!

In answer to your first question–

so “to the litany

and ora pro nobis

” being always sung together”

Yes! They are if it is a litany of the Saints or the Blessed Virgin.

On no occasion could a catholic understand what you meant, if you said “let us say the ora pro

nobis.

The words are simply the end of a prayer. There is no litany called ora pro nobis. For instance

in the litany of the Blessed Virgin, one person says, virgin of virgin, the other “pray for us” mother

our redeemer – pray for us, mother of our creator – pray for us. The using of it the way you do would

be the same, as if some person said, speaking of your church service, “Did they say the *good* Lord

deliver us”? Meaning “did they say the litany”?

As the protestant service has only one litany, this would be more easily understood than what

you have said, we have as many litanies that we are obliged to say indicate which, saying “Let us say

the Litany of the Saints” or “the litany of the seven dolours” or “the litany for the dying” or, of St-

Joseph. The answers in all these are “ora pro nobis”.

There are other litanies “The Litany of Jesus” and others when we do not ora pro nobis does not

occur at all.

I hope I have made this clear, but as you see I am not much good at writing. Only I can say quite

decidedly the form is absolutely without meaning, no one would understand you.

Nuns can certainly visit or take their holidays in a community of the same order, or even if they are

obliged to stay in a place where there is no convent of their own order, they can stay wh with the

permission of their superior, at a convent of another order – while their business be finished, but always

two together.

Punctuation is not clear at all. Sometimes it seems to be a thinking mark, but it turns out to be a point. Even

the distinction between comma’s and dots is not clear.

A series of prayers to God for use in church services, spoken by a priest, etc., with set responses by the

people. (OALD, 910)

“Pray for us”. Latin phrase.

Extra quotation mark, but it has no function

Here, there should be another quotation mark, but there is none.

Very often, he does not draw the line on the t

Malcolm Ophélie 107

If the superior went to the Alban Hills

, she would take other nuns with her, and also would go

lithly [sic] to some convent of the order. Impossible otherwise.

There is no private society of nuns in the Catholic Church. They all belong to certain orders, *&* have

their own rules, but very very little, or indeed none at all in this rule, that the Rev mother

must be a

nun tried in different ways for years before she could become the head of the house. It is the other sisters

she must know and be able to give them the duties they are qualified for, also be able to manage them.

You are quite right about the making of a Pope. Bishops also are often chosen from orders, and put over

secular priests.

You must remember first of all (re

the little sisters of the poor) they are not nuns who go out

after the fallen. They beg food for the poor, and keep a home for the helpless, old or young, or sick. If a

fallen woman comes to them destitute they will keep her, but this is not their work – I don’t know about

London, but we have Magdalene Asylums

here, very many, one here in Kingstown

, who take no one

in but this class, & give them employment, but the nuns never go out to seek the women.

The women know of it and go themselves or are sent by some one

else.

The “Sisters of Mercy” have a refuge near here, Kingstown, but they never go ot out themselves,

except when they are changed from one convent to another.

Protestant sisters are very different from ours, and I think it a very good idea living in the place

where they are wanted, but you see there is no order at present that permits its nuns to go out to the high

ways & by ways to compel them to come in. I have wondered ever since I read your book why you

Alban Hills, Italian Colli Albani or Monti Albani, volcanic area in the Lazio (Latium) regione (region) of central

Italy, southeast of Rome.

Reverend Mother. A title of respect used when talking to or about a Mother Superior (= the head of a female

religious community) (OALD, 1327)

With reference to, from Latin rē.

Makarushka Irena (2012): “This order of nuns ran many of the Magdalene Asylums throughout Ireland,

Australia and the United States since the 1800s. Notwithstanding their name, these Asylums were anything but

places to which vulnerable women could retreat to find a safe haven. More mercenary than merciful, the

Sisters of Mercy betrayed the very values they purported to embrace by creating environments that were

punitive rather than restorative. Ostensibly, they proffered shelter and solace. In reality, the nuns ran what

amounted to penal institutions wherein vulnerable young women were victims of systematic and sustained

abuse.”

Now: Dunleary. Known as Dunleary until it was renamed Kingstown in honour of King George IV's visit in

1821. In 1920 it was given its present name.

Written seperately

Malcolm Ophélie 108

introduced the novice & priest’s elopement, and subsequent misery, it does not influence the other

characters one way or another, and I think rather mars the book. It is like the French novel “Marie Claire”

but one does not expect these things in English books.

Of course one knows, it often occurs, must, as long as we have our animal natures, which are

hard to chain up. Still it has no certain use in the book, I think.

Another thing I thought of while reading your book, the marriage had never been consummated.

Therefore they were not really married in the eyes of the Church, no priest would give a life absolution

if she did not submit herself to her husband.

It is a mortal sin in the Catholic Church for a wife to deny her body to her husband under any

circumstances I myself think this is a terrible fact to say a woman cannot call her body her own, but so

it is.

I have not got your book at hand, as it was lent to me by a friend and I had to read it in three

days, but I do not think there is any other mistake. It certainly is written in a most wonderfully catholic

spirit, for one of another faith.

Also, it takes such a clear view from the woman’s side. I always think if I were a man I should

be frightfully ashamed of my fellow men! The terrible ghastly things men do, destroy girls lives for

ever, and have no respect whatever for the fruit of their own bodies. They have children here, there,

anywhere! They know not and they care not where. Their children may be born in a ditch and brought

up thieves , starved and beaten, no they are begotten in the same way as their legitimate progeny are.

This is what makes me think the love of a father can never be anywhere near to the love of a mother for

her child.

I have a daughter an Ursuline

nun in Rome. I could find out anything more you should require

to know from her.

Ursuline, Roman Catholic religious order of women founded at Brescia, Italy, in 1535, by St. Angela Merici.

The order was the first institute for women dedicated exclusively to the education of girls.

Malcolm Ophélie 109

I expect there were many who read your book that observed what I mentioned to you, but they

did not take the trouble to tell you. I should not have written to you, only I could not bear your book to

be spoiled by inaccuracies which could be easily remedied. I shall be most happy to give you my (or

any?) information you may wish and if you like to send me the proofs of the alterations you may make,

I shall be very pleased to see if they are all right.

If you got a cheap Catholic prayer book you would see all the litanies. I think any Catholic will

tell you I am right in this, also about the nuns. I also think it is unnecessary for you to indicate the

occasion of the falling of the nun and priest. A nun could run away with a priest without any difficulty

even if the Rev mother, mistress of novices and all the other sisters were there. There are always ways

she could slip out if she wished to do so. They are not kept prisoners. I think it a mistake not to mention

the Sacred Heart order

. As they are most cold, calm, Λ women & also, they may hear of it and resent

it!

Please forgive me for writing so much. I hope I shall be some use to you.

Yours very sincerely,

Maurice O Byrne

Figure 20: Image taken from Maria Luddy's Prostitution an Irish Society, 1800-1940.

Roman Catholic religious congregation of women devoted to the education of girls. The Society of the Sacred

Heart was founded in France in 1800 by St. Madeleine Sophie Barat.

Malcolm Ophélie 110

Sydney Southgate Pawling, librarian, publisher and cricketer (1862 – 1922)

Date unknown : Louis Couperus’ The Book of Small Souls

Sydney S. Pawling was the co-director of Heinemann. Interestingly, Sydney S. Pawling played a part in

Hall Caine’s drama “The Christian”. He played the part of the Prime Minister. Other known figures,

such as Mr. William Heinemann, or Hall Caine himself were part of the cast as well. It was a ‘copyright

performance’ that was given at the Grand Theatre in Douglas. Allen (256) clarifies that this staging was

rather a reading. The novel was to be published two days later in London and in New York.

Figure 21: Excerpt taken from The Dart: A Journal of Sense and Satire, 13 Aug 1897, p.7.

The letter is about a review in the Westminster Gazette of 7 March 1914. Sydney S. Pawling enclosed

the cutting of the journal in his letter and made the relevant article apparent by adding crosses next to

the title. The author of the review, who remains unknown, praises Louis Couperus’ novel The Book of

Small Souls. This book is a typical representation of Couperus’ Literary Naturalism, which questions

the character’s behaviour and emphasises the fate of not being able to escape from convention. Sydney

S. Pawling praised the reviewer as much as he praised Couperus himself.

Malcolm Ophélie 111

The exchange of reviews proves of the importance of reviewing in the Victorian era and to what

extent the reviewers themselves accounted of literature in a most literary way, to the delight of the

reader, in this instance, Sydney S. Pawling. Given the wide range of periodicals and novels being

printed, the Victorian reader had to make a selection of what they esteemed worthy enough to read. In

order to facilitate the selection process, Literary criticism emerged.

Pawling says The Book of Small Souls is a proof of high craftsmanship, despite the poor sales

figures. A possible reason for the low sales could lie in the fact that Couperus granted a lot of attention

to the presentation of his novels. He even selected artists to design the novels. As a result, his books

were celebrated for their lavishly executed editions, but they were particularly expensive.

Figure 22: Louis Couperus' The Book of Small Souls,

original Dutch version.

Malcolm Ophélie 112

Transcription

Hall Caine

Date unknown, March 1914 ?

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

Sydney S. Pawling

Sender’s address unknown

ALS

My dear Caine,

I’ve just read encld

review over a chop

at a restaurant, & I can’t help sending it on to you for surely

this is “reviewing” at the highest point of intelligence. I do hope you have read the book itself, which I

gave you, for when I read the MS

, I felt this man Couperus is a master of his craft, & although the

book doesn’t sell, & won’t sell this review makes me feel justified. I know you are a craftsman, & have

often taught me much about the sheer “craft” of the novelists, Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Charlotte Bronte,

mr Henry Wood all master workmen. & so I want to know if you don’t think in the exact technique of

“craft” this man is a great master. I’m not talking of art, or plot or elementals or heart, because the book

won’t sell but merely as a master worker this book is perfect in balance & cameo

cutting.

Isn’t it?

I hope you are well, & happily working.

Reynold’s adv.’s are prominent, they have well seized their chance. Let me know if I can do anything

for you in the house at Hampstead or anything else.

Yours always truly

Sydney S. Pawling

Enclosed

A thick slice of meat with a bone attached to it, especially from a pig or a sheep: a pork/lamb chop. (OALD,

259)

Manuscript

A small part in a film/movie or play for a famous actor: a cameo role/appearance. (OALD, 212)

Malcolm Ophélie 113

28 June 1918 : concerning a receipt and Gordon Ralph Hall Caine

The envelope says “with war bonds”. Again, the sender is Sydney S. Pawling. In this letter, the address

is mentioned, which is that of the publishing company Heinemann. Pawling enclosed a receipt from The

Union of London and Smiths Bank Limited. Pawling also mentioned The Wold’s Work, which was an

illustrated magazine of national efficiency and social progress.

Transcription

Hall Caine

28 June 1918

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

Sydney S. Pawling

20-21 Bedford Street, W.C.2.

TLS

My dear Caine,

Here is the receipt. I hope you have had a comfortable journey and have already benefited.

I met Ralph yesterday, and found him at his best. He has been very helpful to our “World’s

Work” expert, Mr Talbot, and the story he has given him as regards paper manufacture etc, promises

very well.

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text]

Syd. S. Pawling

Signed after M. Pawling has left the office csr

From “Syd. S. Pawling” to “csr.”

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Malcolm Ophélie 114

27 June 1918 : enclosed receipt

Transcription

The Union of London & Smiths Bank Limited,

CHANCERY LANE, W.C.2. Branch,

27th June, 1918.

W. Heinemann, Esq.,

20-21, Bedford Street,

W.C.2.

Dear Sir,

a/c Sir Hall Caine, K.B.E.

I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th instant enclosing a remittance amounting to

£800: 0: 0.

Which shall be disposed of as directed.

Yours faithfully,

[handwritten text] Λ

Manager.

9 September 1919 : the omission of the raid scene

Apparently Caine has written a story that involved a “raid” scene. This scene might have been

susceptible to immorality, which then lead to Richard Whiteing’s suggestion to cut the scene out of the

story. Pawling has written to Caine to assure that the scene was not shocking enough to have it cut out.

The novel in which this scene appeared could be The Woman of Knockaloe, because it includes a scene

in which a shocking story is told about a bomb raid over London.

Malcolm Ophélie 115

Transcription

Hall Caine

9 September 1919

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

Sydney S. Pawling

20-21 Bedford Street, London, W.C.2.

TLS

My dear Caine,

Please excuse a hurried typed letter.

It is, of course, invaluable to have Richard Whiteing’s opinion on the subject, but, curiously enough

both Evans and I independently came to the conclusion that the scene he advises you to cut is a very

vital one and shows the intention of your theme; although you do it quite frankly there is nothing that

even a prude could object to. But I shall be able to write to you more fully when I see the revised galley-

proofs

. I do not think the [handwritten text]

“raid” scene, for a moment impedes the flow of the story,

and after all it was a natural sequel to the Hell Club of the Island, and logically brought that institution

to the proper end [handwritten text]

, besides marking a needed mile-stone in the hero’s profess.

I hope you are very very fit & well,

Always yours

Sydney S. Pawling

Penultimate proof of a page being typeset for printing, before it is set (imposed) as a page of a book or

booklet. Galley proofs are traditionally printed as a single column on a long strip of paper, and generally do not

include illustrations.

Only “raid” is handwritten.

From “besides” to “Syndney S. Pawling”.

Malcolm Ophélie 116

Charles Reade, novelist and playwright (1814–1884)

3 June [1873]

Charles Reade was a novelist and playwright from

Oxfordshire. He had a strong connection with his

mother, who was a devout evangelical. Edwards

describes how “many of his most distinctive

qualities as a writer, including his crusading

humanitarian zeal, his dogmatism, and blind

conviction of his own rightness, and even his

brusque prose style, have been plausibly attributed

to her influence”.

Just like Caine, Charles Reade was fascinated by the workings of the courtrooms. While Caine’s

enthusiasm sprung from his journalistic career, Reade’s affinity with courtrooms comes from his law

education. Although he never practiced law, his legal education highly influenced his approach, which

mainly focused on ‘facts’, i.e. the documentary evidence presented in the style of a courtroom advocate.

He defined his oeuvre as novels and plays ‘with a purpose’ (Edwards). His works reflect his

aim for a documentary adherence to the ‘truth’, especially in the treatment of social problems. His main

sources of facts were newspaper cuttings, which he collected in high quantities throughout his career.

Charles Reade initially wanted to pursue a career in the theatre. Edwards explains that his first three

novels were all written as plays and then turned into novels. Most of his letters to Hall Caine seem to

involve the cost of theatre props.

Figure 23: Charles Reade, by Charles Mercier, given to the National

Portrait Gallery, London in 1929.

Malcolm Ophélie 117

Transcription

Hall Caine

3 June [1873]

Destined address unknown

Charles Reade

2 Albert Terrace, Knightsbridge

ALS

Dear Sir,

Thanks for your communication .

I have not authorized as such Λ as what you refer to. Λ but that I think is a fine subject and one I would

sternly deal with if I could see my very Λ it commute a female interest with it. If you will send me your

work when finished I shall view it with intend.

Yrs truly

C. Reade

Malcolm Ophélie 118

24 June 1873

Transcription

Hall Caine

24 June 1873

Destined address unknown

Charles Reade

2 Albert Terrace, Knightsbridge

ALS

My dear Sir,

I really don’t know what to say about it. It is very difficult to set a price on another material that probably

I shall never use. But I suppose I must try and get your way and have a look at it.

Yrs truly

Reade

Malcolm Ophélie 119

8 April

Transcription

Hall Caine

8 April

Destined address unknown

Charles Reade

2 Albert Terrace, Knightsbridge

ALS

Dear Sir,

Just now I think I could do something with the “woman,” section.

I presume there would not be about a dozen boys on that.

I can only say that if I should find another I can use I will pay liberally for the use. So much of course I

do not mean. I’d take anybody but Λ Λ.

Yrs truly

Charles Reade

Malcolm Ophélie 120

9 April

Transcription

Hall Caine

9 April

Destined address unknown

Charles Reade

2 Albert Terrace, Knightsbridge

ALS

Dear Sir,

I must deal liberally with you for anything I cannot use, and a very brief inspection could enable me to

decide.

But I really do not see a way to clear the Λ blendfund. I apprehend that on your saying you have a

probable criticism for one section in “the Woman section”, this would let your cake that one Λ away for

enough purpose, passing then a slice. Should we come to terms.

Yrs truly

Charles Reade

28 April [1876]

Transcription

Hall Caine

28 April [1876]

Destined address unknown

Charles Reade

2 Albert Terrace, Knightsbridge

ALS

Malcolm Ophélie 121

Dear Sir,

I am distracted with family trouble, hence delay.

I can think of no way but this.

Buy the whole collection “Princess” & the whole collection “ships” for inspection. Name a price for

loan eighteen months, and a price for sale,

Of course they are two very different things.

Yrs vy truly,

Charles Reade

19 December

Transcription

Hall Caine

19 December

Destined address unknown

Charles Reade

2 Albert Terrace, Knightsbridge

ALS

Dear Sir,

Thanks for your letter in re Cd. Daher

I should very much like to see your common place-book or collectanea clapificata

Could that be managed? I am always at home in the evening generally in the morning from eleven till

one and from four till seven.

Yrs truly

Reade

Malcolm Ophélie 122

V.R.D.

Date unknown

Besides the initials “V.R.D.” and the address, which is Picadilly Hotel, London, there is no further

information of the sender.

Transcription

Hall Caine

Date unknown [Tuesday night]

Whitehall Court 2, London

V.R.D.

Piccadilly Hotel, London

ALS

Dear Mr Caine,

I am so sorry you couldn’t wait for me. I dressed as fast as ever I could but when I got downstairs you

were gone and I could not find the man who had taken the Λ so I don’t quite understand it. Anyway

won’t you telephone me so we can arrange a definite time. Our stay is so short (Saturday) and I do so

want to see you all. I expect to go to a matinee tomorrow afternoon (probably Λ Λ ) but shall be at home

in the evening in fact [vertically] any time after 6:15 I feel Λ Nash’s but

Very sincerely yours

V.R.D.

Malcolm Ophélie 123

Sir William Watson, author and poet (1858-1935)

12 April 1882 : Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s death

Sir William Watson was a friend and contemporary of Hall Caine (Allen,

78). According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he was an English

author of lyrical and political verse, best-known for his occasional poems.

In terms of style, his poetry can be categorised both as Pre-Raphaelite and

Victorian.

The letter deals with Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s death on the 9th of April

1882. An event which deeply saddened Hall Caine, since Rossetti was not

only a fellow artist, but also a close friend of Caine.

Transcription

Hall Caine

12 April 1882

Destined address unknown

Sir William Watson

Spring Bank, Lathom, Ormskirk

ALS

My dear Caine,

The sad news – which there is no need that I should name – was read by me with the deepest emotion.

No doubt you have just now many things to do and but little heart to write, so I shall not expect an

answer to this note. But when you have leisure to send me a line I shall be very glad. As yet I have not

even heard what was the cause or manner of his death

. The word will come in, you see. May any new

Dante Gabriel Rossetti died of blood poisoning from uric acid on April 9, 1882. (Poetryfoundation.org)

Figure 24: Sir William Watson, oil

painting by R.G. Eves; in the

National Portrait Gallery, London.

Malcolm Ophélie 124

plans of life you yourself meditate, be – to use the dead man’s own words – “to all fortunate favours

wed”!

So wishes yours sincerely

W. Watson

Quote from Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sonnet “Life the Beloved”.

Malcolm Ophélie 125

H. Watt, literary agent

30 January 1919 : film rights of The Prodigal Son

Literary Agency A.P. Watt was founded in 1875 by Alexander Pollock Watt (1834-1914), A. P. Watt is

the longest-established literary agency in the world. It is also one of the most dynamic and successful

agencies. The literary estates this agency represents include some of the foremost British and Irish

writers of the 20th Century (Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library). When reading

the following letter it becomes clear that correspondent H. Watt was Hall Caine’s agent.

The letter dates from 30 January 1919, a period in which Hall Caine had issues concerning the

film rights of The Prodigal Son, because earlier that month, on the 1st of January, a correspondence

between Golding Bright and Hall Caine already covered the film rights’ matter. In his letter, Golding

Bright said there was “not yet any definite offer” for The Prodigal Son film rights. Now, in Watt’s letter,

we learn that the cinema rights of The Prodigal Son were not available. Apparently, it was the decision

of the producers not to make a film. Eventually, the novel was converted into film in 1923, by A.E.

Coleby. Even though Hall Caine wanted his son to act in the production, Derwent is not present in the

cast of the film.

Malcolm Ophélie 126

Transcription

Hall Caine

30 January 1919

Fort Anne Hotel, Douglas, Isle of Man

H. Watt

Hastings House, 10 Norfolk Street, Strand, London

TLS

Dear Sir Hall Caine,

Many thanks for your letter of the 28th., the contents of which I have carefully noted.

I am sorry to hear that the cinema rights of “THE PROGIDAL SON” are not available, and so

of course are the people with whom I was in communication. I suggested to them as an alternative “THE

WOMAN THOU GAVEST ME” but I am sorry to say that they are not disposed to make an offer for

that particular work. Personally, I am entirely of your own opinion that it would make a most admirable

film, and I am very sorry that the producers do not see eye to eye with me in the matter. They are,

however, keenly interested in your books, and perhaps under these circumstances you will be able to

suggest another novel which is available. I may perhaps point out that their arrangements would not

permit of their agreeing to the condition that your son should act in the production. Perhaps that

condition only applied to “THE WOMAN THOU GAVEST ME”.

I shall look forward to hearing from you again at your convenience, and I hope very much that

you will be able to propose another of your novels. If so, perhaps you will let me know at the same time

what price you are asking for the film rights. In this connection, you will no doubt bear in mind that I

propose to act as your Agent in the matter, charging you my usual commission of ten per cent.

I am,

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text] H. Watt

Malcolm Ophélie 127

Theodore Watts-Dunton, author and poet (1832 – 1914)

10 February 1890 : a review

Besides his soliciting career, Theodore Watts-Dunton was a writer and a poet. It was thanks to his charm

as a conversationalist and his devotion as a friend that Watts-Dunton became acquainted with the pre-

Raphaelite group of poets and artists. Fellow artists such as J. M. Whistler called him 'Watts the

worldling'. Eventually, he completely ceased his legal

profession and started working as a literary critic.

Just like Hall Caine, he was a close friend of

Dante Gabriel Rossetti and stood by his side until

Dante’s death. In fact, Hall Caine was first introduced

to Theodore Watts-Dunton by their common friend,

Rossetti. Through Rossetti, Caine also became

acquainted with many other members of the London

literary and artistic society such as Ford Madox Brown,

William Sharp, Frederic Shields, and Christina

Rossetti (Allen).

The letter is sent from Theodore Watts-Dunion’s residence at the Pines, 11 Putney Hill.

Interestingly, poet Algernon Charles Swinburne lived with him from 1879 to 1909. They met in London,

and from the 1870s onwards, Watts-Dunton became Swinburne’s literary agent. According to Stephan,

“Swinburne called Watts-Dunton 'one of the best friends I ever had—or any one else ever had, for that

matter'”, which again establishes Watts-Dunton’s devotion as a friend.

After the death of his father, Swinburne’s life started to fall apart: he became an alcoholic and

had to cope with financial problems. Watts-Dunton decided to take care of his friend and he let

Swinburne move in with him. Stephan adds that “He managed to convince Swinburne to give up

drinking and encouraged him in regular work and sleep habits, and he took charge of all his business

matters. They continued to live together until Swinburne's death in 1909”.

Figure 25: The Pines, 11 Putney Hill

Malcolm Ophélie 128

Figure 26: A corner in The Pines, 11 Putney Hill.

Transcription

Hall Caine

10 February 1890

Destined address unknown

Theodore Watts-Dunton

The Pines, Putney Hill

ALS

My Dear Caine

Indeed I know not what to suggest. The article of course is friendly enough, but it is unimportant,

jejune

. what do you think about the reviewer’s commenting the 0 novel with the preliminary

apologue

Λ & really intend the two to be so connected? Of course the novel is not really injunct by the review a

novel must stand upon its own strength as a story. I am truly vexed & sorry for the mishap. Had I

reviewed it I could at least have given you another of more [vertically] strength and importance and I

certainly could have had a deal more to say in its praise.

Yours ever sincerely,

Theo Watts

Naïve, simplistic, superficial.

An allegorical narrative usually intended to convey a moral. (Merriamwebster.com)

Malcolm Ophélie 129

Alfred Wilson Barrett, author (1870 – 1945)

9 August 1913 : concerning a book and Mrs. Bouty

Alfred Wilson Barrett was the son of William Henry Barrett. The envelope shows how the letter was

initially destined to “2, Whitehall Court”, but this address has been crossed out and replaced by Greeba

Castle, Isle of Man. Perhaps it is a reused envelope, because the letter in it says “Author’s club, 2,

whitehall court” in the heading.

In the review “A History of the Authors’ Club of London 1891-2016”, Schüler explains that the

Club was “Founded in July 1891, the aim being to “advance the cause of Letters”. The Authors’ Club

was originally the social arm of the Society of Authors; admitting journalists, editors, men of science,

dramatists and academics, and not only the writers of books”. Alfred Wilson Barrett undoubtedly

belonged to the Author’s Club, as he was a fervent novelist himself. His oeuvre includes novels such as

The Golden Lotus and The Silver Pin.

Transcription

Hall Caine

9 August 1913

Greeba Castle, Isle of Man

Alfred Wilson Barrett

Author’s club, 2, whitehall court

ALS

Dear mr. Hall Caine,

How very like you to reply with double kindness to my bothering. I shall always remember the very

kind compliment you have paid me while at the same time, I am sure, making mrs Bouty enormously

grateful, and I wish though I daren’t do it, that I could also treasure the book. Some day soon I hope you

will hear of mrs Bouty’s husband, an inventor who has discovered how to take perfect natural colour

Malcolm Ophélie 130

photographs, and is on the road to fame. He is an Australian artist and a little bit of a poet, so you can

understand your book is going where it will be doubly welcome – very many thanks.

Very sincerely,

Alfred Wilson Barrett

Malcolm Ophélie 131

Wilson Barrett, actor and playwright (1846 – 1904)

27 March 1890 : Ben-my-chree

Wilson Barrett (born William Henry Barrett) was an English actor and

playwright. He was born on 18 February 1846 at Manor House Farm,

Chelmsford, Essex (Emeljanow). Barrett managed the Princess's

Theatre in Oxford Street, London and he also took over the Court

Theatre in 1879 and the Globe Theatre from 1887 to 1888.

Similarly to Caine, Wilson Barrett frequently dealt with

criticism. In Barrett’s case, the criticism led him to extreme debts and

almost a bankruptcy. To regain financial stability and popularity, Barrett

took his theatre company to America in September 1886, and opened at

the Star Theatre in New York. His company then toured across America

to Boston, Chicago, Washington, and Philadelphia. This journey turned

out profitably, and Barrett’s company returned to England in May 1887.

When he returned to the Princess's Theatre, he began to work with Hall Caine on a dramatic

adaptation of The Deemster, which was renamed Ben-my-chree (premiere on 17 May 1888). It was

Wilson Barrett’s only real success, and he added it to his repertory on his second American tour, which

began in Boston in October 1889, and this time he went to St-Louis and San Francisco (Emeljanow).

In fact, Caine had been given an offer to stage a version of his novel The Deemster before. It

was his close friend, Henry Irving who made the offer in 1887. But because Irving was touring abroad,

and the sales from the novel gave cause for concern, Caine had decided to take the bird in the hand and

accept the offer from Wilson Barrett (Hammond, 47). Although Caine regretted turning down Irving’s

offer, it has been favourable to work with Wilson Barrett and the play was a success. Eventually, Caine

was offered a second chance to work with Irving two years later. They were supposed to stage a play

titled The Prophet, but it was never staged due to censor issues. Caine was not envisaging to abandon

his theatrical work, but he did acknowledge that The Prophet was his last chance to work with Irving,

Figure 27: An original programme for the

Ben-my-Chree on 17 May 1888.

Malcolm Ophélie 132

“an actor/manager with a reputation for creating ‘art’ theatre” (Hammond 47). This explains why the

majority of Caine’s subsequent works were staged in popular theatres, by an actor-manager like Wilson

Barrett.

Hammond suggests that Hall Caine’s connection with Barrett was a “mixed blessing” (47).

Wilson Barrett was considered as one of Drury Lane’s most important producers. He received critical

acclaim for his spectacular staging effects. This lack of subtility, however, was one of the reasons why

highbrow critics categorised Barrett as a popular theatre manager. Nevertheless, Wilson Barrett

continuously sought to distance himself from lower theatrical forms. According to Hammond, Barrett’s

mission in taking over the Princess’s Theatre in the 1880’s was to protect the English melodrama, by

focusing on English authors and English settings with an important moral purpose. This strongly adheres

to Hall Caine’s work ethic. But just like Hall Caine, Barrett’s emphasis on the melodrama and the

romantic tradition categorised his work as popular art, rather than high art. Caine and Barrett’s first

collaboration, Ben-my-Chree, was highly acclaimed and some reviewers defined it as a work of art, but

the comments on their following works were considerably less celebrated.

During the years 1892 to 1894, Wilson Barrett lost his two daughters and two brothers. A family

tragedy which reflected itself in his acting performances. But this was somewhat neutralised by his

performances as Othello at the Court Theatre, Liverpool, and as Pete Quilliam in his own version of

Hall Caine's The Manxman at Leeds.

Nevertheless Barrett was an astute manager and entrepreneur who appreciated the value of

publicity, which many of his fellow managers saw as vulgar and self-aggrandising. He was devoted to

the fellow actors in his companies, assisting them with their stagecraft and caring for their welfare with

unflagging paternalism just as he diligently developed the dramatic talents of such writers as Jones and

Caine. Though he may have been despised and rejected by many critics, his religious plays undoubtedly

attracted new audiences to the theatre and provided enduring subject matter for the cinema. (Emeljanow)

Malcolm Ophélie 133

In light of the letter that Wilson Barrett sent to Hall Caine, one should keep in mind Hammond’s

explanation on how Caine’s dramatisations did not always faithfully follow the original novel:

[Hall Caine’s] first co-production with Barrett, Ben-my-Chree, was criticised as too gloomy

during its first performances, so Barrett – suffering financial troubles and needing a hit –

changed the ending to a happier one. He and Barrett so disagreed over the adaptation of The

Manxman in 1894 that they agreed to write two versions, Caine’s concentrating on the gloomy

story of Phillip, Barrett’s on the happier story of Pete. Caine’s version failed, while Barrett’s

was an unqualified success. (Hammond, 49)

It is quite noteworthy that in his letter, Wilson Barrett did indeed mention a specific act of an implied

play, which he had decided to adapt in a more joyful way. In the letter Barrett explicitly said “I dread

too much gloom”, and he further commented how a gloomy atmosphere was more appreciated in the

past, but here it was no longer what the audience asked for. The play under discussion could very likely

be Ben-my-Chree, since this is what he worked on with Hall Caine in 1888, and with this adaptation he

toured through America in 1890. The address of the letter, Philadelphia, confirms that he was touring in

America.

Transcription

Hall Caine

27 March 1890

The Hawthorns, Keswick, Cumberland, England

Wilson Barrett

Bellevue Hotel, Philadelphia

ALS

Malcolm Ophélie 134

Mr Hall Caine,

I am writing in haste to catch the mail. Sincere congratulations on the success of “The Bondman” &

earnest wishes for your recovery from the fall & La Grippe

if you have it. It is a very wretched

complaint, mind the after effects. Take Tonics. Anti-fungine has saved me from breaking down. I tried

to make act second amusing. I dread too much gloom. People will not go to such pieces nowadays. This

could have made the fortunes of authors & actors formerly. I am hent

visitor at the general reception

of the Ben-my-chree Λ & in England of the general public. The Bondman must be made more amusing

– taleful and I wish you could work on the draft. The scenery of act one & two are well on the way &

will be very bright. Do not fear this. I am funding Bright & Jeromes

play 0 Miss Eastlake on trial rally.

Address Philadelphia

Bellevue Hotel

Until April 19”

Yours always,

Wilson Barrett

La Grippe, or Russian influenza, which began in late 1889. It has long been recognised as a major global

epidemic. (Ewing)

Archaic. To seize; grasp; anything that has been grasped. (Collins Dictionary)

Helen Jerome. Adapted Pride and Prejudice for the Wilson Barrett Company. (Cano, 188)

Figure 28: Article with poem on Russian influenza, appeared

in Moonshine, 18 January 1890.

Malcolm Ophélie 135

Pearkes Withers, author of Cassell and Co Ltd. Publishers

9 February 1923 : symposium La Garçonne

On the envelope, the destined address Greeba Castle has been crossed out and replaced by Fort Anne

Hotel. Hall Caine resided there in November 1918, as seen in Golding Bright’s letter destined to Hall

Caine and Marie Löhr’s letter to Caine. This letter dates from February 1923. The sender was Pearkes

Withers, author of Cassell and Co Ltd. Publishers. Withers informed Caine that a new weekly paper

would come out soon. Given the date of the letter, the paper under discussion is most likely Cassell’s

Weekly, which was founded by Cassell and Co. in 1923.

Withers’ task was to ask the opinion of multiple well-regarded authors, concerning the French

novel La Garçonne, by Victor Margueritte. This novel gave way to much controversy, leading the author

to be expelled from the French Legion of Honour. The controversy was discussed in many newspapers

at the time. The Scone Advocate of 5 January 1923, for instance mentions the following: “A special

committee of the Legion of Honor has deprived Victor Margueritte, the novelist, of his commandership,

on the ground that his novel, “La Garconne

,” was a travesty on French life, a danger to public morals,

and susceptible of use as anti-French propaganda” (“General News” 3). Of course, Withers is writing to

Hall Caine in view of integrating Caine’s opinion on the book in his article.

Should be written as “Garçonne”.

Malcolm Ophélie 136

Transcription

Hall Caine

9 February 1923

Fort Anne Hotel, Douglas

Pearkes Withers

“The Brier Patch”, Kingsfold, Billingshurst, Sussex

TLS

Dear Sir Hall Caine,

For a new weekly paper (of about the same calibre as “John O’London’s Weekly”) which

Cassells are bringing out in a few weeks’ time, I have been commissioned by Newman Flower, the

Editor-in-Chief, to compile a sort of symposium

under the general title, “IS ‘LA GARCONNE’

REALLY BEYOND THE PALE?”

The expressions of opinion are to be confined entirely to well-known British authors. As

doubtless you know, Victor Margueritte, the author of “La Garconne” was expelled from the French

Legion of Honour for writing the book, and recently an emissary from Scotland Yard induced all the

sellers of foreign books in London to hold up any copies they possess. Max Pemberton recently told Mr.

Flower that in his opinion even for a French book “La Garconne” goes beyond all limits.

I am hoping that you have read the book and that you will very kindly give me an expression of

your own views concerning it for publication.

Will you?

Yours sincerely,

[handwritten text] Pearkes Withers

A meeting at which experts have discussions about a particular subject; a small conference (OALD)

Malcolm Ophélie 137

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Figure 29: Sir Hall Caine and Mr Derwent Hall Caine, late nineteenth century - early twentieth century.

Malcolm Ophélie 138

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