|
|
1855-1928
Stanley John Weyman was born at 54 Broad Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, the son of a solicitor and educated at Ludlow Grammar School, Shrewsbury School and Christ Church College, Oxford. He began writing in a minor way while at Oxford, where he read history, and increased his output in the following years with articles for The Cornhill magazine. He in fact spent ten years as a barrister before turning to a literary career full time, due largely to the influence of the magazine's editor. Weyman travelled abroad and his experiences and observations provided him with much of the background for the historical stories and romances for which he became well known. On one occasion he was arrested under suspicion of being a spy in the south of France and was only released after the intervention of the British Ambassador.
His novels include Memoirs of a minister of France (1895), The red cockade (1895), The long night (1903), The wild geese (1908) as well as many short stories. The wild geese was to have been his last novel but, some years later, he added The great house (1919) and Ovington's Bank (1922), both of which were published in serialised form in The Cornhill magazine. Weyman's novels are only rarely read today, although Under the red robe (1894) is sometimes remembered. The new rector (1891), although supposed to be set in Warwickshire, actually contains passages describing Ludlow and South Shropshire.
He lived in Ludlow until the late 1890's after which he moved to Ruthin in North Wales where he spent the remainder of his life and where there is a statue in his memory.
From An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire by Gordon Dickins, published by Shropshire Libraries, 1987. © Gordon Dickins, 1987.
The following works are available in the West Midlands Creative Literature Collection:-
Abbess of Vlaye (1904)
Castle Inn (1898)
Chippinge (1906)
Count Hannibal (1901)
From the memoirs of a minister of France (1895)
Gentleman of France (1893)
The great house (1919)
House of the wolf (1890)
In king's byways (1902)
Laid up in lavender (1907)
Lively Peggy (1928)
Long night (1903)
The man in black
(1894)
My Lady Rotha (1894)
The new rector (1891)
Ovington's Bank (1922)
Queen's folly (1925)
Red cockade, The (1895)
Shrewsbury; a romance (1898)
Sophia (1900)
Starvecrow Farm (1905)
Story of Francis Cludde (1891)
Traveller in the fur cloak (1924)
Under the red robe (1894)
Wild geese, The (1908)
A sample chapter and the complete text of the following are available on this website:
Selected complete e-texts are available for download from Project Gutenburg.
Online resources include:-
On Stanley Weyman; greatest of the yellow nineties swashbuckling romancers by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. There is an excellent bibliography of the authors works with plot details.
Stanley John Weyman; Prince of romance by Donna Dightman Rudin is a complete website devoted to the author, with some e-texts and many photographs of editions of his books and places associated with his life.
Page created 9 February 2001 and last
updated 28 October 2002
For your literary enquiries and comments please see the Who to contact page.
Please read the general terms and conditions and about accessibility on this site, including the use of the UK government accesskeys system. Further details on ICRA labelling, visitor counts and EnrichUK may be obtained by following these external links:-
|
|