SHORTHOUSE, JOSEPH HENRY (1834-1903)

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 1014 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SHORTHOUSE, JOSEPH HENRY (1834-1903) , English novelist, was born in

Great

GREAT

Charles Street, Birmingham, on the 9th of September 1834. He was the eldest son of Joseph Short-

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

, chemical manufacturer, and Mary Ann, daughter of John Hawker, of the same town. He was educated at Grove

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

, Tottenham, where he proved a promising and industrious pupil, and upon leaving school entered his father's business, in which he was all his life actively engaged. He married, in 1857, Sarah, daughter of John Scott, of Birmingham. His literary

interest

INTEREST

was fostered by a local essay club, to which he contributed many papers. It was not until he was nearly fifty years old that Shorthouse made his public

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

as an author, and even then his remarkable !story, John Inglesant, had undergone vicissitudes. It was kept for over three years in MS., and the author eventually printed one hundred copies for private circulation. One of these found its way intolthe hands of Mrs Humphry Ward, who recommended it to Messrs Macmillan. Its first

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

was a quiet one; but Gladstone was at once struck by its quality, and made its reputation by his praise. It became the most discussed book of the day, and its author was suddenly famous. Besides John Inglesant (1881), Shorthouse published
The Little Schoolmaster Mark (1883), Sir Percival (1886), The Countess Eve and A Teacher of the Violin (1888), and Blanche, Lady Falaise (1891); but none of these has been so popular as his first novel. He will always remain known to fame as " the author of John Inglesant." Shorthouse was originally a Quaker, but the appeal of the Anglican Church was insistent with him, and he was baptized into its

body

BODY

before the appearance of his story. Something of his own stress of religious transition appears in the character of his hero, who is pictured as living in the time of the Civil War, a pupil of the

Jesuits

JESUITS

, a philosopher and a Platonist, who is yet true to the National Church. The story,
which is deeply mystical and imaginative, has for its central idea the dangers of bigotry and superstition, and the necessity of intuitive religion to progress and culture. It is a

work

WORK

.full of opulent colour and crowded life, no less than of philosophy and spiritual beauty. Shorthouse's

work

WORK

was always marked by high earnestness of purpose, a luxuriant style and a genuinely spiritual quality. He lacked dramatic faculty and the work-manlike conduct of narrative, but he had almost every other quality of the born novelist. He died at Edgbaston on the 4th of March 1903.
See The Life, Letters and Literary Remains of J.

Henry

HENRY
HENRY (1129-1195)
HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng.
home
, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)

Shorthouse, edited by his wife (2 vols., 1905).

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