Stanley John Weyman and A Gentleman of France (1893)

Abstract

No novelist of the decades with which we are concerned was more closely identified with the historical romance than Stanley J. Weyman (1855–1928). Like several of his colleagues (Doyle, Hope, Haggard), Weyman delayed his decision to turn professional author, and did not become one until he had tried — and failed — to succeed in another field. Like his contemporary rivals, too, he so respected the intelligence of his readers that he went to great lengths to authenticate the details of the historical periods he was writing about. His novels were astonishingly popular, and he is worth considering if only because their merits and failings were very similar to those of the best historical romances written at the same time.