Hall Caine

Portrait of a Victorian Romancer

Lively biography of a romantic novelist who was a best seller in his day, a friend of D G Rossetti and Bram Stoker among others.
Now almost forgotten, 'she makes us see why it is important we consider his life and remember his name.' Daily Telegraph, 1997.

'Vivien Allen's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the period.' Book and Magazine Collector, 1998.

'Vivien Allen deserves high marks for this no-nonsense biographical study of Hall Caine. She is objective and candid in crystal clear prose which provides a fine example of how biography can (and should) be researched and written.'
J O Baylen in English Literature in Transition.

Why I wrote Hall Caine

Vivien Allen by statue of Hall Caine in Douglas, IoM Hall Caine's name was imprinted on my memory by my grandmother who had all his novels. She caught me, aged 15, reading The Woman Though Gavest Me and snatched it away saying it was "Not suitable for a young girl. You can read it when you grow up - and are married"!

By the time I was aged 56, I was living in the Isle of Man and a friend pointed out Caine's family home to me as we drove past and I was off on the trail.

The photograph shows Vivien Allen by the statue of Hall Caine in Douglas, Isle of Man

From the Dust Cover

The Bondsman Mention Hall Caine now and the likely response is ‘Hall who?’ Yet in his day he was so famous he was recognized on the streets of London and New York. Crowds would gather outside the gates of his homes, in the Isle of Man and London, in hope of catching sight of him as he went in or out. Like some other popular writers of his time he was accorded the adulation reserved now for stars.

Caine Cartoon Caine was more widely read than most other novelists of his time and was frequently the subject of caricatures. It was said, when he died in 1931 that he had sold ten million copies of his 15 novels. As some had been continuously in print for more than thirty years and had been translated into many foreign languages including Japanese, Finnish and Afrikaans, this could be true. But in a few years rows of books bound in fading red cloth, lying forgotten on bookshelves, was all that remained of his fame.

In this book Vivien Allen traces the life of Hall Caine from his childhood in Liverpool to his triumphant career as a popular novelist. The importance of Caine’s association with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is investigated, and the correspondence between Caine and Rossetti provides a fascinating insight into their relationship.

Drawing of Caine While this is the story of Hall Caine the shadow of Rossetti’s lifelong influence is very evident in the man and his work. The author interviews Caine’s descendants and relatives of his associates, who reveal truths and myths about him, sometimes through personal childhood memories, family papers and photographs.

Painstaking investigations of Hall Caine’s personal archive at the Manx Museum have gradually formed a. picture of a close-knit, chapel-going, affectionate, working-class family in Victorian Liverpool, of a precociously clever little boy evolving into a mixed-up teenager. and then of an ambitious young man with literary leanings. The archive covers the years from 1870 to the novelist’s death. There are letters from and to his family and young men he had known at school and at work in Liverpool, from girlfriends, from his employers and from odd acquaintances (one or two very odd indeed), the men he hero-worshipped and famous people who became friends, including Brain Stoker, Christina Rossetti and George Bernard Shaw.

Caine talking to the director Herbert Wilcox filming on location in the Isle of Man for "The Bondman", July 1928.The actors are Norman Kerry and Frances Cuyler

Caine in Egypt, cartoon drawn for 'The Tatler' by charles Harrison, 19th February 1908

Pen and ink drawing of Caine in his study at Hawthorns by Fred Pegram, 1893