Francis Lathom (14 July 1774 – 19 May 1832) was a British
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
novelist and playwright.
Biography
Francis Lathom was born on 14 July 1774, in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
, Netherlands, where his father, Henry, conducted business for the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
and returning to England around 1777, settling near
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
. He joined the Norwich Stock Company, a stock theatre company, in 1791 and began his literary career.
Lathom was a precocious writer, beginning to write plays before he had turned eighteen. His first play, ''All in a Bustle'', was produced on the Norwich stage at the Theatre Royal Norwich in 1795; he would go on to write six other plays, including ''The Dash of the Day'' (1800), which went into three Norwich editions as well as a reprint published in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
.
Lathom's first novel, ''The Castle of Ollada'' (1795) was published in two volumes, anonymously, by William Lane's
Minerva Press
Minerva Press was a publishing house, noted for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction in the late 18th century and early 19th century. It was established by William Lane (c. 1745–1814) at No 33 Leadenhall Street, Lon ...
. This work, like most of Lathom's later
Gothic novels, owed much to the earlier works of such writers as
Horace Walpole and
Ann Radcliffe
Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist and a pioneer of Gothic fiction. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining respectability for G ...
. Although Lathom would occasionally employ bloody and horrific scenes reminiscent of
M. G. Lewis, he typically followed Radcliffe's method of the "explained supernatural."
His next novel, ''
The Midnight Bell
''The Midnight Bell'' is a gothic novel by Francis Lathom. It was first published anonymously in 1798 and has, on occasion, been wrongly attributed to George Walker. It was one of the seven "horrid novels" lampooned by Jane Austen in her novel ...
'' (1798), is his most famous, not only because it is his best Gothic novel, but more significantly because
Jane Austen lists it as one of "
the horrid novels" in her ''
Northanger Abbey
''Northanger Abbey'' () is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by Jane Austen. Austen was also influenced by Charlotte Lennox's '' The Female Quixote'' (1752). ''Northanger Abbey'' was completed in 1803, the first of ...
''. Lathom would go on to publish many more Gothic novels, all with sensational titles such as ''Astonishment!!!'', ''The Fatal Vow'', ''The Unknown'', and ''The Impenetrable Secret, Find it Out!''
But Lathom was not only a Gothic novelist: about half his works are works of contemporary satire or attempts at fiction in the mode of
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...
.
Montague Summers
Augustus Montague Summers (10 April 1880 – 10 August 1948) was an English author, clergyman, and teacher. He initially prepared for a career in the Church of England at Oxford and Lichfield, and was ordained as an Anglican deacon in 1908. He ...
called Lathom's ''Men and Manners'' (1799) his masterpiece and worthy of
Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
. ''Very Strange, But Very True!'' (1803), despite its enticing title, is not a Gothic novel, but a rollicking farce which still retains much of its humour after two centuries.
Lathom can be cited for two important achievements as a novelist. First, he was one of the first writers of
historical fiction, with historical romances such as ''The Mysterious Freebooter; or, The Days of Queen Bess'' (1806), a novel which blends fact and fiction regarding
Queen Elizabeth, predating the better known historical novels of Scott. Secondly, Lathom may be considered among the first gay writers. His Gothic novels often deal, albeit in a muted fashion, with subversive
sexuality; his later works, including the novella ''The One-Pound Note'' (1820) and the novel ''Live and Learn'', deal in a more surprisingly obvious way with the subject of mutual love between two men. Many of his novels attack infidelity however and champion a moral attitude to family affairs.
Little is known of Lathom's personal life. In 1797 he married Diana Ganning, daughter of a wealthy Norfolk lawyer, and the pair had four children, three of which survived, a baby boy dying in infancy. However, despite Lathom's burgeoning literary career and his growing family, some unknown cause led him to leave Norwich in 1810 and end his literary career. Summers has speculated this is related to Lathom's homosexuality, but there is no evidence one way or the other. He did separate from his wife shortly after this however and was given two thousand pounds a year in his father's will on condition that he break all ties with his children. His wife was awarded sole guardianship over the children in 1815 and the children were later renamed with their mother's maiden name. Lathom appears to have travelled extensively, visiting
New York and
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
and attempting to publish two novels in 1820. He also travelled in France and Italy, eventually settling in rural Scotland with the Rennie family, where he died in
Aberdeenshire in 1832. He was buried under the name of 'Mr James Francis' in a plot in Fyvie churchyard belonging to the Rennie family.
Bibliography
*''The Castle of Ollada'' (1795)
*''
The Midnight Bell
''The Midnight Bell'' is a gothic novel by Francis Lathom. It was first published anonymously in 1798 and has, on occasion, been wrongly attributed to George Walker. It was one of the seven "horrid novels" lampooned by Jane Austen in her novel ...
'' (1798)
*''Men and Manners'' (1799)
*''Mystery'' (1800)
*''Astonishment!!! A Romance of a Century Ago'' (1802)
*''Very Strange, But Very True!'' (1803)
*''The Impenetrable Secret, Find it Out!'' (1805)
*''The Mysterious Freebooter; or, The Days of Queen Bess'' (1806)
*''The Fatal Vow; or, St. Michael's Monastery'' (1807)
*''Human Beings'' (1807)
*''The Unknown; or, The Northern Gallery'' (1808)
*''The Romance of the Hebrides; or, Wonders Never Cease!'' (1809)
*''London; or, Truth Without Treason'' (1809)
*''Italian Mysteries'' (1820)
*''The One-Pound Note and Other Tales'' (1820)
*''Puzzled and Pleased'' (1822)
*''Live and Learn'' (1823)
*''The Polish Bandit, or, Who is my Bride?'' (1824)
*''Young John Bull'' (1828)
*''Fashionable Mysteries'' (1829)
*''Mystic Events'' (1830)
References
*
Francis Lathom page at The Literary GothicPotter, Franz J., ''The History of Gothic Publishing, 1800-1835''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
*
David Punter
David Punter (born 19 November 1949, in Harrow, London) is Professor of English at the University of Bristol.''Who’s Who 2011'', A&C Black, 2011 He is the author of many critical studies, and has been internationally recognised as an expert on Go ...
, ed., ''The Midnight Bell''.
Valancourt Books
Valancourt Books is an independent American publishing house founded by James Jenkins and Ryan Cagle in 2005. The company specializes in "the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction," in particular gay titles and Gothic and ho ...
, 2007
See also
*
List of Minerva Press authors
This is an alphabetical list of authors who published at Minerva Press, or with William Lane before he coined the name, between the founding of the press in 1790 and 1820 or so when Lane's successor, A. K. Newman, dropped "Minerva" from the co ...
*
Minerva Press
Minerva Press was a publishing house, noted for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction in the late 18th century and early 19th century. It was established by William Lane (c. 1745–1814) at No 33 Leadenhall Street, Lon ...
External links
Book description and excerpt from ''The Castle of Ollada'' (1795) at Valancourt Books*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lathom, Francis
1774 births
1832 deaths
English dramatists and playwrights
18th-century English novelists
19th-century English novelists
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male novelists
19th-century English male writers
18th-century English male writers
Writers of Gothic fiction