George Alfred Lawrence (25 March 1827 – 23 September 1876) was a British novelist and
barrister.
Biography
George Alfred Lawrence was born at
Buxted
Buxted is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex in England. The parish is situated on the Weald, north of Uckfield; the settlements of Five Ash Down, Heron's Ghyll and High Hurstwood are included within its boundarie ...
, Sussex, the eldest child of Rev. Alfred Charnley Lawrence, Curate of Uxfield Chapel, Buxted, and the Hon. Lady Emily Mary Finch-Hatton, sister of George William Finch-Hatton, 5th Earl of Nottingham and 10th Earl of Winchilsea.
He was educated at
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
and at
Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1851 married Mary Ann Georgiana Kirwan. He was called to the bar at the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...
in 1852, but soon abandoned the law for literature.
In 1857 he published anonymously a first novel, ''Guy Livingstone'', "portraying a more violent picture of
Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...
than
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes (20 October 182222 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. ...
."
[Jarndyce: ''XIX Century Fiction, Part II, L–Z'', 2021](_blank)
Items 2–5. This gained great popularity. He went on to write several more tales in what has been called the "muscular school" of novel-writing,
introducing into English fiction a ''beau sabreur'' type of hero, great in sport and love and war. ''Sword and Gown'' (1859), for example, "is a bigamy story, climaxing in the
Charge of the Light Brigade".
The gentleman protagonist of ''Barren Honour. A Tale'' (1862) dies in a shipwreck. It has been called "a study of magnificently chivalrous self-destruction".
On the outbreak of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
Lawrence went to America with the intention of joining the
Confederate Army. He was taken prisoner and only released on promising to return to England. He travelled much in later years and died in Edinburgh.
Writings
Other works include:
*''Sword and Gown'' (1859)
*''Barren honour'' (1862)
*''Blanche Ellerslie's ending''
*''Border and bastille'' (1863)
*''Sans merci; or, Kestrels and falcons'' (1866)
*''Brakespeare; or The fortunes of a free lance'' (1868)
*''Breaking a butterfly'' (1869)
*''Silverland''
*''Maurice Dering''
*''Anteros''
Notes
References
*
*
Attribution:
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, George Alfred
19th-century English novelists
Victorian novelists
1827 births
1876 deaths
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Place of birth missing
English male novelists
People from Buxted