Guy Newell Boothby (13 October 1867 – 26 February 1905) was a prolific Australian novelist and writer, noted for sensational fiction in variety magazines around the end of the nineteenth century. He lived mainly in England. He is best known for such works as the Dr Nikola series, about an occultist criminal mastermind who is a Victorian forerunner to

Fu Manchu Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, comic ...

, and ''Pharos, the Egyptian'', a tale of Gothic Egypt, mummies' curses and supernatural revenge.

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was his friend and mentor, and his books were remembered with affection by

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

Biography

Boothby was born in Adelaide to a prominent family in the recently established British colony of South Australia. His father was

Thomas Wilde Boothby Thomas Wilde Boothby (9 December 1839 – 19 June 1885), This reference, alone, spells his middle (preferred) name "Wylde". generally known by his full name, or as "T. Wilde Boothby", was a politician in the British colony of South Australia. H ...

, who for a time was a member of the

South Australian Legislative Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...

, three of his uncles were senior colonial administrators, and his grandfather was

Benjamin Boothby Benjamin Boothby (5 February 1803 – 21 June 1868) was a South Australian colonial judge, who was removed from office for misbehaviour, one of four Australian supreme court judges removed in the 19th century. 01312 Macquarie Law Journal 21. Bo ...

(1803–1868), controversial judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia from 1853 to 1867. When Boothby was aged approximately seven his English-born mother, whom he held in great regard, separated from his father and returned with her children to England. There he received a traditional English grammar school education at Salisbury, Lord Weymouth's Grammar (now

Warminster School Warminster School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in Warminster, Wiltshire, England, for students aged three to eighteen. Initially established in 1707, the school took its current form in 1973 with the amalgamation of Lo ...

) and

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

, London. Following this, Boothby returned alone to South Australia at 16, where, in his turn, he entered the colonial administration as private secretary to the mayor of Adelaide, Lewis Cohen,Mark Valentine, "Introduction' in Guy Boothby, ''Dr Nikola, Master Criminal''. Herts UK: Wordsworth Editions, 2009, p. x but was "not contented" with the work. Despite Boothby's family tradition of colonial service, his natural inclinations ran more to the creative than to the administrative and he was not satisfied with his limited role as a provincial colonial servant. In 1890, aged 23, Boothby wrote the libretto for ''Sylvia'', a comic opera, published and produced at Adelaide in December 1890, and in 1891 his second show, ''The Jonquil: an Opera'', appeared. He also wrote and performed in an operetta, ''Dimple's Lovers'', for Adelaide's

Garrick Club The Garrick Club is a gentlemen's club in the heart of London founded in 1831. It is one of the oldest members' clubs in the world and, since its inception, has catered to members such as Charles Kean, Henry Irving, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, A ...

theatre group. The music in each case was written by Cecil James Sharp. His early literary ventures were directed at the theatre, but his ambition was not appeased by the lukewarm response his melodramas received in Adelaide. When severe economic collapse hit most of the Australian colonies in the early 1890s, he followed the well-beaten path to London in December 1891. Boothby, however, was thwarted in his first bid for recognition as lack of funds forced him to disembark en route in Colombo, Sri Lanka and begin making his way homewards through South East Asia. According to family legend, the dire poverty he faced on this journey led him to accept any kind of work he could get: ‘This meant working before the mast, stoking in ocean tramps, attending in a Chinese opium den in Singapore, digging in the Burmah Ruby fields, acting, prize fighting, cow punching...’Philip M. Robinson and Leslie A. Spence, ''The Robinson Family of Bolsover and Chesterfield'' (Chesterfield: Robinson & Sons, 1937), p. 103, cited in Paul Depasquale, ''Guy Boothby: His Life and Work'' (Seacombe Gardens, South Australia: Pioneer Books, 1982), p. 17. This was followed by a brief sojourn on Thursday Island, a Melanesian island in the Torres Strait group recently annexed by the Queensland colony, where he worked as a diver in the lucrative pearl trade; and finally by an arduous journey overland across the Australian continent home to Adelaide. While Paul Depasquale, author of the only Boothby biography, warns that this account of his travels may be somewhat glamorous,Paul Depasquale, ''Guy Boothby: His Life and Work'' (Seacombe Gardens, South Australia: Pioneer Books, 1982), p. 17. Boothby certainly travelled extensively in South East Asia, Melanesia and Australia at this period, collecting a stock of colonial anecdotes and experiences that were to influence much of his later writing. Approximately two years later, Boothby finally reached London and succeeded in having an account of his peregrinations, ''On the Wallaby, or Through the East and Across Australia'', published in 1894. The travelogue met with reasonable success, which was matched later that year by Boothby's first novel, ''In Strange Company''. A novel of adventure set variously in England, Australia, the South Seas and South America, ''In Strange Company'' established a pattern that was to characterise the succeeding Boothby oeuvre – the use of exotic, international and particularly Australasian locales that frequently function as an end in themselves superfluous to the requirements of plot. By October 1895, Boothby had completed three further novels, including ''A Bid for Fortune'', the first Dr Nikola novel which catapulted Boothby to wide acclaim. Of the two other novels Boothby wrote in 1895 ''A Lost Endeavour'' was set on Thursday Island and ''The Marriage of Esther'' ranged across several Torres Strait Islands. Boothby continued to produce fiction at a ferocious rate, producing up to six novels a year across the range of genres prevalent at the fin de siècle, and is credited with producing over 53 novels in total, not to mention dozens of short stories and plays.John Sutherland (ed.), intro to Guy Boothby, ''A Bid For Fortune, or Dr Nikola’s Vendetta'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. xv

Death

Boothby died at his home, aged but 38 years, in Boscombe, near Bournemouth, from complications arising from influenza on 26 February 1905. His grave is in the town's Wimborne Road Cemetery.

Writing

Some of Boothby's earlier works relate to stories of Australian life, but later he turned to

genre fiction Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. A num ...

, including crime fiction, imperial romance, science fiction and Gothic horror. Boothby's oeuvre is pervaded by an array of intriguing and subversive villains whose larger than life characters eclipse the unremarkable English protagonists. They range from the classic supernatural fiends of fin-de-siècle gothic, to deformed freaks (a particular penchant of Boothby's), to sophisticated international master criminals that anticipate the adversaries of

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

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character. In their depiction of the international master criminal and the revenge of the

undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. Most commonly the term refers to corporeal forms of formerly-alive humans, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies, who have been reanimated by super ...

ancient Egyptian, Boothby's novels were influential in establishing two key tropes of the cinematic age, which persist long after the novels themselves have faded into obscurity.

The Dr Nikola Series

Boothby was once well known for his series of novels about ''

Doctor Nikola Guy Newell Boothby (13 October 1867 – 26 February 1905) was a prolific Australian novelist and writer, noted for sensational fiction in variety magazines around the end of the nineteenth century. He lived mainly in England. He is best known fo ...

'', an occultist anti-hero seeking immortality and world domination. The adventures of Nikola were launched with the first episode of ''

A Bid for Fortune ''A Bid for Fortune'' is a 1917 British silent crime film directed by Sidney Morgan Sidney Morgan (2 August 1874 – 11 June 1946) was an English film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He directed 45 films between 1914 and ...

'' which was serialised in ''

The Windsor Magazine ''The Windsor Magazine'' was a monthly illustrated publication produced by Ward Lock & Co from January 1895 to September 1939 (537 issues). The title page described it as "An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women". It was bound as six-monthly ...

'' (a rival to ''

The Strand Magazine ''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...

''). Nikola is described as dressing in "faultless evening dress, slender, having dark peculiar eyes and dark hair, and white toad-coloured skin." He lives in a bungalow on the Rue de Lafayette in Shanghai. Stanley L. Wood often illustrated the Nikola stories and his portraits depict Dr Nikola in white cravat and fur coat, with his perennial companion, the black cat Apollyon (named after a dark angel) – huge, baleful, gleaming-eyed – perched on Nikola's shoulder. Nikola – cosmopolitan, cultivated, universally feared – is highly intelligent but unscrupulous. John Clute writes that "The heart of the series is devoted to the Doctor's convoluted search for a Tibetan process that will resuscitate the dead and ensure immortality in the living, and there are some hints that – unhampered by compunctions, armed with psi powers and blessed with a powerful experimental intellect – he may have reached his goal." Dr Nikola starred in a play ''The Adventures of Dr. Nikola'' by

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and

Oswald Brand Oswald may refer to: People * Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name *Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters *Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterb ...

, which ran briefly in London in 1902.

Other novels

In ''A Prince of Swindlers'' he created the character of Simon Carne, a gentleman thief in the Raffles mould, with an alter ego as the eccentric detective Klimo. Carne first appeared in ''

Pearson's Magazine ''Pearson's Magazine'' was a monthly periodical that first appeared in Britain in 1896. A US version began publication in 1899. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contribut ...

'' in 1897, predating Raffles by two years. ''Pharos the Egyptian'' (1899) is a thriller with romance and some supernaturalism in which a very sinister old man, Pharos, proves to be Ptahmes, a mummy who has survived through the centuries with full magical powers. ''The Curse of the Snake'' (1902) is referred to by

Brian Stableford Brian Michael Stableford (born 25 July 1948) is a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped ...

as the most interesting of Boothby's novels. However, Stableford states that Boothby "very obviously made up his novel plots as he went along and that therefore this novel "concludes with a woefully inadequate explanation of its marvelously creepy opening sequence."Brian Stableford. "Guy (Newell) Boothby in John Clute and John Grant (eds). ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' London: Orbit, 1997, p. 127.

Ghost Stories

Boothby wrote a number of ghost stories, mainly from his collections ''Uncle Joe's Legacy and Other Stories'' (1902) and ''The Lady on the Island'' (1904). Amongst the better known of these are "The Black Lady of Brin Tor", "A Strange Goldfield", "The Lady on the Island" and "Remorseless Vengeance." These have been reprinted in horror anthologies edited variously by

Richard Dalby Richard Lawrence Dalby (15 April 1949 – 4 May 2017) was an editor and literary researcher noted for his anthologies of ghost stories. Early life Richard Dalby was born in London on 15 April 1949 to Tom, a publishing editor, and Nancy, an amate ...

, Hugh Lamb,

Leigh Blackmore Leigh (David) Blackmore (born 1959) is an Australian horror writer, critic, editor, occultist, musician and proponent of post-left anarchy. He was the Australian representative for the Horror Writers of America (1994–95) and served as the se ...

and James Doig

Bibliography

Doctor Nikola

# ''

: or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta'' (1895) (AKA ''Enter, Dr Nikola'') (note: included in the Wordsworth Editions omnibus ''Dr Nikola Master Criminal'', 2009) # ''Dr Nikola'' (1896) AKA ''Dr. Nikola Returns'' (note: included in the Wordsworth Editions omnibus ''Dr Nikola Master Criminal'', 2009) # ''The Lust of Hate'' (1898) (note: Dr Nikola makes only a peripheral appearance in this novel). # ''Dr Nikola's Experiment'' (1899) # ''"Farewell, Nikola"'' (1901)

Other works

Other books written by Guy Boothby include: * ''On the Wallaby: or, Through the East and Across Australia'' (1894) * '' In Strange Company, In Strange Company: a Story of Chili and the Southern Seas'' (1894) * ''A Lost Endeavour'' (1895) * ''The Marriage of Esther: a Torres Straits Sketch'' (1895) * ''The Beautiful White Devil'' (1897) * ''Bushigrams'' (1897) * ''The Fascination of the King'' (1897) * ''The Phantom Stockman'' (1897) * ''Sheila McLeod: a Heroine of the Back Blocks'' (1897) * ''The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds'' (1897) * ''Across The World For a Wife'' (1898) * ''Billy Binks, Hero: and Other Stories'' (1898) * ''Love Made Manifest'' (1899) * ''Pharos, The Egyptian'' (1899) * ''The Red Rat's Daughter'' (1899) * ''A Sailor's Bride'' (1899) * ''"Long Live the King!"'' (1900) * ''A Maker of Nations'' (1900) * ''A Prince of Swindlers'' (1900) (AKA ''The Viceroy's Protegé'') * '' The Woman of Death'' (1900) * ''The Boundary Rider: a Play in One Act'' (1901) * ''A Cabinet Secret'' (1901) * ''The Jonquil'' (1901) * ''A Millionaire's Love Story'' (1901) * ''My Indian Queen: Being a Record of Sir Charles Verrinder, Baronet, in the East Indies'' (1901) * ''The Mystery of the Clasped Hands'' (1901) * ''The Rickshaw: a Farce in Two Acts'' (1901) * ''My Strangest Case'' (1901) * ''The Childerbridge Mystery'' (1902) * ''The Curse of the Snake'' (1902) * ''The Kidnapped President'' (1902) * ''Uncle Joe's Legacy: and Other Stories'' (1902) * ''Connie Burt'' (1903) * ''The Countess Londa'' (1903) * ''The League of Twelve'' (1903) * ''A Queer Affair'' (1903) * ''A Two-fold Inheritance'' (1903) * ''A Bid for Freedom'' (1904) * ''A Bride from the Sea'' (1904) * ''A Consummate Scoundrel'' (1904) * ''A Desperate Conspiracy'' (1904) * ''The Lady of the Island'' (1904) ("A Professor of Egyptology", "The Black Lady of Brin Tor", "A Strange Goldfield") * ''An Ocean Secret'' (1904) * ''A Brighton Tragedy'' (1905) * ''A Crime of the Under-seas'' (1905) * ''For Love of Her'' (1905) * ''In Spite of the Czar'' (1905) * ''A Lost Endeavor'' (1905) * ''The Race of Life'' (1906) * ''A Royal Affair: and Other Stories'' (1906) * ''A Stolen Peer'' (1906) * ''The Man of the Crag'' (1907) * ''In the Power of the Sultan'' (1908)

References

External links

* * * *
ebooks of works by Guy Boothby
a
Project Gutenberg Australia

*
Emilio Zampieri: ''Guy Boothby: The "Dr. Nikola" Novels''. (Dissertation, Universita degli studi di Padova, online)
* William Patrick Maynard
Dr. Nikola and Pharos the Egyptian
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boothby, Guy 1867 births 1905 deaths 19th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists Australian people of English descent Writers from Adelaide People educated at Lord Weymouth's Grammar School 19th-century male writers 20th-century Australian male writers People buried at the Wimborne Road Cemetery, Bournemouth