''Reginald Dalton'' is an 1823
comedy novel by the Scottish writer
John Gibson Lockhart originally published in
three volumes
The three-volume novel (sometimes three-decker or triple decker) was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern novel as a form of popular literatur ...
by
William Blackwood
William Blackwood (20 November 177616 September 1834) was a Scottish publisher who founded the firm of William Blackwood and Sons.
Life
Blackwood was born in Edinburgh on 20 November 1776. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a firm of book ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and
Thomas Cadell
Colonel Thomas Cadell (5 September 1835 – 6 April 1919) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. It was one of four novels Lockhart published in the early 1820s, including ''
Valerius
The gens Valeria was a patrician family at ancient Rome, prominent from the very beginning of the Republic to the latest period of the Empire. Publius Valerius Poplicola was one of the consuls in 509 BC, the year that saw the overthrow of th ...
'' (1821) and ''Adam Blair (novel), Adam Blair'' (1822). It takes place around Oxford University which Lockhart had himself attended. It helped to launch the genre of "Oxford novels" which focus on the development of a young student.
[Dougill p.92-93]
Synopsis
Reginald Dalton, a naïve young vicar's son, arrives at Oxford to study but soon falls in with a bad crowd and runs into debt. His father can scarcely afford to support him and he becomes a servitor, leading to snobbish mockery and exclusion from those who had once been his friends. He ends up fighting a duel.
References
Bibliography
* Bevan, David. ''University Fiction''. Rodopi, 1990.
* Brock, Michael G. & Curthoys, Mark C. ''Nineteenth-century Oxford, Part 1''. Clarendon Press, 1997
* Dougill, John. ''Oxford in English Literature: The Making, and Undoing, of 'the English Athens. University of Michigan Press, 1998.
1823 British novels
Novels by John Gibson Lockhart
William Blackwood books
Novels set in Oxford
British comedy novels
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