Inspirational Quotes by Charles Reade (British Author)

Charles Reade (1814–84) was a British novelist and playwright. His works on the social injustices of his times are noted for his passionate indignation and laborious research. Reade is also remembered for his historical novel The Cloister and the Hearth (1861.)

Reade was born at Ipsden House, Oxfordshire, the youngest of eleven children. After five harrowing years at Iffley School and, in 1831, he gained a scholarship at Magdalen College, Oxford, and in 1835, having taken third-class honours, was duly elected to a lay fellowship. The following year he entered Lincoln’s Inn, and in 1843 was called to the Bar but never practiced.

Reade first wrote for the stage in 1850 and went on to produce 40 dramas. Through one of these dramas, he formed a platonic friendship with Mrs. Seymour, a warmhearted actress who kept house for him from 1854 until her death (1879.)

After 1852, Reade wrote a succession of unsuccessful plays and successful, usually profitable novels. The novels illustrate social injustice and cruelty in one form or another, and his writing is realistic and vivid. They include Peg Wolfington (1852,) Hard Cash (1863,) Foul Play (1869, with Irish actor and playwright Dion Boucicault,) A Terrible Temptation (1871,) and A Woman-hater (1877.)

Reade’s masterpiece was his long historical novel of the 15th century, The Cloister and the Hearth (1861,) which relates the adventures of the father of Desiderius Erasmus as he wavers between religious celibacy and human love.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Charles Reade