Besant, Walter
Entry updated 20 October 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1836-1901) UK author known primarily for his work outside the sf field; one of the main founders of the Society of Authors in 1884. His early novels were written in collaboration with James Rice (1843-1882); their The Case of Mr Lucraft and Other Tales (coll 1876 2vols) contains several fantasies, including the novella-length "The Case of Mr Lucraft" (27 October-10 November 1875 The World) about a man who leases out his appetite, suffering in exchange his partner's jaded dyspepsia. The Revolt of Man (1882 anon) is an anti-suffragette novel depicting a female-dominated society of the future, where Religion has been abolished; it exemplifies the sexual attitudes and imagination of the Victorian gentleman in a fashion which modern readers might find unwittingly funny (see Feminism; Women in SF) especially perhaps in the climax of the tale, where one of these chaps leads a successful revolt against urban females and is crowned King.
The Inner House: Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual, 1888 (1888; exp vt as coll The Holy Rose, Etc 1890) is a significant early Dystopia in which the discovery of a technology of Immortality leads – after a savage purging of the elderly – to passionless social stagnation 500 years hence; the tale depicts a successful revolt against this tyranny. The Doubts of Dives: Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual, 1889 (1889; vt The Lament of Dives 1889; reprinted in Verbena Camellia Stephanotis, coll 1892; cut 1892) is an earnest Identity Exchange fantasy one of whose protagonists, unusually, seeks actively to solve the ennui felt after he has become wealthy through an inheritance. Uncle Jack, etc. (coll 1885) includes "Sir Jocelyn's Cap", an F Anstey-esque fantasy novella written in collaboration with Walter Herries Pollock. A Five Years' Tryst and Other Stories (coll 1902) includes the sf story "The Memory Cell" (in For Britain's Soldiers, anth 1900, ed C J Cutcliffe Hyne), about the Invention of a device designed to execute Memory Edits. Besant's abiding interests in social reform and abnormal Psychology bring a few of his other novels close to the sf borderline, most notably the dual-personality story The Ivory Gate (1892); his credulity concerning ESP is responsible for the introduction of (very minor) fantastic elements into several others. Besant was knighted in 1895. [BS]
see also: Anonymous SF Authors; Sociology.
Sir Walter Besant
born Portsea, Hampshire: 14 August 1836
died London: 9 June 1901
works
- The Revolt of Man (Edinburgh, Scotland: William Blackwood, 1882) anonymous [hb/]
- The Inner House: Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual, 1888 (Bristol, England: J W Arrowsmith, 1888) [hb/]
- The Holy Rose, Etc (London: Chatto and Windus, 1890) [exp vt of the above as coll: hb/]
- The Doubts of Dives: Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual, 1889 (Bristol, England: J W Arrowsmith, 1889) [hb/]
- The Lament of Dives (New York: Frank F Lovell, 1889) [vt of the above: hb/]
- Verbena Camellia Stephanotis (London: Chatto and Windus, 1892) [coll: containing the above: hb/]
- Verbena Camellia Stephanotis (Leipzig, Germany: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1889) [coll: cutting some stories from the above but not The Doubts of Dives: hb/]
- The Demoniac: Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual, 1890 (Bristol, England: J W Arrowsmith, 1890) [hb/]
- The Ivory Gate (London: Chatto and Windus, 1892) [first appeared 2 January-24 September 1892 Chamber's Edinburgh Journal: published in three volumes: hb/]
collections
- The Case of Mr Lucraft and Other Tales (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1876) with James Rice, anonymous [coll: published in two volumes: novella-length title story first appeared 27 October-10 November 1875 The World: hb/]
- Uncle Jack, Etc. (London: Chatto and Windus, 1885) [coll: hb/]
- In Deacon's Orders and Other Stories (London: Chatto and Windus, 1892) [coll: hb/]
- The Charm and Other Drawing-Room Plays (London: Chatto and Windus, 1896) with Walter Pollock [plays: coll: title play is fantasy: illus/Chris Hammond and A Jule Goodman: hb/uncredited]
- A Five Years' Tryst and Other Stories (London: Methuen, 1902) [coll: hb/]
links
previous versions of this entry