"An enormously useful and complete edition of an important and neglected Victorian novel."-Helena Michie, Rice UniversityJohn Halifax, Gentleman follows the fortunes of a poor orphan who is befriended by the narrator, Phineas Fletcher, the invalid son of a Quaker tanner in an English provincial town. He raises himself up from his humble beginnings, and the book reflects the changing conditions in England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, as the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the middle class altered the social and political complexion of the country. Published in 1856, the book was immensely popular with contemporary readers. John Halifax, Gentleman was written by Dinah Craik (1826-1887), the daughter of a Nonconformist minister and his wife, who turned to writing when her father deserted his children following their mother's death.(cover image courtesy of Michal Zacharzewski)

Dinah Maria Craik, nee Dinah Maria Mulock, also often credited as Miss Mulock (1826-1887) was an English novelist and poet. She was determined to obtain a livelihood by her pen, and, beginning with fiction for children, advanced steadily until placed in the front rank of the women novelists of her day. She is best known for the novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1857). She followed this with A Life for a Life (1859), which she considered to be the best of her novels; others were The Ogilvies (1849), Olive (1850), The Head of the Family (1851), Agatha's Husband (1853), Hannah (1871), The Little Lame Prince (1875) and Young Mrs. Jardine (1879). She published some poetry, narratives of tours in Ireland and Cornwall, and A Woman's Thoughts about Women (1858).