biography
pronunciation:
[beznt]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1836–1901)
|
| biography:
| Novelist and social reformer, born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, S England, UK, the brother-in-law of Annie Besant. He studied at King's College, London, and at Cambridge. After a few years as a professor in Mauritius, he devoted himself to literature. In 1871 he entered into a literary partnership with James Rice (1843–82), writing several novels. His All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882) and Children of Gideon (1886), describing conditions in the slums of the east end of London, and other novels advocating social reform, resulted in the establishment of the People's Palace (1887) for popular recreation. In 1894 he began a survey of London, which appeared in 10 volumes (1902–12). He was knighted in 1895. |
|
|
