John Oliver Hobbes (real name Pearl Mary-Teresa Richards Craigie) first received attention for her novellas, or what she called her “philosophical fantasias”(1) – witty, sometimes glib drawing room comedies full of irony, epigrams, and quirky characters. These early works often narrate the disappointments and absurdities of life and love. One of the most important English Catholic novelists of the 1890s, the influence of her conversion to Catholicism in 1892 can be seen in some of her early works, but most notably in her novels The School for Saints and Robert Orange. In spite of her place in the history of the Catholic novel, she is largely unread today, though recent scholarship on female fin de siècle …
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Citation: Gunn, Ariel. "John Oliver Hobbes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 February 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2153, accessed 24 November 2024.]
