Charles Reade

Charles Reade (1814–1884) was an English novelist and dramatist, born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he became a fellow, Reade initially pursued a career as a playwright before turning to fiction. He is best remembered as a master of the "matter-of-fact romance," a style blending realistic detail with dramatic storytelling. Reade was famous for his meticulous research, filling notebooks with facts on medicine, law, and social conditions, which gave his novels remarkable authenticity.

His breakthrough came with "Peg Woffington" (1853), adapted from his own play "Masks and Faces," followed by "Christie Johnstone" (1853). His reformist novel "It Is Never Too Late to Mend" (1856), exposing brutality in prisons and Australian goldfields, achieved enormous popularity. "Hard Cash" (1863) attacked abuses in private lunatic asylums, while "Griffith Gaunt" (1866) and "Put Yourself in His Place" (1870), dealing with trade union violence, further established his reputation. "Foul Play" (1868), co-written with Dion Boucicault, influenced reforms in maritime practices.

Reade's masterpiece, "The Cloister and the Hearth" (1861), a historical novel depicting the parents of Erasmus, is widely regarded as one of the finest historical romances in English literature. He died in London in 1884.