Lost Sir Massingberd: A Romance of Real Life

by James Payn

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Genres: Fiction

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1864

About the author

James Payn was an English novelist and editor of The Cornhill Magazine.

Payn's father, William Payn (1774/5 - 1840), was clerk to the Thames Commissioners and at one time treasurer to the county of Berkshire. Payn was educated at Eton, and afterwards entered the Military Academy at Woolwich; but his health was not equal to the demands of a military career, and he proceeded in 1847 to Trinity College, Cambridge. He was among the most popular men of his time, and served as president of the Union. Before going to Cambridge he had published some verses in Leigh Hunt's Journal, and while still an undergraduate put forth a volume of Stories from Boccaccio in 1852, and in 1853 a volume of Poems.

In the same year he left Cambridge, he met and shortly afterwards married Miss Louisa Adelaide Edlin (b. 1830 or 1831), sister of Judge Sir Peter Edlin, later chairman of the London Quarter Sessions. They had nine children, the third of whom, Alicia Isabel (died 1898), married The Times editor George Earle Buckle.

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, bit like Wilkie Collins but without the padding and self-importance. I'm surprised it's as obscure a text as it seems to be, it's a good story with vivid characters and a truly spine-chilling denouement. Read it!

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read on the recommendation of the Wodehouse character Charteris. It's the sort of book Wodehouse is reputed to have loved, a mystery potboiler. Not really my cup of tea, but a decent enough read.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: a depiction of a Bow Street Runner as part of a melodramatic mystery.

[Sebastien Joubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Payn’s Lost Sir Massingberd is a compact yet richly atmospheric novel that grips from the first page and lingers long after the last. First published in 1864, this forgotten gem of Victorian literature combines gothic suspense, gentle romance, and moral redemption with a deftness rarely seen in works of its time.

At the novel’s dark centre is Sir Massingberd Heath—one of the most chilling villains in 19th-century fiction. Payn crafts him not as a cartoonish fiend but as a deeply believable figure of cruelty and corruption, casting a shadow over the lives of those around him. When his young, innocent nephew Marmaduke becomes the target of his uncle’s violent ambition, the story unfolds into a quiet but tense battle between decency and malevolence.

What makes the novel remarkable is its restraint. Payn eschews melodrama in favour of measured tension, using the rural English setting—the great estate, the hollow oak, the silenced public path—as living symbols of power, secrecy, and fate. The writing is crisp, witty, and often laced with gentle irony, offering a welcome contrast to the more florid prose of Payn’s contemporaries.

The romance between Marmaduke and Lucy is subtle but touching, serving as the novel’s emotional anchor. Meanwhile, the eventual downfall of Sir Massingberd—haunting, ironic, and entirely earned—stands as a perfect gothic coda, a triumph of poetic justice.

Though short by Victorian standards, Lost Sir Massingberd is all the stronger for its brevity. It reads like an elegant novella: perfectly paced, morally satisfying, and richly entertaining. A forgotten classic well worth rediscovering.