A Passing Madness

by Florence Marryat

A sensation novel published earlier in 1897 in London by Hutchinson & Co. A strong-willed, weak-minded young woman accidentally poisons and kills her sick brother. The dead man's physician is blamed for his death, but all ends well when Joan finally admits what she has done after her vigil at the side of her dead brother during which her dead father's ghost appears and speaks a single word: "Confess." This is not a really a supernatural novel: Joan has "a passing madness;" and the story has no similarities whatsoever with THE BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE. Marryat, daughter of the famous mid-Victorian nautical author Frederick Marryat, was one of Tauchnitz's most popular late-Victorian writers, concentrating on domestic dramas but veering into the occult and supernatural at times. She was also an enthusiastic spiritualist and wrote nonfiction works extolling those views.

279 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1897

About the author

British author and actress, daughter of author Capt. Frederick Marryat (Children of the The New Forest), particularly known for her sensational novels and her involvement with several celebrated spiritual mediums of the late nineteenth century. Her works include There is No Death (1891) and The Spirit World (1894).

Marryat's parents separated when she was young; her childhood was divided between her parents' residences, where she was privately educated.
Shortly before her 21st birthday, she wed Thomas Ross Church, an officer in the Madras staff corps of the British Army in India; they spent the first seven years of their married life traveling India extensively before she returned to England in 1860. They had eight children but divorced in 1879; later that year, Marryat wed Colonel Francis Lean.

At the age of 43, Marryat entered the stage, taking a role in a drama she had written, Her World Against a Lie, in 1881.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars