The Devil's Pulpit

by H.B. Marriott Watson

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

356 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2009

About the author

Henry Brereton Marriott Watson, known by his pen name H.B. Marriott Watson, was an Australian-born British novelist, journalist, playwright, and short-story writer. He worked for the St. James Gazette, was assistant editor of the Black and White and Pall Mall Gazette, and staff member on W.E. Henley's National Observer.

Marriott Watson was a popular author during his lifetime, best known for his swashbuckling, historical and romance fiction, and had over forty novels published between 1888 and 1919; these included seventeen short story collections and one collection of essays. He was a longtime resident of New Zealand, living there from 1872 to 1885, and often used his childhood home as the setting for many of his novels.

He and his common law wife, English poet Rosamund Marriott Watson, were well known in Britain's literary circles and were associated with many fellow writers of the period including J.M. Barrie, Stephen Crane, Thomas Hardy, Henry James and H.G. Wells among others. Their first and only son, Richard Marriott Watson, was also a noted poet and one of many sons of literary figures killed during the First World War. Marriott Watson was a member of J.M. Barrie's amateur cricket team, the Allahakbarries.

Although now largely forgotten, Marriott Watson was also one of the most prolific Gothic horror writers of the Victorian era. His vampire novel The Stone Chamber (1898) was published only a year after Bram Stoker's Dracula and many other stories were published in various books of short stores such as Diogenes of London (1893) and The Heart of Miranda (1898).