William Hurrell Mallock (7 February 18492 April 1923) was an English novelist and economics writer. Much of his writing is in support of the Roman Catholic Church and in opposition to positivist philosophy and socialism.
Biography
A nephew of the historian James Anthony Froude,"Mallock, William Hurrell." In: New American Supplement to the Latest Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. IV, Ed. by Day Otis Kellog. New York: The Werner Company, 1897, p. 1976. Mallock was educated privately and then at Balliol College, Oxford. He won the Newdigate Prize in 1872 for his poem The Isthmus of SuezMallock, William H. (1871). The Isthmus of Suez. Oxford: T. Shrimpton & Son. and took a second class in the final classical schools in 1874, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Oxford University. He never entered a profession, though he at one time considered the diplomatic service.
He first drew wide attention with the satirical novel The New Republic (1877),Russell, Frances Theresa (1920). Satire in the Victorian Novel. New York: The Macmillan Company.Sewall, John S. (1879). "The New Era of Intolerance," New Englander and Yale Review, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 150, pp. 339–349.Daiches, David (1951). "Malicious Panorama of Late Victorian Thought," New Republic, Vol. 124, No. 9, p. 26. conceived while he was a student at Oxford. Written as a roman à clef, it included characters recognizable as prominent figures such as Benjamin Jowett, Matthew Arnold, Violet Fane, Thomas Carlyle,Cumming, Mark (2004). "Mallock, William Hurrell." In: The Carlyle Encyclopedia. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, p. 333. and Thomas Henry Huxley.Patrick, J. Max (1956). "The Portrait of Huxley in Mallock's 'New Republic'," Nineteenth Century Fiction, Vol. XI, No. 1, pp. 61–69. Although early critical reception was mixed,Margolis, John D. (1967). "W. H. Mallock's The New Republic: A Study in Late Victorian Satire," English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 10–25. the book caused controversy, particularly for its satirical portrayal of the critic Walter Pater. Contemporary and later commentators described the depiction (as “Mr. Rose”) as deliberately cutting and suggestive of aesthetic and sexual affectation.Guy, Josephine M. (1998). The Victorian Age: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. London: Routledge.In the words of James Huneker: "rather cruelly treated."—"On Rereading Mallock." In: Unicorns. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917, p. 153.
The appearance of The New Republic coincided with discussion of the Oxford Professorship of Poetry and is frequently cited as one factor in Pater’s decision not to stand for the post.Greenslet, Ferris (1905). "Oxford." In: Walter Pater. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., pp. 17–37.Wright, Thomas (1907). "The New Republic." In: The Life of Walter Pater. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, pp. 10–18.Thomas, Edward (1913). "Middle Life." In: Walter Pater: A Critical Study. London: Martin Secker, pp. 41–53. Pater later published “A Study of Dionysus: The Spiritual Form of Fire and Dew,” which has sometimes been read as an indirect reply to the atmosphere of the controversy.Pater, Walter Horatio (1876). "A Study of Dionysus: The Spiritual Form of Fire and Dew," Fortnightly Review, Vol. XX, No. 120, pp. 752–772 (Rep. in Greek Studies; a Series of Essays. London: Macmillan & Co., 1920, pp. 9–52).
In subsequent decades Mallock wrote both fiction and polemical works on religion and politics. In books on religious questions he argued for dogma as the foundation of religion and rejected attempts to base religion solely on scientific claims. In Is Life Worth Living? (1879) and the satirical novel The New Paul and Virginia (1878) he attacked positivist ideasLucas, John (1966). "Tilting at the Moderns: W.H. Mallock's Criticism of the Positivist Spirit," Renaissance and Modern Studies, Vol. X, No. 1, pp. 88–143.Christensen, John M. (1978). "New Atlantis Revisited: Science and the Victorian Tale of the Future," Science Fiction Studies, Vol. V, No. 3, pp. 243–249. and wrote in defence of the Roman Catholic Church.Reynolds, Henry Robert (1878). "Mr. Mallock's Claim on Behalf of the Church of Rome," The Contemporary Review, Vol. XXXII, pp. 626–638.Conder, Eustace R. (1878). "The Faith of the Future," The Contemporary Review, Vol. XXXII, pp. 638–646.Onahan, Mary Josephine (1893). "Why Not the Pope, Mr. Mallock?," The Globe, Vol. IV, No. 13, pp. 468–472."Catholicism and Mr. W. H. Mallock", The Dublin Review, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, April 1879, pp. 261–280. (One of his uncles, Hurrell Froude, had been a founder of the Oxford Movement.)
He also contributed frequently to newspapers and magazines, including The Forum, National Review, Public Opinion, Contemporary Review, and Harper’s Weekly. His April 1889 essay opposing Thomas Huxley’s agnosticism appeared in The Fortnightly Review and was reprinted in Popular Science Monthly."'Cowardly Agnosticism,' A Word With Prof. Huxley," [reprinted in Popular Science Monthly Volume 35, June 1889, pp. 225–251]. The piece formed part of a broader public dispute involving Huxley and William Connor Magee, Bishop of Peterborough.Christianity and Agnosticism: A Controversy. New York: Humboldt Publishing Co., 1889.
From the 1880s onward he published a series of works on economics and social policy critical of radical and socialist theories,Lynd, Helen Merrill (1945). England in the Eighteen Eighties. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 74–76.Ford, D. J. (1974). "W. H. Mallock and Socialism in England, 1880–1918." In: Kenneth D. Brown (ed.), Essays in Anti-Labor History: Responses to the Rise of Labor in Britain. London: Archon Books, pp. 317–342. including Social Equality (1882), Property and Progress (1884), Labour and the Popular Welfare (1893), Classes and Masses (1896), Aristocracy and Evolution (1898), and A Critical Examination of Socialism (1908). In 1907 he visited the United States to deliver a set of lectures on socialism under the auspices of the National Civic Federation and at universities in several cities, including New York, Cambridge, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.Scudder, M. E. (1907). "Mr. Mallock on Socialism," The Independent, Vol. LXII, No. 3038, pp. 448–449."Socialistic Fallacies," The Argus, 29 June 1907, p. 7."Socialism Impractical, W.H. Mallock Declares," The New York Times, 10 February 1907."Mallock Talks on Socialism," The New York Times, 13 February 1907.Wilshire, Gaylord (1907). "What Socialism Gives to Genius," The New York Times, 16 February 1907.Wilshire, Gaylord (1907). "The Individual and Society," The New York Times, 20 February 1907."Socialism Based on a Fallacy," The New York Times, 20 February 1907.Mallock, William H. (1907). Socialism. New York: The National Civic Federation.Hillquit, Morris (1907). Mr. Mallock's "Ability". New York: Socialist Literature Co.Mallock, William H. (1908). A Critical Examination of Socialism. London: John Murray, p. vii.
Among his anti-socialist works is also the novel The Old Order Changes (1886). His other novels include A Romance of the Nineteenth Century (1881), A Human Document (1892), The Heart of Life (1895), Tristram Lacy (1899), The Veil of the Temple (1904), and An Immortal Soul (1908).
Mallock later received renewed attention from some conservative writers. Russell Kirk discussed him at length in The Conservative Mind, citing earlier critics such as George Saintsbury and John Squire on Mallock’s argumentative skill and style, while emphasizing his sustained opposition to political and moral radicalism.Cheek, Lee (2012). "W. H. Mallock Revisited," The Imaginative Conservative, 3 January.Tillotson, Geoffrey (1951). Criticism and the Nineteenth Century. London: Athlone Press, p. 124.Sainstsbury, George (1923). A Second Scrap Book. London: Macmillan & Co., pp. 178–180.Kirk, Russell (1960). The Conservative Mind. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, pp. 450–452.
He published a volume of Poems in 1880. His 1878 book Lucretius included verse translations from the Roman poet, followed by Lucretius on Life and Death (1900), a sequence of verse paraphrases influenced by the style of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam; a second edition appeared in 1910.
Influence and legacy Ironically, this last work on Lucretius came to be highly regarded by freethinkers and other religious skeptics. Corliss Lamont includes portions of the third canto in his A Humanist Funeral Service. Mallock himself, in his introduction, seems to be offering it, somewhat condescendingly, for the use of such non-Christians when he writes:Those, however, who... are adherents of the principles which [Lucretius] shares with the latest scientists of to-day, can hardly find the only hope which is open to them expressed by any writer with a loftier and more poignant dignity than that with which they will find it expressed by the Roman disciple of Epicurus.Mallock (1900), p. xxi.
The popular English novelist Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé) dedicated her book of essays Views and Opinions (1895) to Mallock—"To W. H. Mallock. As a slight token of personal regard and intellectual admiration."Ouida (1895). Views and Opinions. London: Methuen & Co.
Artist Tom Phillips used Mallock's A Human Document as the basis for his project A Humument,Phillips, Tom (1980). A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel, London: Thames and Hudson. in which he took a copy of the novel and constructed a work of art using its pages.Traister, Daniel. "W.H. Mallock and A Human Document" at Humument.com.
Works
Every Man his Own Poet. Oxford: T. Shrimpton & Son, 1872.Qualls, Barry V. (1978). "W.H. Mallock's Every Man his Own Poet," Victorian Poetry, Vol. XVI, pp. 176–187. The New Republic; or, Culture, Faith, and Philosophy in an English Country House, Vol. 2. London: Chatto and Windus, 1877 (Rep. Leicester University Press, 1975). The New Paul and Virginia, or Positivism on an Island. London: Chatto & Windus, 1878."A Criticism of 'The New Paul and Virginia'," The Popular Science Monthly, Supplement, 1878, pp. 475–477. Is Life Worth Living? London: Chatto & Windus, 1879.French edition La Vie Vaut-elle la Peine de Vivre? Étude sur la Morale Positiviste. Paris: Pedone-Lauriel, 1904. Poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1880. A Romance of the Nineteenth Century, 2 Vol. London: Chatto & Windus, 1881."A Romance of the Nineteenth Century," The Literary News, Vol. II, 1881, pp. 236–237.Boodle, R.W. (1881). "Mr. Mallock's A Romance of the Nineteenth Century," Canadian Monthly and National Review, Vol. VII, pp. 322–327. Social Equality, a Short Study in a Missing Science. London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1882."Social Equality, by William Hurrell Mallock," The Century Magazine, December 1882, p. 307."Social Equality," Library of the World's Best Literature, Vol. XXX, 1898, pp. 553–554.Hawthorne, Julian (1887). "Mr. Mallock’s Missing Science." In: Confessions and Criticism. Boston: Ticknor & Company, pp. 163–171.French edition L'Égalité Sociale: Étude sur une Science qui nous Manque. Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1883. Atheism and the Value of Life. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1884. Property and Progress, or, A brief Enquiry into Contemporary Social Agitation in England. London: John Murray, 1884.Mann, Henry (1885). "A Reply to Mr. Mallock." In: Features of Society in Old and New England. Providence: Sydney S. Rider, 1885. The Old Order Changes, Vol. 2, Vol. 3. London: John Murray, 1886.MacCarthy, John (1887). "Mr. Mallock on the Labor and Social Movements," The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XII, pp. 85–110. Lucretius. London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1887. In an Enchanted Island: or, A Winter's Retreat in Cyprus. London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1889. A Human Document – A Novel, Vol. 2, Vol. 3. London: Chapman & Hall, 1892. Verses. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1893.