Arthur Joseph Munby, born near York on 19 August 1828, was the oldest child of Joseph Munby, a prominent local solicitor and philanthropist, and Caroline Forth Munby. Munby attended St. Peter's School, York, before entering Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1846. He received his B.A. in 1851, having written most of his first volume of poetry, Benoni (1852), while still an undergraduate. Following his father's wishes, he entered Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar despite a distaste for the legal profession. Until 1860, when he obtained a clerkship with the Ecclesiastical Commission, Munby earned little money or recognition from law or literature and was supported by his parents.

During these years, however, the events had occurred which were to shape his life. In 1854, he met Hannah Cullwick, the maid-of-all-work with whom he maintained a chaste romance until their clandestine marriage in 1873. Five years later he had his first modest literary success when...