Henry Kingsley wrote some very bad novels, and his life appears to have been similarly disorganized. There are, however, occasional flashes of good writing in some of his earlier books, written before the scandals of his life caught up with him. The subject matter of his novels has a certain topical interest.

Henry Kingsley was born in the Northamptonshire village of Barnack, where his father was clergyman, although in the same year the family moved to Clovelly, Devonshire. In 1836 Charles Kingsley, Sr., was presented with the living of St. Luke's Church, Chelsea; Devonshire and Chelsea figure prominently in Henry Kingsley's novels. Kingsley's elder brothers, Charles and George, achieved considerable fame in public life, the former as a novelist and political thinker, the latter as a traveler and scientist; but Henry was always considered a bit of a failure, with his novels the one redeeming feature of his life...