Richard Henry Horne was one of many young writers who struggled to find a new aesthetic creed after 1825, when the explosive impetus given to English literature by the Romantics began to die away. Like his confreres, Horne tirelessly experimented with genre, subject matter, and technique, but unlike the best of them he never developed a unique and lasting voice of his own. What stands out about Horne, however, are the number and range of his writings. He was a journalist, editor, poet, dramatist, novelist, and critic, and in the early stages of his career he was considered to be in the van of the new artists.

The eldest of three sons, Horne was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, just outside London. His father, James Horne, having temporarily abandoned his profligate life after marrying Maria Partridge, soon returned to his old ways and by 1807 was forced to enlist in the...