A prolific writer with twenty-seven novels attributed to him, Robert Buchanan enjoyed remarkable success when he turned to fiction in the 1870s in an attempt to earn the living his verse had failed to provide him. Never afraid of tackling unpopular themes, he passionately denounced war at the height of Victorian imperialism, and wrote indignantly of prostitution, the double standard, and religious hypocrisy during the heyday of Victorian respectability. At the outset his outspokenness was praised, as were his depiction of character, especially through dialogue, and his marvelous skill at evoking landscape. Like many of his contemporaries, however, he resorted to melodramatic shifts to resolve plot difficulties; and, also like many of them, he could not avoid the maudlin. Of his efforts on behalf of her sex Lynn Linton declared that he wrote "sentimental bunkum with splendid literary power." Only late in his career could he allow his...