SOURCE: “The Novelist” in Thomas Holcroft: Literature and Politics in England in the Age of the French Revolution, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1995, pp. 71-98.

In the excerpt below, Rosenblum traces the development of Holcroft as a novelist and argues that he deserves recognition for his experimental work in the novel, particularly in Anna St. Ives, Hugh Trevor, and parts of Bryan Perdue.

I. the Novel as Theater

Holcroft's treatment of the novel was similar to that of the drama not only in theory but also in practice. It is worthwhile to examine some of these general similarities before turning to an investigation of individual works.

Holcroft's novels contain much of the theatrical. Whether Holcroft utilizes the first person narrative—as he does in Manthorn, the Enthusiast, The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, and the Memoirs of Bryan Perdue—or the epistolary mode of Alwyn, or The Gentleman Comedian and...