His West Country Novels

Monsman, Gerald | Paperback / softback | 15-12-2021 | 9781952799419

Ernest George Henham (1870-1948), writing both under his own name and with the pseudonym of “John Trevena,” has until now been a “lost” writer, yet of remarkable achievement; indeed, he is a writer of greater range and power than any other West Country author with the possible exception of the more celebrated Thomas Hardy-who remains very much in print. Nevertheless, Henham/ Trevena also is surely a masterful English language novelist and a cultural figure of courage and vision, responding to social, political, and religious change with insight and contestation. As the first book-length monograph on Henham/Trevena in eighty years, John Trevena: His West Country Novels focuses in particular on his Dartmoor fiction and its connection to his personal life. Given his prolific output of some twenty-seven novels-as well as a volume on wild flowers and numerous short stories and essays-this critique does not pretend to be exhaustively inclusive. Its purpose is to reintroduce his writings to renewed critical consideration, and its method is selective discussion of his best Dartmoor fiction. It will combine the original response to his novels with new biographical facts.