Morley Charles Roberts (29 December 1857 – 8 June 1942) was an English novelist and short story writer, best known for The Private Life of Henry Maitland.
Life and work
Roberts was born in London, the son of William Henry Roberts (1831–1908), a superintending inspector of income tax, and Catherine, née Pullen. He was educated at Bedford Grammar School, and Owens College, Manchester, England.
Roberts arrived in Melbourne in January 1877. He worked on sheep stations in New South Wales for three years and then returned to England, where he worked as a public servant. He later travelled around the world.
Roberts wrote several books about his life. The first was the travelogue The Western Avernus (1887), which took place in North America. While it was his most successful publication, his portrayals of Indigenous and Chinese people were marred by racism. His novel Rachel Marr (1903) was positively reviewed by William Henry Hudson. His novel Prey of the Strongest (1906), was the first accurate depiction of British Columbia mills, woods, and gambling halls. The Private Life of Henry Maitland (1912), based on the life of George Gissing the novelist, was one of his most important works. He married Alice, daughter of the playwright Angiolo Robson Selous, and died in London aged 84 on 8 June 1942.
Storm Jameson, who wrote a short biography of Roberts in 1961, considered Time and Thomas Waring to be his best novel. An exhaustive bibliography by Markus Neacey of his novels and other writings and writings about him can be found in the July 2012 number of English Literature in Transition. Roberts has featured in several articles in The Gissing Journal. Victorian Secrets have published a scholarly edition of the Selected Stories of Morley Roberts (Brighton: Victorian Secrets, 2015), edited with an introduction by Markus Neacey.
