READE, CHARLES (1814-84). An English novelist and playwright, horn at Ipsden House, in Oxfordshire, June 8, 1814. He entered Mag dalen College, Oxford, graduating A.B. in 1835 and M.A. in 1S38: was elected lay fellow of his college (1835) : made clean of arts at Magdalen (1845) , and vice-president (1851) ; in the mean time had studied at Lincoln's Inn, and was ad nutted to the bar (1843). Reade never married, but formed a platonic friendship with an actress named Laura Seymour. He passed several years at his rooms in Magdalen, made many tours abroad. but lived mostly in London. Combative by nature. he was engaged in numerous lawsuits. He died at Shepherd's Bush, April 11, 1884.
Reade began his literary career as a play wright, and to the end continued to write plays either single-handed or with others. He had great facility in expanding a play into a novel or in reducing a novel to a play. In 1852 Masks and Faces, written with Tom Taylor, was bril liantly received at the Haymarket. Ileade turned this play into the novel Peg Wolfington (1S53), which was soon followed by the delightful Chris tie Johnstone (1853), having as heroine a New haven fisher lass. In 1856 appeared It is Xercr Too Late to Mend, exposing prison discipline in England and Australia. This 'novel with a pur
pose,' which created a sensation, was succeeded by Hard Cash (1863), dealing with the iniquities of insane asylums; Griffith Gaunt (1865), on the marriage problem; Put Yourself in His Place (1870), on the terrorism of trade, unions; A Terrible Temptation (1871) ; and .1 Won,an Hater (1877) , advocating woman's rights. All these novels are powerfully written. By itself stands Reade's masterpieee, The cloister and the Hearth (1861), an historical romance, having as hero the father of Erasmus. and dealing in a wonderfully vivid manner with student and vagabond life in Europe toward the close of the Middle Ages. After Reade's death appeared The Jilt and Other Tales (1884) and Good Stories of Man and Other Animals (1884).
Reade is not among the greatest novelists. He had not a keen artistic sense. His character drawing is picturesque rather than psychological, and he often develops his situations in a highly sensational way. Bnt he always had a story to tell: and therein he excelled perhaps all his contemporaries. Consult : ('ompton Reade, Charles Reath-. a Memoir (London, 1887) : and for a cordial estimate, Swinburne's Miscellanies (ib., 1836).