Novel 317: Rev. Albert Eubule Evans, Pastor and Prelate (1892)
In an obscure and charmless town, a clergyman is falsely accused and ostracized.
The Rev. Albert Eubule Evans, a Church of England clergyman, published some 14 novels between 1870 and 1894. For didactic novels he used his own name; for popular novels like this one he used the pseudonym Roy Tellet. Despite its forbidding title it provides an entertaining coincidence-laden plot and much amusing social satire.
“It is one of the best novels of the year, full of stir and diversity of interest, and with a sufficiently curious and original plot to satisfy and please even those most familiar with the resources of the tale-writer in producing careers strangely embarrassed by crime or error, and yielding situations marvellously tragical and awakening the keenest sympathies. ‘Roy Tellet’s’ is a strong hand, which wields the brush with singular and versatile power, and furnishes brilliant and startling, and never unpleasing, effects.” Irish Times, March 10, 1892
“Pastor and Prelate is not a book that goes at all out of its way to be clever: its style, its incidents, and its characters are for the most part usual enough; but they are ‘intensely’ usual—that is to say, they are not in the least ordinary. A misguided person might for a little think that they were this. . . . But if he be not hopelessly misguided. . . . it will become pleasingly evident to him that . . . the handling of all these things is not ordinary at all. . . . ‘Roy Tellet’ knows his craft, knows how to write a novel, and has written one. . . . All the people are alive, the writing without being pretentious is crisp and individual, and the whole thing is good.” Academy, May 14, 1892
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