Excerpt from Christie Johnstone: A Novel
Charles Reade was born in 1814, and the long list of English novelists of repute had one more name added to it. Assuredly as the years go by no change of taste or whim of fashion will ever cause his name to be less esteemed or his works less eagerly read.
His father was a country squire residing at Ipsden in Oxfordshire, his mother the daughter of a member of the East India Company. Charles was one of eleven normal and healthy children.
His early youth was spent at Ipsden and at school at Staines. Then the question arose what was Charles to become in after life? His brothers - five of them - were in the East India Company and doing well. Mrs Reade wanted her boy to go into the Church, but this Charles had resolved was not to be his career. Nevertheless he went to Oxford, and by means of an essay on "Ambition" won a demyship worth eighty pounds a year.
At last the turning-point arrived in his life. A boyish prank offended his parents and he went back to Oxford to spend the rest of his vacation. In those days no plays were performed at either Oxford or Cambridge during term time: a travelling company arrived and Charles Reade's loneliness vanished. For the first time he saw a play performed upon the stage, and he then and there resolved to be a playwright. This was for the future, however. He became a fellow of Magdalen's and came to London to read for the Law.
Here Reade idled and lived merrily enough.
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