The Angel - Guy Thorne

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Résumé :
A novel written in the early 1900's about the sinful city of London and the most unlikely man chosen to win it over for the Supreme Being; God the Most High. I enjoyed the old fashion writing style, the flowery descriptions, and the plot' s premise; if we believe that a person can be possessed by an evil spirit, then why can't we also believe a person can be possessed by an angelic spirit? It was a hard book to put down! (MPK) About the Author: Guy Thorne was the pen name of Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull (1875 - 9 January 1923), a prolific English journalist and novelist best known for his novel When It Was Dark: The Story of A Great Conspiracy (1903). He also wrote under the names C. Ranger Gull and Leonard Cresswell Ingleby. Thorne was educated at Denstone College, Manchester Grammar, and Oxford University, although he left without taking a degree. He was on the literary staff of the Saturday Review 1897-98, writing also for The Bookman and The Academy. He was editor of London Life in 1899, then joined the Daily Mail and later the Daily Express. He also wrote for the gossip weekly Society. His first novel was The Hypocrite: A Novel of Oxford and London Life, published anonymously in 1898. From 1900, he was engaged in writing fiction, producing about 125 novels in the succeeding years. The most famous was When It Was Dark, which reached sales of 500,000 copies. The book describes the attempt by a Jew, the malevolent Constantine Schaube, to overthrow the whole of the Christian world by fraudulently disproving the Resurrection. After its publication, the Bishop of London preached about When It Was Dark at Westminster Abbey. Calling it a remarkable work of fiction he said it depicts how the world would be if the Resurrection were proved to be a gigantic fraud. . . .you feel the darkness creeping round the world, you see . . . crime and violence increase in every part of the world. When you see how darkness settles down upon the human spirit, regarding the Christian record as a fable, then you quit with something like adequate thanksgiving, and thank God it is light because of the awful darkness when it was dark. When It Was Dark has been criticised for its stereotyping of Jews and their portrayal as intent on destroying what Thorne viewed as the most valuable element of British life - the Christian faith and the spiritual values associated with it. Other critics have also labelled the book as anti-Semitic. Thorne was a prolific author of horror and mystery novels which sometimes have a redeeming bizarreness. His novels include: Made in His Image (1906), The Soul-Stealer (1906), The Angel (1908), Not in Israel (dedicated to Cecil Broadhurst, 1913), And it Came to Pass (1915), The Secret Sea-Plane (1915), The Enemies of England (1915), Lucky Mr Loder (1918), The Secret Monitor (1918), The Air Pirate (1919), Doris Moore (1919), The House of Danger (1920), The City in the Clouds (1921), The Love Hater (1921), The Dark Dominion (1923) and When the World Reeled (1924). He also wrote numerous essays and a biography of Frederick Nicholas Charrington (1850-1936), the English social reformer who devoted his life to Temperance work. Thorne was a close friend of the publisher Leonard Smithers and a friend of the poet Ernest Dowson. He was known for his heavy drinking. Who's Who 1906 listed his recreations as shooting and French literature, and his address as Trink, Lelant, Cornwall. Guy Thorne died in London on 9 January 1923. (Wikipedia.org)

Biographie:
Guy Thorne was the pen name of Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull, who was an English writer and author who lived from 1875 to 1923 and wrote many books. His most famous work is When It Was Dark: The Story of a Great Conspiracy (1903). He wrote as Leonard Cresswell Ingleby and C. Ranger Gull as well. Thorne went to Denstone College, Manchester Grammar, and Oxford University, but he didn't finish his education there. From 1897 to 1898, he worked as a writer for the Saturday Review. He also wrote for The Bookman and The Academy. In 1899, he was editor of London Life. After that, he worked for the Daily Mail and then the Daily Express. He also wrote for Society, a news magazine. His first book, The Hypocrite: A Novel of Oxford and London Life, came out in 1898 under an assumed name. Starting in 1900, he wrote fiction, and over the next few decades, he wrote about 125 books. When It Was Dark was the most well-known and sold 500,000 copies. The book tells the story of Constantine Schaube, a traitorous Jew who tried to take down all of Christianity by falsely denying the Resurrection....