Traill, H D
Entry updated 21 February 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1842-1900) UK lawyer, journalist and author, of most interest for his Satires, early examples – like The Israelitish Question: And the Comments of the Canaan Journals Thereon (1876 chap) anonymous tending to spoof contemporary politics through elaborate parodies and anachronisms. The New Lucian: Being a Series of Dialogues of the Dead (coll of linked stories 1884) makes its satirical points through a sustained reworking of the work by Lucian. The long Near Future title story of the tales assembled in Number Twenty: Fables and Fantasies (coll 1892) is set in 1900 and contains speculations about the nature of Time; also in this collection is "The Protectorate of Porcolongu" (November 1886 Macmillan's Magazine anon), whose titular imaginary Island of the title is a bone of contention used to Satirize the contemporary rivalry of England, France and Germany in colonial power-Politics. The Barbarous Britishers: A Tip-Top Novel (1896 chap) is an effective but not unkind parody of Grant Allen's The British Barbarians: A Hill-Top Novel (1895); both titles were published by the same firm. [JC]
Henry Duff Traill
born London: 14 August 1842
died London: 21 February 1900
works
- The Israelitish Question: And the Comments of the Canaan Journals Thereon (London: Civil Service Printing and Publishing Company, 1876) anonymous [chap: pb/nonpictorial]
- The New Lucian: Being a Series of Dialogues of the Dead (London: Chapman and Hall, 1884) [coll of linked stories: hb/nonpictorial]
- Number Twenty: Fables and Fantasies (London: Henry and Co, 1892) [coll: in the publisher's Whitefriars Library of Wit and Humour series: hb/nonpictorial]
- The Barbarous Britishers: A Tip-Top Novel (London: John Lane the Bodley Head, 1896) [chap: pb/parody of Aubrey Beardsley]
links
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