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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy

Author: Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy (1812–1878)

Biography: Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy was born in 1812 in Bexley, Kent, the son of a land agent. He attended Eton and King's College, Cambridge, before being called to the bar in 1837. In addition to working as a barrister and judge, Creasy was an historian, earning an M.A. from Cambridge in 1838 and becoming a professor of history at the University of London (now University College London) in 1840. He wrote a number of historical works, including The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World (1852) (his best known and most popular work) and History of England (1869–70). In 1860 he was named the Chief Justice of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), was knighted by Queen Victoria, and spent the next ten years in Ceylon. His latter years were marked by ill health which forced him to retire and return to England in sometime in the early 1870s. He died in 1878. Creasy wrote one historical novel, The Old Love and the New Love: A Tale of Athens (1870). Bentley, his publisher, called it, "a dull classical novel printed on very stout paper, written at the least happy time during the illness of the author. It's sale was slender." The success of Battles well compensated for the poor sales of Creasy's novel.

Author Tags:

References: DNB; pers inf (Christopher Lennon); RLF; Times (15 September 1875; 29 January 1878); Wolff

Fiction Titles:

  1. The Old Love and the New: A Tale of Athens.  3 vol.  London: Bentley, 1870.