author
John Cordy Jeaffreson
1831–1901
A Victorian man of letters who moved between fiction, literary history, and archival work, he wrote with the wide-ranging curiosity of someone equally at home in the library and the world of print. Best known for novels, biographies, and lively nonfiction, he built a career that stretched far beyond the bar for which he had trained.
4 Audiobooks
The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 2 (of 2)
by John Cordy Jeaffreson
A Book About Lawyers
by John Cordy Jeaffreson
The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 1 (of 2)
by John Cordy Jeaffreson
A Book About Doctors
by John Cordy Jeaffreson
About the author
Born in Framlingham, Suffolk, on January 14, 1831, he became an English novelist and writer of popular nonfiction. He studied at Pembroke College, Oxford, was later called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and contributed to literary journals and the London press, but writing became the center of his working life.
His books ranged widely. Alongside novels, he wrote literary history, biography, and social subjects, and that mix helped make him a recognizable Victorian author rather than a specialist in just one field. He also spent part of his career in teaching and in inspecting historical documents, which fits well with the archival and documentary interests visible in some of his later work.
He died in London on February 2, 1901. Although he is not among the best-known Victorian authors now, his career is a good example of the versatile 19th-century writer who could move between storytelling, criticism, and historical research with ease.