Description

George Alfred Lawrence (1827-1876) was a British novelist and barrister. He was educated at Rugby and at Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1851 married Mary Kirwan. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1852, but soon abandoned the law for literature. In 1857 he published, anonymously, his first novel, Guy Livingstone; or, 'Thorough' (1857). This gained a great popularity, and he went on to write more novels of a similar type. Lawrence may be regarded as the originator in English fiction of the beau sabreur type of hero, great in sport and love and war. On the outbreak of the American Civil War he went to America with the intention of joining the Confederate Army, but was taken prisoner and only released on promising to return to England. He travelled much in later years and died in Edinburgh. Among his other famous works are: Sword and Gown (1859), Barren Honour (1862), Border and Bastille (1863), and Breaking a Butterfly (1869).