A Dead Secret: 'Thought engenders thought. Place one idea on paper, another will follow it''
()
About this ebook
George Augustus Sala was born in born in New Street, London, on 24th November 1828.
He was a precocious child. Having learnt French he wrote a French tragedy ‘Fredegonde’ before he turned 10. From 1839 to 1842 he studied in Paris alongside fellow pupil Alexandre Dumas.
At 15, now a capable draughtsman and an insatiable reader, he was allowed to follow his own path.
Stints as a clerk were followed by an engagement to draw railway plans during the railway mania of 1845. His mother and brother then introduced him to the Princess's Theatre, where they were professionally engaged, and he was given occasional work as a scene-painter.
He began his literary career in 1848 with articles to a struggling weekly paper called ‘Chat.’ They were eagerly accepted, and he was appointed editor on a miniscule salary.
In 1850 came his first publication; a comic illustrated guidebook for continental tourists; ‘Practical Exposition of J. M. W. Turner's Picture, Hail, Rain, Steam, and Speed.’
In 1851 a rather more promising opportunity offered itself. Charles Dickens accepted ‘The Key of the Street,’ for his periodical ‘Household Words.’ For the next 5 years Sala would write an essay or story every week.
Sala published his first novel in 1860, ‘The Baddington Peerage: A Story of the Best and Worst Society’.
He was eager to build on the thriving periodical market and followed in the footsteps of Dickens and Thackeray with the founding of ‘Temple Bar.’ The first issue was December 1860 and in the second he began a serialization of ‘The Seven Sons of Mammon’, followed by perhaps his best work ‘The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous’.
In 1863 Sala undertook his first tour as a ‘special’ foreign correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph.’ He was in America from November 1863 to December 1864, reporting on the progress of the civil war.
A long series of expeditions followed across Europe and the United States before Australia and India.
During Sala's last years his energies were slowed by frequent illness. While continuing work for the ‘Daily Telegraph’ and his ‘Echoes of the Week,’ he lived mainly in Brighton.
George Augustus Sala died from nervous exhaustion, after a long illness, at Brighton on 8th December 1895.
Read more from George Augustus Sala
Gaslight and Daylight: With Some London Scenes They Shine Upon: 'A woman's character is as delicate as her eye; it can bear no flaw'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous: 'Society is the master, and man is the servant'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A Dead Secret
Related ebooks
Woman in White Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Darker Days Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman in White (Diversion Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatriona Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Cruise of the Spitfire or, Luke Foster's Strange Voyage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAleister Crowley - A Short Story Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE MYSTERY NOVELS OF WILKIE COLLINS: Thriller Classics: The Woman in White, No Name, Armadale, The Moonstone, The Haunted Hotel… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman in White (Illustrated Edition): Mystery Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman In White: "My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody." Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Men Tell No Tales Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Woman in White: A Classic Mystery Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman in White (Dream Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Guilty River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYr Ynys Unyg The Lonely Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Danes Sketched by Themselves. Vol. I (of 3) A Series of Popular Stories by the Best Danish Authors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKiss of the Water Nymph: A Hector Mortlake Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman in White (With Original Illustrations): A Mystery Suspense Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cask of Amontillado Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pelham — Volume 01 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond the Great South Wall: The Secret of the Antarctic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNoughts and Crosses: Stories, Studies and Sketches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Men Tell No Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPelham Complete Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wilkie Collins Omnibus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sotweed Smuggler Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Day Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Fiction For You
The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camp Zero: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salvage the Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Dead Secret
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A Dead Secret - George Augustus Sala
A Dead Secret by George Augustus Sala
George Augustus Sala was born in born in New Street, London, on 24th November 1828.
He was a precocious child. Having learnt French he wrote a French tragedy ‘Fredegonde’ before he turned 10. From 1839 to 1842 he studied in Paris alongside fellow pupil Alexandre Dumas.
At 15, now a capable draughtsman and an insatiable reader, he was allowed to follow his own path.
Stints as a clerk were followed by an engagement to draw railway plans during the railway mania of 1845. His mother and brother then introduced him to the Princess's Theatre, where they were professionally engaged, and he was given occasional work as a scene-painter.
He began his literary career in 1848 with articles to a struggling weekly paper called ‘Chat.’ They were eagerly accepted, and he was appointed editor on a miniscule salary.
In 1850 came his first publication; a comic illustrated guidebook for continental tourists; ‘Practical Exposition of J. M. W. Turner's Picture, Hail, Rain, Steam, and Speed.’
In 1851 a rather more promising opportunity offered itself. Charles Dickens accepted ‘The Key of the Street,’ for his periodical ‘Household Words.’ For the next 5 years Sala would write an essay or story every week.
Sala published his first novel in 1860, ‘The Baddington Peerage: A Story of the Best and Worst Society’.
He was eager to build on the thriving periodical market and followed in the footsteps of Dickens and Thackeray with the founding of ‘Temple Bar.’ The first issue was December 1860 and in the second he began a serialization of ‘The Seven Sons of Mammon’, followed by perhaps his best work ‘The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous’.
In 1863 Sala undertook his first tour as a ‘special’ foreign correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph.’ He was in America from November 1863 to December 1864, reporting on the progress of the civil war.
A long series of expeditions followed across Europe and the United States before Australia and India.
During Sala's last years his energies were slowed by frequent illness. While continuing work for the ‘Daily Telegraph’ and his ‘Echoes of the Week,’ he lived mainly in Brighton.
George Augustus Sala died from nervous exhaustion, after a long illness, at Brighton on 8th December 1895.
Index of Contents
A Dead Secret
George Augustus Sala – A Short Biography
George Augustus Sala – A Concise Bibliography
In what manner I became acquainted with that which follows, and from whom I had it, it serves not to relate here. It is enough that he was hanged, and that this is his story.
And how came you,
I asked, to be—
I did not like to say hanged for fear of wounding his delicacy, but I hinted my meaning by an expressive gesture.
How came I to be hanged?
he echoed in a tone of strident hoarseness. You would like to know all about it—wouldn’t you?
He was sitting opposite to me at the end of the walnut-tree table in his shirt and trousers, his bare feet on the bare polished oak floor. There was a dark bistre ring round each of his eyes; and they—being spherical rather than oval, with the pupils fixed and coldly shining in the centre of the orbits—were more like those of some wild animal than of a man. The hue of his forehead,