Shohouse

Shohouse, JOSEPH HENRY, was born at Birmingham in 1834, was educated at private schools, and settled as a manufacturer in his native city. In 1881 the extraordinary popularity of his romance, John Inglesant (previously printed for private circulation), carried his name over England. The book was written in fine, delicate English, and revealed a subtle and sympathetic insight into old-world phases of the spiritual mind, but was invertebrate in structure, its second half at any rate anything rather than a novel. It was followed by The Little Schoolmaster Mark: a Spiritual Romance (1883–84); Sir Percival: a Story of the Past and the Present (1886); A Teacher of the Violin (1888); The Countess Eve (1888); and Blanche, Lady Falaise (1891). These stories all lack substance, his figures being more shadows than men and women, but the style, though in later books somewhat over-refined, continues to please his admirers. He has contributed a few articles to the magazines, and wrote the article on George Herbert in the present work.