George P. James

George P. James. The Ancient Regime

London:  Longman, 1841.

Biographical Sketch of George P. James

George Payne Rainsford James

George Payne Rainsford James was born in Hanover Square in London on August 9, 1799. His father was an American Revolutionary war veteran and physician, and his mother died when he was a young child. At a young age, he began learning several Eastern and Western languages, among them, Persian, French, Italian, and German, (although he failed to master Arabic). At age thirteen, however, he told his father he had decided not to obtain a university education and instead, requested his permission to join the navy, to which his father replied: "You may go into the army if you'd like - it's the life of a dog, but the navy is a life of a damned dog, and you shan't try it" (Joline 8). Thus, James joined the army and was wounded in battle.

After his release from the army, James had a series of encounters with prominent writers which helped launch his literary career. He had met Lord Byron as a boy, but it was his encounter with Washington Irving during his travels through Europe that encouraged him to write his first novel, Richelieu, in 1825. Published in 1829, Richelieu was publicly acclaimed, particularly by Sir Walter Scott, who after having read it "advised him to adopt literature as a profession" (Joline 12). Only three years after finishing his first novel, he married Frances Thomas, a daughter of a physician, with whom he had two children.

By 1830, James's career had begun in earnest, averaging two to three novels per year, including works such as The String of Pearls (1832), The Gentleman of the Old School (1839), and Castleneau; or The Ancient Regime (1841). James's career continued to expand and blossom when, during the final years of William IV's reign, he was appointed Historiographer Royal. This post not only increased James's professional career, leading him to write historical texts as well as novels, but it also widened his social sphere, giving him connections with members of the aristocracy such as the Duke of Wellington.

Throughout the 1840s, he continued his prolific career, publishing dozens of novels, and no fewer than nine separate titles in 1847 alone. In 1850, James moved to the United States, settling at first in New York, then in Massachusetts, where he became active in the literary community, meeting Nathanial Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Soon after, in 1852, he was appointed the post as the British Consul, in Norfolk, Virginia. Gradually, his health deteriorated, and as a result, he requested to obtain the General Consul at Venice, in the hopes that the Mediterranean climate would improve his health. The request granted, James moved to Venice in 1858 where he published The Cavalier, his 91st and last publication. On June 9, 1860, James died of an apoplectic stroke in Venice, though the exact location of his interment is still disputed.

The epitaph, written by Walter Savage Landor, reads as follows:
       George Payne Rainsford James. British Consul General
       in the Adriatic. Died in Venice, on the 9th of June, 1860.
       His merits as a writer are known wherever the English
       language is, and as a man they rest on the hearts of many. (17)

Prepared by Dave Madden, Joe Rein, Whitney Helms, University of Nebraska, April 2006.
© Dave Madden, Joe Rein, Whitney Helms, 2006.

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Biographical Information specific to The Ancient Regime

By the time he wrote The Ancient Regime, James had established himself in the literary world and also had a large circle of literary companions. In 1841, returning to England from his travels to Brussels, James moved into The Shrubbery, "a pleasantly situated house in the picturesque village of Upper Walmer, Kent, some quarter of a mile from sea" (Ellis 93). He then set himself to writing, publishing five works alone in 1841, one of them being The Ancient Regime. It was published quickly thereafter in the U.S., and was met with relative success.

James's work was heralded by many great authors, including Thackeray, Hawthorne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Hardy. Hardy, in fact, named The Ancient Regime as a particular favorite from his childhood (Ellis 269).

The book was originally published just as The Ancient Regime, in three volumes, by Longman. It was dedicated to Alexander Hunter, Esq., "one of the earliest, the best, and the wisest of my friends." When it was republished in the Collected Edition of his works, Volume XXI, by Simpkin, Marshall and Company, the title became Castleneau; or, The Ancient Regime. It changed once more in 1850, in the American edition by Simms and M'Intyre, to The Ancient Regime; or, Annette de St. Morin.

Works Cited:

Ellis, S.M. The Solitary Horseman; or The Life & Adventures of G.P.R. James. Kensington: Cayme Press, 1927.
Joline, Adrian Hoffman. George Payne Rainsford James: A Writer of Many Books. Privately published, 1906.

-- Prepared by Joe Rein, University of Nebraska, April 2006.
© Joe Rein, 2006.