Lucas Malet was the pen name of Mary St Leger Kingsley Harrison. She came from a celebrated literary family, being the daughter of Charles Kingsley, the novelist and clergyman and populariser of “muscular Christianity”, while the authors Henry Kingsley, George Kingsley, and J. A. Froude were her uncles, and Mary Kingsley the African explorer was her cousin. Malet, however, led a rather constricted youth. Her father had her educated at home and forbade her to read novels until she was twenty.

Malet had a strong artistic talent and attended the Slade School in the 1870s, enjoying her independence and the ferment of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. After her father died in 1875, however, Malet returned home and married her father's cu

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First published 12 November 2001

Citation: Schaffer, Talia. "Lucas Malet". The Literary Encyclopedia. 12 November 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2893, accessed 9 February 2010.]