5/19/2023 0 Comments The mystery of a hansom cab![]() As the years passed, though, “The Mystery of a Hansom Cab” was increasingly disparaged. ![]() Hume (1859-1932) - an exact contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) - went on to write scores of other books, but none ever matched his first in popularity. “The Mystery of a Hansom Cab” became the most commercially successful detective novel of the 19th and early 20th century. By comparison, the other mystery novel of that year, “ A Study in Scarlet” - which introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world - was scarcely noticed. Yet by the time of Fergus Hume’s death, 750,000 copies of his book had been printed, half that number within six months of its 1887 publication in London. ![]() This doesn’t sound like a recipe for Victorian best sellerdom. Written by a young lawyer from New Zealand and set in Melbourne, Australia, “The Mystery of a Hansom Cab” was self-published in 1886 and its copyright then sold for 50 pounds to a group of speculators. ![]()
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