The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab was the best-selling crime novel of the nineteenth century. It was an overnight sensation when published in Melbourne in 1886, and rapidly found readers around the world, especially in Britain. The book became a huge international success and was translated into eleven languages. The novel's fame has endured until well into this century. In 1954 The Sunday Times listed it as one of the 100 best crime novels of all time, and six years later Everyman's Dictionary of Literary Biography declared that The Hansom Cab ranks as the most successful detective story of all time .A wonderful depiction of a bustling yet uneasy city, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab has a central place in Australian literary history. Although of course much changed, Melbourne itself continues to be the place Hume knew. Hansom Cab is also a key text in crime fiction's formative years. Apart from minor corrections to spelling and punctuation, this edition reproduces the text of the original edition printed in 1886.

Fergus Hume was born in England in 1859. His family soon immigrated to New Zealand, where Hume qualified as a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in 1885 and moved to Melbourne in the same year.Desperate to become a playwright but having no success, Hume decided to write a murder novel instead. When he couldn't find a publisher for The Mystery of a Hansom Cab he published it himself. It was a sensation and sold over twenty thousand copies in Melbourne.With a hit on his hands, Hume sold his copyright to the Hansom Cab Publishing Company in London for fifty pounds. The book was a phenomenal success but Hume never saw another penny from his bestseller. It may have influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes adventure.Hume moved back to England in 1888 after the publication of his second novel, Madame Midas. He embarked on a career that produced over 130 novels. He never became a famous playwright but he did co-write the theatrical adaptation of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, which played in London for five hundred nights. The story was also filmed three times in the silent era.Fergus Hume died in 1932.

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