Fergus Hume
Fergus Hume was an English novelist born on July 8, 1859, in Powick, Worcestershire, and raised in New Zealand. He initially studied law and was called to the bar in 1885 but shifted his focus to writing after unsuccessful attempts at playwriting. Hume found inspiration in the detective stories of Émile Gaboriau and others, leading him to craft his own mystery novel, "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab," which was self-published in 1886 and became a bestseller. This work featured intricate characters and plots reflective of Melbourne's society, contributing significantly to the mystery genre. Throughout his career, Hume published over 135 works, including novels and short stories, but never achieved the same level of success as his debut. He is credited with advancing the conventions of mystery writing, incorporating elements like inquests and trials, and influencing the Golden Age of detective fiction. Hume spent his later years in England, where he continued to write until his death on July 13, 1932.
Subject Terms
Fergus Hume
English novelist, short-fiction writer, and playwright.
- Born: July 8, 1859
- Birthplace: Powick, Worcestershire, England
- Died: July 13, 1932
- Place of death: Southend, Essex, England
Biography
Ferguson Wright “Fergus” Hume was born July 8, 1859, in Powick, Worcestershire, England, the son of Mary (Ferguson) and Dr. James Collin Hume, formerly of Glasgow, Scotland, who served at the Worcestershire Pauper Lunatic Asylum. In 1863, Dr. Hume took his family to New Zealand, where he established the first private mental hospital in the country and helped found Dunedin College. Fergus attended Dunedin Boys’ High School and studied law at the University of Otago. He was called to the bar in 1885 and shortly thereafter moved to Melbourne, Australia, where he worked as clerk for a barrister.
In Australia, Hume attempted to write plays, but was not successful. He then determined to become a novelist. However, he was uncertain what to write about, so he asked a local bookseller what sold well. Upon learning that the detective stories of French author Émile Gaboriau (1832–73)—whose detective Lecoq was based on the career of real-life thief turned policeman François Vidocq (1775–1857)—were popular, Hume bought all available Gaboriau titles and studied them carefully. He liked the style of the books and set out to duplicate the main elements: mystery, murder, and a depiction of the seedier side of city life.
Having done his homework (steeping himself as well in the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Fortune du Boisgobey, and other early pioneers of the mystery), Hume wrote and in 1886 self-published The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. The book featured a cast of complex, well-developed characters whose relationships were to be scrutinized by a no-nonsense detective, provided a glimpse at the extremes of Melbourne’s society, and presented, through lyrical descriptive passages, an intriguing mystery based on a thorough investigation of the crime. The novel was a great success—a best seller in its day that over time would sell hundreds of thousands of copies—and the author was able to sell its publishing rights to America and England. With the proceeds, Hume in 1888 returned to England and resided in London for a few years before moving to Thundersley in the Essex countryside, where, except for short excursions to France, Switzerland, and Italy, he lived for the rest of his life.
A prolific author of novels and short stories—he would publish more than 135 volumes in his lifetime, including four collections of short stories, and often completed five or six books per year—Hume was never able to duplicate the success of his first fictional effort. He nonetheless retained a loyal readership, thanks to his ability to conceive of straightforward plots—in such works as Madame Midas (1888), The Secret Passage (1905), The Green Mummy (1908), The Crowned Skull (1908), and The Mystery Queen (1912)—peopled by realistic characters that act in human ways and often converse in a witty, lighthearted style. Among aficionados, Hume is credited with solidifying the mystery genre, introducing paranormal elements into crime stories, and being among the first to showcase inquests and trials. Through such devices, now established as conventions, he is considered among those who helped influence the Golden Age of mystery and paved the way for the modern detective novel.
Having completed his final work, appropriately titled The Last Straw (1932), after several consecutive years with no publications, Fergus Hume died of cardiac failure on July 13, 1932.
Author Works
Drama:
Indiscretion, pr. 1888
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, pr. 1888 (with Arthur Law)
The Fool of the Family, pr. 1896
Teddy's Wives, pr. 1896
Honours Divided, pr. 1902
A Scotch Marriage, pr. 1907
The Mystery of the Red Web, pr. 1908 (with Newman Harding)
Long Fiction:
Professor Brankel's Secret, 1886
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, 1886
Madame Midas, 1888
The Girl from Malta, 1889
The Piccadilly Puzzle, 1889
Miss Mephistopheles, 1890
The Man with a Secret, 1890
The Gentleman Who Vanished, 1890
The Year of Miracle: A Tale of the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred, 1891
A Creature of the Night, 1891
Whom God Hath Joined, 1891
Monsieur Judas, 1891
The Fever of Life, 1892
The Island of Fantasy, 1892
Aladdin in London, 1892
The Black Carnation, 1892
When I Lived in Bohemia, 1892
The Harlequin Opal, 1893
A Speck of Motley, 1893
The Chinese Jar, 1893
The Nameless City, 1894
The Mystery of Landy, 1894
A Midnight Mystery, 1894
The Lone Inn, 1894
The Best of Her Sex, 1894
The Gates of Dawn, 1894
The White Prior, 1895
The Third Volume, 1895
The Masquerade Mystery, 1895
The Crime of the "Liza Jane", 1895
The Expedition of Captain Flick, 1895
Tracked by Tattoo, 1896
A Marriage Mystery, 1896
The Carbuncle Clue, 1896
The Tombstone Treasure, 1897
For the Defense, 1897
Claude Duval of the Ninety-Five, 1897
The Devil-Stick, 1898
The Rainbow Feather, 1898
Hagar of the Pawn-Shop, 1898
Lady Jezebel, 1898
The Clock Struck One, 1898
The Red-Headed Man, 1899
The Indian Bangle, 1899
The Silent House in Pimlico, 1899
The Vanishing of Tera, 1900
The Lady from Nowhere, 1900
A Traitor in London, 1900
Shylock of the River, 1900
The Crimson Cryptogram, 1900
The Bishop's Secret, 1900
Bishop Pendle, 1900
A Woman's Burden, 1900
The Crime of the Crystal, 1901
The Millionaire Mystery, 1901
The Mother of Emeralds, 1901
The Golden Wang-Ho, 1901
Woman: The Sphinx, 1902
The Pagan's Cup, 1902
The Turnpike House, 1902
The Yellow Holly, 1903
A Coin of Edward VII, 1903
The Guilty House, 1903
The Silver Bullet, 1903
The Miser's Will, 1903
The Jade Eye, 1903
The White Room, 1904
The Wheeling Light, 1904
The Red Window, 1904
The Lonely Church, 1904
The Mandarin's Fan, 1904
The Scarlet Bat, 1905
The Secret Passage, 1905
The Opal Serpent, 1905
Lady Jim of Curzon Street, 1905
The Fatal Song, 1905
The Wooden Hand, 1905
The Mystery of the Shadow, 1906
Jonah's Luck, 1906
The Black Patch, 1906
The Yellow Hunchback, 1907
The Sealed Message, 1907
The Purple Fern, 1907
Flies in the Web, 1908
The Green Mummy, 1908
The Mystery of a Motor Cab, 1908
The Amethyst Cross, 1908
The Red Skull, 1908
The Sacred Herb, 1908
The Crowned Skull, 1908
The Top Dog, 1909
The Disappearing Eye, 1909
The Solitary Farm, 1909
The Devil's Ace, 1909
The Peacock of Jewels, 1910
The Mikado Jewel, 1910
The Lonely Subaltern, 1910
The Spider, 1910
Chronicles of Fairy Land, 1911
The Steel Crown, 1911
High-Water Mark, 1911
The Pink Shop, 1911
The Jew's House, 1911
Red Money, 1911
The Rectory Governess, 1911
The Mystery Queen, 1912
Mother Mandarin, 1912
A Son of Perdition, 1912
Across the Footlights, 1912
The Blue Talisman, 1912
The Thirteenth Guest, 1913
The Curse, 1913
Seen in the Shadow, 1913
In Queer Street, 1913
The Lost Parchment, 1914
Not Wanted, 1914
The 4 p.m. Express, 1914
The Caretaker, 1915
Answered: A Spy Story, 1915
The Red Bicycle, 1916
The Silent Signal, 1917
The Grey Doctor, 1917
The Black Image, 1918
Heart of Ice, 1918
Next Door, 1918
Crazy-Quilt, 1919
The Master-Mind, 1919
The Dark Avenue, 1920
The Other Person, 1920
The Singing Head, 1920
The Woman Who Held On, 1920
The Unexpected, 1921
Three, 1921
A Trick of Time, 1922
The Moth-Woman, 1923
The Whispering Lane, 1924
The Caravan Mystery, 1926
The Last Straw, 1932
An Omnibus Thriller of Murder and Mystery: Three Long Complete Novels, 1935
The Hurton Treasure Mystery, 1937
Short Fiction:
The Chronicles of Faeryland, 1892
The Dwarf's Chamber, and Other Stories, 1896
Hagar of the Pawn-Shop: The Gypsy Detective, 1898
The Dancer in Red, and Other Stories, 1906
Bibliography
Caterson, Simon. "Fergus Hume's Startling Story." Inside Story, 8 May 2012, insidestory.org.au/fergus-humes-startling-story. Accessed 22 June 2017. Gives background on Hume and, through analysis, argues that The Mystery of a Hansom Cab deserves to have a place in the history of the development of crime fiction as a genre.
Machalias, Helen. "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab: Locating Status Anxiety within the 'Colonial Ware.'" Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, vol. 13, no. 3, 2013, pp. 1–11. Literary analysis that focuses on The Mystery of a Hansom Cab's portayal of Melbourne, Australia, and the setting's place in the work.
Sussex, Lucy. Blockbuster!: Fergus Hume and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. Text Publishing, 2015. Sussex provides insight into the author of the book considered one of the first to pave a path for the crime fiction genre as well as the world in which he lived.
Valentine, Genevieve. "A Mystery Novel Is the Mystery at the Heart of Blockbuster!" Review of Blockbuster!: Fergus Hume and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, by Lucy Sussex. NPR, 26 June 2016, www.npr.org/2016/06/26/482023826/a-mystery-novel-is-the-mystery-at-the-heart-of-blockbuster. Accessed 22 June 2017. Review of Sussex's book that highlights the impact of The Mystery of a Hanscom Cab and briefly discusses Hume.
Wright, Clare. "Alice Cornwell: Fergus Hume on Our Mysterious Madame Midas." The Australian, 28 Jan. 2017, www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/alice-cornwell-fergus-hume-on-our-mysterious-madame-midas/news-story/0ab201c802e04c7db743c926183d516a. Accessed 22 June 2017. Provides background on the real-life Australian figure, Alice Cornwell, who inspired Hume's novel Madame Midas as well as his representation of her.