The Notting Hill Mystery
Cover art for Section V of The Notting Hill Mystery, Once A Week, 27 December 1862
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| Author | Charles Felix (pseudonym of Charles Warren Adams ) |
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| Illustrator | George du Maurier |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Detective novel |
| Publisher |
Bradbury & Evans (serial) Saunders, Otley, and Company (book) |
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Publication date
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1862–63 (serial) 1865 (book) |
| Media type | Print (magazine and hardcover) |
The Notting Hill Mystery (1862–63) is an English-language detective novel written under the pseudonym "Charles Felix", with illustrations by George du Maurier. The author's identity was never formally revealed in his lifetime, but several critics have since suggested Charles Warren Adams (1833–1903), a lawyer who wrote novels pseudonymously. It is arguably regarded as the very first detective novel in the English language.
The Notting Hill Mystery was first published as an eight-part serial in Once A Week magazine beginning on 29 November 1862, then as a single-volume novel in 1865 by Saunders, Otley, and Company, with illustrations by George du Maurier (grandfather of Daphne du Maurier).
The editors of the magazine said the manuscript was submitted to them anonymously under the pseudonym of "Charles Felix". In 1952 William Buckler identified Charles Warren Adams (1833–1903) as the author of The Notting Hill Mystery and in January 2011, Paul Collins – a writer, editor and academic – writing in The New York Times Book Review, came to the same conclusion. Adams, a lawyer, was the sole proprietor of Saunders, Otley & Co., which published another book by "Charles Felix" called Velvet Lawn, and published an edition of The Notting Hill Mystery in 1865. Collins bases his theory on a number of lines of evidence, including an explicit reference to Felix's identity as Adams in a 14 May 1864 "Literary Gossip" column of The Manchester Times which read “It is understood that ‘Velvet Lawn,’ by Charles Felix, the new novel announced by Messrs. Saunders, Otley & Co., is by Mr. Charles Warren Adams, now the sole representative of that firm.”
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