11 h 22 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when public ambition, private faith, and forbidden love each ask for a different life?
In Victorian England, Robert Orange has a public career to build and a faith that makes demands of its own. Forbidden love deepens the conflict. His ambitions and beliefs pull against each other, while the pressure of public life leaves little room for a purely private choice.
John Oliver Hobbes brings these tensions into drawing rooms alive with sharp talk. Politics, religion, and the heart belong to the same conversation. Her quick, ironic speakers and polished prose invite you to listen closely, catching what a pointed remark reveals about a person or the society around them.
What you’ll discover
- A divided inner life Follow a man whose public hopes pull against the demands of his private faith.
- Love under social pressure Explore forbidden love in a world where the heart cannot stand apart from society.
- Drawing rooms with bite Enter conversations where quick wit and irony sharpen the portrait of Victorian manners.
- Faith woven into life Consider belief as a force within ambition and love, rather than a separate subject.
- Prose worth lingering over Enjoy polished sentences and pointed remarks that reward a patient, attentive reading.
Who will love it
For readers who love Victorian society novels, stories where belief and ambition collide, and polished, witty prose.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A novelist who knew two worlds
- Faith and ambition pull in two directions
- Love that society will not allow
- Wit, manners and how to read it
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Robert Orange
by John Oliver Hobbes · 1900
In Victorian England, a man's public ambitions and private faith collide as forbidden love puts his conscience at stake.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Robert Orange is a novel by John Oliver Hobbes, the pen name of Pearl Craigie, who wrote it at the turn of the twentieth century and set it in Victorian England. It follows a man whose public ambitions and private faith pull against each other, and it places a forbidden love in the middle of that struggle.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A novelist who knew two worlds
John Oliver Hobbes was the pen name of Pearl Craigie, who was born in the United States and made her life in England. She wrote under a man's name, as many women of her day did, and she became a known figure in London literary and social circles. Her books were read for their wit as much as for their plots.
She also wrote for the stage, and that training shows. Her scenes are built from conversation, and her characters often reveal themselves through what they say across a dinner table or in a drawing room. A listener will notice how much of the story rests on speech.
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Who is John Oliver Hobbes?
John Oliver Hobbes is the pen name of Pearl Craigie, an American-born writer who lived and worked in England. She published novels and plays, and died in 1906. She chose a male name, as many women writers did then.
What is Robert Orange about?
It is a Victorian novel about a man whose public ambitions and religious faith pull against each other, with a forbidden love adding pressure. It is a story of conscience, duty and the cost of choices.
When was Robert Orange written?
It was written around the turn of the twentieth century, though it is set in Victorian England. It is a work of fiction, not a true story, and it belongs with the society novels of its day.
The author
John Oliver Hobbes
1867–1906 · American novelist and playwright
John Oliver Hobbes was the pen name of Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie, born in Boston in 1867. She moved to England as a child and died in London in 1906. She wrote novels and plays. Her novels include Some Emotions and a Moral (1891) and Robert Orange (1900).
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