Penulis: Walter Besant

Walter Besant’s life (1836-1901) almost exactly coincided with Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) and embodied many of its central preoccupations. As a popular writer of novels, such as All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882), and a philanthropist who championed the urban poor and the rights of authors, this English writer appealed both to the Victorians’ taste for fiction and their zeal for reform. He also spoke to his country’s imperial interest in remote places, notably as secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1864-1886). In this capacity, Besant became friends with Edward Henry Palmer (1840-1882), Cambridge professor of Arabic, prominent Orientalist, and martyr to empire when he was killed on a government mission to Egypt.