Ernest Bramah

Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) was an English writer. An author of numerous skills, he remains well known for his humorous works, his detective stories, including the creation of the blind sleuth Max Carrados, and a famous dystopian work, “What might have been”, republished later as The secret of the league which is claimed to have influenced George Orwell for 1984.

Born in the suburbs of Manchester, Bramah left Grammar school when he was sixteen. He decided to go into farming, and was financed by his father's money. He started writing humorous works but his farming did not go too well. He became Jerome K. Jerome's secretary, and launched into his writing career.

His first successful work was the creation of a Chinese character, an itinerant storyteller by the name of Kai Lung. The most famous of the series is “The wallet of Kai Lung”, published in 1900.

Bramah experimented too with science-fiction, or dystopia, or political fiction. He wrote “What might have been” in 1907, which he then republished in 1909 as The secret of the league. Sometimes considered the first 20th century dystopian novel, considered by others as an anti-socialist dystopia, The secret of the league.

Bramah also wrote numerous crime novels. In particular, in 1914 he created the character of the blind sleuth Max Carrados. Apparently, the Max Carrados stories (which were published in The Strand ) were nearly as popular as those of Sherlock Holmes at the time.

©2014-Les Editions de Londres

Livres publiés

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  The secret of the League

  par Ernest Bramah

  ISBN : 978-1-909782-99-0
  Date de parution : 8 novembre 2014
  Nombre de pages : 352 pages

  “The secret of the league” is a dystopian novel written by Ernest Bramah in 1907. It was first published as “What might have been: the story of a social war”, but later was republished in 1909 as “The secret of the league”. The novel is widely credited as having influenced (...)

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• 

  Max Carrados

  par Ernest Bramah

  ISBN : 978-1-910628-00-3
  Date de parution : 8 novembre 2014
  Nombre de pages : 277 pages

  “Max Carrados” is a compilation of short stories published in 1914 by English author Ernest Bramah. It is the first appearance of the blind sleuth Max Carrados whom, accompanied by his faithful but not always insightful Carlyle, was created as a rival to Sherlock Holmes and quickly found a strong following amongst (...)

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