Background
He was born on 25 January 1799 at London, England, United Kingdom. His parents were James Turner Wells (1772 - 1838) and Jane Sears (? - 1832).
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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Joseph And His Brethren: A Dramatic Poem; Volume 143 Of World's Classics Charles Jeremiah Wells, Theodore Watts-Dunton H. Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1908
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He was born on 25 January 1799 at London, England, United Kingdom. His parents were James Turner Wells (1772 - 1838) and Jane Sears (? - 1832).
He was educated at Cowden Clarke's school at Edmonton, with Tom Keats, the younger brother of the poet, and with R. H. Horne.
In 1822 he published Stories after Nature-or rather, in the manner of Boccaccio, tempered by that of Leigh Hunt a curious little volume of brocaded prose.
At the close of 1823, under the pseudonym of H. L. Howard, appeared the Biblical drama of Joseph and his Brethren (dated 1824). For the next three years Wells saw Hazlitt, as he said, "every night, " but in 1827 the two men were estranged.
When Hazlitt died, in September 1830, Wells took Horne to see his dead friend, and afterwards raised a monument to the memory of Hazlitt in the church of St Anne's, Soho. His two books passed almost unnoticed, and although Hazlitt said that Joseph and his Brethren was " more than original, aboriginal, and a mere experiment in comparison with the vast things " Wells could do, he forbore to review it, and even dissuaded the young poet from writing any more.
Wells was now practising as a solicitor in London, but he fancied that his health was failing and proceeded to South Wales, where he occupied himself with shooting, fishing and writing poetry until 1835, when he removed to Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire.
In 1840 he left England, never to set foot in it again.
He settled at Quimper, in Brittany, where he lived for some years. A story called Claribel appeared in 1845, and one or two slight sketches later, but several important tragedies and a great deal of miscellaneous verse belonging to these years are lost.
Wells stated in a letter to Horne (November 1877) that he had composed eight or ten volumes of poetry during his life, but that, having in vain attempted to find a publisher for any of them, he burned the whole mass of MSS at his wife's death.
The only work he had retained was a revised form of Joseph and his Brethren, which was praised in 1838 by Wade, and again, with great warmth, by Horne, in his New Spirit of the Age, in 1844. The drama was then once more forgotten, until in 1863 it was read and vehemently praised by D. G. Rossetti.
The tide turned at last; Jaseph and his Brethren became a kind of shibboleth-a rite of initiation into the true poetic culture but still the world at large remained indifferent.
Finally, however, Swinburne wrote an eloquent study of it in the Fortnightly Review in 1875, and the drama itself was reprinted in 1876. The old man found it impossible at first to take his revival seriously, but he woke up at length to take a great interest in the matter, and between 1876 and 1878 he added various scenes, which are in the possession of Mr Buxton Forman, who published one of them in 1895.
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Wells was a member of the poet John Keats’s circle of literary friends.
Quotes from others about the person
Swinburne said that there are lines in Wells "which might more naturally be mistaken, even by an expert, for the work of the young Shakespeare, than any to be gathered elsewhere in the fields of English poetry. "
On 15 July 1825 he married Emily Jane Hill (1807 - 1872), the daughter of a school-teacher. Their children were: Emily Jane (1827 - 1885), Anna Maria (1828 - 1903), Florence Hazlitt (1832 - 1835), Charles James Llewellyn (1834 - 1836), Florence Llewellyn (1837 - ?), Charles Deville (or De Ville) (b. 1841 - c. 1920s).