Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes (néeBelloc; 5 August 1868 – 14 November 1947), who wrote asMarie Belloc Lowndes, was a prolific English novelist, and sister of authorHilaire Belloc.
Belloc's paternal grandfather was the French painterJean-Hilaire Belloc, and her maternal great-great-grandfather was the theologian/philosopherJoseph Priestley. Her father died in 1872 when she and her brother were very young. Her mother spent 53 years as a widow and died in 1925.[3]
In 1896, Belloc married Frederick Sawrey A. Lowndes (1868–1940), a journalist.[4] They had one son and two daughters, the elder of whom married theEarl of Iddesleigh.[5] Unlike her brother she was a strong supporter of the women's suffrage movement. In 1913 she was the President of theWomen Writers' Suffrage League which included men as members. She got on with her brother but it was remembered that he lent her £350 in 1914 to pay off her debts.[1]
She published a biography,H.R.H. The Prince of Wales: An Account of His Career, in 1898. A legacy given to her husband provided £2,000 which was used to support them while she tried to make a living from writing.[1] She wrote about seventy novels, reminiscences and plays at the rate of one per year until 1946. An early novel wasThe Heart of Penelope, which was published in 1904.[6]
She produced over forty novels in all — mainly mysteries, well-plotted and on occasion based on real-life crimes,[7] though she herself resented being classed as a crime writer.[8] She created the French detective Hercules Popeau, maybe beforeAgatha Christie's creation of Belgian detectiveHercule Poirot.[9][10] Popeau appeared in two novels and a series of short stories, creating some confusion when both had works called "The Labours of Hercules".[11]
In the memoir,I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia, published in 1942, she told the story of her mother's life, compiled largely from old family letters and her own memories of her early life in France. A second autobiographyWhere love and friendship dwelt appeared in 1943.
Ernest Hemingway praised her insight into female psychology, revealed above all in the situation of the ordinary mind failing to cope with the impact of the extraordinary.[8]
Belloc died 14 November 1947 at the home of her elder daughter, the Countess Iddesleigh (wife of the thirdEarl) in Eversley Cross, Hampshire,[1] and was interred in France, inLa Celle-Saint-Cloud nearVersailles, where she had spent her youth.[citation needed]
The Pulse of Life: a Story of a Passing World (1907, New York 1909)
The Uttermost Farthing (1908, New York 1910)
According to Meredith (1909)
Studies in Wives (1909: New York, 1910) Short stories
When No Man Pursueth: An Everyday Story (1910, New York 1911)
Jane Oglander (1911, New York 1911)
The Chink in the Armour (1912, New York 1912, London 1935 asThe House of Peril). First published as a newspaper serial, The Daily Telegraph & Courier, August 1911
Vanderlyn's Adventure (New York 1931, London 1937 asThe house by the sea)
Why Be Lonely? A Comedy in Three Acts", (1931 with F. S. A. Lowndes)
Jenny Newstead (London 1932, New York 1932). First published as a newspaper serial, Sunday Post, August 1928, as ‘’The Strange Case of Jenny Newstead’’.
Love is a Flame (1932)
The Reason Why (1932)
Dutchess Laura: further days of her life (New York 1933)
^Maida and Spornick, Patricia D. and Nicholas B. (1982).Murder She Wrote: A Study of Agatha Christie's Detective Fiction. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 88.ISBN978-0879722159.
